After 35 years without answers, Danville police have charged two people in the death of missing woman Anna Manning.
Anna, who was 23 at the time, disappeared on Nov. 19, 1992. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS), she was standing outside Chinn’s Jewelry shop on North Third Street with a white man when she called out to her aunt, Elsie Williams, saying she needed to tell her something later.
“And she said, I’m going to come and talk to you. I’ve got to. I’ve got to talk to you about something. She said, I’ll be over in a little while. And I said, well, come on, go now. And she said, now I’ll be all over in a little while. I said, all right, I’m going home. Never heard from her,” Williams said.
Anna Lee Manning hasn’t been seen in 35 years and counting (NAMUS)
According to the Charley Project, the nation’s largest privately operated missing persons cold case database, Anna planned to visit Williams later that day, but she never showed up.
Williams said Anna endured a difficult childhood and suffered abuse at the hands of her stepfather. She took Anna in and raised her like her own daughter until Anna met Anthony Manning as a teenager.
“I had a lot to do with the way she was. You know, she was. She was scared of anything,” Williams said.
Williams said the couple eventually ran away together, got married, and had a child. However, she also said Anthony treated Anna poorly.
“He beat her. He was mad at her then because she didn’t want to go to Lexington. And he was taking her down there and prostituting her out,” Williams said.
More than 30 years after Anna Manning disappeared, a grand jury indicted 59-year-old Anthony Manning and 76-year-old Barbara Manning on May 18. Authorities arrested both suspects the following day, according to warrants.
Anthony faces charges of murder, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Barbara has been charged with complicity in those crimes.
The Charley Project case profile states that Anna and Anthony married in 1985. A 2017 report from the Advocate-Messenger identified Barbara as Anthony’s mother.
According to the indictment, Anthony allegedly killed Anna sometime between Sept. 14, 1992, and Nov. 7, 1992. Investigators claim that by Nov. 7, Barbara and Anthony had already taken steps to hide and dispose of her body.
That timeline suggests investigators believe Anna had already died before her family officially reported her missing.
FOX 56 is seeking clarification from authorities regarding the timeline outlined in investigative records, as her aunt’s account from Nov. 19 falls outside the period listed in the indictment.
Court documents don’t specify where her remains were left all these years or if they’ve been recovered. The Boyle County Sheriff’s Office told FOX 56 that another “concentrated search is ongoing” at Barbara’s Spring Valley property.
“Following her marriage, she and her husband distanced themselves from Anna’s family to the extent that her aunt, who had raised her since she was thirteen, didn’t know where she lived at the time of her disappearance. By 1992, the couple had separated,” the Charley Project wrote.
Just seven months before Anna was last seen, Anthony was arrested after he allegedly arrived at her Junction City apartment with their daughter. When Anna refused to have sex with him, he reportedly handcuffed her and forced her out the back door.
“Anna was able to escape when Anthony went to take her purse and the child to the car,” the Charley Project wrote. “Anthony pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced to 182 days in jail.”
The case went cold for more than 20 years before the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation. After receiving numerous tips, the Advocate-Messenger reported that deputies searched a five-acre property on Spring Valley Drive in Lincoln County owned by Anthony’s parents.
At the time, investigators said they had not uncovered anything conclusive related to Anna’s disappearance.
Anthony and his mother were booked into the Boyle County Detention Center on $2 million cash bonds. The two are scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. on June 15.
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