Account
Jan 27, 2026
Jan 27, 2026
Sharon
Sue Smith
25
25
5'2 inches
108 lbs
White
Female
Smith was last seen in Bangor, Maine on August 25, 1980. She worked the evening shift at the Paramount Lounge on Harlow Street that day, then disappeared afterwards. The lounge, which has since been closed, was on the ground floor of a hotel where Smith was renting a room. Authorities later discovered her room door was left open and her purse was inside. She has never been heard from again. She left behind two young children; both of them were in their father's care when their mother disappeared. She had been preparing to move to Florida with her parents and five siblings. Smith's sometime boyfriend, Franklin "George" Gilks, has been implicated in her disappearance. He allegedly told people he had broken her neck and killed her in an argument. When Smith's daughter grew up and attempted to locate her mother, she got an anonymous telephone call from someone who told her Gilks killed Smith and "things got carried away." The caller warned Smith's daughter to "leave things alone" or she could also be killed. Police got an anonymous letter saying Smith was buried at a residence in the 100 block of New Boston Road in Hermon, Maine. Gilks had lived there as a child, and his mother and brother still live at that address. The house where Gilks grew up, a converted barn, has since been torn down. Investigators searched the property with a cadaver dog, and the dog indicated the presence of human remains in the area where Gilks's childhood house had once been. They excavated the front yard, but found nothing of interest. Gilks died in 2008. Smith's children's father is also deceased, and their oldest child died when he was teens, but her daughter is still hoping for answers in her case. Since her disappearance she hasn't used her Social Security number, and both investigators and Smith's family believe she is dead.
Aug 25, 1980
Bangor
Maine
Bangor
5
Bangor Police Departmen
207-947-7382
01/27/2026
