Nancy Theobald was an 18-year-old University of Cincinnati student who disappeared after leaving her part-time shift at an Arby’s in Clifton, Cincinnati, at about 11 p.m. on November 16, 1977. She lived with siblings near work, did not have a car, and usually walked home or rode with a brother; on that night she neither called for a ride nor was seen alive again.

Her body was found on December 26, 1977, in woods near Beckett Road in West Chester Township. She had been strangled, found with her hands bound and a rope around her neck. The coroner initially reported no sexual assault, though years later her brother said she had suffered additional brutalities that were not publicly disclosed at the time.

Multiple agencies have investigated; suspects were interviewed over the years and a cold case team reopened the file in 2018, collecting DNA evidence that could belong to the killer, but no arrest has been announced and the case remains unsolved. Anyone with information about Nancy Theobald’s murder is asked to contact the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.