Cape Fear

Josh Mankiewicz Correspondent • Profile

Wilmington, N.C., July 30, 2006. It's 2 a.m. Last call at the Junction Pub and Billiards. And for one woman who walked out this door into the shadows, last call very likely marked the last moments of her life.

Lisa Valentino: I got a phone call from my father saying there's a problem. He said your sister Allison is missing. They can't find her.

Suburban New Jersey. Lisa Valentino heard the news from her father, John. He learned that his youngest daughter, 34-year-old Allison Foy, was missing. But how he learned it was just as unsettling.

John: A message was left on the phone. Please call the police department that your daughter's missing.

Josh Mankiewicz: Did the two of you find it strange that you had to find out about this from the police department, and not from Allison's husband?

Both: Yes, I did.

Josh Mankiewicz: Why didn't her husband call?

Lisa Valentino: His answer to me was he couldn't find my number.

Allison was a married mother of two young daughters. An accomplished dancer, and gymnast. The only member of a tightly-knit family to have moved out of the New York area to North Carolina.

Lisa Valentino: The day that she actually went missing, I was having a birthday party here, and she had called and I said, you know what Allison, everybody's coming here. She said, Okay I'll give you a call when things settle down a bit. And I said okay, and that was it. Unfortunately that's the last time I ever spoke with her.

Submit a tip Got a tip for the Wilmington, N.C. police department? If you have information about this case, call the tip line at 1-877-574-0086. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online at www.tip708.com.

Allison had been reported missing by her husband Michael. Wilmington Police Detective Mike Overton and Captain Marshall Williamson started working on the case and found a marriage very clearly on the rocks.

Mike Overton: At the time she went missing, she'd been going out late at night to bars, leaving the husband and kids behind.

As police in Wilmington tried to reconstruct the night Allison Foy vanished, they discovered she'd gone to work at her new job as assistant manager at a Wilmington hotel, then spent those last hours at the Junction Pub in the company of another man. Not a lover, but by all accounts, a confidante who said he thought Allison was too drunk to drive home, and asked the bartender to call a cab for Allison.

He saw a cabbie poke his head in the door and watched Allison walk out with him.

But that wasn't the only story police heard.

Mike Overton: We've heard she left alone. We heard she left in a taxicab. We heard she left in someone's car. We know she didn't leave in her car. Police found that in the Pub's parking lot. No clues inside it.

Allison's family simply could not believe the theory that she might just have taken off without telling anyone.

Josh Mankiewicz: Is it possible, that if Allison had decided to walk away from her life, that she wouldn't have told you?

Lisa Valentino: No way! No way! There's no way that she would've just picked up, one, and left without telling any of us, but two, not taking her kids? Never!

The family converged on Wilmington. Hitting the streets. Passing out flyers.

Josh Mankiewicz: You woulda gone anywhere to find her!

John: Without a doubt, one hundred percent.

Allison's husband's behavior became an issue. He didn't help in the search for her. And just days after she vanished, he cut off service to Allison's cell phone.

Josh Mankiewicz: Why would he do that?

Lisa Valentino: His answer was that he didn't have enough money to pay her bill.

Marc Benson: Spotlight! Spotlight goes right on him!

Marc Benson, private eye with more than 20 years in law enforcement. The family hired him to aid in the search.

Video   What are the possible connections between the victims? Investigator Alan Jackson discusses where to start looking for leads in situations like the Wilmington, N.C. case. Dateline NBC

Josh Mankiewicz: Her husband Michael was essentially unconcerned about her well-being at the beginning.

Marc Benson: He was thinking that she was somewhere alive and well where she shouldn't have been.

Michael Foy did not want to speak with Dateline. He told police he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance, and as the weeks began to pass, police came to the same conclusion.

Josh Mankiewicz: Did Allison's husband Michael have an alibi?

Mike Overton: He was home with the kids was his alibi. You know, we went through the house, he gave us his computer, came in and wrote statements. He's done everything I've asked him, except for one thing.

Josh Mankiewicz: What did he not do?

Mike Overton: He did not take a polygraph test.

Josh Mankiewicz: Because the question, are you glad she's gone, might have looked incriminating even though he might not have had anything to do with it?

Mike Overton: That's correct.

And that's where things stood a few months after Allison's disappearance. We turn now to our team members for their thoughts: Dwayne Stanton, retired homicide detective from Washington, D.C. Investigated Chandra Levy's murder. Yolanda McClary, crime scene investigator in Las Vegas, and a model for the character on the hit series, CSI. Alan Jackson, prosecutor in Los Angeles who specializes in high profile cases.

Josh Mankiewicz: What's your initial impression here?

Alan Jackson: There are a couple questions about Michael Foy that have to be answered. Number one, why wouldn't you call the person that your wife is closest to, but number two and much more chilling to me, is he didn't take part in the search! That's a big red flag. I mean, don't you agree?

Dwayne Stanton: I agree. I agree. And that he immediately cut off her cell phone which makes you think, y'know what? She won't be using this phone again.

Yolanda McClary: But on the other hand, people handle emotional stress in different ways. He's a very angry, angry man. He thinks his wife ran away with somebody. And anger takes over to do things I don't think that you would normally do.

Josh Mankiewicz: At this point, she's missing. Is she still alive?

Alan Jackson: No. No way. The kids! The kids. My first reaction is, she'll leave the husband. But she's not gonna leave the kids.

Video   Team begins to build a profile of the killer Even with little evidence, Dateline's squad team is able to pull out some key facts about the suspect in the Wilmington, N.C. case. Dateline NBC

Yolanda McClary: The possibility's getting slimmer. We need to look at all avenues, don't stick on one thing because we need to find her, if she is still alive. And if the facts don't face up to it, then move on.

Our team focused on two key witnesses: Allison's confidante, who by his account, saw a cabbie poke his head in the door of the pub, and watched Allison walk out with him.

And…

Dwayne Stanton: You want that cab driver! The person who stuck his head in the door and that she left with. I'm sure that they can track down what cab was at the junction pub that particular night.

Alan Jackson: Well, you'd hope so!

Where was that cab driver? And where was Allison? The answer? Not far from where she was last seen. But when she was found, police also found more than they were looking for.

MORE FROM CRIME STORIES

Crime stories Section Front

Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Through The Pouring Rain In Plain Sight: Jaycee Dugard Bad Chemistry Bad Chemistry: Photos in the case The Mystery in the Master Bedroom Slideshow: Photos in the bathtub murder case Crime stories Section Front   Add Crime stories headlines to your news reader: