Sandra Kaye Butler was 16 and living with her mother in Sparks, Nevada, when she disappeared on June 26, 1978. That morning her mother left for work; later Sandra phoned asking to ride her bicycle to the Reno Rodeo and was given permission. She was last seen that afternoon walking toward the Greenbrae Shopping Center across the street from the family apartment on Fourth and Greenbrae Streets, not on her bike. She never reached the rodeo and was never seen again.

Early on the case was treated as a teenage runaway, which limited searches and interviews and produced little media attention despite the family’s insistence she would not have run away. The case was later reclassified as a missing person investigation; Sandra’s dental records and family DNA were entered in national databases and the file has passed through multiple detectives in the Sparks Police Department. Investigators have considered the possibility of a connection to Charlene and Gerald Gallego, who were in the Reno area that day and abducted two other teenage girls from the Sparks fairgrounds nearly a year later, on June 24, 1979. Authorities have not been able to interview Charlene Gallego about Sandra’s disappearance.

Anyone who knew Sandra, remembers seeing her that day, or has information about her movements in Sparks on June 26, 1978 is asked to come forward.