On Nov. 3, 1998, 8-year-old Maddie Clifton came home from school, did her homework, went outside to play and vanished.

The events that unfolded in the girl’s Lakewood neighborhood in the days following her disappearance shook Jacksonville to its core.

“It was just a normal day, a normal day,” Maddie’s mother, Shelia, remembered. “I said, ‘Jessie, Maddie, come on in for dinner.’ Jessie came running in and I said, ‘Where's your sister?’ and she said she never came back down to play with the golf balls.”

Ten years later, Maddie’s mom still remembered the conversation with her eldest daughter Jessie as if it were yesterday.

She said it was 5:30 p.m. when Maddie left the house saying she was going down the street where neighborhood kids were playing with golf balls.

“I reached down and gave her a kiss and said, 'be careful and have fun,'” Sheila said.

She had no way of knowing it would be the last time she would ever kiss Maddie.

“Soon as I pulled up, Sheila said Maddie is gone. I said, ‘What do you mean Maddie's gone?’ She said she went out to play and we don't know where she is,” Maddie's father, Steve Clifton, said. “So I started driving all around hollering and calling her name and by the time I came back home, more and more people were here and we called the police.”

Dispatcher: Jacksonville 911.
Sheila: My daughter, um, went out to play this afternoon. I thought she was with my other daughter and now she is missing.
Dispatcher: How old is she?
Sheila: She's 8-years-old.
Dispatcher: Where was she playing -- around the house?
Sheila: Right around the house here. She had on pair of shorts and a red T-shirt.
Dispatcher: She blonde-haired? Black haired?
Sheila: She's got reddish brown hair. It's actually brown with an auburn tint to it. It's short.
Dispatcher: What's her name?
Sheila: It's Maddie.

Police were immediately in the air searching with helicopters as family and friends joined officers and bloodhounds on the ground searching for Maddie.

There was no sign of the child.

The 8-year-old had never run away before and she knew not to talk to strangers. Her parents described her as a tomboy who loved basketball and had an infectious giggle, dark brown eyes and a smile that lit up a room.

“It was like she walked out the door, and poof, she vanished,” Sheila said.

Jacksonville Reaches Out To Clifton Family, Helps Search For Maddie

As word of Maddie's disappearance got out, people from all over Jacksonville started appearing in the Clifton’s neighborhood. Moved by Maddie’s parents' agony over their missing little girl, even strangers were eager to help find Maddie and bring her home.

Volunteers posted and handed out fliers with the girl’s picture. They wore yellow ribbons pinned to their shirts and were anxious to lend a hand.

As another day ended, Maddie's family made a desperate plea on the news: “Oh Maddie, please come home. Momma, Daddy and Jessie are ready for you to come on home, and please come home.”

Maddie’s face was everywhere, and hundreds of volunteers were going out each and every day searching for her, but still there was no sign of the missing girl.

While the city continued its search outside, the Cliftons stayed at home.

“The house was full of people doing what they could. The dining room table used to be right there. I used to call them the women of the round table -- six or eight mostly women that would being going in and out getting banners printed, doing whatever they could,” Steve said. “We would go and find articles of clothing for search dogs and photographs for posters and fliers.”

“I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. I wanted to join everyone in search but they advised us to stay at home by the phone,” Sheila said. “All I kept thinking was is she cold, is she being fed, is she being tortured where could she be why won't someone say something.”

Word of Maddie's disappearance spread across the country. As the days went by, volunteers with nowhere else to look turned to prayer.

“I remember later that evening, that first night, sitting on the couch, one of our friends was over, and I told her I said, ‘Maddie is gone. I'm never going to see Maddie again.’ She was trying to tell me just have faith, we're going to find her, I said, ‘No. Maddie is gone,’” Steve said. “And I kick myself when I think about that sometimes. I don't know, maybe if I'd had faith, things would have been different.”

“I remember him saying to me, ‘Someone has taken her. She's actually gone. Somebody's taken her.’ I kept telling him, ‘No honey, she's got to be here. Who could have come by and gotten her? She wouldn't do this without telling us,’” Sheila said.

Maddie’s parents were overwhelmed, but still tried to stay strong for their other daughter.

“Through the whole ordeal, Jessie was amazingly strong. I think she took it upon herself to hold Sheila and I together,” Steve said.

Jessie Clifton was frequently seen by her parents’ side when they talked publicly, but behind the scenes, she was being shielded from the day-to-day agony of the search. The then-11-year-old girl was often sent to her grandmother's house around the corner.

“I remember the look on her face when I told her that she was not with me,” Jessie Clifton said. “Out of the whole year of being 11 years old, I couldn't tell you a thing that happened, only in those two weeks.”

The National Guard was called in and FBI profilers were working on the case too, but nothing seemed to work.

After six days of searching and praying, a startling discovery was made 50 yards away from Maddie’s home inside a house across the street.

“The next thing I know, I heard commotion going on,” Sheila said.

She said looking out the window she saw the yellow police tape being put up.

“Something felt wrong. I went downstairs and my immediate family was standing in a circle,” Jessie said.

“As soon as I saw the looks on their faces, it was written all over them, we knew she was found,” Steve said.

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Nov. 10, the Clifton’s neighbor, Missy Phillips, made a terrible discovery. She told police she’d found Maddie’s body in her son’s bedroom.

At that moment, what police feared became fact -- Maddie was gone. A female officer broke the news to her family.

“She said, 'We're sorry. We have found Maddie, and she was across the street,' and I thought Steve was going to die,” Sheila said. “I didn't know who. When they said Josh's name, that's when Steve went crazy. All I kept thinking was where in the world could a 14-year-old hide my daughter.”

Josh Phillips, Maddie's neighbor, became the prime suspect in her slaying. Police went to the 14-year-old’s school to pick him up.

Volunteers arriving for another day of searching were soon locked in prayer as more time passed without word about exactly what had happened.

Nat Glover, who was sheriff at the time, walked toward the crowd to speak, but no one was really prepared for what he was about to say.

“We found Maddie Clifton this morning at about 7:30 a.m. She was dead,” Glover said. “When (the officer) entered the 14-year-old’s room, he saw Maddie’s feet hanging out of the bed.”

After six days of searching, Maddie had been in her Lakewood neighborhood all along.