Soon after her disappearance, Sydoriak and Varner interviewed Danny Mitchell, a former boyfriend of Dana's who lived in Bentonville. Mitchell called in sick to work on July 25 and slept until 12:30 p.m., later driving to his girlfriend's house in Siloam Springs. He told detectives he was still with his girlfriend when Dana left the store.
In the days and weeks that followed, law enforcement, community members, family, and friends of Dana's participated in searches of the area, hoping to locate the missing woman or any of her belongings, some of which were later found strewn across the countryside.
With little information at hand, law enforcement was quickly troubled by the case.
"Unless we get some help from the public on this one, it’s gonna be pretty hard to solve, and that’s why we’re hoping somebody might’ve seen the vehicle, or seen Dana by the car, or seen somebody possibly pick her up or give her a ride or something like that. Any kind of help, we could use it," Sydoriak said in an on-camera interview with 5NEWS in 1989.
Detectives said they were baffled as to why Dana's car was parked heading south when both she and her parents lived in the opposite direction.
