Teresa Ann Gruetter

• Missing Since 09/11/1991
• Missing From Boring, Oregon
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 03/12/1958 (68)
• Age 33 years old
• Height and Weight 5'7, 115 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Gruetter has a long scar on her abdomen.

Details of Disappearance

Gruetter was last seen at her home in the 31400 block of Southeast Hamlet Drive in Boring, Oregon at about 11:00 p.m. on September 11, 1991. She shared the house with her sister and her young son.

Gruetter's sister woke up at 6:30 a.m. on September 12, after the time Gruetter would have normally awakened her. She discovered Gruetter was gone, her bed had not been slept in, her ten-year-old son was asleep and her car was parked in the driveway. There were no indications of forced entry, and Gruetter's purse was missing.

Half an hour later, Gruetter's boss at Ott's Friction Supply Inc. in Portland, Oregon, where she was a secretary, called the residence because Gruetter hadn't arrived at work. Her sister then notified the police. Gruetter has never been heard from again. It's uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning, and she doesn't fit the profile of someone who would do so. In addition to her son, she had a seven-year-old daughter who lived with her father.

One of Gruetter's ex-boyfriends, Bruce Arlen Retchless, has long been a suspect in her disappearance. A photo of Retchless is posted with this case summary.

He and Gruetter lived together between April and July 1990. On July 1, 1990, the police went to their home to investigate a fight and found cocaine in the bathroom, and the couple admitted they'd been selling it. Retchless was convicted of drug charges as a result, although Gruetter was not. He was also convicted of forgery that year, and later violated his probation by failing to make court-ordered payments, enter an anger management program and get treatment for his alcohol problem. He was not sent to prison until his fourth probation violation, in 1992.

In July 1991, Gruetter sought a no-contact order, telling the judge that Retchless had verbally abused her, threatened to beat her, and was bothering her at work. The judge ordered Retchless not to see Gruetter or talk to her. A month later, Retchless went back to the judge and claimed Gruetter was abusing him. Again, the judge ordered him not to contact her. A month after that, Gruetter disappeared.

Retchless has a history of stalking and violence towards women. In the mid-1980s, he cut the electrical lines to a woman's home, broke into her house and left a rope on her bed. In 1988, a woman accused him of rape but did not press charges. After Gruetter disappeared, another Oregon woman moved to Arizona to get away from Retchless, and after she left, he called her sister and sister more than sixty times a day trying to find her.

Foul play is suspected in Gruetter's case; it is being treated as a homicide and Retchless is the primary suspect in her case, but he has never been charged. Gruetter's disappearance remains unsolved.