On October 24, 1978, 27-year-old Catherine Millican drove her brown Volkswagen Rabbit to a wooded area off Route 11 in New London, New Hampshire, then known as the Chandler Brook Wetlands, saying she planned to go birdwatching. Several witnesses later reported seeing her car parked at the wetlands entrance that day; it was the last time anyone saw her alive. Her body was found several hundred yards into the woods around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 25, 1978. An autopsy showed she died of multiple stab wounds in what investigators describe as a brutal attack.

The case remains unsolved. Investigations have been taken up by the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit, which has conducted renewed searches of the area now called the Esther Currier Wildlife Management Area and released previously unseen photographs to the public on an anniversary of her death. Some have speculated about a possible connection to murders attributed to the Connecticut River Valley Killer, but authorities have not officially linked her killing to that series. Anyone with information about Catherine or that day is asked to come forward.