And so on Monday February 19, 1990, Medlock, by his own version of events, in his Yukon apartment when he heard a knock on the door and found Katherine Busch, the 7 year old daughter of some of his neighbors, standing outside. Katherine's mother Gina claimed she was quite shy and would not have so willingly approached a stranger, so she believed Medlock forced her into the apartment. Kathy was born in Oklahoma City on July 15, 1982 and her own family life had been a less than joyous one--her parents were divorced and her father Ken Busch was serving a prison sentence for forgery. Kathy had lived with her grandmother for a time while Gina was in Texas looking for work. The two eventually came to live in Yukon.

Although Gina Busch claimed her daughter was shy and introverted, the evidence seems to prove otherwise; the girl was known to wander off and disappear for hours, leaving her mother concerned. Sometimes she would turn up on a playground or feeding ducks at a nearby pond. On February 19, Kathy went out for her usual wanderings on her pink and white bicycle but when she was late even for her usual standards, Gina got worried and called police. The small town Yukon PD had limited resources and were slow to respond to Busch's report of a missing child. It was about eight hours before any action was taken. Police searched Kathy's usual hangout spots around town, didn't see her in any of them, and eventually one officer found her bicycle laying behind a drugstore three blocks from her home.