Gail Northington was 29 and a mother of two when she disappeared from Ottawa Lake, Michigan. She was last seen on January 9, 1987 after leaving her parents’ home in Erie; she had gone back to the Samaria Road house she once shared with her husband, Gary Michael Northington, to collect clothes and food for herself and her infant son. Eleven days later Gail’s car was found abandoned about twenty miles away in an apartment complex parking lot in Oregon, Ohio.

The marriage had been troubled for years and Gail had filed for divorce a month before she vanished. Family members described Gary as possessive and abusive; he admitted to destructive acts such as burning Gail’s clothing and flattening her tires. Investigators found his van recently washed and bleached and a hacksaw blade in the couple’s home that was stained with blood. A witness later said Gary offered $1,000 to kill Gail with a crossbow or a knife, a plot the witness did not carry out.

Gary Northington was convicted on charges including conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder and was imprisoned. Gail’s body has never been found and her disappearance remains unresolved. Did anyone in the area know Gail’s routines or see her car between January 9 and January 20, 1987?