Advertising for Clues, Missing Woman Goes On Billboard

NEWS Advertising for Clues, Missing Woman Goes On Billboard

February 9, 2009

The best advertisement is one which reaches the most people possible. Billboards on busy roadways can catch at least a glance from thousands of motorists each day. A unique billboard usually makes them pay attention.
That's the thought behind a billboard advertising for clues in a missing persons' case a quarter century old. This week drivers and passengers motoring along Route 37 in Danbury will see Mary Badaracco's photo, as well as a $50,000 reward leading to an arrest in her case, on a 10 by 30 foot billboard. "Any case can be solved if people would come forward with information," Beth Profeta, Badaracco's daughter said, "and that's why I feel that the billboard will be a very useful tool to the investigators to remind the community that my mother existed and my mother is still missing and her killers are still out there." 

25 years have passed since Badaracco vanished in August of '84 from her Sherman, Connecticut home. Her family believes she was murdered. If Badaracco is still alive, she'll be 62 next month. Despite the emmense amount of time elapsed since the dissappearance, Profeta said she has a good vibe from cops that her mother's cold case is thawing rapidly. "We can solve this, every case should really be solvable, I don't believe there's a perfect crime." 

The billboard is paid for by North Carolina-based "Community United Effort For Missing Persons," which is better knows as the "CUE Center." The billboard is supposed to stay up indefinitely. 

"I want closure, I would love to be able to bury my mother, and I would love to tell my children and my nephew that justice does exist and tell them what happened to their grandmother I think is the bottom line. Just not knowing is torture," Profeta said. 

Profeta expects to get a valuable return on the ad space, saying she hopes to one day soon stick a "CASE SOLVED" banner across it.