Ellen Blau was 21 and a part-time student at Midwestern State University who worked as a waitress in Wichita Falls, Texas. On September 19, 1985, she disappeared after leaving work; her green Volkswagen was later found abandoned in a parking lot with the keys in the ignition and her purse on the front seat, and blood was noted on the edge of the driver’s seat.Almost three weeks later, on October 10, 1985, a county employee mowing a rural road found Blau’s nude, decomposed body about four miles from where her car had been located. The medical examiner could only determine that she had died from undetermined homicidal violence because of the advanced decomposition.

Identity was confirmed through dental records; her underwear had been pulled down but decomposition prevented confirmation of sexual assault.Wichita Falls had seen several violent attacks on women during an 18-month span that included stabbings, stranglings, and murders. Years later, Faryion Edward Wardrip confessed to Blau’s killing and to other murders; he admitted strangling her and breaking her neck before abandoning her car in Wichita Falls.

If anyone knew Ellen, lived near her, or has information about her last movements, please come forward.