Karen Damon was 23 and a nursing student in Salamanca, New York, when she vanished on April 13, 1980. Neighbors called police that day after finding her four-year-old daughter alone in the apartment; the child was unharmed but Karen was nowhere to be found. She had been engaged to be married that year.

On April 15, 1989, human remains were found in a shallow grave in woods in the Town of Napoli, about 12 miles from where Karen was last seen. The diamond engagement ring she had been wearing remained with the remains. An autopsy concluded her death was a homicide caused by a forceful blow to the upper jaw and eye socket; investigators believe she was likely killed the night she disappeared and buried soon afterward.

No arrests or public identifications of suspects have been made, and the case remains unsolved. Anyone with information about Karen or that spring 1980 disappearance is asked to contact the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office.