On the evening of March 11, 1987, 18-year-old Diana Jane Braungardt finished a part-time shift at the Venture store in Crystal City and told coworkers she was heading home to study for a test at Festus High School. She was last seen about 10:00 p.m. walking toward the parking lot where her family’s yellow 1982 Ford Escort was parked. Investigators later found the car in the nearly empty Twin City Mall lot but saw no signs of a struggle, which led them to conclude she likely never reached the vehicle.

At the time she vanished Diana wore her Venture smock, bright turquoise pants, a white shirt with a colored print, a short black coat and brown loafer-type shoes, and carried an off-white cloth purse. The purse and the black jacket she had been wearing, which belonged to her brother, were never recovered. Witnesses reported seeing a white man in his early twenties, about 5 feet 10 inches with a medium build and dark hair, speaking with Diana in the parking lot; a composite sketch was later made but the man was not identified.

No significant breakthroughs have been reported and the disappearance remains unsolved. Can anyone who was at the Twin City Mall or Venture that night, or who recognizes the composite description, come forward with information?