Kathy Sue Wilcox was 15 when she walked away from her family’s home on West Franklin Street in Otsego, Michigan, on July 12, 1972, after a heated argument with her father and stepmother about dating. She left in blue jeans and a purple shirt, leaving money and personal belongings behind, and reportedly said her family would never see her again. She is described as about five feet four inches tall, 130 pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, gray or blue-gray eyes and a hooked fingernail on one index finger; she had prior fractures to her legs and broken toes from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

The Otsego Police Department was notified on July 17, 1972, and the case was initially treated as a runaway. Neighbors recalled the family waiting for her in the days after she left, but no confirmed sighting, vehicle, meeting arrangement or evidence that she left Michigan has been established. Friends remembered her as fiery and tomboyish but kind, and the family’s hope that she returned voluntarily faded over time. The Allegan County Cold Case Unit now seeks any information that could explain what happened to Kathy.

Did anyone in the Otsego area in 1972 ever see Kathy after she left the Franklin Street house or know where she might have gone?