Helen Lundgren Dalton was 52 when she vanished from Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 3, 1963. She dropped her teenage daughter at school that morning and promised to return at noon for a dental appointment, but never came back. Her son was later told by their father, Donald, that Helen had gone to a Women’s Christian Association conference in Winston-Salem; that was the last contact the children had with her.

In the weeks after her disappearance Helen’s sister in Michigan received two typewritten letters allegedly from Helen; the sister found the style unlike Helen’s usual handwriting. Investigators later linked the letters to a typewriter found in the Dalton home. Helen’s eyeglasses, her only set of dentures, her luggage and a closet of clothes were left behind. Donald gave changing explanations for Helen’s absence, refused a polygraph, and at one point claimed she had left with a large sum of money. No physical evidence of foul play was produced.

The case was reopened in 1993 and a well on the former property was excavated with no significant findings. Helen’s disappearance remains unsolved.