Attallah McLawrence still remembers the last time she talked with her sister, Ali Gilmore, and the life-changing advice she gave before her mysterious disappearance and presumed death 20 years ago.
Shortly before she went missing in 2006, Gilmore, 30 years old and four months pregnant, had a final conversation with McLawrence, then 26. They were planning her upcoming baby shower and talking about life.
Gilmore, who grew up in Palm Beach County and moved to Tallahassee to attend Florida A&M University, was working for the Florida Department of Health during the day and a Publix bakery on nights and weekends.
She encouraged her younger sister, then a science teacher, to go back to school to get her master’s degree in education, something she didn’t really want to do.
“I’ll never forget this, and to this day it sticks with me,” McLawrence said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. “She said ‘in life, things are going to come up, and you’re going to have to find a way and push through.’ That was the last thing she told me.”
Around 11 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2006, Gilmore finished her shift at the Publix then located on Apalachee Parkway and returned to her home on Loraine Court in the Wilson Green subdivision off Crawfordville Highway.
She was never seen or heard from again.
Gilmore didn’t show up at her state office on Merchants Row the next morning, Feb. 3, a Friday, though coworkers figured she’d be in late because she had an appointment scheduled with her estranged husband, who had moved out a few months earlier.
The following Monday, her supervisor and a co-worker from DOH, went to her house and knocked on her door and window. When she didn’t appear, they called the police.
There were no signs of foul play at her house. Her car was parked outside, with her purse inside, but her keys were missing, according to reporting by the Democrat, which covered the case extensively.
“It’s terrible when you grow up with somebody and you raise them and they have so much energy and want to do so much for the world and just have some low-life person come and take her away from us — just snatch her away,” said Tracy Smith, Gilmore’s elder sister.
“Like I said 20 years ago, it’s like an alien attack,” she added. “No evidence, nothing concrete, like she didn’t exist.”
Her disappearance garnered widespread attention from local and national media, including “The Montel Williams Show” and “Dateline NBC.” Billboards that read “Missing” with her name and photo blanketed the area.
Publix, TPD and CrimeStoppers teamed up to offer a $30,000 reward. Then-Mayor John Marks met with Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown, Gilmore’s first cousin, to share information.
But the days, months and years passed with no body discovered and no arrest made. Today, the Gilmore disappearance remains one of Tallahassee’s most notorious cold cases — but one police still hope to solve.
‘I miss her greatly’
Ali Grimsley grew up in Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County, the second oldest of four siblings on her mother’s side. Named after boxing legend Muhammed Ali, she was a gifted athlete herself and a standout on the Jupiter High School track team.
She started working in the Publix bakery her senior year, giving her mom $25 for the gas bill each month. In 1993, she moved to Tallahassee, enrolling at FAMU and majoring in health information management.
Monique Newbold, who got close to Gilmore in high school and went off to college with her, said she was a jovial person who planned out her life in minute detail, including having children.
“I miss her greatly ― I really do,” she said. “I love her … and I pray that there is a happy ending to her story. I pray that she is out there and that she is safe. I’m a Christian, so I have faith.”
After graduating, she got a job at DOH, and married James Gilmore, whom she met at Governor’s Square Mall. They bought the house on Loraine Court and started to settle down.
She suffered a miscarriage in 2005 and began having problems with her husband, who moved out in November. Soon after, she learned she was pregnant again. The father, detectives believe, was Dwight Aldridge, another man she’d been dating.
Police also believe Aldridge was the last person to speak with her, in a phone call she got at 12:48 a.m. Feb. 3, 2006, and allege he later lied about it before clamming up altogether.
In 2021, TPD identified Aldridge as a key person of interest in the homicide investigation. In a recent interview with the Democrat, Maj. Jeff Mahoney said Aldridge remains a person of interest.
Court records show Aldridge served nearly five years in state prison for an armed robbery he committed when he was 17. He was released from prison in May 2003, less than three years before Gilmore’s disappearance.
He later earned a nursing degree from Florida State University and became a registered nurse in 2021, according to DOH records. Aldridge, who resides in Kissimmee, did not return a phone call from the Democrat. He was never charged with any crime related to Gilmore’s disappearance.
‘Our family has not been the same’
Smith said her little sister was living the Great American Dream at the time of her disappearance, juggling her state career and part-time gig with her home and family life.
“She really got derailed with that,” she said, “and we got hurt because of that. Someone just infringed on her life and took her away from us and was not held accountable.”
Smith said Gilmore is constantly on her family’s minds and that her mother, Laurvetta Grimsley-McLawrence, now 76, continues to “ache” for her. McLawrence said her disappearance took an emotional toll on everyone.
“Our family has not been the same,” she said.
McLawrence said she found it hard to trust people again after what happened to her sister. She can’t help but think of the hole it left in her world.
“I was just robbed of the time that I cannot get back, being able to have that big sister,” McLawrence said. “We were close in age, and she was my role model. I wish I had my sister with me to be able to navigate life.”
Family members are convinced Aldridge was involved. But with no body and no casket, Gilmore’s loved ones still wonder whether she could be out there somewhere, even though investigators don’t believe that’s the case.
“Your mind plays terrible tricks on you,” Smith said, noting there have been cases of women who were held captive for years. “My optimistic side says she’s living. The pessimistic side says that bastard killed my sister.”
‘All you have is your faith’
Gilmore touched the lives of many over the course of her life. Smith said that after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, Gilmore gave directly to refugees who fled to Tallahassee rather than going through a third party.
“Ali’s always been loving to others,” Smith said.
McLawrence ended up taking her sister’s advice from their last phone call together. Though she was unsure at the time whether she even wanted to stay in education, she ended up going to grad school and getting her master’s degree. Now, she’s a middle school principal in Palm Beach County.
“I did it for her,” she said. “In the midst of my sister being missing, I pushed through. That piece of advice is helping guide me through the rest of my life.”
McLawrence said her family will likely mark the 20-year milestone of her disappearance the way they usually have over the years, by gathering together at her mom’s house.
“We will share stories,” she said. “We will reminisce and just laugh and share the good times that we have. We will strategize to see if there is any new information.”
Smith said that after 20 years, she wants to commemorate Gilmore’s life while everyone in her family is still around. Gilmore’s younger brother on her mother’s side, Amon McLawrence, died in 2020. She also has a number of other siblings on her biological father’s side of the family.
“Right now I would like to have her dash completed,” she said. “Because when you’re born, you have a birth date, a dash and a death date. And closure for us is the ending of the dash.”
McLawrence said she’s optimistic a breakthrough will come in the case, which she said has been getting new rounds of attention on social media.
“I’m just praying that this is the year that we will be able to have closure,” she said. “I’m trusting God. When you have things like this happen to you, all you have is your faith.”
If you have any information about the case, call TPD at (850) 891-4200 or make an anonymous tip to Crime Solvers at (850) 574-TIPS.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 20 years after disappearance, Ali Gilmore’s family hopeful for answers
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
