Parsons was last seen at approximately 6:00 p.m. on July 11, 1993 near her family's residence in the 4800 block of southeast Ebbtide Avenue in Port Salerno, Florida. Her mother's boyfriend gave her permission to walk to a friend's residence on Flounder Avenue and the Port Salerno Grocery Store on Salerno Road. Two witnesses observed Parsons walking towards the business shortly afterwards, which was two blocks from her home. An employee at the store told authorities that Parsons purchased potato chips and candy with some change she had, then departed the business. On her way back, some people she knew drove past her and she waved at them. She may have been collecting empty soda cans near Commerce Avenue and Seward Avenue at the time of her disappearance. Her friend said that Parsons never arrived at her home. She has never been seen again. Her mother arrived home from work at 10:10 p.m. and realized Parsons was not home. She searched the neighborhood, which is known for its drug traffic, before reporting the child's disappearance to police at 11:00 p.m.

Claude Davis, a Port Salerno resident who was convicted of child molestation in an unrelated case, was considered a suspect in Parsons's disappearance. A photo of him is posted below this case summary. He went to the police a few days after the child vanished and claimed he had seen Parsons being forced into a maroon four-door Oldsmobile by four or five Hispanic men. He said he didn't try to intervene because he was afraid. Davis later told authorities that Parsons died after an accidental fall on the night she vanished. He claimed that he panicked afterwards and put her body in a dumpster, and never reported the incident until November 1993, four months after Parsons was last seen. Investigators arrested Davis on a false imprisonment charge as a result of his second statement, but the charges against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence. Davis later claimed he was not involved in Parsons's disappearance and his story about witnessing her abduction by several men was the true account. When police asked him to take a lie detector test, he refused.

The porch of Davis's residence was burned down in April 1994. He claimed that the arsonist was a person who thought he was involved in Parsons' disappearance. Davis had just been released from prison for molestation charges at the time of the fire; the charges were the result of his sexual relationship with a fourteen-year-old girl. In 1999, he was rearrested for violating the terms of his probation. He was not allowed to have contact with his victim, who is now an adult. Davis claimed that he was repairing her parents' vehicle and told the victim to leave the area at the time. The presiding judge did not agree with Davis's account and sent him back to prison in July 2000. He served an additional four years before being released again. He now lives in Stuart, Florida. Davis has never been charged in Parsons's disappearance due to a lack of evidence connecting him to her presumed abduction, but he is the only suspect who was never eliminated.

Authorities believe that Parsons was abducted and murdered, but there is little evidence to support any theory. A landfill in Martin County, Florida was searched in December 1993, five months after Parsons disappeared. Investigators were looking for her remains at the time, but the search yielded few clues. Parsons resided with her mother, her mother's boyfriend and her half-sister at the time of her disappearance; they moved from Dayton, Ohio to Florida in September 1992. Parsons's case remains unsolved.

Above: Claude Davis, circa 2010