Missing
Zeta D. Gordon
Zeta, approximately 1992
Date and time person was reported missing : 10/05/1992
Missing location (approx) :
Atchison County, Kansas
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 11/26/1948 (72)
Age at the time of disappearance: 43 years old
Height / Weight : 5'5, 105 pounds
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Zeta wears contact lenses. She has pierced ears.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Zeta was last seen as she left her family's residence in Atchison County, Kansas at 2:00 a.m. on October 5, 1992 after an argument with her husband, Wayne Gordon.
She said she wanted to take a drive to cool off. She has never been heard from again. She left behind three children between the Age at the time of disappearance: s of nine and twenty-three; one of them witnessed her leaving the house that night.
Two of Zeta's children discovered her white Chrysler Le Baron parked in a lot near an abandoned farmhouse in Atchison County the following day. Zeta's purse and a suitcase were located inside the car. The convertible top was down, the keys were in the ignition and the radio was turned on, but there was no sign of Zeta at the scene.
It was after they found her car that her children reported her missing. There were about ten possible sightings of Zeta in the local area in the weeks after her disappearance, some reported by people who knew her. None of the sightings were confirmed, however.
Wayne, a dentist and the son of a former Kansas State Senator, divorced Zeta in January 1994, and remarried in 1997. He committed suicide in January 1998 at the Age at the time of disappearance: of 48, hanging himself at a Boy Scout camp where had he often volunteered. He left no note and no indication as to his motive.
Police did not call him a suspect in Zeta's disappearance, but many rumors about his possible involvement circulated in the local community and he was considered a person of interest in her case.
Zeta was studying interior design at the time of her disappearance. Authorities believe she was the victim of a homicide, as it would be uncharacteristic of her to abandon her children and her elderly mother. Her case remains unsolved.
Other information and links : ncy
Atchison County Police Department
913-367-4323
September 2021 updates and sources
Kansas Bureau Of Investigation
The Kansas City Star
The Lawrence Journal-World
October 12, 2004. April 29, 2014; Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated.
Interactive Missing Person Search Map