Dana Stidham was 18 and had just finished high school when she disappeared after a short trip to Phillips Foods in Bella Vista on the afternoon of July 25, 1989. Her 1984 gray Dodge Omni was found the next morning on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 71 with the keys in the ignition, the driver’s window partially down, the seat adjusted for someone much taller, and her purse missing.

Skeletal remains found by a hunter in a remote, wooded creek bed near the Missouri line on September 16, 1989, were later identified as Dana’s. Her death was ruled a homicide; the skeletonization prevented determination of an exact cause of death. Investigators recovered her clothing with duct tape adhered and several feet of baling twine with distinctive knots near the body.

Early suspicion focused on former classmate Michael McMillan, who left the state shortly after Dana vanished and later admitted stealing her temporary grave marker; he was convicted of misdemeanor theft. In 2013, Orvil Mitchell Goodwin became a person of interest after his arrest in an unrelated attempted murder near the same creek bed. No arrests have been made in Dana’s death.

If anyone knew Dana, saw her that afternoon, or has information about activity near U.S. Highway 71 or the creek bed in 1989, please come forward.