Linda Mae Peugeot was 21 years old when she and her young daughter, Lori Mae Peugeot, disappeared from LaVale, Maryland, on September 22, 1969. Linda was a young wife and mother whose husband, Gerald Peugeot, was serving overseas in the United States Navy, and she and Lori were staying with relatives in Maryland during that period. Online missing-person summaries identify Linda as a White woman with blonde or strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes, about 5 feet tall and 96 pounds, and NamUs lists
her last known location as LaVale in Allegany County. She was reportedly wearing a light blue sweater, bell-bottom slacks with shoulder straps, and a black-and-white checked blouse when she was last seen.
The last known account places Linda and Lori at the former King’s Department Store in LaVale on September 22, 1969. They had been shopping, reportedly on the day before Lori’s birthday, when the ordinary errand became the beginning of a decades-long unresolved loss for their family. Multiple online case summaries report that Stanley Barton Hoss Jr. abducted Linda and Lori from the store parking lot as they were leaving. The Charley Project reports that Hoss forced them into Linda’s light green 1969 Pontiac GTO with a white top and demanded that Linda drive him toward Canada. Later that same day, Hoss reportedly checked into a motel in Franklin, Pennsylvania, with Lori, asking for a crib, food, and a high chair; the motel owner did not see Linda, and Hoss allegedly said the child’s mother was away for the evening.
After LaVale, the trail moved across several states but grew colder for Linda. Lori was reportedly seen with Hoss in Tiffin, Ohio, on September 23 and in Fairbury, Illinois, on September 24, but Linda was not seen in those later sightings, and Lori was not seen after September 24. Hoss was arrested in Waterloo, Iowa, on October 4, 1969, alone and still in possession of Linda’s car. The Charley Project reports that Linda’s purse was inside the vehicle and Lori’s car seat was in the back; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette similarly reported that authorities found the car, Linda’s purse, and the child’s car seat when Hoss was captured. Those discoveries deepened the fear that Linda and Lori had not survived, yet their bodies were not recovered.
Accounts of what happened to Linda after the abduction depend largely on Hoss’s statements and later reporting. The Charley Project says Hoss told authorities that Linda became concerned for Lori’s safety in Pennsylvania, pulled to the side of the road, and refused to continue driving, after which he claimed he shot Linda and placed her body in the trunk before leaving her at a dump with a triangular steel-pipe gate. Other online summaries state more generally that Linda and Lori were allegedly kidnapped and murdered, but that their remains were never recovered. The lack of recovery has left the case suspended between confession, investigation, and the enduring absence of physical closure.
Linda’s case remains remembered not only because of the violence alleged in her disappearance, but because of the life interrupted: a young mother caring for her daughter while her husband served away from home, a routine shopping trip, and a family left without the chance to bring Linda and Lori home. The case is still publicly listed through NamUs, and online case resources continue to identify Maryland State Police Barrack C and Allegany County authorities as connected to the investigation. In overview, Linda Peugeot was last seen in LaVale, Maryland, on September 22, 1969, with her daughter Lori; they were allegedly abducted from the King’s Department Store parking lot by Stanley Barton Hoss Jr.; Hoss was later arrested in Iowa with Linda’s vehicle, but Linda and Lori were not with him; and despite reported admissions and decades of public attention, their bodies have never been recovered.Last Seen: Sep 22, 1969
