Case Details:Donna Jean Michalenko, 38, disappeared from Kief, North Dakota, on November 2, 1968 (some agency records list November 9, 1968). Michalenko, a McLean County resident who decorated wedding cakes and was active in her community, spent the afternoon with a male friend visiting acquaintances in the Kief area. That evening the two went to a bar in Kief and stayed until midnight. The friend told investigators he then dropped Michalenko off outside the Butte, North Dakota home where her ex-husband and their three children lived; Michalenko also kept a house in Butte. No one has reported seeing or hearing from her since. Michalenko was white, 5'4", 125 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Because she had a documented history of leaving town voluntarily for extended stretches, her family did not immediately suspect foul play, and she was not reported missing until her daughter filed a report on December 27, 1968 — roughly six weeks after she was last seen.

The case is investigated jointly by the McLean County Sheriff's Office and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Investigators have since come to suspect foul play, though the case remains unsolved and officially open; few additional details have been released publicly. The male friend who was last with Michalenko has been named in independent case write-ups but has not been publicly charged. Some researchers have raised, without confirmation, a possible connection to confessed serial killer Samuel Little; no agency has confirmed or ruled out this link. Michalenko's case is documented in NamUs as MP14567. Anyone with information is asked to contact the McLean County Sheriff's Office at (701) 462-8103 or the North Dakota BCI at 1-800-472-2185 (or 701-328-5500). Case Number 630.