On a seemingly ordinary summer day, August 26, 1990, 17-year-old Victoria "Vicky" Owczynsky vanished from Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the time, she was preparing to start her senior year at Edison High School and was living with a friend, just four blocks from her mother's home. That Sunday morning, Vicky had plans to visit her mother and meet a friend at a nearby park. She spoke to her mother on the phone around 9:45 a.m., promising to come by later.
Shortly after, during a three-way call with her incarcerated boyfriend and another friend, she laughed and mentioned that a man with two black eyes had just walked into the house. This man was identified as Darrell Rea, the stepfather of the friend Vicky was living with.
Witnesses reported seeing Vicky leave the residence in a pickup truck with Rea. About 20 minutes later, Rea was seen returning to the house alone and began unloading scrap metal from his truck. Victoria never arrived at her mother's house or the park to meet her friend. She left behind all her personal belongings, including her purse, money, cigarettes, and jewelry, which led her family and investigators to believe she did not leave voluntarily. An initial investigation was opened by the Minneapolis Police Department's juvenile division, but as time passed with no sign of Vicky, the case was transferred to property crimes and eventually treated as a homicide investigation.
Suspicion quickly fell on Darrell Rea, who had a history of sexual violence. In 1988, he had been ordered to leave the home where Vicky was staying due to allegations of sexually abusing his stepdaughters. When questioned, Rea admitted to speaking with Vicky on the day she disappeared but denied that she had ever been in his truck. Searches of his apartment and vehicle yielded no significant evidence. For years, Vicky's case remained cold, though investigators continued to view Rea as the primary suspect. In a separate case, years later, DNA evidence linked Rea to the 1983 rape and murder of another teenager, Lorri Mesedahl, for which he was eventually convicted and sentenced. Despite this, and his connection to other violent crimes, Rea has never been charged in relation to Victoria Owczynsky's disappearance, and her body has never been found. The case officially remains an unsolved, endangered missing person case, with foul play strongly suspected.Last Seen: Aug 26, 1990
