After the Fire: The Ramona Brown Mystery

Forty years ago, 3-year-old Ramona Brown vanished after a house fire killed two of her siblings and destroyed her family’s home. Now, for the first time, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the New Orleans Police Department are releasing a new image of Ramona to help solve the mystery of what happened to her.

Young Ramona and her nine siblings lived with their parents, Johnnie Mae and Aubrey Brown, in a home located on Memorial Drive in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. Her siblings say that growing up in such a big family was chaotic at times, but they were a happy family. "We used to put mustard on each other's faces when we slept, have shoe fights, all kinds of stuff like that," said her sister, Tansy (Brown) Falgout. "It was a lot of fun, a lot of love." Her sister Simona Brown said, "Our parents did a great job raising us all together."

The Brown family outside their home on Memorial Drive.

On March 5, 1984, the Brown family went to sleep anticipating the upcoming Mardi Gras festivities. Around 3 a.m., they woke up to flames tearing through their family home. Tiffany (Brown) Nickerson remembered how frightening the situation was: "My mom was yelling that her babies were inside the house," she said. "My daddy was throwing water buckets at the house, and the heat was pushing them back at us."

People from all over the neighborhood came to help the Brown family that night, but not everyone survived the blaze. Kevin, two, and Aubrey Jr., four, perished in the fire. Initially, it was thought that 3-year-old Ramona died inside the house too, but firefighters never found her remains in the rubble.   

Fire experts say it is almost inconceivable that there were no bones or traces of Ramona found. "I spoke with fire investigators, and they said the fire would need to reach thousands of degrees in order to burn everything, meaning bones," said Detective Lamar Lewis with New Orleans Police. "Firefighters on the scene said they don’t think she was in the house, and I don’t think she was in the house."

Firefighters work to put out the blaze.

Ramona’s family believes Ramona is still alive. Tiffany explained that the night the fire happened, her then 6-year-old sister Simona told their parents that Ramona had made it out of the house and left with an older couple who offered to help. Despite area searches, there was no sign of Ramona.

"I remember Simona telling my mom and dad that there was a couple, a biracial couple that stopped and picked up Ramona," said Tiffany. "After that, Simona went into a shell. She wouldn't talk for a few years."

In 2018, a 42-year-old Simona found the courage to approach police on her own and shared her memory of that night once more. "My brother Kevin encouraged me to reopen the case because he thought about Ramona all the time."

Simona met with Detective Lamar Lewis with New Orleans Police. "I received the cold case in 2018," said Lewis. "Simona is positive she had Ramona’s hand that night. She remembers everything, the car that pulled up and the description of the couple that offered to help the family watch Ramona." Lewis says he believes Ramona did not die in the fire that night and that there is a good possibility that the 3-year-old was taken.

Shortly after the fire, their grandmother said she received strange phone calls with no one speaking on the line. There was just silence. The family always wondered if these calls were from Ramona or the people who took her.

Today, 40 years later, Ramona’s family is still searching for answers. Ramona now has nieces and nephews who have never met her and pray for the day they can. "I see people posting their stories of being reunited with lost loved ones," said her niece, Tiara. "I hope one day we have the same luck as they did."

Detective Lewis is not giving up either. "My heart goes out to the family," he said. "I am not a superhero or anything, but I am determined to figure this one out."

Simona remembers seeing Ramona getting into a gold-colored Cadillac that she describes as having wings on the back. The white female had long hair, and the black male had short hair. Simona said the couple was older and each had a thin build.

Today, Ramona would be 43 years old. Her family says she has a unique birthmark. Take a close look at this age progression. If you have any information, please call NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.

You can view Ramona's missing poster here: Have you seen this child? Ramona Lynn Brown (missingkids.org).