Cora McGuirk, a 22-year-old Black female, was last seen in Seattle, Washington, on July 12, 1991. A mother of three, she had moved to Washington from Chicago after graduating high school and had initially enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the University of Washington while working at the university's medical center gift shop. However, by the time of her disappearance, she had dropped out of school and quit her job.
In the period leading up to her disappearance, those close to Cora noticed a change in her behavior. Her aunt, Beulah Walker, reported that Cora had been acting oddly and had disappeared for two straight days in early July 1991 before briefly returning. During her return, she seemed distressed. When her aunt inquired if she was in trouble, Cora insisted she was fine but made a chilling request: if anything happened to her, she asked that her aunt take care of her children. After this conversation, she left and was never seen again. Her car was later discovered abandoned near Aurora Avenue North.
No arrests have been made specifically in connection with Cora McGuirk's disappearance, and her case remains an unsolved endangered missing person case. However, authorities have long considered her a potential victim of the notorious Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway. Her vehicle was found in an area where Ridgway was known to find his victims. Ridgway was convicted of murdering 49 women, and he is suspected of killing many more. Despite a plea bargain in which he agreed to disclose the locations of his victims' remains to avoid the death penalty, Cora McGuirk's body has never been found, and her connection to Ridgway has not been definitively confirmed. Her family does not believe she would have willingly abandoned her children.
