Case Details
- Photo URLs:
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- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 10/02/1966
- Missing From:
- Missing From Altoona, Florida
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Female
- Race:
- Race White
- Date of Birth:
- Date of Birth 07/24/1945 (79)
- Age:
- Age 21 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 5’3, 115 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Clothing/Jewelry Description A two-piece bathing suit; the bottom part is blue and the top part is blue and red striped.
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, green eyes. Leichner wears prescription eyeglasses, but they were left behind when she vanished. Her last name is pronounced “Like-ner.”
- Details of Disappearance:
- On October 2, 1966, two friends, Leichner and Pamela Nater, went to a picnic in a Florida forest with a skin-diving club. They were with their boyfriends. Around 2-3 pm, they walked into the woods and vanished.
They left all their belongings – purses, clothes, shoes, even glasses – at the picnic table. A huge search found nothing. Police don’t think they drowned; they were good swimmers and the water was too cold. Their boyfriends weren’t suspects.
In 2007, police closed the case, believing serial killer Gerard John Schaefer Jr. was responsible. Schaefer was convicted of two murders but suspected in many more. Although never charged in this case, police had evidence, including a witness and a confession he gave in prison, linking him to Leichner and Nater’s disappearance. Schaefer was killed in prison in 1995.
Leichner and Nater’s disappearance remains a mystery, even though police believe they know who did it.
- Agency:
- Lake County Sheriff’s Office 352-343-9529
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 10/02/1966