Kortne Stouffer

Case background and investigation

Kortne Ciera Stouffer was a 21-year-old woman living in Palmyra, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2012. Described by family as an energetic 'free spirit' who juggled several part-time jobs, including work as a dog groomer, she lived in a top-floor apartment in the 800 block of West Main Street. On the night of July 28 into July 29, 2012, she had been out with friends before returning home.

That night was marked by a series of disturbances at and around her apartment. Palmyra police responded more than once to complaints involving Kortne and her neighbors, and during one of the incidents her boyfriend was taken into custody on a probation-related matter. Her last documented contact with police came in the pre-dawn hours of July 29. A friend who was at the apartment reported going to sleep, and when he awoke later that day, Kortne was gone.

What alarmed investigators and family was that Kortne had left behind virtually everything she would normally have taken with her. Her purse, cash, cigarettes, and cellphone were near her bed; her shoes and keys were in their usual spot; and her car sat parked outside with the windows down. Her dog remained in the apartment. She had also failed to meet relatives as planned later that day. There were no signs of a struggle or violence inside the residence.

Police investigated the disappearance intensively and came to suspect foul play, though they publicly declined to name suspects and said they had not ruled anyone out. Searches of the surrounding area and numerous interviews did not produce Kortne or a definitive explanation for how she vanished so completely from her own home in a short window of time.

The compressed timeline drew particular scrutiny: police had been at or near the apartment repeatedly in the hours before she vanished, yet no one reported seeing her leave, and there was no clear account of how she could have departed on foot without her phone, keys, or shoes. Investigators reviewed the people who had been present that night and the neighbors involved in the disturbances, but publicly released little about their conclusions. In the years since, Kortne's parents have remained vocal advocates, keeping her case in the public eye and, along with supporters, offering a substantial reward reported at $100,000 for information leading to her whereabouts. Her case is listed with the FBI and in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as NamUs case MP17800. More than a decade later, the disappearance of Kortne Stouffer remains unsolved.