Dean Marie Pyle Peters, known to family as Deanie, was 14 when she disappeared from Forest Hills Central Middle School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 5, 1981. She was at the school that evening with her mother to watch a younger brother’s wrestling practice and told her mother she was going to the restroom but never returned. She was last seen wearing a brown ski jacket, a pink sweater, blue Levi’s jeans, white knee socks and a cream-colored scarf with the word SKI on it. She was about five feet two to five feet three inches tall, roughly 110 pounds, with shoulder-length medium-brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears and a birthmark on her lower back.

Investigators quickly ruled out runaway as a likely explanation because she left behind items she usually carried, including her wallet, makeup and purse. Extensive searches, questioning of students, dives in a nearby pond and cadaver dogs turned up nothing, and the school janitor was briefly investigated and then cleared. Over the years various leads and theories have surfaced, including unproven confessions by others and a 2021 perjury charge tied to provided information that was later dismissed; none produced resolution.

If anyone knew Dean, saw her that night, or has information that wasn’t shared with investigators, please come forward.