Ellen Hover, 23, was living in Manhattan in the summer of 1977. On July 15, 1977, she vanished from her apartment after making a calendar entry that day reading John Berger. Investigators who later searched her apartment found that entry, but John Berger could not be traced to a reliable address or identity at the time.

Authorities eventually linked the John Berger name to Rodney Alcala. When questioned about Hover’s disappearance, Alcala admitted meeting her on July 15 but said he never saw her again; investigators did not have enough evidence then to detain him. Eleven months after she disappeared, Hover’s skeletal remains were found in Tarrytown in Westchester County, in an area associated with the Rockefeller estate. Identification was made by dental records, and investigators determined her death was a homicide.

Decades later Manhattan prosecutors indicted Alcala for Hover’s murder in January 2011. He was extradited to New York in 2012, pleaded guilty in December 2012, and on January 7, 2013, was sentenced to an additional 25 years to life in New York. Does anyone remember Ellen from Manhattan in 1977 or have information about her final days?