Barbara Jean Dreher was 39 when she was last seen on August 12, 1984, in Washington, D.C. She dropped two of her sons at her adult daughter’s home and said she was going to pick up some money and return shortly, driving a burgundy 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. She never came back and her absence went unreported for nine days because she sometimes stayed with her estranged husband for long stretches.

A relative later saw a man driving Dreher’s car and followed him to an apartment building; police questioned the man, who denied driving the vehicle and said he did not know Dreher. Investigators found a ski mask, gloves and rope inside the car. The man had a violent criminal history, including a past murder conviction, but he was not charged in connection with Dreher’s disappearance. The car was recovered, yet key evidence such as the ski mask and rope was later lost by police, which hampered the inquiry.

Dreher worked longterm as a secretary for the Washington public school system and was a mother of five; her family says she wouldn’t have abandoned her children. Her disappearance remains unsolved. Did anyone in the D.C. area in August 1984 see a burgundy 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme or have information about Dreher’s movements that day?