Nan Cecile Dixon, 73, left Grass Valley, California, in September 1978 to visit family near Seven Troughs, Nevada, driving a yellow and green 1976 Datsun B210. She stopped for dinner in Boomtown and bought a small amount of gas in Lovelock, then never arrived at her brother’s home. Family reported her missing and searches by air and ground over four years turned up nothing.

In November 1982 coyote hunters found her Datsun in a ravine on Eagle Picher mining property. The car still had about a half tank of gas, tires that held air though scuffed, and tire tracks indicating it had been driven deliberately off the road. Investigators reported cigarette cartons of a brand Nan didn’t smoke, pieces of black electrical tape with a hair and potential human tissue, possible bloodstains on the trunk mat and a rim, and an unsigned note later interpreted by some as suicidal. Pershing County’s investigation concluded probable suicide and the car was sold at a sheriff’s auction; the family disputes that finding and believes foul play.

The case was reopened in 2007 but remains unresolved. Can anyone who knew Nan or who has information about travel, mining activity, or people in that area in 1978 help explain what happened?