Debra Vowell was 21 when she disappeared from off the coast of San Diego on January 24, 1979. She was aboard the 41-foot fishing boat Armistice with her husband, Dennis Vowell, and a friend, Gary Newton. The three set off on the boat and never returned.

The United States Coast Guard conducted an extensive air and sea search from San Luis Obispo to Ensenada, Mexico, but found no trace of the boat or its occupants. Investigators later linked the Armistice to a large-scale marijuana smuggling organization, introducing the possibility the disappearance was connected to illegal activity. Two years later a late-night phone call to Debra’s grandfather—himself a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department sergeant—ended abruptly after a caller the grandfather believed to be Debra said she was trying to go to California.

Debra, Dennis, Gary, and the boat remain missing; the investigation was reopened in 2003 and is treated as part of a larger cold case probe. If anyone has information about the Armistice or where the trio might have gone, please share what is known.