Micki Jo West was 19 when she left her St. Joseph, Missouri, home in the early morning of September 11, 1979, to catch a bus for her job as a nurse’s aide at the St. Joseph State Hospital. She was wearing her white uniform and shoes and glasses marked with her name; she disappeared somewhere between the front door and the bus stop and was never seen again. Reports say she had been receiving threats beforehand and had begun carrying a hammer in her purse for protection. Her last paycheck from the hospital went unclaimed.

Investigators followed leads for years but the case grew cold. In 1986 an anonymous letter writer claimed to have witnessed Micki’s murder, but that did not immediately break the case. In 1991 former police officer Marvin Lee Irvin, who had been connected to Micki through marriage to her best friend and sister-in-law, confessed that he had stabbed and shot Micki and buried her in a cornfield in Highland, Kansas. Searches based on his information did not recover her remains. Irvin later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Micki’s case and is serving a life sentence. Micki’s family has not had the chance to lay her to rest.

If anyone knew Micki, her routines, or saw anything near the bus stop on September 11, 1979, can you share what you remember?