On a Thursday evening, September 23, 1965, Maria Theresa Ruthling, a 51-year-old woman, disappeared from Scottsdale, Arizona, leaving behind a life and a mystery that would endure for decades. That night, she was at her place of business, the Aztec Studio Shop. At approximately 10:00 p.m., she made a phone call to her adult daughter, a routine check-in to let her know she was closing up and would be home shortly. This call would be the last time her family ever heard from her.
Maria, a divorced mother of two daughters with whom she lived, never arrived at their residence on east Elm Street. The following day, concern turned to alarm when her vehicle was discovered abandoned in a shopping center parking lot not far from her shop.
The circumstances surrounding the discovery of Maria's car only deepened the unsettling nature of her disappearance. The vehicle was found in the 20 block of south Old Scottsdale Road, and inside, investigators located her purse and keys, seemingly untouched. This detail suggested that robbery was not a likely motive. Further inspection of her business, the Aztec Studio Shop, revealed no signs of a struggle or a break-in. The shop was securely locked, and the money in the cash register was undisturbed, ruling out a robbery at her workplace as well. At the time of her disappearance, Maria was described as a white female with brown hair, which she often wore in a bun, and brown eyes. Her ears were pierced. The complete lack of evidence pointing to a reason for her vanishing left her family and law enforcement baffled.
The investigation into Maria Ruthling's disappearance has yielded few answers over the years. Foul play is suspected in her case, as her actions on the night she went missing were entirely consistent with her normal routine, and her disappearance was completely out of character. Despite the passage of time, her case remains an active investigation with the Scottsdale Police Department. The lack of concrete leads has made this one of Scottsdale's oldest and most perplexing unsolved missing person cases. Her daughters have been left without answers about their mother's fate. The narrative of her case is a somber one: a responsible and caring mother who, after a normal day's work and a call home to her family, vanished without a trace, leaving behind only questions and an enduring sense of loss.Last Seen: Sep 23, 1965
