(Tribune News Service) — The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progression image of a 17-day-old baby to aid in the search for Kevin Verville Jr., who was abducted in 1980 from a Marine Corps family stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

NCMEC’s image was created by a forensic artist at the organization using family photos.

“This is a likeness. This is not what we’re saying Kevin Verville Jr. looks like today,” said Angeline Hartmann, spokesperson for the NCMEC. Rather, the intent is to spark recognition.

Kevin Jr. — whose 45th birthday is Saturday — remains missing, a rare unsolved case of an infant abduction by a stranger, one of about a dozen such cases still active across the country, according to Hartmann.

Kevin Jr.’s younger sister, Angelica Ramsey, 40, contacted FBI investigators for an update on the case, according to a NCMEC blog about the image. The Colorado resident and her father, who lives in Montana, both attended a news conference in Oceanside in hopes of reigniting the case.

“Although baby Kevin was abducted 45 years ago, FBI San Diego’s work to reunite him with his family has not ceased,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Houtan Moshrefi. “In 1980, FBI San Diego worked around the clock to locate kidnapped baby Kevin, and we remain committed today.”

Ramsey said her family has entered their DNA in commercial databases like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. The FBI says the agency is also on the lookout for DNA matches.

Kevin Jr.’s abductor — Sheila — knocked on the door of Kevin Verville, a 21-year-old Marine corporal at the time, and his wife Angelina, who was 22 from the Philippines.

Sheila introduced herself as a social worker pitching assistance to financially struggling families of enlisted Marines with an infant no more than a few months old in Oceanside. Her agency, she told potential takers, could arrange for diapers, formula and maybe $100 a month in benefits.

According to authorities and news reports, the woman posing as a social worker had knocked on many doors over the course of several days, pitching her offer to new parents. The Verville couple had talked it over and agreed to sign up for help.

On July 1, 1980, Sheila drove Angelina and her baby to the agency office to fill out paperwork. But she stopped at a house first, saying she needed to pick up another mom. She said she wasn’t feeling well, and asked Angelina to knock on the door.

Angelina told the San Diego Evening Tribune she handed over the infant, got out and headed to the home.

“(Sheila) was holding my baby, tickling him under the chin, and they were both smiling,” she said at the time.

Sheila drove off.

Angelina ran after the car, which authorities said at the time may have been a 1975 Mercury Cougar sedan.

“I think the key is that she kept knocking on doors until she found the baby that she was looking for,” Hartmann said.

Hartmann said authorities believe the fake social worker, who appeared to be pregnant, raised Kevin as her own child.

“We strongly believe that Kevin Jr. is still out there alive and may not know his real identity,” Hartmann said.

The FBI was soon involved, the San Diego Union newspaper reported at the time. Agents immediately developed a psychological profile: Sheila may have lost a male baby within recent weeks, possibly shortly before or after birth. She may have been simulating a pregnancy. She probably was living alone.

Three years later, the Evening Tribune reported that the stumped FBI agent in charge in San Diego said he believed the kidnapper wanted a “replacement baby” and was raising Kevin Jr. as her own child.

Sheila was described as white, about 5 feet, 2 inches tall, roughly 20 years old, with curly red hair and bearing a tattoo of an X or cross in a circle in the webbing of her left hand. She spoke some Tagalog, Angelina Verville’s native language.

“We need your help to find answers,” Hartmann said. “Kevin deserves answers.”

The FBI is honoring a $10,000 reward for information that leads to locating Kevin Jr. and the arrest of those responsible. Tips can be submitted at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.

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