When a young Maryland woman disappears after finishing a shift at her after-school job,

investigators quickly conclude she was abducted.

Their worst fears are realized when her body is discovered the next morning

and the search for her murderer begins in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

Music Last Seen Alive. Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host, Leah, crime analyst by day and true crime storyteller by night.

And as always, Sam your co. Scott.

Julie Ferguson was last seen alive on March 20th, 1995.

At 17 years old, Julie was a high school student who was very much looking forward to

embarking upon her college years, during which she planned to study to become a journalist.

Meanwhile, she lived in Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., located in Prince George's County.

There, she worked an after-school job at Linens and Things, a shop that was one of a couple

dozen businesses occupying a strip mall. On the day of her death, Julie finished her shift

at Linen's and Things at approximately 9.30 p.m. She didn't leave immediately because she needed

to wait for a ride. Although her place

of work was less than a mile from home, her mom insisted that she not walked to or from work

for safety reasons. Julie's mom, who had raised her as a single parent since the death of Julie's

father, which had happened when Julie had only been a baby, had bought Julie a pre-owned car to drive back and

forth to work, but it hadn't passed state inspection. So Julie had arranged to catch a ride with

some friends from school. They weren't planning to take Julie straight home, though. The mom of one

of Julie's friends had recently and tragically died in a car accident, and they were all planning to attend

a wake for her together that night. So after clocking out, Julie called her mom and assured her that

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