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It's almost like except for the fact that we have photos of her and we know that she existed.

It's like she never existed at all. I wish that I had more information. I kind of feel like I'm in this constant pursuit of information.

I think that I have a really good lead or we think that we've found something out and then ends up being nothing.

It's always been in the family that Ruth ran away with a married man at 18 and was never seen again.

That was just always the family lore because apparently she did have a boyfriend and I don't know anything about him.

I think his name is Ray Brennan. From what I heard, he was never even talked to by authorities. Like he was never looked at.

They tried to put it on my grandpa. I mean, they dealt up the old house where the family used to live.

Yeah, they dealt up the old backyard, found a cow bone. I mean, they harassed my family. This is like where my grandparents kind of grew up.

It's just the area where they both kind of grew up. They moved out of the town. They had to.

Sometime between the summer of 1964 and 1966, a young woman disappeared from Deleven, Wisconsin. No one can remember exactly when for sure.

Depending on the year, she would have been between the ages of 18 and 20. Her family said that they reported her missing to the local police.

But they didn't do anything to search for her. The family hired a private investigator who said they were able to find that she had taken a bus to Chicago.

But after that, the trail went cold. Over the years, some strange things happened.

First, the woman's ID and Social Security card turned up in the office of a local school custodian in the 70s.

In the 1980s, luggage was found hidden within the ceiling of that same custodian's office.

And the custodian happened to be her stepfather. Could there be a link? It took decades for this cold case to heat up. But then it fizzled out again.

And today, this case remains unsolved. I'm Marissa and from Wondry. This is episode 400 of The Vanished, Ruth Agnowski's story.

Well done. You've sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me Rob Briden on my podcast.

In this series of Briden and I talk to, among others, Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Charlotte Church, Steve Cougan and Dame Harriet Walter. And that's just a few.

We tend to chat for about 45 minutes to an hour, never longer. It's terrific conversation, reminiscent, sweat appropriate and exchange of anecdotes.

So do join me, Rob Briden, wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Briden and are available early and ad-free on Amazon Music, or by subscribing to Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app.

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