The views and opinions expressed in Cold and
Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All
parties mentioned are considered innocent until
proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing
also contains adult themes and languages. Listener
discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin
-Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover
cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone,
and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome
back, everyone. We did have to take a week off
last week. Both of us came down with quite the
cold. So I was not fun to listen to, as I was
told by many of my co -workers last week. So
we took the week off to rest and recover. But
we are back this week. Eli is back this week.
He had a little break in his rehearsal schedule.
So we wanted to get on here and bring you a new
episode. Yeah, we are back this week, and we
are on episode 157. And if you're new here, I
always encourage new listeners to go back and
listen to episodes that we've put out previously.
We have over 150. Yeah, I encourage you to go
take a listen to those. Absolutely, but we'll
just go ahead and get into this week's case.
We are on a missing person case this week. All
right, let's get into it. Let's do it. So just
as a bit of a content warning at the top, this
case does involve a young person. Today, we are
talking about the missing person case of Yvonne
Reglar .And this takes place in August of 1977
in Fairview Park, Ohio. But first, a little bit
about Yvonne. Yvonne Reglar had just turned 17
years old in the summer of 1977. She was born
on July 11th and she was just weeks away from
starting her senior year. She was a good student
who routinely earned A's and B's and never caused
her teachers or parents much trouble. She was
tall. She was around 5 '10 and 135 pounds with
brown hair and blue eyes. She lived in North
Olmstead, Ohio with her mother and stepfather.
Yvonne's biological father had died when she
was young, and her stepfather had been there
for most of her life. Yvonne also had a part
-time job. She had been working for about a year
as an attendant at a Sunoco gas station. She
was considered a top employee for her age. She
was reliable and dependable. Overall, it seems
that Yvonne was a wonderful friend, a hard worker,
and a good student. Someone who had a very bright
future ahead of her. And now a timeline of events.
Monday, August 8th, 1977. That day started off
like any other day for Yvonne. However, her schedule
was going to be disrupted in the morning, but
she wasn't quite aware of it yet. She had been
working at a Sunoco gas station in North Olmsted
for about a year. But that week, and specifically
that Monday, the manager at a different Sunoco
in nearby Fairview Park was going on vacation
for the week. According to reports, Yvonne was
selected last minute to cover for him. It was
going to be her first day at the new station.
She just didn't know it yet when she woke up
that morning. When she woke up, she started getting
ready for work just like any other day. She was
wearing a yellow t -shirt and blue jean shorts.
She was scheduled to work the morning shift,
7 a .m. to 3 p .m. Her parents saw her get ready
that morning. At around 6 .25 a .m., they left
the house to go fishing on Lake Erie. Yvonne's
boyfriend was picking her up at around 6 .30
to drive her for work. Yvonne didn't drive. As
they were leaving, Yvonne told her parents, quote,
There was nothing unusual about the exchange.
Nothing to suggest it would be the last time
they would see her. Yvonne first arrived at her
normal store in North Olmstead at 7 a .m. From
there, her manager Rick informed her that she
would be filling in at the store in Fairview
Park. Rick drove her to the Fairview Park location.
Yvonne was dropped off and the morning seemed
to run as normal from there. At noon, Rick stopped
by to check on her and dropped off a sandwich.
He didn't report anything out of the ordinary.
Throughout the morning, Yvonne made several calls
to friends from the gas station. They made plans
to see a movie later that evening. One of her
friends will report that they talked on the phone
around 1 in the afternoon and confirmed that
they were seeing a movie that night. While they
were on the phone, the bell rang, signaling a
customer had pulled in and Yvonne would need
to go pump the gas. At this particular Sunoco
station, there was one gas pump that was not
self -service, so the attendant would have to
come out and put the gas in the car. The friend
said Yvonne mentioned a car was there for help,
but it drove off. They continued talking on the
phone. Then the car came back. Yvonne told her
friend she would call her back, but she never
did. At approximately 1 .25, an attendant at
a gas station across the street told police he
saw Yvonne pumping gas at the one pump that was
not self -service. She was assisting a woman
who had paid with a credit card. At around 1
.30, again, an attendant at a nearby station,
I'm not sure if it's the same one, it's unclear
in the reporting, said Yvonne had complained
about a customer who left only $1 for $3 worth
of gas. At 1 .45 p .m., a vending machine operator
arrived at the gas station but found it empty.
People began showing up to purchase gas, but
nobody was there to help. Fairview Park Police
Chief Paul Shepard would later say, quote, people
showed up to use to purchase gas or do some work
there and found the gas station empty. Originally
in 1977, it was reported that at 2 .15, The next
employee arrived. However, in 2024, police say
that it was closer to 2 .45 p .m., so two different
times, about a half -hour window there. When
the next employee arrived, Gary, he could not
find Yvonne anywhere. He waited. He expected
Yvonne to return any minute, but she would never
reappear. So at 2 .50 p .m., he called the police.
When police arrived, Inside of the gas station,
officers found Yvonne's purse. All of its contents
were still inside, including all of her money.
There was makeup inside. A few books she had
brought to read at work remained unopened. Her
thermos of iced tea sat there. The sandwich her
manager had dropped off earlier remained untouched.
The gas station showed no signs of a struggle.
Nothing appeared to be missing. No one reported
seeing Yvonne walk away or get into a car. No
one noticed any commotion. The cash register
was untouched. All of the money was accounted
for. The only thing out of place was that the
self -service pumps showed gas had been taken
without payment. Initially, police did not believe
she had simply walked away from her job, and
her parents thought the same thing. Her stepfather
said, quote, I can't believe she ran away. She's
a very responsible girl. She also had made plans
with her friends to go to the movies that night.
And just the weekend before, it's Monday that
she goes missing, so just that past weekend,
she had bought a dress to wear to the funeral
of a friend's father that was due to take place
later that week. By all accounts, she had no
plans of running away and had lots of plans coming
up that week. The next day, Tuesday, August 9th,
police began searching for Yvonne and interviewing
family, friends, and co -workers to determine
whether she could have been a runaway. Police
continue this search for days. On Thursday, August
11th, Yvonne has been missing since Monday. There
was still no sign of her. Police and her parents
fear that she had been abducted. Lieutenant Fred
Nippenberg says, quote, The station location
is a busy area, and no one remembers seeing anything
unusual. We're going to start all over again
interviewing people. Police had searched around
the Sunoco station. They had searched the high
cliffs along the south side of Lorraine Road
in the Rocky River Reservation as well to see
if there had been any sign of her, and still
there was nothing. On Friday, August 12th, The
FBI joined the search after an airline clerk
reported that on Tuesday or Wednesday, a girl
fitting Yvonne's description purchased a ticket
for a 10 a .m. flight to Miami. The young woman
paid in $1 bills and 50 -cent pieces. She had
no luggage and she was traveling alone. While
the police and FBI are looking into this tip,
the next day, Saturday, August 13th, Police get
another lead from a truck driver who said a young
woman approached him at a rest area along Route
2 near Port Clinton early Thursday morning and
asked for a ride to Toledo, Ohio. No one could
think of any reason that Yvonne would want to
go to Toledo. But still, police go to that area
to look for her. However, neither one of these
leads, the trucker or the airline lead, result
in any clues about Yvonne. On Wednesday, August
17th, so Yvonne has been missing for a week and
a half at this point, Lieutenant John Hall said,
quote, we're exactly where we were on the day
after her disappearance. The strange thing is,
is she left her purse behind in the station.
That's the thing that bothers me more than anything
else. However, Pretty quickly, the case seems
to go cold. Police never really are able to turn
up any leads in these first few weeks of investigation
to point to any direction that Yvonne could have
gone. In November of 1977, the investigation
had stalled. The case was getting colder by the
day, and it had been over three months since
Yvonne vanished. Police began looking into Richard
Allen Wright. who had been serving time for kidnapping
and sexually assaulting an 18 -year -old from
the same area in Ohio between 1972 and 1975.
So that would have been five years before Yvonne
vanished. However, he had escaped from prison
and was on the run during the time of her disappearance.
During his escape, he kidnapped a schoolteacher
and held her captive for 12 days. The schoolteacher
managed to escape. When police went to his trailer
after, police found blood and hair that did not
belong to the teacher, and they began wondering
if this could be a link to Yvonne. They contacted
Yvonne's parents for her blood type and a hair
sample for comparison. According to her mother,
she had to dig through Yvonne's clothes to find
a single hair clinging to any of her clothes.
However, the evidence did not match Yvonne. About
a month later, so it's been over four months
now, that Yvonne has been missing. Police traveled
to Pennsylvania to interview a college student
who believed that he had picked up Yvonne in
Pennsylvania as a hitchhiker and had driven her
to a nearby town. The student had recently seen
a missing person poster and recognized her as
the girl he had picked up. He wasn't sure of
the date, but believed it was after her disappearance.
Police questioned people in the area and searched
for any other sign of Yvonne, but they didn't
find anything. In August of 1978, so it's been
a full year that Yvonne has been missing, one
of her friends says, quote, Initially, police
believed that this was an abduction, as I had
spoken about earlier. But, As no ransom demands
were made and no body was recovered, they began
to believe that she may have actually run away.
This is also fueled by the fact that tips have
come in from people claiming they had picked
her up as a hitchhiker. Her parents monitored
her bank account. There had been no activity
on it. Police theorized that issues with her
stepfather may have led her to run away. One
of her friends, Kathy, said, quote, Kathy and
another friend also told reporters that Yvonne
had an ex -boyfriend she wanted to get back at.
Quote, These friends were convinced she had staged
the mysterious circumstances around her disappearance.
Her parents never believed any of that. They
believed that she had been abducted. And still
no firm sign or clue of Yvonne ever popped up.
In July of 1980, so just shy of three years,
still no sign of her. The most recent tip that
police had received at this point? had come from
somebody who had seen a model in a hairstyle
magazine who resembled Yvonne, so they called
it in. Police did investigate this, but the woman
was not Yvonne. Police said that the case was
technically still active, simply because it was
unsolved. In August of 1981, so four years, police
admitted they no longer knew what happened to
Yvonne. Though they once believed that she ran
away, that had been their most recent working
theory, it had been months and years since they
had had any other sightings come in of her, and
they were never able to confirm that any of the
sightings they did get were actually Yvonne.
So the case truly goes cold after this. It takes
years and years for an update to come. The last
update really seems to come in 2024, so very
recently. It had been 47 years since Yvonne disappeared.
A cold case unit had announced that they were
reopening her case in hopes of finally getting
answers. Also created around this time is an
aged progressed photo of Yvonne of what she would
look like in her 60s, which is around the age
she would be today. But there have truly been
no new updates or developments in Yvonne's case
since that first day that she went missing. So
if you know anything about the disappearance
of Yvonne in August of 1977 or her whereabouts
today, please call the Fairview Park Police at
440 -356 -4415. So that is the missing person
case of Yvonne Reglar. Before we get into the
timeline, just to talk about Yvonne a little
bit, to echo what you said, you know, she was
a young woman starting on the precipice of a
new horizon, you know, her life beginning after
high school. And, you know, she had a job that
she was working at. It seemed like her life was
in the beginning stages of budding and blooming
into what the next stages would be. And I'd love
to just find answers for this case, you know,
for a life to be what seems like it ended abruptly.
Whether she is here or not, to me, is still so
worthy of... We've covered a lot of cases like
this where it's young women who just seem to
disappear off the face of the earth. It doesn't
get any easier when we cover the next one. But
cases like these, they scare me. They scare me
in the way that the people disappear. So I'm
really glad that you brought Yvonne's case to
us. Yeah, I... deeply deeply believe and I've
said it before on this podcast and I'll say it
again on this podcast but in this country in
this day and age there should be no reason that
anybody goes missing and we just like don't have
the answers for it um especially children especially
children I Yvonne is 17 years old to me like
she is still a child and um you know just there's
no I feel like there's no excuses we we should
always know where children are and we should
always have answers if we don't. So yeah, as
soon as I saw Yvonne's case and looked into it,
I definitely knew it was one that I wanted to
bring to Cold and Missing simply because I didn't
know it and I'm sure other listeners have not
heard of her case either. Going right into the
timeline of the day she disappeared, I do think
it's worth noting again, you know, even though
that you said it, that there was a major change
in what her workday looked like. I don't know
if she had swapped gas stations before or had
done it after she had already arrived to the
place that she was supposed to be working at,
but that decision being made and kind of being
made for her, yes, I do see how that could be
a regular part of your job, but to me it's noticeable
that On this day, when she started working at
a different place, the worst thing that could
have happened to her did. And some part of me
can't believe that that is just how it happened.
There's a part of me that wonders if there was
a design in that decision being made that she
would work at a different location on that day.
Yeah, it's something you... completely have to
think about when you look at the timeline for
the day, such a disruption in her schedule. From
everything I can tell, it looks like Yvonne arrived
at her normal gas station that she typically
worked at in North Olmstead. And then once she
got there, she was informed that she was actually
going to work at this other one in a nearby town
in Fairview Park. So the manager of her store
drove her to the other store. and set her up
and yeah it's it's um you have to think like
was uh her switching stores part of um an ultimate
plan to to uh get her into a car that day or
was it just putting her at the wrong place at
the wrong time just putting her there um it's
very um Curious if it's just a coincidence or
if it's if it's planned. Yeah. Lots of questions
around that. Now, while she's at the Fairview
gas station, we know that she's taking calls.
She's doing her job. And during a phone call,
she mentions that there is a car that comes up.
takes off again, that's the first red flag for
me, is that there was a car that rang for service
and then left and then came back. And I'm not
sure if this was the same car, but the possibility
of one of those cars only paying a dollar for
$3 worth of gas. So all of those things were
noticeable to me. They were small disruptions
that were happening for her while she was working.
Yeah, so there's a couple of things that happens
like right in there. So I'm glad you brought
it up. So, yeah, she's on the phone. The bell
rings. There's a car there. But then the car
pulls off. So she just stays on the phone with
her friend. The bell rings again. She tells her
friend the same car is back. So that is what
the friend reported. She goes out to help because
there is one. pump at the gas station that the
attendant has to has to do it so she goes to
help and put the put the gas in the car and i
think this could be the woman that she is helping
with because the attendant across the street
sees her at like 125 helping a woman i don't
know though if uh this is a different person
it could be it could not be um but if it's a
different person if that if the woman wasn't
the one who Drove up, drove off, then came back
again. Then I'm very curious about who that person
is that drove off and then decided to come back
because I would just be curious to know what
they know and what they saw. the vendor shows
up and she's not there. So it's a 15 -minute
window ultimately from the time somebody last
reports seeing her and the time that somebody
really notices that she's not there. Yeah, I
think one of the big questions for that moment
in the timeline is, did she get into a car? Was
she pulled into a car? And if so, was it visible
to anyone? And I think the answer to that is
no, but it must have happened so quickly to make
it be that way, to make it not be a noticeable
moment of either her getting into a car or being
pulled in. I feel like this moment in the timeline
really circles right around that, and we just
don't have any information. Yeah. Looking at
all of this, there's really no part of me that
believes that Yvonne ran away. I really do think
that this is an abduction, that she was pulled
into a car. I think it very unlikely she got
talked into a car just because of the type of
employee she was. She was very responsible. She
was dependable. I don't think she's the type
that... Someone could convince her to like get
in a car and like skip work for a couple of hours.
So I think if somebody got her in the car, it
was by force. And yeah, to your point, it had
to have been quick. Like that's one thing that
like the cops at the time made them kind of think
that maybe she did run away was because nobody
saw anything. Nobody heard anything. It's a busy
street. You know, the attendants had seen her
before that. You know, that was kind of fueling
them to think that she did run away because how
could nobody see nothing? But it really seems
that nobody saw anything. Yeah, same for me as
well. One of the first things I wrote down was,
to me, this does not read as a runaway. Just
the simple fact of her stuff was left behind
and she was making active plans for later in
that evening to go see a movie. a ruse. I think
she was having a regular day to echo what you're
saying. I believe that she was abducted. Yeah.
And, you know, just to further drive home the
point of her plans, like over that past weekend,
she had bought a dress for a funeral that I believe
was happening on like Tuesday or Wednesday of
that week. A friend's dad had passed away. So
she was attending the funeral. And she strikes
me. as a friend who would not leave another friend
during this time that would show up for her friend
during this. So, yeah, I do not think that she
ran during this time at all. At all. Yeah, I
mean, down to her character and how you described
her, she sounds like a friend who just, period,
shows up. Or that she shows up to her job, shows
up to school, shows up in friendships, shows
up for her family. This is a present. person
and active in their life. To me, it does not
read as someone who is planning to leave that
life. I really want to see answers in Yvonne's
case, especially with it being reopened. Like,
I really want to see investigators go after this
case like they should have, you know, right when
she disappeared, like they should have treated
it as an abduction from day one. Unfortunately,
That did not happen, and now we're here over
47 years later. I really want to see answers
for Yvonne and for her family, for those that
have known and loved her. Yeah, the case did
move slowly, even though there were small blips
of her being mentioned that maybe she was seen
hitchhiking or went to Toledo or even the other
guy that escaped prison and there was... A possibility
that maybe he did something while he was out.
Even all of those reveals as we move through
her timeline were years apart. That information
came out slowly. And one of those moments resulted
in her mom having to dig through her clothes
to find her hair. I can't even imagine what doing
something like that would do to a person. Just
knowing that the parents, that her parents were
committed to doing anything to help find their
child, it's very harrowing, but it gives me the
feeling that there are answers out there for
this family. I do still think that this case
is so worthy of bringing her home. Yeah, Yvonne
deserves to come home and however that looks,
she deserves to come home and she deserves to
rest and have a place to rest at home. So if
you know anything about Yvonne's disappearance
in August of 1977 or her whereabouts today, please
call the Fairview Park Police at 440 -356 -4415.
We will have pictures of Yvonne on our Instagram
at coldandmissing, as well as the age progress
photos that I mentioned. We'll have that on there
as well. Please share these far and wide. Let's
get her case out there. Let's get the age progress
photo out there. And let's get energy behind
her case and people talking about her. I really
hope that resources are just like poured into
her case. So that way we can see it solved. We've
seen a lot of cold cases solved recently. So
I'd love to see this one solved too. And as I
mentioned, if you're not following us at coldandmissing
on Instagram, if we ever need to take a week
off, I always try to update there either via
a post or in our story. So please watch out for
it there. And if you're looking for some of our
old episodes, like Eli mentioned at the top of
the episode, you can find those on our website,
www .coldandmissing .com. We also have transcripts
there. So if you or someone you love is hard
of hearing, you can follow along with the official
transcripts on our website. And if you could
leave us a five -star review today, that would
be so great. It really helps others find this
podcast, give the podcast a chance, give it a
listen. And quite frankly, giving it five stars
is going to get Yvonne's case listened to because
she's right at the top. So that's who they're
going to click on and listen to. So giving five
stars really does advocate for these cases. I
know I'm asking it for my podcast, but it gets
the case information out there, which is why
I'm asking for it. I promise if I didn't need
to, I would not ask because we do not care about
numbers or anything like that. We just want the
case information out there. But that is all I
have. Thank you so much for listening to Cold
and Missing. I'm your host, Ali . And I'm your
co -host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe,
y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all.