Marie Ann Watson was a 27-year-old mother who vanished on November 21, 1977, just days before a court-ordered restoration of custody of her two young children. At that time her children were living with Dorothy and Mike Rogers in Emmett, Idaho; the Rogerses had changed the children’s names and were seeking to adopt them. The last person known to have seen Marie was Dorothy Rogers, who later gave an account that investigators found suspicious. Marie’s car was later found at the diner where she worked with her wallet, keys, identification and an uncashed paycheck left inside.

The case went cold for years while suspicion repeatedly circled the Rogers family. In 1978 Mike and Dorothy fled Idaho after Mike was charged with raping a 14-year-old adopted daughter; they were captured in Arkansas and Mike pleaded guilty to a lesser incest charge. In the 1990s the Rogerses’ eldest foster son, Ramon Rogers, was convicted of three California murders and sentenced to death; that prompted police to reopen Marie’s case in 1996.

Did anyone who knew Marie or the Rogers family in Emmett remember any unusual trips, vehicles, or late-night activity around November 1977?