Mystery of Lexington teen’s disappearance still haunts family decades later

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - It has been 25 years since 14-year-old Lydia Perkins disappeared in Lexington.

Her mother and brother have received a few tips over the years but nothing that points to what happened or why. A mystery that’s haunted them for two and a half decades.

The Perkins family now calls Garrard County home. The pain of what happened in October 1997 and the questions surrounding that mystery were too much to keep them in Lexington.

Lydia was last seen at her home in the Cardinal Valley subdivision. Her disappearance has been investigated by Lexington police, and there’s even been a jailhouse confession from a possible suspect, but nothing that has pointed to where she is, what happened to her or anything else to give the family closure.

“My daughter would have never left us,” said Sherry Thompson. “Something happened to her. I think something bad has happened to her. You live with that thought every single day.”

Her mother tells us a death row inmate confessed to killing Lydia but they don’t believe that was true because no other evidence was found.

Lydia’s birthday is in December and her family says she would turn 40 this year.

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