Mari Ann Fowler, a 65-year-old retired educator, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002 from a strip mall in Port Allen, Louisiana. She had stopped at a Subway around 5:30 p.m. while en route to visit her husband, Jerry Fowler, who was incarcerated in a federal prison in Texas. Her purse, keys, and the sandwich she had just bought were found scattered near her car, along with acrylic fingernails on the pavement, suggesting a violent struggle. Wrapped Christmas presents remained in the vehicle, so robbery did not appear to be the motive.

Surveillance from a nearby liquor store recorded a grainy image of a General Motors pickup speeding away and a brief struggle between two people, but the footage was too poor to identify the suspect. Tire tracks in the lot were considered potentially linked to the abductor. Investigators searched widely in the days after her disappearance but found no trace. Authorities explored a possible connection to the then-unidentified Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee; he owned a similar truck and cell phone records placed him in the vicinity that evening, but no DNA or other definitive link was found.

No one has been charged in Mari Ann Fowler’s disappearance. She was declared legally dead in May 2004, and the case remains unsolved. If anyone knew Mari Ann, saw her that evening, or has information about the truck or the surveillance footage, please come forward.