Forty-eight years after a newborn boy vanished from a home in southwest Atlanta, his mother is still looking for him — and this weekend she is turning that search into a public call for hope. Donna Green will host her annual “A Night of Courage: Resilience of Hope” event Saturday night at Saint Paul A.M.E. Church in Atlanta, aiming to bring renewed attention to her son Raymond’s case along with other unsolved disappearances.
Raymond Green was born at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital on November 1, 1978, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Five days later, he was gone. A woman who had befriended Donna at the hospital, known only as “Lisa,” showed up unannounced at the family’s front door and took the infant, according to NCMEC. Officials say that woman abducted Raymond from Carver Homes in southwest Atlanta, and as CBS News Atlanta reports, neither Raymond nor the woman has been seen since.
There is some discrepancy in how that timeline has been reported over the years. Atlanta News First has described Raymond as five days old at the time of the November 6, 1978 abduction, while a 2010 CNN report put his age at six days old when he was taken. Either way, the baby disappeared within a week of his birth, and the search has continued for nearly five decades.
A Sketch, an Age-Progression Image, and a Nationwide Push
NCMEC has shared a sketch of Raymond as an infant alongside a forensic-art image showing what he might look like now, at age 44, the organization says. That age-progression effort grew into something bigger in 2023, when NCMEC partnered with GSTV to display Raymond’s case on gas station pump televisions across the country. NCMEC called it a first-of-its-kind effort, noting that it marked the first time all of the network’s screens nationwide would highlight a single case, and that the campaign was set to run for two weeks.
By the time that push rolled out, GSTV had already shared more than 460 missing children’s posters since its partnership with NCMEC began, according to the organization. NCMEC said the campaign would appear on screens at more than 28,000 fuel retailers for two weeks, while 11Alive put the reach at more than 28,000 fuel retailers across 48 states. Atlanta News First also reported at the time that Crimestoppers had issued a $2,000 reward for any new information that helps locate Raymond.
The suspect in the case may have used the name “Lisa Morris,” according to an NCMEC missing-person poster, which describes her as about 5 feet 6 inches tall with a medium build and possibly a mole on her left cheek. The poster states she was last seen getting into a brown vehicle. Her current whereabouts, like Raymond’s, remain unknown.
A Mother’s Decades-Long Vigil
Donna Green has expressed her belief that Raymond is coming home. Even four decades after the abduction, few clues had emerged in the case. Donna has said she still looks for the baby she once held and believes he will come home, a sentiment CBS News Atlanta reports she continues to express.
Her search has since grown into something larger than one family’s grief. Through her nonprofit, International Outreach of Hope, Donna has organized an annual gathering — called the Raymond Green Gala in past years — that brings together families of other missing Georgians.
This Year’s Event and How to Help
This year’s gathering, “A Night of Courage: Resilience of Hope,” is scheduled for Saturday night at Saint Paul A.M.E. Church in Atlanta, according to CBS News Atlanta. The event is intended to bring attention not just to Raymond’s case but to other unsolved disappearances as well.
Anyone with information about Raymond Green’s case is asked to call NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678 or the Atlanta Police Department at 404-658-6666, per CBS News Atlanta’s report. Nearly five decades on, the case remains unresolved, and for Donna Green, the hope that her son might still come home has not faded.
