Joanna Messina, 24, was last known to be in Seward, Alaska, on May 19, 1980. Contemporary reconstructions say she went to dinner that evening with Anchorage baker Robert Hansen; according to Hansen’s later confession, he forced her out of town toward the Snow River area, struck her with a .22-caliber revolver, shot her twice, and discarded her remains in a gravel pit near Seward. Her badly scavenged body was found in that gravel pit in early July 1980.

Messina’s death became part of a pattern of remote burials in Southcentral Alaska that drew in the Alaska State Troopers. A 17-year-old escaped in 1983 and provided key evidence that led investigators to obtain a search warrant; Hansen ultimately admitted to multiple murders and was charged by the state, with Joanna Messina named among four first-degree murder counts.

If anyone knew Joanna, saw her in Seward in mid-May 1980, or has information about her final movements, please share what is known.