Name: Stefanie Kelly Stroh
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: October 15, 1987
Location Last Seen: Wells, Elko County, Nevada
Date of Birth: September 26, 1966
Age: 21 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Brown birthmark on instep of right foot; pierced ears.
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Available
Clothing: Black shirt, black tank top, black corduroy pants, brown leather ankle high shoes. Wearing a wooden bead necklace and was carrying a pink purse and an orange sleeping bag.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Stroh was last seen when she called her parents at the Four Way Cafe and Truck Stop in Wells, Nevada on October 15, 1987 at 10:15am.
She said she was coming home that night, was hitchhiking and had a ride.
Stroh had taken a year off from college to travel and was on her way home after spending 9 months abroad.
In October 1987, convicted serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells drifted through Nevada and worked briefly for a roofing company in the mining town of Winnemucca. There, he met Stefanie Stroh, who was hitchhiking across the country. In his confession, Sells said he offered her a ride to Reno, but along the way they pulled off the road to drop acid together. Sells choked the girl to death. Then, noticing a washtub and a bag of cement mix in the bed of the stolen truck he was driving, he anchored the girl's feet in the tub, waited overnight for the concrete to harden, and dumped her body into a nearby hot spring the next morning.
Agency Name: FBI - Las Vegas
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 702-385-1281
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: LV-20144
NCIC Case Number: M143791547
California Department of Justice
Truth in Justice - Who Killed Joel? 7/24/03
San Jose Mercury News 11/22/98
NamUs MP# 15153
The San Francisco Chronicle 10/24/87
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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