Bernadette Ruby Behmlander, known as Susie, was 50 when she was last seen at her Battle Creek, Michigan, home on October 1, 1997. Born in Trinidad of Chinese ancestry, she lived alone, was divorced, and unemployed. She stood about five feet tall, weighed 120 pounds, had straight black hair cut above the collar and brown eyes, and had a scar on her left cheek, moles under her left eyebrow and on the bridge of her nose, pierced ears, and a surgical scar on her abdomen.

Her weekly phone contact with her ex-husband ended after a late-September or early-October call in which she mentioned needed home repairs; he mailed her a $400 check that remained uncashed by the sink. When he checked the house a week later he found windows open, spoiled food in a pot on the stove and in the refrigerator, her locked car in the backyard, and a diamond ring left hanging on a bathroom hook. Those domestic details suggest a sudden interruption, but there are no confirmed witnesses to her leaving and no public evidence of where she went.

Could anyone who knew Susie in Battle Creek in 1997 — neighbors, repair people, or acquaintances — have information about her movements or visitors around October 1?