Maria Aravena Reyes, 49, disappeared from her Ringwood Avenue home in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, in late winter 1976. A friend reported her missing March 22, 1976, after she failed to keep a follow-up doctor’s appointment. She had undergone a radical mastectomy for breast cancer on March 16 and was described as frail and barely able to walk, making the account that she packed two suitcases and left with a friend highly questionable.

Maria and Hernan Reyes were in the middle of a contentious divorce; Hernan had filed in January 1976 and would later be considered the primary suspect, though he was never charged and has since died. The couple’s home was excavated in 1989 with no evidentiary results, and detectives later re-interviewed a woman who had been Hernan’s girlfriend at the time, who said she had no information. Chilean authorities confirmed Maria never returned to her native country.

Neighbors remembered Maria as quiet and reclusive. Her disappearance remains unsolved and has continued to trouble the community and investigators who worked the case. If anyone knew Maria, her movements in March 1976, or has information about the couple’s Pompton Lakes property, please share what is known.