Gilkerson was last seen in Midland, Texas on November 8, 1986. She is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, volunteered at a halfway house and wanted to be a probation office. Although she was married at the time of her disappearance, she'd been seeing David Alderink for six months.

Alderink told the police he and the local library's custodian, Kenneth Wayne Parker, plotted to abduct women and sell them into prostitution in Mexico. Alderink offered to give Gilkerson to Parker. He asked Gilkerson to meet him at a bowling alley on West Loop 250 at 9:00 a.m. Gilkerson arrived driving her blue 1986 Honda Civic and Alderink drove her in her car to the Farm-to-Market 868 northwest of Midland. He said they stopped on the road and Parker met them there, duct-taped her mouth and eyes, put her in a sleeping bag and drove away with her in the back of his truck. Alderink then drove Gilkerson's car to the Wrangler's Club on west Interstate 20 and, an hour after Gilkerson's abduction, caught a flight to Michigan, where he was originally from.

Parker later told Alderink he'd taken Gilkerson to a caliche pit fourteen miles south of Midland, west of the Rankin Highway, and shot her to death after she fought with him and tried to run. He then burned her body with some old tires on a relative's property. The police later found the alleged murder weapon with two spent shells in the cylinder, but never found Gilkerson.

Alderink pleaded guilty to his role in Gilkerson's abduction in 1988 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison; he has since been released. Parker was convicted of kidnapping and attempted kidnapping and given two consecutive life sentences. He is still in prison and his release date is in 2048, by which time he will be over a hundred years old. He still maintains his innocence. He could be tried for Gilkerson's murder if sufficient evidence surfaces.

Gilkerson's body has never been located, but foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.

Above: Gilkerson's ring