Terry Cox Monroe was 21 when she disappeared after a night out in Salem, Oregon. On February 12, 1981, she was at the Oregon Museum Tavern and told friends she was stepping outside for fresh air; she never returned. She failed to show up for her job as a clerk at a Payless drug store, prompting concern from family and friends.

The next day her clothing and identification were found on the banks of the Willamette River near the tavern. Police and sheriff’s deputies searched the river for several days. On March 15, 1981, a boater found her body lodged in river debris about three miles from where she vanished. An autopsy determined her death was a homicide by asphyxiation.

Decades later investigators identified William Scott Smith as the suspect. In 2012 Smith pleaded guilty to Monroe’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.