Laura ‘Laurie’ Lynn Partridge was born on May 31, 1957 to Ken and Mary Partridge of Santa Monica, California. The family relocated to Spokane from Fountain Valley, CA when Mr. Partridge was transferred by the outdoor advertising firm that he worked for in August of 1974. At first Laurie was incredibly upset about the move to Washington state and had hopes of going back as soon as possible but she quickly settled into her new life. She even broke up with her old boyfriend in California and started dating a new guy in Spokane (which made her parents incredibly happy as they strongly disliked the old bf and adored the new one). Mrs. Partridge said of her daughters new fiance: “we liked him the moment he first came to the house. He is also religious and they really hit it off.” The senior at Ferris High School had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a brown mole on her right cheek; at the time of her disappearance she was 17 years old, stood at 5’0” tall and weighed 110 pounds. Laura (who only went by Laurie) was the oldest of five siblings: she had three younger sisters (Taryn, Cindy, and Kimberly) and a brother. A girl whose faith was incredibly important to her, she loved playing the guitar and even taught her sister Kim how to play. She also wrote for her new high schools newspaper and was on the drill team.

At roughly 12:30 PM on December 4, 1974 Laurie went to the administrative offices at her school after telling friends she was starting to experience menstrual cramps; she wanted to go home and lay down before her shift at work later. She didn’t have a car of her own so she called both of her parents for a ride, but they were working and told her to just hang out and wait for the bus (I read in a news article that it was rainy that day). Not willing to sit around and hoping the walk and some fresh air might help soothe her cramps, Laurie decided to trek the two miles home. Because she technically had enough credits to graduate early, per school policy she was allowed to end her day early and was able to just leave campus without notifying anyone at home. The only person who was aware that she left was her sister Cindy. When Mrs. Partridge picked the rest of the kids up later that day, Cindy told her Laurie left hours earlier. When they got home, she sent her husband and son out to talk to some of the neighbors who hadn’t seen her either.

Laurie never made it home and, and after failing to make it into work later that same day at the Lincoln Heights Theater her parents knew something was wrong, and after contacting her fiance and some friends with no success, reported her to the police as missing. Per her niece’s blog ‘creativehomelife‘ (link posted below under works cited), “after she was reported missing Laurie’s father and second oldest child walked the route she would have walked to get home. They knocked on every neighbor’s door and spoke to anyone along the route that answered their door, or who they came across. They were able to build a timeline where Laurie was and the approx time she disappeared based on accounts of people who saw her walking by.” In an article from The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975, “school officials at Ferris High School where she was a senior tend to doubt she would run away based on her records and their personal acquaintance with her. The same holds true for her friends.”

Laurie was last seen at the intersection of 37th Street and Havana Street by a man shoveling snow from his driveway. She was wearing a long hooded navy blue wool coat similar to a monk’s robe, a tan sweater, burgundy and tan plaid pants and faded blue denim oxford shoes with crepe soles and had with her a brown leather handbag with a braided shoulder strap and blue flower on it. The neighborhood that Laurie was walking through was surrounded by sprawling fields and the houses were set far apart from one another. Law enforcement speculate that she most likely was abducted while crossing one of these barren stretches of land… with nothing but empty fields around her, it would have been easy for someone to grab her quickly without witnesses. A detective with the sheriff’s department said it was as if she “fell off the face of the earth.”

The Partridge family was very open with law enforcement about Laurie’s initial troubles fitting in with her new peers, but they also made them aware of all the new extracurricular activities she had become involved in as well as the exciting new relationship she was in. They made it crystal clear that she would never run away or leave on her own accord. Laurie may have missed California at first but was really settling into her new life in Spokane; she was even given the opportunity to go back to Fountain Valley to finish out her senior year. That offer was extended roughly around the time she met her new beau, became the advertising editor with the school newspaper and started the drill team so she turned it down. Her mother said that “when Fall arrived and the autumn leaves started to fall, she said she really loved it here. She also had started going to the schools games and was making friends.”

At first Spokane police thought Laurie left willingly on her own, however the Partridge family made it clear from the beginning that they strongly disagreed with this theory. It didn’t take long for law enforcement to change their opinion and it was quickly determined that she was taken by force (it’s worth noting the family feels that valuable time was wasted before that happened). Laurie’s loved ones were insistent that she would never leave on her own, largely because she had just gotten engaged to her 20 year-old boyfriend and the two had plans to go pick out an engagement ring the day after she disappeared. The couple were planning on a summer wedding after she graduated from high school, and her dream was to move to his family farm, get married, have his babies, raise livestock and live happily ever after. Newspaper reports said the young woman was quickly adapting into her new life in Washington state and was excited about the future. In the days following Laurie’s disappearance, four Spokane sheriff units combed the area where she was last seen surrounding the city limits south going towards Tower Mountain while three other units patrolled the area around Ferris High School and the Lincoln Heights area. Immediately feeling foul play was involved, Mr. Partridge put out a $500 reward for information leading to his daughter’s safe return. A boy who lived in the Partridge’s Spokane neighborhood claims he somehow had firsthand knowledge that Laurie had run away, however his claim seems to hold no merit, as it is rarely mentioned and doesn’t really seem to factor into any of the pertinent information surrounding her case.

Before her disappearance, Mr. Partridge bought his daughter two general admission tickets to a Beach Boys concert later that month on December 9, 1974 at the Spokane Coliseum. Family members said Laurie was carrying them with her the afternoon she disappeared and they knew there was no way she would ever willingly miss that show. There’s conflicting reports that Laurie’s Mom either recalled by memory at least one of the ticket numbers or she had them both written down somewhere. The Partridge’s pleaded with law enforcement for permission to check the ticket numbers of people coming into the concert but denied their request, claiming it would hold people up that were trying to get into the show. After the concert was over, police went back and searched for her ticket numbers in the stubs and they realized that both of Laurie’s tickets had been redeemed. Unfortunately at this point it was too late and there was no way to figure out who had used them (they were general seating and obviously this was well before the days of cameras).

Around the time Laurie disappeared, her niece wrote that: “police and family also spoke to a witness who came forward in 1974. A teenage girl was riding her horse around 4:15 PM and spotted a man in his 40’s-50’s in a field holding a rifle standing with a girl who she thought looked like Laurie and she described the clothes as to what Laurie wore. They were standing in front of a vehicle described as a white truck with a van back end and a darker colored door. When the witness looked back the girl was no longer visible.This sighting was near the route Laurie last walked.” When she glanced back the young girl had disappeared but later that night saw the story of Laurie Partridge on the news and (after telling her mother) reported what she saw to law enforcement; nothing ever came of it (this was actually reported on in 2011, not 1974).

According to Laurie’s sister ‘Taryn‘ on the WebSlueths forum, “there was a sighting of Laurie in a field with a man with a truck and another sighting 2-3 days later in the back of a car with another man.The police did things a lot differently back then-and thought she ran away. Which we know she didn’t. There are a lot of things that haven’t been followed thru on and as more time passes it gets harder.Someone has to know something.” … “A few days later she was seen in in the back seat with a man- the car was green Vega or Pinto.” … “I think it was the parking lot of PAY N SAVE in SPOKANE.” …

Multiple reports said that a green Ford Pinto was in the area at the time of her abduction and may have been following her. Per Laurie’s niece, “police also received reports about a green Ford Pinto station wagon in the area possibly following Laurie and days later someone also contacted police and made a report that they believe they spotted the missing 17 year-old being held captive in the back of a pinto, these leads never went anywhere either. There were a couple other tips that Laurie’s Dad and Fiance followed up on, including them driving to Idaho. Again nothing viable was found.” Over the years law enforcement conducted hundreds of interviews and polygraphs with Laurie’s loved ones, friends, and acquaintances in California and Spokane … all of them passed. 

It seems there are varying reports out there on whether or not Laurie’s purse and its contents have been found in the general area where she was last seen two days after her disappearance. Some sources say yes, others swear it’s never been recovered but I’m going to go by her nieces blog, who said it has not been recovered and that “her family has verified this with detectives.” In a deleted Reddit account, a user comments on a post about Laurie that: “Holy &%$ — my Dad went to school with her and he used to tell me about this case when I was smaller to illustrate why he and Mom worried about us. He said it really rattled him — one day he and his friends were discussing who was going to ask out the new cute girl first (though I guess she was already engaged?), and the next…. they were told she was missing. He said though, that her purse HAD been found. I do wonder if someone found it but didn’t turn it in, instead keeping it as some sort of weird trophy.”

Over the years three suspects were questioned in relation to Laurie’s disappearance but no one has ever been formally charged. Her new fiance was questioned in depth but was never considered a suspect. In regards to who abducted her sister, Taryn Chambers said: “I’m not sure-maybe someone she knew. We thought maybe Ted Bundy, but he was in Utah at the time.” At the time Ted was living roughly 750 miles away from Ferris High School in Salt Lake City (even though we all know he had no problem driving long distances when hunting for prey). In December 1974 he was in between jobs: from May 3, 1974 to August 28, 1974 Bundy worked for the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia and remained unemployed until June 1975 when he briefly worked as the night manager in charge of Bailiff Hall at the University of Utah (he was fired the next month for showing up drunk). Ted was a law student at the University of Utah at the time and was living at 565 First Avenue (he was there from September 1974 to September 1975). We know Ms. Partridge fit the physical description of one of his victims: she was slim, a student and was in the right setting… However, gas related credit card receipts place Bundy in Utah at the time of Laurie’s disappearance. His last known murder before she was abducted was Debra Kent on November 8, 1975 out of Bountiful, Utah and he killed Caryn Campbell in Aspen, Colorado on (or around) January 12, 1975. The Partridge family doesn’t believe Ted had any involvement with Laurie’s disappearance and frankly, neither do I.

Another suspect that was investigated for Laurie’s disappearance is Stanley Marvin Bernson. Born in 1936, law enforcement suspect Bernson may have killed a total of 30 women around the Northwest and he was sentenced to life in prison for two of them, one in Oregon (1978) and another in Washington (1979). He was arrested in connection with the vicious stabbing death of Diane Remington and was later found guilty of killing 15 year old Sharon Weber, of Hermiston, OR. He at one point bragged to his cellmates as well as law enforcement that he traveled the country killing women with Ted Bundy but police were unable to ever place the two men together. According to the website ‘tapatalk,’ “the internet is strangely scrubbed of any Bernson references, but this snippet turns up in an Oregon criminal trial lawyer publication: ‘Bernson’s lawyer, the late Dennis Hachler, said that his client used to run with Ted Bundy and, he added that Bernson made Bundy look like a choir boy.” At the time of Laurie’s disappearance in 1974, Bernson was employed as a traveling produce salesman and lived in Spokane, WA. Coincidentally, he had a route nearby where she was abducted from. One of Laurie’s sisters asked law enforcement several times over the years to interview the convicted killer, and in July 2018 detectives working the case went to Walla Walla where he was incarcerated and questioned him; he denied having any involvement in her disappearance. No additional victims have been tied to Bernson after he was arrested, and he continues to serve his life term at the Washington State Penitentiary.

Per an article in The Spokesman Review published on January 19, 1975: “it isn’t that the family is just sitting back and waiting for something to happen. They have gone ‘deeply into debt,’ borrowing money to check out all of which have ended in “absolutely nothing.” The family even borrowed $5,000 to buy the help of famed psychic Peter Hurkos to help find Laurie. Hurkos gained international attention when he assisted Boston detectives in solving the Boston Strangler case and offered several possible leads that all lead to nothing (obviously). Not wanting to ruin her other kids’ childhood because of her own paranoia, Mary Partridge tried her hardest to not let the loss of Laurie affect her other children’s lives. However, none of them were ever really able to go back to “normal” and her disappearance caused such a deep seeded problem in the Partridge’s marriage that they ended up divorcing (although they reconciled and remarried over 10 years later). Of her big sisters disappearance, Kimberly Partridge-Carroll said, “Laurie was such a beautiful, beautiful person. Whoever took her changed the whole course of our lives.” Laurie’s mother passed away in 2004 but her father is still alive; her siblings are now dotted throughout the US. At this point, her family knows they are looking for a Jane Doe that would match Laurie’s physical description and they still are desperate for answers.

After Laurie disappeared the Partridge family moved out of Spokane, wanting to leave the trauma and bad memories behind. Kim said of her sisters disappearance: “it’s torture not knowing. It’s absolute torture.” Laurie’s niece wrote: “I never got to meet my Aunt Laurie, as my Mom was 10 years old when her sister went missing. Growing up, my mother would  talk to my brothers and I about Laurie’s abduction, it was very difficult back then for Mom to talk about it, and it still is today. She still can’t talk about her without crying. It is difficult for all the surviving family members to talk about.” 

DNA has been submitted by multiple family members in hopes to help build a genetic profile in case Laurie’s remains are ever found; her dental records are available for comparison as well. Ms. Partridge’s case remains unsolved as of March 2023; she would be 65 today and her social security number has never been used. Her case is featured in the ‘Ace of Diamonds playing cards’ used by prison inmates in Washington state; according to Laurie’s niece, “through research I found as of 2016, the cards have resulted in approx 600 tips, many have proved useless, but the program is indeed considered a success as the cards have resulted in 9 cold cases being solved.”

Works Cited:

youtube.com/watch?v=C41snwQJuEs&t=164s
creativehomelife.com/the-1974-disappearance-of-my-aunt-laurie-partridge/
reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/2x5yxw/what_happened_to_laurie_partridge_missing_from/
Lauriepartridgemissing.weebly.com