An Oklahoma teen is missing, initially said to be a runaway, but the details surrounding her disappearance are odd, to say the least.
While police say her parents showed little concern, her sister is still, more than two decades later, fighting for justice and the answer as to whether her beloved sister is dead or alive.
Angelique Rameau misses her sister dearly.
“She was beautiful.”
Monique Daniels was an average Oklahoma 15-year-old.
The Moore teenager dreamed of being a doctor and having a family of her own. Then came the summer of 1992.
“This really sucks. It was a terrible tragedy and it should have never happened,” Rameau said.
But what actually happened to Monique?
“Someone has to be her voice. Someone has to look for her. And I can’t stop,” Rameau said.
Neither can Moore Police. Twenty-three years later, they do not know if Monique is a runaway or the victim of foul play.
Detective Terrance Coleman said, “We don’t know. We hope she is still alive.”
Police say there are a lot of unanswered questions in this case.
For Angelique, there are too many. She was very close to her big sister. Monique disappeared while Angelique and her mom were at camp.
“My step-dad picked us up from the church and said Monique was gone,” Angelique said.
Her step-father told her Monique ran away, but neither the step-father, nor Monique’s mother, reported the disappearance, initially.
Months went by, then a year. Extended family members began to question why police weren’t more involved.
Police say it was more than a year after Monique disappeared when her parents finally called them.
Detective Coleman said, “Parents believed she ran away and so they didn’t make it a big deal.”
However, Moore Police say there are things about the case which just don’t add up.
“There’s missing pieces to this that were never filled in, questions that went unanswered,” Detective Coleman said.
Angelique has since severed all ties with her parents .
Just months after her sister was reported missing, Angelique decided to run away, moving in with family in Michigan. She still lives there today.
“I can’t make sense of it,” she said.
Angelique recalls those months following Monique’s disappearance quite well. Over the years, she has told it all to police investigating the matter.
Angelique said, “I just really remember the atmosphere feeling very tense.”
She told police her step-father forced her to write letters pretending to be Monique.
“He took me to the grocery store and picked out stationary to write the letter on. He told me what to write. I felt very threatened. I felt very afraid,” Angelique said.
She says he then drove her to Texas and mailed the letter to her mother so it would appear to have come from her missing sister.
Detective Coleman said, “That’s strange… bizarre.”
Police are aware of that letter and at least one other Angelique says she was forced to write.
Angelique said, “It has brought so much sadness to me on a daily basis and guilt for participating in the cover-up, even though I was a kid and I didn’t know.”
Police say this case has left them scratching their heads for years.
They have followed one lead after another, even digging up the backyard of the home where the family lived at the time. But still more than two decades later, there are no answers.
Detective Coleman said, “When you have a little piece that’s missing to the puzzle, I don’t think it’s anyone’s make up to not fill that piece in.”
Police say they tried to question Monique’s parents years ago, but those interviews were quickly cut off.
Detective Coleman said, “It’s everyone’s constitutional right, they don’t have to talk to us if they don’t want to.”
Angelique keeps in constant contact with the police, making sure her sister is not forgotten.
Detective Coleman said, “She’s persistent and let’s us know this is not going away, I want to help you out any way I can.”
Police admit, it’s hard for them to believe Monique is alive, but there is little physical evidence to prove otherwise.
For Angelique, the memories of that summer are more than enough for her to believe, without a shadow of a doubt, her sister was not a runaway.
“Not one part of me. I do not believe that Monique left the house. I believe her last day on earth was that rainy day back on June 2, 1992,” said Angelique. “I believe Monique deserves justice. She mattered and her life counts.”
Monique Daniels would turn 39 this year.
Her parents left Oklahoma in the years following her disappearance. They moved to Germany with the military. We are told they now live in Florida.
If you have any information on were Monique Daniels is or what may have happened to her, you are asked to contact Moore Police.
