Virginia Ginny Erickson, 32, vanished from Sweet Home, Oregon, on Sunday morning, October 21, 1973. That day her six children, ages six to thirteen, were taken to church by a cousin; their parents did not attend. Husband David Erickson later told authorities the couple had planned to go hunting, but when the children returned home on 48th Avenue their mother was not there and she was never seen again.

David did not file a missing person report. His accounts of the day changed over time—saying at different points that Virginia stayed home with a headache, that he dropped her at a store, and later claiming to have seen her months afterward with another man. Investigators also learned David had been sexually abusing his daughters for years; one daughter was pregnant with his child, and Virginia had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for that daughter two days before she disappeared. David was arrested in September 1974 and later convicted of rape, but he was never charged in Virginia’s disappearance. He died in 2005.

The children have long believed their father was responsible. The why and where of Virginia Erickson’s disappearance remain unresolved. Did anyone in Sweet Home remember seeing Virginia after October 21, 1973, or have information about that day?