Linda Sue Nickell
Nickell, circa 1976
- Missing Since02/02/1976
- Missing FromFlint, Michigan
- ClassificationEndangered Missing
- Date of Birth09/17/1955 (63)
- Age20 years old
- Height and Weight5'4, 130 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionA red top, blue jeans and a maroon jacket.
- Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Blond/red hair, green eyes. Nickell previously fractured her right arm in a car crash; the injury had healed by the time of her disappearance. Three of her teeth have been extracted.
Details of Disappearance
Nickell was last seen walking from her home on Davison Road to a bar at the corner of Davison and Avalon Road in Flint, Michigan on February 2, 1976. She was on the way to a neighborhood bar, The Thrift City, and said she planned to call a friend from the establishment's pay phone once she got there. She has never been heard from again
Nickell's loved ones were not initially alarmed when she did not return home; they assumed she was at her friend's house. When three days passed without contact, however, her sister contacted police.
According to her sister, Nickell dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade and used drugs recreationally in 1976. Her sister described Nickell as a "flower child" and "too trusting." Both of their parents were alcoholics and the girls grew up in very poor circumstances, in a home without running water.
Nickell left home as a teenager and stayed with several relatives after that, the last ones being her sister and brother-in-law.
Her father, who was allegedly physically abusive towards his family, is considered a possible suspect in her disappearance. Authorities searched his property with cadaver dogs in 2003, but found no evidence. Nickell's father died in the 1990s and was never charged in his daughter's case; it has not been established that he was involved.
Nickell is a former employee of the Red Ribbon Bar and Town and Country Lanes, both situated in Flint. She has been known to hitchhike between Flint, Whittemore, and Tawas, Michigan. Foul play is suspected in her case, which remains unsolved.
