I saw this one of Lifetime, and of course it is Based on a True Story, since what else would life time show. This one is Based on the True Story of the disappearance of Yvonne "Vonnie" Nelson Rickman(or maybe it is Pickman, as it says here), who went away without coming back, uncharacteristically leaving her cigarette case behind...
She also leaves behind her estranged husband Ron, daughter Amy, and caring and concerned sister Corrinne, who suspects Ron had something to do with The Disappearance of Vonnie.
I think that has something to do with the fact that Ron is Very Close to Amy's babysitter Janine, since she's always on and her and Ron act very...odd together. Yuck. Plus Ron doesn't like Corrinne, and even forbids her to see Amy. Corrinne finds this out when she stops by Amy's house and finds Amy with an ugly haircut that makes her look like a boy that Janine gave her because Ron was "tired of combing it out every morning." Considering that Amy is about nine, can't she do that herself? Anyway, for some reason THAT is really what motivates Corrinne to pursue that search for Vonnie, or at least of any evidence that would relate to her disappearance. That what leads to the discovery of her purse, which after nosily digging through it, Corrinne finds her cigarette case, and just somehow KNOWS that something terrible happened to Vonnie because she did not have it with her. Because she didn't have her cigarette case??? Please. I mean, I can see how that relates to the suspiciousness behind her departure, but that just makes Vonnie sound so... shallow. I'm sure the real one wouldn't have wanted to be known for that.
Of course that all leads to the arrest of Ron and the Big Court Case that happens in every movie Based on a True Story, all with the big question of "can somebody be convicted of murder without the evidence of a body?" I...can't say, except to say that this is no more or less predictable than any other TV movie, and I was still getting over the stupidity of the whole trial and such basically happening because Amy got a bad haircut.
What a "classic."
