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Searching for Ramona Brown: 40 years later

Aubrey and Johnnie Mae Brown lost three children in a house fire on March 6, 1984. But investigators only found two bodies.

NEW ORLEANS — Forty years ago, a three-year-old girl disappeared in a house fire that killed two of her brothers.

Her name is Ramona Brown, and WWL Lousiana investigative reporter Katie Moore started a series of investigative reports about her case in May of 2017.  

A fire broke out at the Browns’ Algiers home on Mardi Gras Day in 1984. Two of the ten children at home at the time died, Kevin Brown, 4, and Aubrey Brown Jr., 2. Search crews never found the body of 3-year-old Ramona Brown.

In the decades since the fire, their sister Simona Brown has told family members she remembers seeing Ramona get into an old, bronze-colored Cadillac-type car with an older white woman and an older black man. However, investigators were never told about the possible kidnapping. No one else remembers seeing Ramona alive after the fire.

A few months after Katie's report, an official investigation was opened.

Now, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is putting out a new push.

Releasing an age-progressed photo of Ramona Brown.

Credit: WWL-TV
Ramona Brown, age-progressed to 43

On Thursday, Katie spoke with communications director Angeline Hartmann.

"We hope that with this new age progression, there will be more eyes on this case, people will be able to take a moment and really look at her it's not meant to be an exact replica of what she might look like right now. Hartmann said. "It is just meant to spark recognition, right? And hopefully, somebody out there will maybe know something."

Hartmann says age progression photos can be very successful. 

"For us, really, the measure of success is how widely we can spread this news about this case, how much these pictures are distributed, and how much we can get people talking," Hartmann said. "How many eyes we can get on this case now, because it's important, especially in this case, to get national attention. Because after 40 years, if she was abducted that day, she could be anywhere by now."

If you have any information on Ramano Brown, please call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

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