The Missing
Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson
Staten Island, New York
💔🕯️ The Little Girl Who Never Came Home: Remembering Tiahease Jackson 🕯️💔
On a warm summer afternoon in Staten Island, New York, 10-year-old Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson left her temporary home at the Mariner’s Harbor Motel to run a simple errand. It was August 14, 1983, and what should have been a quick trip to a nearby supermarket became a heartbreaking mystery that remains unsolved more than four decades later.
Tiahease and her family had already endured hardship. After a devastating fire destroyed their apartment, they were living in the motel while planning a fresh start in the southern United States. Despite the challenges she faced, Tiahease was known as a bright, street-smart child. Her mother had taught her to be cautious of strangers, and she was familiar with running errands around the neighborhood. That afternoon, while her mother slept, another motel resident asked Tiahease to walk to the Crown Supermarket to buy chicken wings. She left around 1:30 p.m. and never returned.
When her mother woke up at 4:30 p.m., panic quickly replaced what had been an ordinary day. Tiahease had been gone for hours. Police were called immediately, and a desperate search began. But despite extensive media coverage, countless leads, and years of investigation, no one has ever found the little girl or learned what happened to her.
The disappearance was especially alarming because Tiahease suffered from several serious medical conditions, including diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, and Bright’s Disease, a kidney disorder requiring regular treatment and medication. She also had learning disabilities. Every day she remained missing increased concerns for her safety and well-being.
At the time she vanished, Tiahease was described as a Black female standing 4’8″ tall and weighing approximately 90 pounds. She had black hair, brown eyes, a lazy left eye that turned inward, a mole on her left cheek, and a burn scar on her left wrist and elbow. She was last seen wearing a dark blue ski jacket with white trim, a white blouse or sweater, blue jeans, blue plastic mesh shoes, a butterfly necklace, a silver bracelet, and two purple combs in her hair.
Over the years, convicted kidnapper Andre Rand became a prime suspect in her disappearance. Rand, who was later convicted in the kidnapping of Holly Hughes and connected by investigators to several other missing persons cases in the Staten Island area, was reportedly seen near the motel around the time Tiahease vanished. Her mother told investigators that she had noticed a man matching his description lingering in the parking lot before her daughter disappeared. Although Rand has been linked to multiple cases and remains one of the most notorious figures associated with missing children on Staten Island, he has never been charged in connection with Tiahease’s disappearance.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this story is that Tiahease’s mother spent decades searching for answers. She never stopped hoping to learn what happened to her daughter. Tragically, she passed away in 2008 without ever receiving the answers she desperately sought.
Today, Tiahease would be in her fifties. Instead, she remains frozen in time as a smiling little girl who stepped out on a routine errand and never came home. Her story is a reminder that every missing child deserves to be remembered, and every family deserves answers.
Someone, somewhere, may still hold the key to solving this mystery. Until that day comes, Tiahease Jackson’s name and story deserve to be shared, remembered, and never forgotten. 💜
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson, please contact the New York City Police Department Missing Persons Squad at 646-610-6914.
Sources:
Have you seen this child? Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson
Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson – The Charley Project
The Disappearance of Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson
Tiahease Jackson, 11: May Have Fallen Victim To Serial Killer In 1983
Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson – The Resource Center For Cold Case Missing Children’s Cases
Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson (1972-1983) – Find a Grave Memorial
Tiahease Jackson | International Missing Persons Wiki | Fandom
The Lost & The Taken 
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