On a cold February day in 1993, 23-year-old Deborah Bates left the Lowell, Massachusetts apartment she shared with her brother to walk to a nearby store and never returned. Seven months pregnant with her second child, her disappearance remained unresolved for years while family members said her struggles with drug addiction affected how the case was handled.

On March 11, 2004, an off-duty state trooper found a tarp on the side of the Lowell Connector containing skeletal remains wrapped in bedding. Dental records identified the woman and a nearly full-term fetus as Deborah Bates and her unborn child. The remains were too decomposed for a cause of death to be determined. Investigators later concluded the body had not been at that roadside location for the eleven years since she vanished and believed the remains had been moved there shortly before discovery.

Suspicion focused on George Stanichuk, Deborah’s former boyfriend and father of her first child; court records show Deborah had sought three restraining orders against him in the two years before her disappearance, alleging he had broken her fingers and threatened to kill her. Stanichuk denied involvement and was not arrested. The case remains unsolved. Does anyone have information about Deborah’s last day or contacts from that time?