Crystal Sue Marler was 15 when she was last seen on October 12, 1998, in Whitley City, Kentucky. Her mother dropped her off near a friend’s home on Strunk Ridge Road; after that, Crystal vanished. At first her disappearance was at times treated as a possible runaway case, but there was no contact and no verified sightings in the years that followed.

On April 25, 2009, a turkey hunter found a human skull on the forest floor off Peel Dogwood Road. A subsequent search uncovered additional scattered skeletal remains that forensic analysis identified as Crystal’s. The autopsy found blunt-force trauma and a gunshot wound to the head, and the death was ruled a homicide.

Investigators have not publicly tied the killing to a suspect. Leads have dwindled into rumors and local gossip, and no arrests have been announced. Does anyone who lived in McCreary County in 1998 recall seeing Crystal or noticing anything unusual around Strunk Ridge Road or Peel Dogwood Road that fall?