Virginia Sue Pictou Noyes was a 26-year-old Mi’kmaq woman, a mother of five, and a resident of Easton, Maine, when she disappeared in 1993. Public missing-person records describe her as 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing about 115 to 135 pounds, with brown eyes and straight, shoulder-length brown hair. She was known by the name Pictou-Noyes and had several identifying features, including high cheekbones, scar tissue on her left elbow, a V-shaped scar on her right forearm, a
Playboy bunny tattoo on her left shoulder, the name “Larry” tattooed on her right ankle, and a small cross tattoo between her right thumb and forefinger. She was reportedly wearing a white T-shirt, denim jacket, blue jeans, and white LA Gear sneakers when she was last known to have been seen.
The day Virginia vanished began with a trip to Bangor with her husband, Larry Noyes, and two other people. Maine State Police say the group became extremely intoxicated, and that Larry assaulted Virginia. She was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for treatment, while Larry was arrested for domestic assault. Other public case summaries state that Larry’s brother, Roger Noyes Jr., was also accused in connection with the assault and received a court summons. In the hospital, Virginia reportedly told police more than once that she needed to get home to her five children in Easton. Before her medical checkup was completed, she left the hospital.
After leaving the hospital, investigators believe Virginia made her way north toward Aroostook County. Maine State Police have said they are reasonably sure she got a ride to a truck stop in Houlton, where witnesses saw her using the telephone. The official account places her last known sighting at that truck stop, walking north through the parking lot. The public record gives Houlton, Maine, as her missing location and April 27, 1993, as her date of last contact, while some secondary summaries describe the chain of events as beginning earlier with the assault and hospital visit in Bangor. What remains clear across the public accounts is that Virginia was trying to get back to her children and never made it home.
Virginia’s disappearance has remained painful for her family and community for more than three decades. Reporting on the case has described her as having grown up among the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, and as someone who had once been a popular, straight-A student before marrying young and starting a family. Her loved ones also endured earlier tragedy: public reporting has stated that two of Virginia’s children died in a fire in 1990, a loss that deeply affected her. By the time she disappeared, she was still a young woman with children waiting for her, and her family has continued to seek answers about what happened after she was last seen in Houlton.
The case remains an open missing-person investigation led by Maine State Police, with Troop F in Houlton listed in public records and the Major Crimes Unit continuing to ask for information. In 2026, on the thirty-third anniversary of her disappearance, Maine authorities again appealed to the public, saying Virginia had last been seen after the domestic assault incident, after leaving Eastern Maine Medical Center, and after investigators believe she reached the Houlton truck stop. They asked anyone with information to contact the Major Crimes Unit at 207-973-3750 or 1-800-432-7381, or to text “MESPTIP” with information to 847411. Virginia Sue Pictou Noyes’s case is the story of a young Mi’kmaq mother who was hurt, wanted urgently to return to her children, was last seen at a Houlton truck stop, and then vanished into unanswered years; the central questions remain how she traveled after leaving the hospital, who may have seen or spoken with her at the truck stop, and what happened between Houlton and the home she was trying to reach.Last Seen: Apr 27, 1993
