Mary Opitz was 17 when she disappeared from the Edison Mall parking lot in Fort Myers, Florida on January 16, 1981. After shopping with her mother and brother, she said she would return to the family’s burgundy 1979 Chevrolet Camaro parked near the mall’s Woolworth at about 7:30 p.m. She was last seen carrying a package of pretzels; roughly an hour later her mother found the pretzels and some abandoned packages by the car but no sign of Mary. The area was well-lit and there were no immediate witnesses.

Mary had left behind her savings, was redecorating her room, and was due to have her braces removed, so her family says she had no reason to run away. A nearby disappearance weeks later — Mary Hare, who vanished from the same mall parking lot and whose body was later found in Lehigh Acres — prompted investigators to consider a link; Hare’s case was classified a homicide. Authorities have also at times mentioned Christopher Wilder in connection with Mary Opitz, though that association is speculative. Mary Opitz’s case remains unsolved; investigators treat her disappearance as a likely abduction.

If anyone remembers seeing Mary at Edison Mall that night or has information about the burgundy 1979 Chevrolet Camaro, please come forward with what you know.