Friday, June 2, 1989

6 years after disappearance, Ann Gotlib

search goes on
By Cary B. Willis
The Courier-Journal

Six years after her daughter disappeared, the memories are no less painful for Lyudmila
Gotlib.

That's why her tears flowed so freely at a candlelight and prayer ceremony at the Jewish
Community Center last night. The ceremony was to remember Ann Gotlib, who was last
seen at Bashford Manor Mall on June 1, 1983. Police found her bicycle outside the mall
but no witnesses who saw what happened to her. About 100 people were on hand last
night to hear Jefferson County Police Chief Bobby Crouch and other speakers promise to
continue the search for Ann, who was 12 when she disappeared. A soloist and a choir
sang hymns. A rabbi and a minister said prayers.

Lyudmila Gotlib, who sat with her husband, Anatoly, held up fairly well through most of
the 90-minute ceremony. But when Rosalind Mudd of the Ann Gotlib Search Team
began to tell the audience about how "the person who took Ann has robbed them (the
Gotlibs) of their greatest blessing," Lyudmila broke down.

"It gets harder every year," Lyudmila Gotlib said after everyone had carried lighted
candles out of the center's auditorium and into the parking lot.

However, the Russian immigrant said, "It helps to feel that we are not alone. To hear that
law-enforcement agencies and private groups are not going to quit helps also."

She said there "definitely is more education going on these days" to inform people about
the dangers of missing and exploited children than there was when Ann disappeared. "I
just hope people pay attention to it."

Mudd, who helped coordinate the ceremony, said the parents have such a hard time
coping emotionally that the team is considering changing the format. Perhaps a more
low-key event, including the planting of a tree in honor of Ann, would be appropriate,
Mudd said.