She “walked out of her own house” and was never seen again.
Norma Mae Maynard was sixty-one when her son reported her missing from her home in Boone, Iowa, on February 4, 1979. Her husband, Carl, had died sixteen days earlier.
No trace of her has ever been found. In 1992 the Governor’s office wrote that Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation had concluded she was the victim of homicide. The case remains unsolved.
This account is her brother’s. He has spent the rest of his life trying to find out what happened to her.
Original in hand-tinted oil
What is still not known
Forty-seven years on, five questions remain unanswered. The author sets them out in his synopsis of the case.
From the record
All 36 documents →
Boone Police Department
“***Left for L.A. on Greyhound yesterday at 7:15 pm.”
Steven J. Oeth
“…frankly, based on his comments, I agreed with his conclusion.”
Paula S. Dierenfeld
“…it has to in fact been concluded that Norma Mae Maynard was the victim of homicide.”
In the author’s words
What sets my sister’s story apart, what gives it a hideously unique quality, is that no investigation, no search was done by the local police department.
For Shame, Boone! For Shame, Iowa! The Disappearance of Norma Maynard
One thousand, one hundred and twenty-six pages. The police reports, the court records, the correspondence and the family photographs, set out in full by the person who gathered them. A corrected edition was published on 2 September 2026 — Norma’s birthday.
If you knew Norma, or remember that winter
People in Boone still remember 1979. Some may know something that never reached a police report. Anything at all, however small or however long ago, can be sent here and it will reach the family directly.
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