Missing: 14 Year old Sidney Randall

thanks to VitaK for the account below. 

Missing: Sidney Randall, 14Yrs., Walnut Ridge, AR 03/09/13

\Sidney Randall, age 14, was last seen on Saturday, March 9, 2013. Sidney was last seen wearing a brown Aeropostale jacket. The prime suspect in her disappearance, John Cornell, was found dead 03/11/13 of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound near his Red 2000 Ford Ranger (Arkansas plate # 271 RDT) parked on a field off Lawrence 438 in the Walnut Ridge area. If you have any information, please call the Walnut Ridge, AR Police Department at (870-) 886-3568 or Texas EquuSearch at (281) 309-9500.

The 14-year-old seems to have literally vanished without a trace in a case that becomes more bizarre by the hour. 

More than 100 friends, family, and concerned residents gathered at Walnut Ridge High School for a balloon launch in the fifth day of searching for Randall. The teen is described as bubbly and she has been in beauty pageants since the age of two. 

"She was a sweet, caring person, but she was keeping something," her brother Ben Randall said. "She never did tell anybody but she was keeping something from everybody." 

The brother makes a clear past-tense reference to his sister.  She "was" a sweet caring person.  Is she no longer?  What has caused him to believe that she may be dead?  Is this related to molestation and the step father?

Note that "she was keeping something" may be a reference to a past tense secret and may not be as clear as the first reference.  As to a "person", this is a clear past tense reference. 

Sidney Randall's father and his live-in partner said they suspected the teenager's stepfather John Cornell had been molesting her. 

"She told one of her friends John slugged her in the mouth," Sidney's father Victor Randall said. "She was scared of him." 

Victor says Cornell seemed to make sure Sidney was with him when he left the home. 

"She said she was going to tell," he said. 

This is specific to a past tense event; not a reference as a person.  

Lawrence County Sheriff Jody Dotson said that allegations have been made that Cornell might have been abusing Sidney, but that they cannot prove it. 

Investigators say Sidney Randall was last seen in her room Saturday night.  It is a room filled with photos of her and awards she has won in beauty contests. 

Her mother woke up around 3:30 a.m. and could not find Sidney nor her husband. John Cornell returned home around 5:30 in the morning and his wife called 911 when she did not see Sidney. 

Cornell left and was discovered Monday with what investigators say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He was about 200 yards from his truck but the sheriff says there is no evidence Sidney was in that area. 

The sheriff said Cornell went on a spending spree after getting his tax return, buying things like computers, the gun he used to kill himself, and smaller items. The sheriff says Cornell did have a lot of cash on him. 

The Arkansas State Police have the computers John Cornell recently purchased looking for any evidence there. The Lawrence County sheriff said he and the many agencies from around the area will search for Sidney Randall until they find her but right now they have no evidence to indicate what may have happened to her.