Susan Swedell went missing on a snowy January night nearly 30 years ago and now the Washington County Sheriff’s Office is renewing efforts to solve the case.
The agency has formed a cold-case unit to investigate the disappearance of the 19-year-old Lake Elmo woman who was last seen getting into a man’s car at a gas station at Hwy. 5 and Manning Avenue on Jan. 19, 1988. Others interested in solving the case have launched a podcast series called “Still Missing” to dig up and share information on old, dormant cold cases.
“Someone does know something and we’re searching for that person and those answers,” Washington County Sheriff Dan Starry said in a Facebook post on Monday. “Certainly a 19-year-old female does not disappear for 30 years without someone knowing something.”
Swedell had just left her job at an Oak Park Heights Kmart around 9 p.m. during a blizzard. She pulled into a K-Station about a mile from home and parked her car on the side of the station. An attendant saw her get into the car driven by a man who was filling his car at the pumps. Swedell not been seen since.
The man she was seen leaving with was described as tall with a well-build physique, unshaven with shoulder-length curly hair, according to information posted on the “Still Missing” podcast website.
So far five podcast episodes have been posted and another is due out Tuesday.
“We have lots of questions about Susan’s disappearance,” the podcast’s webpage states. “Someone out there has answers. Is it you?”
Anybody with information about the case can call the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 651-430-7850.
