Two-year-old Nikole Betterson was last seen by her maternal grandparents around Christmas 1977 after her father, Jarrett Betterson, told them he, Nikole, and his new partner Barbara planned to move west to California or Las Vegas. Official records list December 1, 1977, as her last-contact date and Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the disappearance location, though some accounts place the family in Dearborn and give the last sighting as around Christmas, creating uncertainty about the exact day and town.

Nikole was described as having black or brown hair and brown eyes, about two feet seven inches tall and 26 pounds. Her mother, Susan Klingel, had died in a car crash in September 1977; Nikole and Jarrett reportedly survived that collision. For years the grandparents received no contact, and no school, court, adoption, driver’s license, or other records have been found to show Nikole’s life after she left Michigan. The only paper trail was Social Security survivor benefits Jarrett collected until she would have turned 18.

A private investigator found Jarrett and Barbara living in poor health in Las Vegas in 1997 but found no trace of Nikole. When Las Vegas police later questioned Jarrett, he promised to cooperate; ten days afterward he shot and killed Barbara and then died by suicide, leaving the central questions unresolved. Does anyone have memories or documents that could place Nikole after 1977?