A teenager was abducted while walking home, her remains were found three years later In the summer of 1973, Susan Wickersham, a 17-year-old Caucasian/White female, was a junior at Bend High School in the small, trusting town of Bend, Oregon. Known for her bubbly and outgoing personality, she had spent the evening of July 11, 1973, driving around town with a friend in her mother's car. Around 11:30 p.m., she did as she had agreed and dropped the car off at the Sage Room Restaurant where her mother was working.
Susan told her mother that friends were going to pick her up for a ride home.
She left the restaurant and was last seen across the street. When her anticipated ride didn't show up, it is believed she decided to start the two-mile walk home. She never arrived. Her disappearance set off a frantic search by her parents, who traveled the area with missing person posters, but no trace of the teenager was found. For years, her family was left with agonizing uncertainty. The initial investigation was hampered by the belief by some that she may have been a runaway, a theory her family never accepted.
The painful mystery of what happened to Susan Wickersham came to a grim conclusion on January 20, 1976. A man collecting firewood in a wooded area about five miles south of Bend discovered skeletal remains near a cinder pit. Personal items found at the scene and dental records confirmed the remains were those of the missing teenager. An examination of her skull revealed she had been shot once in the head with a small-caliber weapon, likely a. 22 handgun. The bullet had entered behind her right ear with no exit wound.
Despite the passage of decades, Susan Wickersham's murder has never been solved, and no arrests have been made. Her case became the primary inspiration for the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office to form a cold case squad in 2005. Law enforcement officials and even Susan's family believe they know who is responsible for her death, but there has never been sufficient evidence to lead to a prosecution. The police have an unnamed person of interest, but without further information or evidence, justice for Susan remains elusive. Her case stands as a painful, lingering question in the community of Bend.
