On January 19, 1988, Susan Swedell started her day like any other. She had breakfast with her sister before leaving for work around 8:45 am. At 9:00 am, Susan started her first shift at Body and Sole, located at St. Croix Mall in Oak Park Heights. At 1:30 pm she was seen at her second job at the K-Mart store, located in the same shopping complex. Around 9:00 pm, Susan called her mother on the phone because she was nervous to drive home as there was a blizzard sweeping across Lake Elmo that evening. Her mother told her to take her time and to stay on the main roads. She changed into a skirt before she departed from work, which was considered odd due to the snowy conditions at the time. Swedell's vehicle, a maroon 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass, overheated during her drive to her residence. She stopped at a gasoline station at the corner of Manning Avenue north and Highway 5, approximately one mile from her home in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. The attendant allowed her to park her car at the establishment. The employee told authorities that Swedell entered a vehicle driven by an unidentified male shortly afterwards. The man appeared to have been waiting for Swedell near the station. He is described as having shoulder-length curly sandy brown hair and a well-built physique. The witness said that the man was tall and was unshaven, and wore a leather jacket. When authorities searched Swedell's car, they found her driver's license, purse and eyeglasses inside it. Swedell's mother had the vehicle towed to a repair shop. Mechanics discovered the petcock on the radiator had been loosened, and the car had no water in it, which explains why it overheated. Investigators theorized someone loosened the petcock deliberately and followed Swedell's car, waiting for it to malfunction so they could offer her a ride. Swedell's mother believes her daughter came back to their apartment a few days after her disappearance. She stated there was an odor of a sweetish-smelling smoke in the residence and dirty dishes in the sink, and the house's spare key had been moved. The red pantsuit Swedell had been wearing on the day of her disappearance, before she changed into her skirt, was found balled up under her bed. There was no sign of Swedell herself at the home, however, and nothing was missing. Swedell had been using telephone chat lines to talk to people in the weeks prior to her disappearance. She had also been receiving numerous telephone calls at work from a man.