Seventeen-year-old Rosemary Calandriello left her family’s home on Center Avenue in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, on the evening of August 25, 1969. Her mother had given her two dollars to walk two blocks to a nearby store for milk and ice pops; Rosemary was described as shy and bookish, wore thick eyeglasses, and was expected back within minutes but never returned. She was last seen about 6:00 p.m. wearing a blue and yellow sleeveless shirt, yellow shorts, and brown sandals.

Within hours the family reported her missing. Four schoolmates later said they had seen her that evening in a beat-up white Ford Galaxie convertible with an unfamiliar man; a composite sketch was made. Police linked that car and description to an attempted luring of two girls in nearby Leonardo two days earlier. The man was identified as Robert Zarinsky. In 1975 Zarinsky was convicted of Rosemary’s murder without her body ever having been found. He later gave varying accounts of what happened and claimed her body had been disposed of at sea. Zarinsky died in prison in 2008 and Rosemary’s remains have not been recovered.