The Disappearance of Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley: 53 Years Later

In the Oscoda community of eastern Michigan, 1969, high school students Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley were seen together at school on Halloween Day, the day they disappeared. After over fifty years, their disappearance has never been solved.

It was believed at first that the girls had run away to Flint, Michigan, despite carrying no ID or other supplies, but additional information established that, after leaving school due to a bomb threat, Spencer and Hobley hitchhiked approximately four miles away, according to WBCK. The girls planned to attend a Halloween party that night, but they hadn’t been seen in attendance. Their last reported sighting was at the Oscoda high school.

When neither of the girls returned to their homes later that day, police authorities began questioning a man who claimed to have dropped them off downtown, though neither the man who picked them up nor Hobley’s boyfriend became a suspect in the case, according to CBS News. Another tip sent in claimed Spencer and Hobley’s bodies were buried under a barn in Wilber Township, but no bodies were discovered, and cadaver dogs couldn’t locate any evidence, according to Daily Mail.

To this day, it is unclear if Spencer and Hobley’s disappearances is a case of abduction, murder, or otherwise. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children updated the girls’ photographs, reflecting their current ages of 60 and 61. Spencer and Hobley’s family members still hope that the case can be solved.