Paulette Webster was 19 when she disappeared in Chester, Illinois, on a September night in 1988. She was last seen walking home from a friend’s house at about 11:00 p.m. and never arrived. Paulette left behind all her personal items—clothing, purse, driver’s license—and her pets, a bird, a dog, and a cat. At disappearance she wore jeans, a light-colored sweater, and white tennis shoes. Distinguishing features include a cross tattoo on the hand between thumb and forefinger, a surgical scar on her abdomen from an ovary removal, a scar under her chin, a slight overbite, and a gap between her front teeth.

She was known as Smurfette and worked as a housekeeper for elderly clients; she had sometimes lived away from her parents with relatives or a roommate but struggled financially. Authorities initially considered that she might have left voluntarily, but the investigation later shifted toward foul play. A potential lead comes from Larry DeWayne Hall, serving a life sentence for another kidnapping, who wrote that he took a woman from a main road in Chester near a mobile home park, assaulted her, and left her in either the Mississippi River or a field; those statements are vague and have not produced remains.

Did anyone in Chester or the surrounding area know Paulette as Smurfette or see her the night she vanished?