Tammy Lynn Akers, 14, and her friend Angela Rader were dropped off at William Ruffner Junior High School in Roanoke, Virginia, on a cold day in February 1977 and never attended classes. They were last seen hitchhiking with plans to travel to Florida. Tammy had red hair, blue eyes, a protruding navel, scarred earlobes, and a black mark on her left cheek; she wore a green short-sleeved sweater, jeans, a suede jacket, and suede shoes when she vanished.

Early on the girls’ history of running away led investigators to treat the case with less urgency. In the months after the disappearance a caller claiming to be one of the girls phoned a mother and there was an unconfirmed grocery-store sighting, but no concrete leads emerged. In 1980 two women reported that Earl Conrad Bramblett, a family acquaintance for whom the girls had worked, drunkenly fired a gun at a party and said he wished he hadn’t hurt Tammy. Bramblett was never charged in the 1977 case; authorities did excavate his yard at the time but found nothing notable.

The investigation remains open and the families continue to seek answers. If anyone knew Tammy, Angela, their movements in February 1977, or has information about the people they rode with, please come forward.