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Authorities say Joanne Williams was 22 years old the last time she was seen on December 7, 1978.
Williams left her East Gibson Street home that night to attend a dance class at a studio in Chinchilla some six miles away, according to investigators. She left the studio around 10 p.m. and was never seen again.
Police said they found her car, a red 1977 Datsun 200 SX with white racing stripes, about a week later, unlocked and abandoned across town at the intersection of Lafayette Street and North Everett Avenue.
Inside, police said they found her most recent paycheck and her purse untouched.
According to the Charley Project, authorities once considered Scranton businessman Frank Osellanie a suspect in Williams' disappearance.
Osellanie, who was also reportedly eyed in the 1986 disappearance of 11-year-old Jolene Michelle Lakey, denied involvement and was never charged in Williams' case. He was later convicted for the murder of 9-year-old Renee Waddle in 1990 and died in a Pennsylvania prison in 2020.
Joanne Williams was eventually declared legally dead in 1991, but her disappearance was never solved. A $5,000 reward is offered for information that leads to a break in her case.
Anyone with information is asked to call state police in Dunmore at 570-963-3156 or submit an anonymous tip online.
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