On October 15, 1987, a 20-year-old Caucasian female named Stefanie Kelly Stroh, a student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, vanished while hitchhiking across the United States. She had taken a year off from her studies to travel, a journey that had already taken her through Asia for nine months. Her cross-country trip began in New York, with the ultimate destination of California.
The last known contact with Stefanie was a phone call she made to her parents from the Four Way Cafe and
Truck Stop in Wells, Nevada. During the call, she informed them that she had secured a ride and expected to be home the following day. She was never heard from again. At the time of her disappearance, she was carrying a light gray canvas suitcase, a pink purse, and an orange sleeping bag. She was last seen wearing a black tank top, a black shirt with elbow-length sleeves, black corduroy pants, and brown leather ankle-high shoes.
Years later, a convicted serial killer named Tommy Lynn Sells, who was on death row in Texas, confessed to Stefanie's murder. Sells claimed that he had picked her up while she was hitchhiking and offered her a ride to Reno, Nevada. According to his confession, they took LSD together before he strangled her. He further alleged that he had placed her body in a washtub, covered it with cement, and dumped it in a hot spring.
Despite his detailed confession, authorities were never able to substantiate his claims, and he was never charged in connection with Stefanie's disappearance. Investigators have expressed doubts about the credibility of Sells's confession, suggesting that his claims about his criminal activities were often exaggerated. Sells was executed in 2014 for an unrelated murder in Texas. Stefanie Stroh's body has never been found, and her case remains an unsolved and suspicious disappearance.
