Fourteen-year-old Eileen Wafer vanished from the Mountain View Motel in Haines, Alaska, late the night of June 9–10, 1982, while babysitting her two younger brothers. When their mother returned about 2 a.m., the motel door was unlocked, the boys were asleep, and Eileen was gone. Family and volunteers searched for days while police initially treated her as a runaway.

On the afternoon of June 14, 1982, a partially clothed body matching Eileen’s description was found in bushes along the Portage Cove beach near the cruise ship dock. An autopsy found she had been sexually assaulted and strangled with heavy fishing twine; it was unclear whether she was killed at the beach or moved there later. Investigators collected DNA and followed leads for years, but by the mid-1990s the trail had cooled. The case was reopened by Alaska’s Cold Case Investigation Unit in the late 2000s and witnesses were re-interviewed, yet every person of interest tested was excluded by DNA and no definitive suspect has been publicly identified.

No arrests have been announced. A community reward fund announced up to $20,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Does anyone have information about Eileen, her movements that night, or people in Haines at the time who might help bring answers?