The Mysterious Disappearance of Mary Lou Bostwick
A teenager is dropped off at a friend's home to babysit and vanishes
Teenager’s Puzzling Disappearance
On July 17th, 1972, 15-year-old Mary Lou Bostwick was dropped off at the home of a friend to babysit. She would never be seen or heard from again. Unsettling rumors would crop up and a strange discovery would be made, but little in the way of actual evidence was ever discovered.
What happened to Mary Lou Bostwick?
Mary Lou Bostwick
Mary Lou Bostwick was born on July 20th, 1956, to parents Gilbert and Mary. She and her family lived in Athens, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, there is very little information available about Mary Lou, her personality or her life. However, it was said that she wished to drop out of school following her sixteenth birthday, in order to help care for her younger siblings, and that her parents had agreed to this plan.
Mary Lou—just three days shy of her sixteenth birthday—was dropped off in nearby Waverly, New York, by her father on July 17th, 1972. Sources state that she was left at her friend’s house, but there is no information about this friend or their family available.
Mary Lou’s mother stopped by on her birthday to give her presents and a cake, but, strangely, discovered that her daughter wasn’t even there. She asked where Mary Lou was and was told by the residents that she’d never arrived in the first place.
It appears that no one, including her family, had heard from Mary Lou in those few days or knew anything of her current whereabouts. It’s also unclear whether or not it was typical for her to go for days at a time without contacting her family when staying elsewhere.
Yet the bag that she had presumably packed for her stay in Waverly was found in the friend’s house.
Again, there is no information about this, such as where in the home the bag turned up, how it could have been left there and gone unnoticed if the teenager had never shown up, or whether or not Mary Lou had stayed there before and might have left some of her things there another time. So one can only speculate about its presence.
Investigation
Mary Lou was reported missing and an investigation into her disappearance was begun by law enforcement. However, this would yield few clues.
Mary Bostwick worked tirelessly to locate her daughter, even raising money for a reward fund.
“I know that if we can get the reward money up high enough someone will come forward,” she noted hopefully.
She ultimately raised $162 (equivalent to roughly $1,200 in 2025).
“I've had a lot of strange phone calls lately, people saying they know this and they know that. But I think this could bring someone out of the woodwork.”
The Bostwick family also worked with psychics, but to no avail.
Sadly, as the years went by with no answers, her family came to believe that Mary Lou was no longer alive.
“I just want the peace of mind to know where she is and to end this once and for all,” said Mary.
Mary Lou’s Disappearance Related to Another Teenager’s Murder?
State Police Lieutenant Edward Bloomer said that investigators “would appreciate anyone with information concerning the girl’s disappearance to give us a call.”
One witness came forward to claim that the missing girl had gone to a party on the evening she’d vanished and had been beaten to death. This account was never substantiated, though.
For her part, Mary Bostwick believed that her daughter’s disappearance was related to the murder of another local teenager.
In October 1973, 16-year-old Sharron Coston vanished from Sayre, Pennsylvania (approximately 2.5 miles away from Waverly, New York), and was found dead days later.
A man named Gerald Paul McKenna would be convicted for her rape and murder in 1974, though he professed innocence of any wrongdoing. During McKenna’s trial, a witness testified against him in exchange for immunity and this individual—whose identity wasn’t revealed—was allegedly a suspect in Mary Lou’s case.
Who was this witness? And were they indeed somehow responsible for the disappearance of Mary Lou Bostwick? These questions remain unanswered.
McKenna’s conviction would be overturned in 1982, but he would later be convicted again for Sharron’s killing. He eventually died in prison.
Case Goes Cold
“The case is definitely not closed,” Bloomer stated in 1980. “The case is still under investigation and has been for the last several months. We have a lot of renewed information, but nothing concrete. We have to try to locate her, and right now we’re concentrating on that.”
However, they never did locate Mary Lou and, as time went on with no viable leads, her case went cold.
Sadly, both of her parents and one of her siblings have since passed away.
The mysterious 1972 disappearance of Mary Lou Bostwick remains open and unsolved.
Thank you for covering this case.