Barbara Eleanor Hoover, 66, was last confirmed in September 2003 when her husband, Robert Bob Hoover Jr., said she left their Tamarack Street home in Silver Springs to go to the California coast. Bob told police she packed two suitcases, took several thousand dollars and a year’s supply of bladder medication; the couple’s 1989 Pontiac Firebird was left behind. Barbara’s children say that sudden departure and the end of her near-daily calls were out of character for their timid mother, and her son reported her missing.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office searched the Hoovers’ house and two other properties without finding evidence of her whereabouts. Bob later bought a motorhome and traveled through Nevada, California and Arizona; he told family he had sporadic contact with Barbara and claimed they met once in Jackson, Nevada, in 2004, but no proof was provided. The sheriff’s office now treats the matter as a cold case, presumed homicide; Barbara was declared legally dead in 2018.

Did anyone in Silver Springs or Merced see Barbara around 2003–2004, or have information about her movements after she left home?