Have You Seen Andy?

Announcer: Unflinching.

Unafraid.

Unfiltered.

Unforgettable.

Cinemax Reel Life.

Subject matters.

And now, the Cinemax Reel Life documentary...

(helicopter blades whirring)

Faith Puglisi: That morning when I got up

was one of the hottest days, you know.

That, uh, that summer was wicked hot.

And, of course in the projects,

it didn't matter what season it was.

Winter or summer, those radiators were clanking,

and the heat was coming, and it was unbearable.

The other children had all gone off to the pool.

With the stipulation: they stay together,

and Andy was gonna join them.

And I was making some soup for the baby,

and I said, "Do you want some soup, hon?"

And he says, "Yeah, Mom. Yeah."

We sat down at the table,

and he was right directly across from me.

And while I'm feeding the baby,

I heard this ungodly slurp from across the table,

and my head turned to look at him,

and normally I would have scolded him.

And I looked at him.

He's like, "Uh-oh, here it comes," you know.

"She's gonna," you know, "get me for this," you know.

And instead I just...

I looked at him and I just said, "No, honey.

Go ahead and eat your soup."

And I went upstairs to put her down for her nap,

and when I came downstairs,

Andy had already left for the pool.

And that was the last time I was to...

ever see him again.

Officer (on radio): Can you make a notification for me?

Melanie Perkins: On a hot summer day in 1976,

a 10-year-old boy vanished from a crowded swimming pool

In Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Man (on radio): Greg, Channel 9.

Melanie: The city was mobilized

into an all-out round-the-clock search

that included the National Guard,

Special Forces Army Reserve Unit,

underwater dive teams,

CB truckers, neighbors,

relatives, and friends.

Officer (on radio): ...about nine years old.

Dispatch (on radio): 231 to 26 at Lexington and Wickersham.

21-23.

Melanie: The search lasted for 6 days,

but the boy was never found.

His name is Angelo Puglisi...

and he was my friend.

I don't remember anything in particular that we did that day.

It was really really hot. I remember that.

It was,like,really hot.

But we were all at the pool.

And you almost didn't want to get out of the water 'cause it was so hot.

The second you got out, you wanted to jump back in.

I had been there for awhile,

and I was getting pretty hungry,

and I wanted to go home.

I asked Andy if he wanted to walk home with me,

and he said no, he didn't.

He was gonna stay at the pool longer.

And I remember being a little bit irritated

that he did that,

because normally Andy was the type of kid

that if you did ask him to do something for you,

he would do it, you know, just to be helpful.

And I remember leaving,

and Andy was still sitting in the sun.

Faith: Sometime around 3:00, 3:30,

somewhere around there,

I'm not really sure of the time,

the other children all come piling through the door,

and I'm counting heads,

and there's one missing.

"Where's your brother Andy?"

I remember going home around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon,

getting something to eat,

and then going back over to the pool

trying to see if I can find Andy.

Faith: When they all showed up once again without Andy,

I was furious.

My response was,

"You tell your brother to get his ass home now!

Don't make me go over there."

Michael: The lifeguards couldn't tell me

if they saw him or not 'cause they were just too busy

trying to take care of all the other kids at the pool.

I started looking for Andy around 5:00,

and that's approximate.

Um...

I remember walking the whole-- the whole projects

calling his name, calling his name,

and asking everybody I saw.

"Have you seen Andy? Have you seen Andy?"

You know, and a couple of times I think kids responded

with oh, they had seen him over at the stadium.

And I remember walking down that street by the stadium.

And there was a playground over there, and calling his name,

and still no Andy.

Melanie: As it started to get a little bit darker,

you might hear the occasional,"Andy?" you know.

People were starting to look for him a little bit,

but-- but, you know, I didn't really think much of it.

I figured he was gonna get in trouble.

I'm thinking, "Well, maybe he's just at a friend's house,

and lost track of time."

I could see that she was getting upset that, you know,

he wasn't home by 8:00, and then 9:00.

Faith: I'm thinking a lot of different things,

you know, but it definitely was not like Andy.

One of my main concerns was he was an epileptic,

and did he have a seizure?

I didn't want to call the police

because I was just sure he was gonna walk in the door any minute.

So I called my family.

My ex-wife called, and...

So I got a hold of them,

and they told me that Andy hadn't come home yet,

and, "I'm worried."

Faith: I finally placed that call to the police

probably somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00.

So the initial questions:

"Well, are you sure he didn't run away?"

And, you know, "We can't do anything

until it's been 24 hours,"

and I was just like beside myself with, you know,

we're talking about a child here.

Went down there, argued with them,

tried to convince them that this was a serious case

whether the child was gone one hour or a day.

In 24 hours, a child can be across the country.

Melanie: The Lawrence Police didn't even

send out a detective until 3:00 AM.

Michael: I got woken up by my mom,

and some, I guess, police officer,

and asking me, you know,

Who was Andy hanging around with at the pool that day?

Melanie: There was a knock on the door in the middle of the night,

early morning, and it was the police.

And they had me and my brother, Jeff

come downstairs into the kitchen.

And they were asking us if we had seen Andy,

and when was the last time we had seen him.

Faith: And they asked for a picture.

And he says, "Oh, I'll bring you this picture back in the morning."

And I went, "The heck with that.

Bring me my son."

It's a picture.

What do I care about the picture?

You know, I want my child.

Faith: The search was called off

after about five or six days.

I was devastated.

I was devastated. I was frightened.

I knew I couldn't afford myself

the luxury of falling apart.

Because if I fell apart, who was gonna see to it

that everybody did what they were supposed to do,

and that meant doing everything they could.

Nothing was ever found.

We couldn't find a towel. We couldn't find clothing.

Nothing. There--

He literally vanished without a trace.

Like a puff of smoke.

Melanie: I was nine years old when Andy disappeared.

I felt so helpless and so powerless.

I vividly remember thinking to myself, "When I grow up,

I'm gonna try to find him."

In 1998,

I went back to Lawrence to begin my search for Andy.

I had no idea that my journey would reopen a case

considered closed for more than 20 years.

Lawrence is a mill town about 30 miles from Boston.

It's one of the poorest cities in the country.

-Hi. -Hi.

-How are you? -You look good.

You, too. Hi, Linda.

How are you? Good to see you.

-Long time no see. -Long time.

You look good.

Melanie: These are the kids I grew up with.

-Nice to see you! -You, too.

I asked them to get together

to talk about Andy's disappearance.

Most of us haven't seen each other in over 25 years.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

Woman: And then you get together

and it's like you never left each other.

-Right. It's been 30 years. -You know?

Look at-- you guys were so cute.

Sarah Conway: He was my first boyfriend in the projects.

Tricia DeCaro: No, no, she thought he was her first.