Years later, Collier County teen’s 1998 disappearance haunts sister

NAPLES, Fla. – Sharlene Boyatt still regrets staying no to her sister.

“I remember it all like it was yesterday. She got a phone call, she told me she was sneaking out to a party at a friend’s house and asked me to come with her — begged and pleaded for me to come with her — and I said no,” she said. “She never came home that night.”

Her 14-year-old sister, Wendy Hudakoc, made the phone call on Nov. 15, 1998.

Boyatt hasn’t heard from her since.

Boyatt still remembers her parting words to Hudakoc: “You get caught it’s your butt.”

Boyatt says she can function normally most times.

“And then there’s days you don’t,” she said. “You stay in bed, keep to yourself, whatever you got to do. It’s always temporary but you have to have your moments sometimes.”

Boyatt isn’t sure who knows about her sister, who she assumes is dead, but is absolutely fed up.

“It’s been 18 years. Just give it up already. I mean, I just — write me an anonymous letter. Do something. Just for the love of God, let it be over,” she said. “It’s morbid but without a body, you have nothing to go on. You live in the forever what-if world.”