In the autumn of 1987, twenty-one-year-old Stefanie Kelly Stroh was nearing the end of a grand adventure. A student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, she had taken a year off from her studies to travel the world. After spending nine months exploring Asia, she returned to the United States and began hitchhiking from New York with the goal of reaching California.
Her journey was a bold exploration of the world and her own capabilities, a final chapter of a two-year 'dream trip' before settling back into her academic life.
On October 15, 1987, Stefanie found herself in Wells, Nevada, a small city in the vast expanse of the Great Basin. From the Four Way Cafe and Truck Stop, she made a phone call to her parents, leaving a message on their answering machine that she would be home late and to leave a key under the mat. She explained that she was hitchhiking and had secured a ride. That phone call was the last time her family ever heard from her. Later that day, a desk clerk at a Motel 6 in Winnemucca, Nevada, saw Stefanie when she tried to get a room, but there was no vacancy. The clerk attempted to help her find lodging in Reno, but Stefanie never arrived. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, a black tank top, black corduroy pants, and brown leather ankle-high shoes, and she was carrying a pink purse and an orange sleeping bag. She had a distinctive brown birthmark on the instep of her right foot and her ears were pierced.
The years following Stefanie's disappearance have been marked by a painful lack of answers and several potential leads that ultimately led nowhere. Foul play is suspected in her case. In 1998, a tip led the FBI to search mine shafts near Battle Mountain, Nevada, after a man allegedly confessed to her murder but later recanted his statement; no trace of Stefanie was found. Years later, convicted serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to her murder, claiming he had picked her up while she was hitchhiking, took LSD with her, and then strangled her. Sells provided a detailed account of disposing of her body, but his confession was met with skepticism by some investigators who believed he exaggerated his crimes, and he was never charged in connection with her case before his execution in 2014. Investigators also briefly looked into another suspected serial killer, Dale Wayne Eaton, as a possible person of interest. Despite these intermittent glimmers of hope for a resolution, the case remains an open and haunting mystery, a story of a vibrant young woman on the verge of completing a worldwide journey who vanished into the desolate Nevada landscape.Last Seen: Oct 15, 1987
