On the night of December 22, 1971, 18-year-old Celia Beth Van Zanten left her family’s home on Knik Avenue in Anchorage to walk a short distance to a BI-LO supermarket and never returned. Her body was found on December 25 by hikers at McHugh Creek in Chugach State Park; she had been bound behind the wrists with stereo speaker wire, was nude from the waist down, and had slash wounds to her chest. Forensic work indicated she had been assaulted, left alive in a ravine, and died of exposure after trying to claw her way back up the slope.

Several items of clothing, including jeans and a parka, were missing when she was found. Investigators pursued leads that included a double-strand black-and-white stereo wire and possible links to known offenders Robert Hansen and Gary Zieger, but neither man was ever charged and no conclusive physical evidence tied them to the crime.

The file remains open and no arrests have been announced.