- Missing Since04/08/1979
- Missing FromWaterloo, Iowa
- ClassificationEndangered Missing
- Date of Birth08/11/1951 (67)
- Age27 years old
- Height and Weight5'3, 110 pounds
- Distinguishing CharacteristicsAfrican-American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Rucker goes by her middle name, Ann.
Details of Disappearance
Rucker was last seen in Waterloo, Iowa on April 8, 1979. She had recently divorced and was working as a cocktail waitress while her sister cared for her son and two daughters.
On the night of her disappearance, Rucker worked late. She called her sister from a grocery store and asked her to take the children to Rucker's apartment on west Donald Street. Rucker said she would meet them there. She never arrived and has never been heard from again.
Rucker was having problems with a boyfriend at the time of her disappearance and, days before she was last seen, she told the police the man was scaring her. Her family believes this individual murdered her, but he has never been charged in her case.
David Barrett, Rucker's youngest child, who was a baby when she disappeared, was raised first by his grandparents and then by his oldest sister. His father was not a part of his life. He grew up believing his mother had been killed in a car accident, and didn't learn the truth about her disappearance until he was an adult. Barrett became a professional football player and played for the New York Jets and the Arizona Cardinals.
Rucker's disappearance remains unsolved.
