Susan left her family's home in Modesto, California on April 25, 1986 to stay with friends in Carmel, California. She was last seen at the former Greyhound bus depot on 10th Street and G Street in Modesto, making a phone call. Susan did not board a bus; instead, she was seen entering a full-sized olive-green 1977 Ford van outside of the station during the day. Susan has never been seen again. In August 2023, 76-year-old Raymond Lewis Stafford was arrested in Texas and charged with murder in Susan's case. Her mother had worked at his security business, and it was his rental van which Susan had been seen getting into at the bus stop. Shortly after Susan's disappearance, Stafford allegedly told an employee he had strangled a woman to death with a cord or wire and buried her body near Yosemite National Park. She has never been located.