‘Your sins will track you down’: 29th Trudy Appleby candlelight vigil to be held week after charges filed in 11-year-old’s disappearance

The location of the vigil has been moved to Bass Street Landing to accommodate a larger audience, officials said.

EAST MOLINE, Ill. (KWQC) - A week from Thursday marks 29 years since the disappearance of Trudy Appleby.

With Appleby’s memory heavy on the hearts and minds of the community and those who knew her, First Baptist Church in East Moline is preparing for their annual candlelight vigil to honor Appleby, and this year there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I’m thinking about the family... and what they must be going through and thinking, perhaps, imagining what may be up ahead,” said Dan Yeager, Pastor at First Baptist Church, East Moline.

The arrest of Jamison Fisher marks a break in the cold base that has haunted the Quad Cities community, giving a glimmer of hope that one day, Appleby can be laid to rest.

“For me as pastor, I was reading a verse today over in numbers 32:23 which simply says.. be sure your sins will track you down... and it seems like that has come to the surface.” Pastor Yeager said.

For years, the First Baptist Church has hosted the candlelight vigil for Appleby as a way to keep her memory bright.

For Pastor Yeager, he said it’s a case that’s close to him as he knew Trudy and the Appleby family because they were members of the church.

“I remember standing in line to shake hands with people as they left every Sunday... and she was just all over the place, in front, behind, beside me. uh.. she didn’t keep still.. a typical nine of 10-year-old that we had in the church,” Pastor Yeager said.

Since Appleby’s time at the church, Pastor Yeager said many of her family have passed on, leaving them in the dark about what happened.

“Her great grandmother was a member of the church as well as her grandparents and her mother... and all of them have died since then,” Pastor Yeager said.

But Pastor Yeager said the many prayers over the years have strengthened their hope that they’ll soon get the answers they’ve waited so long for.

“We would just like to thank the community because it wasn’t just our church members who came to the vigil, but those who knew Trudy, knew about her,” Pastor Yeager said. “Those who look for missing persons and often they would speak at the vigil as well.”

And that includes those with the Moline Police Department.

“So we know that a lot of people were involved in this and especially detective Griffin and his team and the Moline Police Department,” Pastor Yeager said. “We appreciate him and his team, working together to bring this to the surface... so close to the 29th Trudy Appleby vigil.”

The vigil will be held at the Moline Police Department on August 21 at 7 p.m. it’s open to the public and those involved said they’re expecting an even larger crowd than years before.

Fisher is currently being held in the Scott County Jail, but faces charges in Henry County, Illinois for three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death.