Our card this week is Rachel Anthony, the five of spades from Minnesota.

In 2001, 50-year-old Rachel was going about her nightly routine, closing the small-town

liquor store when she suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving behind no clues.

A gruesome discovery six weeks later would answer some of the questions left behind,

not the most pressing. Who did this to Rachel and why? I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the

deck.

The Arctic Minnesota winter was particularly unforgiving in the wee hours of the morning on February 28, 2001.

The temperature in Pine River was hovering at a crisp minus 10, as snow dusted the top of black ice

coating the rural roadways. But the harsh conditions were nothing out of the ordinary

for Officer Sean Bennett, and it did little to deter him as he patrolled the sleepy streets.

What was out of the ordinary though was what caught Bennett's eye along the downtown road just

before 1am. Right in front of ultimate liquors sat a red-forward escort idling in the cold,

which that in and of itself was noteworthy because Pine River at the time had less than a thousand

residents and all the businesses downtown except maybe a gas station were long closed.

So, it was odd. But for Officer Bennett, the needle moved past odd and was teetering on

alarming, because that was the exact car he'd seen idling in front of the liquor store

when he was making his rounds about three hours ago, and it literally hadn't moved an inch.

Here's investigate a Ryan Fisher with the Cass County Sheriff's Office describing

what Bennett found that night as he began looking around.

When they stepped inside, they found a baffling scene. Even though Minnesota law

requires liquor stores to close by 10pm, which would have been hours ago at this point,

the store lights and radio were still on.

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