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SALT LAKE CITY -- Twenty-five years after a young woman disappeared from downtown Salt Lake City, law enforcement officers are asking the public for new information.
Debra Frost, then 17, was last seen at Mountain Bell Plaza at 10 p.m. on July 9, 1984. She planned to hitchhike or walk to Montgomery Street but never arrived. Today her childhood friend Venus Pierson says she thinks about Frost all the time.
"It was really sad to not have any information about her," Pierson said. "We were like sisters."
At the time of Frost's disappearance, police distributed 1,100 missing persons fliers, but nothing came of them. A year later, detectives told newspapers they believed Frost may have been murdered by a serial killer passing through town, but her body was never found.
"It's a weird case, in that nobody knows what happened to her," said Salt Lake Police Sgt. Robin Snyder. "Leads have gone cold since then. It's like she disappeared off the face of the earth."
Today Frost would be 42 years old. She has a burn scar of her left calf.
Snyder says the technology law enforcement has today would have likely helped in the Frost case.
"Twenty-five years ago we didn't have highway signs with descriptions of suspect vehicles or descriptions of victims. We didn't have the internet. We didn't have phones. Now people are able to receive text messages on their phones if there's an Amber Alert," she said.
Pierson knows the information is not a lot to go on, but after 25 years of worrying she hopes its enough.
"If anybody knows any information, just say: ‘You don't need to worry any longer. She's alive, she's fine.' Or even if she is dead, if somebody knew that, [say]: 'She's passed away and you don't need to worry about it anymore,'" Pierson pleaded.
If you have any information about the case, you're asked to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or the Salt Lake City Police Department at 801-799-3000.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com
