Seventeen-year-old Susan Wickersham drove to the Sage Room Restaurant in Bend, Oregon on the afternoon of July 11th, 1973. Her mother worked there, and Susan was just dropping off her mother’s car, after which she planned to have some friends pick her up and take her back home.
A server at the Sage Room, Denice Blake, was friends with both Susan and her mother, and said hello to Susan when she popped into the restaurant to tell her mother the car was parked outside. Denice then saw Susan leave the Sage Room and walk across the street to wait for her ride in front of the Owl Pharmacy. But the next time Denice glanced out the window, Susan was gone.
The Wickershams reported their daughter missing immediately, though police initially believed she had simply run away of her own accord. Susan’s parents, though, were convinced that something unspeakable had befallen her, and two-and-a-half years later, their worst fears were realized.
On January 20th, 1976, a woodcutter working near a truck weigh station off U.S. Highway 97 not far from the Deschutes River Woods discovered a set of partial skeletal remains. Dental records confirmed that the body was that of Susan Wickersham. She had been shot once in the head.
Though the case seemed to have gone cold shortly after Susan’s remains were found, the investigation was reopened in 2004, and since then, according to detectives, some significant progress has been made toward honing in on a suspect. In 2015, Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan told the media that the authorities were convinced they knew who Susan Wickersham’s killer was, but were simply trying to gather enough evidence to prosecute.
The suspect in the crime has so far been unnamed, and as of this writing, no arrests have been made.
Crime Immemorial 