Martha Sue Young was 19 and a Michigan State University student when she disappeared in the early morning hours of January 1, 1977, after meeting her former fiancé, Donald Gene Miller, in East Lansing. She had recently ended the engagement but agreed to see him one last time; Miller was the last person reported to have seen her alive. Her mother immediately suspected Miller when Martha failed to return home.

In October 1977 hunters found Young’s purse and clothing in a wooded area of Bath Township; the items were arranged in a pile but her remains were not located. Investigators had no physical evidence for months and the case grew cold while Miller—by then linked to other disappearances and attacks in the area—remained free. Miller was arrested in August 1978 for a brutal home invasion, rape and attempted murder; while facing prison time for those crimes he was later indicted in the deaths of Martha Young and another missing woman. Prosecutors offered a plea deal in which Miller confessed to strangling Young and led police to her shallow grave in Priggooris Park; he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a sentence concurrent with his other convictions.

Does anyone have memories of Young, her time at Michigan State, or information about the Bath Township or Priggooris Park searches that could add detail to the timeline?