It may be a long shot, but that's often the only hope when investigating a "cold case" of a person's disappearance.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Squad, with support from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, has produced an artist's age-progression image of a 14-year-old girl who went missing 35 years ago this summer in Jefferson County's West End.

Foul play is suspected. No trace of the girl, Carla Owens, has been found.

"It would, frankly, just be a miracle if we ever found her," said Bob Gebo, who supervisors the cold case squad. "Our thought is not that she is living and has a life somewhere else. Our hope is that somebody who maybe didn't get talked to by police back then, or heard or saw or never has spoken up about it, might see this poster and come forward."

According to JCSO records, on July 1, 1981, Carla Owens left the area of Kalaloch, Washington, where she lived with her mother, father and two siblings, to babysit at a residence in nearby Clearwater. It was understood that the job would extend into the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Carla was accompanied by the mother of the child to be watched and transported in a pickup truck driven by a man who would become a person of interest in the disappearance of Carla Owens, Gebo reported.

On July 2, 1981, the mother of the child returned home to the trailer to find the child asleep on the couch, and who evidently had not been cared for for some time, according to the JCSO report. There was evidence of some type of struggle in the living room area with pieces of a broken liquor bottle littering the floor. There were several large blood stains on the floor, but not enough to conclude a serious or fatal injury had occurred, records indicate.

Almost immediately the 32-year-old man driving the pickup truck became a person of interest and was interviewed by law enforcement. He denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of Carla Owens and provided alibi information, according to JCSO records.

The man's pickup was searched, and blood stains consistent with the probable blood type of Carla Owens were found, Gebo said. However, the blood information was not confirmed by a crime lab until weeks later, after blood samples from the girl’s mother and father had been processed.

Extensive searching in the area of Clearwater and Kalaloch was conducted, but no trace of the missing girl was found.

Lacking evidence, the person of interest was never charged with a crime. He died about five years later, of a heart attack.

"They did a reasonable search," Gebo said, based on the case files. "They interviewed a lot of people. Many of them that weekend were well beyond intoxicated and their memories of what they saw, from a week or two later, were not the best."

In the ensuing years, numerous potential leads regarding Owens have been pursued without success, Gebo noted. The cold case squad picked up the files.

Not found, unfortunately, is the lab report with blood samples of the girl’s parents. Those samples were from the A/B/O blood type system, Gebo noted. Should those blood samples be found, modern DNA testing could be applied to determine a possible conclusive match.

The girl’s brother is deceased, but the squad spoke with her sister. Photos of the brother and sister, at older ages, were provided to the sketch artist, and DNA testing was performed on the family.

"We've gotten the DNA all up to date with family members," Gebo said. "The passing of an anniversary might give somebody some thought about if they heard or saw or didn't report or didn't remember."

If you have any information regarding this case, call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, 385-3831, ext. 789, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 800-843-5678 (800-The-Lost).