Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth K. West disappeared after walking the short block-and-a-half from Belleville Township High School West following a school play on the night of April 22, 1978. Her body was found floating face down in a creek between Belleville and Millstadt on May 5, 1978. An autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted, struck twice in the head with a blunt object, and strangled to death.

Police investigation at one point focused on Gregory Bowman, who had a prior kidnapping conviction. Bowman confessed to West’s murder, was charged and convicted, and later had that conviction overturned after he recanted the confession. Bowman was also convicted for the murder of other victims and died in prison while serving a sentence for the murder of Velda Joy Rumfelt. A profiler later suggested Dale R. Anderson, imprisoned for a different brutal murder, fit a serial killer profile and could be connected to West’s death, but no charges were brought against Anderson in this case.

The case remains unsettled with a recanted confession and an overturned conviction leaving uncertainty about who killed Elizabeth West. Anyone who knew Elizabeth, was in the Belleville–Millstadt area on April 22–May 5, 1978, or has information is asked to come forward.