PA PA - Michele Reidenbach, 16, Zelienople, 22 Sept 1981

[Richard]

MICHELE Reidenbach Missing: Sep 22, 1981 ZELIENOPLE, PA

MICHELE Reidenbach
DOB: Dec 29, 1964
Missing: Sep 22, 1981
Age at time: 16
Age Now: 39
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Sandy
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: ZELIENOPLE, PA, United States
Non-Family Abduction

Michelle was last seen at her job after school. Michelle left her job to go to the store located a half block away and never returned. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Zelienople Police Department (Pennsylvania) - 1-724-287-7769

link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseNum=601875&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

 

[Usher737]

25 years later, disappearance still a mystery


Friday, September 22, 2006

By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette







The disappearance a quarter century ago of Michele Reidenbach continues to stump police in Butler County and beyond. Today is the 25th anniversary of the 16-year-old Seneca Valley High School senior's disappearance.


Continue at link:
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06265/724058-54.stm

 

[lostwithoutyou]

Police Probe Missing Girl Case 25 Years Later

(KDKA) ZELIENOPLE Pennsylvania State Police are still investigating the disappearance of a teenager from Zelienople 25 years later.

Michele Reidenbach, 16, a student at Seneca Valley High School, went missing on September 22, 1981.

State Police say she showed up for work at an appliance store and went to the drug store to buy cold medicine while on a break.

Police say it’s unclear if she ever returned to work.

Anyone with information is asked to call Butler State Police at 724-284-8100, the Zelienople Police Department at 724-452-3003 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

www.kdka.com

 

[Pdoe]

Does anybody know any of the details of this case? Who might have been questioned? Any boyfriends etc?

 

[Usher737]

Problem is LE didnt take her disappearance seriously at first and precious time was lost. I dont think they interviewed that many people. She did have a boyfriend at the time but he was ruled out. I believe foul play is involved and she was approached by someone in the supermarket parking lot. I just find it odd that no witness ever came forward with more information.

Charley Projest has a very good summary

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reidenbach_michele.html

 

[Mr. E]

There is no mention that anybody at the job she was supposed to return to called her family to report that she didn't return to work. She was only on a break, for Pete's sake. Wouldn't they call her home and ask about her if she didn't return? It seems suspicious to me that they didn't. Who else was working there? Was that person accounted for when she went on break?

Was the supermarket on the way back to her job, or did she run another errand after visiting the pharmacy? If it's out of the way, why did she go there?

I would think either someone from her job knows something, or she met someone undesirable at the pharmacy.

 

[Usher737]

I agree with you Mr. E. I have been back and forth on this between her job and the pharmacy. Suposedly LE had confirmation that she made it to the pharmacy. I am not sure who places her in the supermarket parking lot. I also dont know the proximity to the parking lot from the pharmacy. Was the supermarket located by the pharmacy or on her way back to work ?

Perhaps she did return to work after the pharmacy and an employee harmed her.

 

[ihadcabinfever]

MICHELE REIDENBACH Missing: Sep 22, 1981 ZELIENOPLE, PA

MICHELE REIDENBACH
DOB: Dec 29, 1964
Missing: Sep 22, 1981
Age at time: 16
Age Now: 39
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Sandy
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: ZELIENOPLE, PA, United States
Non-Family Abduction

Michelle was last seen at her job after school. Michelle left her job to go to the store located a half block away and never returned. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Zelienople Police Department (Pennsylvania) - 1-724-287-7769

link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=601875&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

this case is similar
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/910dfin.html
Tricia Lynn Reitler

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

on The Charley Project it says she was a chain smoker at the time of her dissapearance, but, when she ran out to the pharmacy she left her belongings including her cigarettes her job. Odd, most smokers I know, cold or not , would take the cigs to cop a smoke on the way there and or back. Just a thought that struck me as odd.

 

[ihadcabinfever]

I agree with you Mr. E. I have been back and forth on this between her job and the pharmacy. Suposedly LE had confirmation that she made it to the pharmacy. I am not sure who places her in the supermarket parking lot. I also dont know the proximity to the parking lot from the pharmacy. Was the supermarket located by the pharmacy or on her way back to work ?

Perhaps she did return to work after the pharmacy and an employee harmed her.

http://www.wpxi.com/target11/1959465/detail.html

Fred Landay said, "She was a good girl. She was a nice girl."

Landay was the owner of the appliance store where Michelle worked.

Landay said, "I didn't see her that day. She was working upstairs doing envelopes for a private sale and she just never came back. She left her purse and just never came back."

Over the years, police questioned several people, including Reidenbach's boyfriend. Police ruled him out after he passed a lie detector test.

 

[Mischa]

on The Charley Project it says she was a chain smoker at the time of her dissapearance, but, when she ran out to the pharmacy she left her belongings including her cigarettes her job. Odd, most smokers I know, cold or not , would take the cigs to cop a smoke on the way there and or back. Just a thought that struck me as odd.

Well,but if you got a bad cough or sore throat, this will probably limitate even a chain smoker's longing for a cigarette (at least for a while)

M.

 

[monkalup]

Police Probe Missing Girl Case 25 Years Later
(KDKA) ZELIENOPLE Pennsylvania State Police are still investigating the disappearance of a teenager from Zelienople 25 years later.

Michele Reidenbach, 16, a student at Seneca Valley High School, went missing on September 22, 1981.

State Police say she showed up for work at an appliance store and went to the drug store to buy cold medicine while on a break.

Police say it’s unclear if she ever returned to work.

Anyone with information is asked to call Butler State Police at 724-284-8100, the Zelienople Police Department at 724-452-3003 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_264120349.html

 

[monkalup]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06265/724058-54.stm

25 years later, disappearance still a mystery
Friday, September 22, 2006

By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The disappearance a quarter century ago of Michele Reidenbach continues to stump police in Butler County and beyond.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the 16-year-old Seneca Valley High School senior's disappearance.


Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette file photo (2001)
Kim Shuler, holding a 1981 photograph of Michele Reidenbach, and Judy Wolfe were friends of Michele, who vanished without a trace on Main Street in Zelienope on Sept. 22, 1981.
Click photo for larger image.

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about the case," state police Cpl. Raymond J. Melder said yesterday.

Cpl. Melder, a native of Butler County, had been on the job for about a year when Michele was reported missing. Though he was not involved in the investigation back then, he was familiar with the family, all of Harmony, and he knew about the case.

Michele was a responsible teenager. She worked part time at the former Mel Den's Appliance Store in Zelienople. She was devoted to an older sister who was paralyzed and in the hospital.

On that rainy Tuesday when she was last seen, Michele had been to school.

Afterward, she had her senior photos taken and went to work. While there, she took a break to walk down the street to a drugstore for cold medication. She had contracted a bug.

Her late mother, Gloria, said then that she had intended to meet Michele so the two could visit her other daughter in the hospital. Gloria Reidenbach was running late, however, and went to the hospital without her younger child.

Michele was last seen at a supermarket parking lot on South Main Street in Zelienople.

Michele was 5-foot-2 and weighed 110 pounds. Her eyes are blue, her hair dark blonde.


Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
An age-progressed photo shows how Michele might look today.
Some of these characteristics likely have changed. Michele would be 42 Dec. 29.

Police believe Michele's case would have been handled differently now than it was 25 years ago. Investigators today begin their missing-persons probes sooner. They have and use more resources quicker as well, Cpl. Melder said.

He and Michele's siblings, he said, remain hopeful.

Michele's likeness is posted on the Internet Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. More than 1 million other children are there as well.

Anyone with information about Michele can call Zelienople police at 724-287-7769.

 

[birgitta_ice]

Problem is LE didnt take her disappearance seriously at first and precious time was lost. I dont think they interviewed that many people. She did have a boyfriend at the time but he was ruled out. I believe foul play is involved and she was approached by someone in the supermarket parking lot. I just find it odd that no witness ever came forward with more information.

Charley Projest has a very good summary

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reidenbach_michele.html

A few people where questioned about her, among them where her boyfriend who later was ruled out as a suspect, there are very few informations about MIchelle Reidenbach on the internet, pretty girl, interesting case but unfortunatly very little informations about her case.


http://chatarea.com/psychicsearchformissingchildrenandadults

psychic search for missing children and adults

 

[Kat]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=3571,1959989&dq=michele-reidenbach&hl=en

19 DEC 81 article that is drawing similarities between 3 missing girls including Michelle.

 

[passionflower]

I live about 25 miles away, but remember this so well.
Zelieonople is such a small country town.
Still has a Main St.
It was/is hard to see someone just disappear from there.
I never even heard a rumor about her.
My friend lives there and I will have to ask if nyone ever still looks for her???
SAD!

 

[Kat]

PA PA - Toni McNatt-Chiapetta, 14, Clairton, 1981 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Here is the thread for one of the other young ladies that was referred to in the link from 1981 in Post #15.

I do wonder if there is a connection at all? The other young lady mentioned was found deceased. I haven't looked up her info.

ETA: The other girl was found Murdered. Her name was Christine Guenther.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=4064,6486790&dq=christine-guenther&hl=en

 

[Kat]

Bump

Michele has been missing almost 29 years soon. Come home soon.

 

[Grifynne]

This case interests me. I am from that area, in fact I went to the same High School Michele did (actually we share the same name, only mine uses an extra "L", but I digress). Even though I am younger than she would be today, I really wonder what happened to her.

The area she went missing from has, to my knowledge, always been a very clean town. If someone goes missing it is a really big deal. Even now, as someone else stated, it is still very much a small town. I think residents like it that way, so it pretty much has sustained with just a little bit of growth but nothing significant (at least in my time). I go up there every week and have a number of friends and family members in that area.

I suppose that because this happened decades ago, it is difficult to research much on the internet. Although it seems like there are a number of even older cases that have many more details to work with, which makes me wonder if it was someone who knew her or was local to the area that knew where to go and how to keep everything on the down low.

There is a highway, route 79, not too far from there. I wonder if someone could have abducted her then got to 79 (which would have taken a matter of 3 or 4 minutes). That could have given them a way to get far pretty fast, as long as the highway was there then. She went missing the year before I was born, so I am not entirely familiar with the lay of the land then. Now someone could easily get to route 79, head to a nearby community called Cranberry and get right on the turnpike which could take them out of the state or at the very least, very far away.

Is it maybe possible she met with foul play and was dumped far off somewhere, possibly a Jane Doe (or yet undiscovered missing person). I hate to think that, but with so many years having passed and considering what little I have learned about her situation, it seems hard to believe she would just up and leave without a word.

I would love to hear more on this if anyone has information or an opinion on the case. Not sure if these will help, but here are some Google Maps for the area:

Here is the Google Map of Zelie

This map takes a drive down Main Street (just keep clicking forward to travel into town)

 

[Richard]

This case interests me. I am from that area, in fact I went to the same High School Michele did ...
...I go up there every week and have a number of friends and family members in that area.

I suppose that because this happened decades ago, it is difficult to research much on the internet. Although it seems like there are a number of even older cases that have many more details to work with, which makes me wonder if it was someone who knew her or was local to the area that knew where to go and how to keep everything on the down low....

Thanks for your post on Michele's case. It has now been 30 years since she went missing. Perhaps there will be an "anniversary" article in some of the local newspapers.

You are in a good position to actually do some good research and to help in getting information to internet sites where other researchers can look into Michele's case and possibly solve it.

When I first posted her case here on Websleuths in 2004 (see above), you can see how much there was available. There have since been some articles and links to other websites posted.

To really dig into this case, you would need to check out local libraries for bound copies of newspapers, or microfilm files of them. There often is a wealth of information in those types of files, which will only make it to the internet if folks like you post it.

Thanks for the map link. I have always learned so much more about any case when I looked at a map and located the places mentioned in narratives.