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Taken Through the Window: Who Killed Rose Tapia?
It is a parent’s worst nightmare for a child to go missing in the night. While this is a reality most parents will never come to know, some parents are living it. Some cases, like that of Elizabeth Smart, have happy endings. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the family of Rosie Tapia.
Over 25 years ago, Rosie was kidnapped from her bedroom and murdered. Her killer has not been identified.
Rosie’s Abduction
Rosie and her family lived in Salt Lake City’s Hartland Apartment Complex. She shared the ground-floor home with her parents and three siblings.
Rosie had been playing on the apartment playground the day of her disappearance. At some point during the day, a man carried her to her apartment and told Rosie’s sister that she’d been hurt on the slide. Apparently, Rosie told her sister that she had not been hurt on the slide and did not know the man who brought her home.
The night Rosie went missing, her parents were out for the evening. The oldest child, who was 18 years old, was left in charge of six-year-old Rosie and her four-year-old siblings.
On August 13, 1995, Rosie’s mother, Lewine, discovered the door to the children’s room was closed. This was strange because she had checked on the children at 2:30 a.m. and…
