Fay Elain Johnson was 62 years old when she vanished in Maine in March 2012, leaving behind a life that was familiar, vulnerable, and deeply tied to the people who cared about her. Public records list her as a White woman, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and roughly 140 to 160 pounds, with white medium-length wavy hair, blue eyes, and a scar on her left knee.
Her NamUs case identifies her as missing from Bethel, Maine, with a date of last contact of March 7, 2012, while Maine State Police later described the case as connected to both Bethel and the Lewiston/Auburn area, noting that she had ties to Bethel and was last seen in the Lewiston/Auburn area on March 12, 2012. That difference in dates appears across public sources, with NamUs and some missing-person listings using March 7, 2012, while Maine State Police and later media reports refer to March 12, 2012, as the last-seen date.
At the time she disappeared, Fay was reportedly in the process of moving and was connected to a rental home in Bethel. NEWS CENTER Maine reported that she had been seen moving belongings into a rental home in Bethel on March 7, 2012, and that, ten years later, investigators still did not have the answers they needed. The Doe Network similarly states that Fay went missing while in the process of moving into an apartment and also notes her ties to Bethel. LostNMissing reported that her landlord discovered she had apparently been missing for about four days before she was reported missing, and that her beloved service dog, Sassy, had been left alone at home. The detail about Sassy is especially painful because it suggests Fay did not simply step away from her life in an ordinary way; a person closely bonded to a service dog, and dependent on daily stability, would not be expected to leave that dog unattended without cause.
Fay’s medical needs made her disappearance especially urgent from the beginning. Maine State Police state that she had serious medical and mental health conditions, did not have access to her medications, and wore a medical alert necklace for her pacemaker. The Charley Project also reports that she had several serious medical conditions, including bipolar disorder, that she needed medications she did not have with her, and that she wore a pacemaker; it lists a medical alert bracelet marked “Pacemaker” among her identifying items. Later reporting from NEWS CENTER Maine echoed the concern that Fay’s service dog, purse, identification, medications, and cellphone were found at her home, details that deepen the worry that she may have been unable to protect herself or seek help after she disappeared.
Investigators have continued to ask for help years after Fay was last seen. In 2022, NEWS CENTER Maine reported that Maine State Police were still seeking information in the cold case of the Bethel woman who had then been missing for a decade. Detective Michael Chavez of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit said there was no clear suspect, but emphasized the troubling nature of the disappearance, saying that Fay “should have not just disappeared off the face of the Earth.” In 2024, WGME reported that Maine State Police were again asking the public for assistance, describing Fay as having been missing since 2012 and repeating that she was last seen in the Lewiston-Auburn area while also having ties to Bethel.
The case remains marked by uncertainty: public sources differ on whether Fay’s last known contact was March 7 in Bethel or March 12 in the Lewiston/Auburn area, but they consistently describe a woman with serious medical needs, without her medication, separated from her phone and identification, and absent from the service dog who depended on her as much as she may have depended on Sassy. Fay Elain Johnson’s disappearance began during a period of transition, as she was connected to moving and housing between Lewiston/Auburn and Bethel, and it became a long-running missing-person investigation handled by Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit-South. In overview, Fay Johnson was a 62-year-old Maine woman with significant medical vulnerabilities who disappeared in March 2012, leaving behind critical personal belongings and her service dog; despite repeated public appeals and years of investigation, the available public record still centers on the same unresolved questions of where she went, what happened to her, and who may know the missing piece that could bring answers.Last Seen: Mar 7, 2012
