Ruth Lucille Loader, 79, disappeared from Port Washington, Ohio after leaving her daughter’s home on the evening of August 29, 1994. She had been recovering from colon cancer surgery and planned to have breakfast with her sister the next morning; when the sister arrived Ruth did not answer the door. Family members who checked Ruth’s house found a splintered back door frame, her glasses on the pillow, and a red telephone cord missing, leading them to believe she had been abducted.

Witnesses reported seeing Ruth’s red 1989 Buick Skylark driven in nearby Newcomerstown that night by a 22-year-old identified as Lewis Eugene Gilbert II, with 16-year-old Eric Alvin Elliott also present. Two days later Ruth’s car was found abandoned in Fulton County, Missouri, near the home of William and Flossie Brewer, who had been murdered. Gilbert later confessed that he and Elliott tied Ruth with the phone cord, put her in the trunk, and then killed her after she said she had cancer; he drew a map to where he said her body lay, but searches based on it were unsuccessful. No one has been charged in Ruth Loader’s death and her body has never been found.

Did anyone in Port Washington or Newcomerstown have contact with Ruth in the days before August 29, 1994, or remember seeing her Skylark that night?