Ethel Louise Atwell, a 42-year-old Black physical therapy aide, disappeared from the Staten Island Developmental Center parking lot on October 24, 1978. She arrived for an early shift around 6:00 a.m., entered her locked car and never made it into the building. When authorities searched the lot they found her tan purse, one black shoe, an earring, three buttons torn from her coat, and half of her dentures beside the vehicle. Her car keys were later found about 75 feet away in nearby woods, but Atwell herself was not located despite foot, horseback and aerial searches.

No arrests have been made in her disappearance. Suspicion has long focused on Andre Rand, who worked at the facility decades earlier and was later convicted of kidnappings; investigators have never produced direct evidence tying him to Atwell. Two months before Atwell vanished, nurse Shin-ae Lee, another employee, was found raped and murdered and buried on the school grounds; that case also remains unsolved.

Does anyone have information about Ethel Atwell, her movements that morning, or memories of the Willowbrook grounds in 1978?