Mary was last seen leaving the Edison Mall, heading towards the parking lot. A package she was carrying at the time was found near her car, but she has not been seen since. She was wearing two gold bracelets, a gold necklace with a charm and she has braces on her teeth. She was wearing a brown velveteen jacket, a white pullover shirt, designer blue jeans, and brown pumps. She was 17 years old at the time. Mary Elizabeth Hare, an 18-year-old who physically resembled Mary Opitz, disappeared from the same parking lot on February 11, almost a month after Mary. In June 1981, Hare's fully clothed and badly decomposed body was found in a field near Alabama Road and Highway 82 in a remote, undeveloped area of Lehigh Acres, Florida. She was the victim of a homicide.