Thousands of volunteers joined the frantic, “house by house, ditch by ditch” search for little Steven, covering about 20 square miles (per the Carroll Daily Times Herald). It was not clear how Pamela had ended up so far away; Steven was only 3, and couldn’t have wheeled her through traffic if he wanted to. This was clearly a kidnapping. Steven’s father, a 26-year-old Air Force sergeant, made a desperate public announcement: “My wife and I are beside ourselves with worry and anxiety. We’ll promise to forgive you if you’ll only bring him back to us.”
The Charley Project notes that a month after Steven disappeared, the Dammans received a series of ransom notes, demanding money in exchange for Steven. The ransom went up with each letter, starting at $3,000 and ending up at $14,000 — a huge amount of money at the time. However, it was a fake. A student at Columbia University had read about the case and thought he could make some money off of it.
