Cathleen Dennis Missing Person Case

Jan 27, 2026

Jan 27, 2026

Cathleen

Dennis

59

28

5'3 inches

135 lbs

Black

Female

In the summer of 1995, a 28-year-old woman named Cathleen Dennis, known to her loved ones as "Cathy," vanished from the streets of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Cathleen had traveled to Grand Rapids with her sister, Deanna, just a few days before she was last seen on July 10, 1995. The sisters, who were both involved in sex work, had come to the city to work outside of their hometown. On the evening of July 7th, they went to a club for a few drinks before heading to an area known as the "Division" to find clients. In the early morning hours, Deanna last saw her sister getting into a light-colored Chevrolet, possibly a model from the years 1965-1968, at the intersection of Division and Putnam Street. When Cathleen failed to return to their hotel room by 4 a.m., a sense of dread began to set in for her sister. Deanna’s attempts to report her sister missing were initially met with disinterest from the police, a reaction she attributed to their profession. Despite the initial response, an official report was filed, and Cathleen's mother and another sister traveled to Grand Rapids to help in the search, posting flyers in a desperate attempt to find her. Cathleen was described as a Black woman with red hair and brown eyes, standing at 5'3" and weighing 135 pounds. She was a mother of two children and was remembered by her family as being goofy, a joy to be around, and the life of the party. Her disappearance was not an isolated incident; it was believed to be connected to the cases of at least 16 other women, many of whom were also involved in sex work and battled drug addiction, who went missing or were murdered in the Grand Rapids area between late 1993 and late 1996. For decades, Cathleen's case remained cold, leaving her family with unanswered questions and a void that could not be filled. A significant development came in 2023 when a former long-haul trucker named Garry Artman was convicted for the 1996 murder of another woman and sentenced to life in prison. Before his death from lung cancer in a prison hospital in December 2023, Artman made a deathbed confession to killing eleven women. He did not name all of his victims, but he provided a description of a Black woman with a cast or sling on her arm whom he had picked up after she left a bar on Division Avenue. This detail matched Cathleen's circumstances. Artman claimed he disposed of this woman's body in a dumpster. Based on this confession, investigators believe Artman was responsible for Cathleen's death, though her remains have never been found, and it is unlikely they ever will be recovered. The case of Cathleen Dennis is a heartbreaking story of a woman who was taken far too soon, and a family who fought for answers in the face of indifference, only to receive a partial and painful resolution decades later.

Jul 10, 1995

Grand Rapids

Michigan

Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids Police Departmen

616-456-3343

06/24/2026