Ann Marie Ellinwood

• Missing Since 04/15/1978
• Missing From Corvallis, Oregon
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 05/01/1965 (60)
• Age 12 years old
• Height and Weight 5'2, 95 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A bright yellow ski jacket with four zipper pockets, a shirt with vertical stripes in pastel colors, blue jeans, pink or white socks, white sneakers with a red triangle design on the sides, and a green ski cap. Possibly carrying a small portable radio.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Red pickup truck with a teardrop-shaped trailer. The trailer was 10 to 16 feet in length and rounded at both ends, and colored white or pale green with a dark blue or green horizontal stripe on the side and a door on the right side. It was weatherbeaten or dirty and may have been manufactured between 1950 and 1960.
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Red hair, brown eyes. Ann has freckles.

Details of Disappearance

Ann was last seen in Corvallis, Oregon on April 15, 1978. She participated in a March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon, her third, that day. The route was on a bike path along the Marys River. At 1:00 p.m., Ann told her friends her feet hurt and they should go on without her. She said she would go to a checkpoint at the Gill Coliseum.

She was last seen near the Pioneer Park ball field, across Highway 34 from the coliseum. Ann has never been heard from again. She had an afternoon paper route delivering the Gazette-Times, but never showed up for it, which is uncharacteristic of her behavior. Her parents reported her missing at 5:15 p.m.

An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of the child. A red pickup truck with a teardrop-shaped trailer was seen in the area around the time of her disappearance. The trailer was 10 to 16 feet in length and rounded at both ends, and colored white or pale green with a dark blue or green horizontal stripe on the side and a door on the right side. It was weatherbeaten or dirty and may have been manufactured between 1950 and 1960.

Eleven-year-old Stephanie Ann Newsom disappeared from West Salem, Oregon on April 19, four days after Ann. The girls were similar in age and appearance and were last seen walking alone during the daylight hours.

Due to the similarities, police immediately suspected the disappearances were linked. They were looking for a possible suspect in Ann's case, described as a white man with a stocky build, reddish-brown or sandy hair, a gruff voice and possibly a mustache. The suspect in Stephanie's case had a similar appearance: stocky, in his late twenties, with shaggy light brown hair.

Stephanie's partially clothed body was found on April 25 in a field next to the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. She had been dead for several days. Investigators determined she'd been raped and strangled.

By May, police had identified a suspect in Ann's disappearance and Stephanie's murder: Earl Fredrick "Woody" Chambers. A photo of him is posted with this case summary. He had a prior record for rape and assault of young women, and he owned a red pickup truck and a teardrop-shaped trailer, like the one seen in the area where Ann disappeared. After Ann went missing, he shaved off his mustache, cut his long strawberry-blond hair and dyed it black.

Police brought him in for questioning, and he denied any involvement in Ann's disappearance. He was ordered to appear before a grand jury on the morning of June 6, but never showed up. On the afternoon of June 6, Chambers's body was found in a rural area in Linn County, Oregon. He had died by suicide, without leaving a note.

The investigation went cold after Chambers's death, but since 1978 law enforcement had made periodic efforts to resolve Ann's disappearance and Stephanie's murder. Hair found in Chambers's trailer and vehicle, believed to be Ann's, was tested for DNA in 2005, but the results were inconclusive. Chambers remains the prime suspect in Ann's disappearance, and investigators believe he was responsible for Stephanie's murder.

Ann was a seventh-grader at Highland View Junior High School at the time of her disappearance. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance, which remains unsolved.