Mildred Roche, 38, of Fargo, North Dakota, was last seen by her parents on May 31, 1976, at their farm near Eagle Lake, Minnesota (also described as near Mankato, Minnesota). She and her husband, Ronald Roche, then drove roughly five and a half hours back to their home in the 1400 block of University Drive in Fargo. According to Ronald, the couple argued about divorce during the drive and into the evening after they arrived home. The next day, he said, he heard Mildred making inquiries by phone about bus schedules out of town. On June 2, 1976, while Ronald was at work, Mildred packed two suitcases, an overnight bag, cash, and traveler's checks totaling three to four thousand dollars, and left the residence; she has not been seen or heard from since in any confirmed capacity. She was 5'6", 115 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, and had a mole on her right cheek. She managed a mild, tapering case of epilepsy with a phenobarbital prescription that has gone unfilled since her disappearance.
Mildred's parents reported her missing on June 23, 1976, after receiving a letter from Ronald about the pending divorce. Police initially treated the case as a voluntary adult disappearance. In late September 1976, after Mildred's parents found some of her clothing for sale at a Salvation Army store in Fargo and reported that a suitcase she had packed for the Minnesota trip had been left behind, investigators began examining other possibilities. Ronald stated Mildred called him three times afterward, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Boston, Massachusetts, but police found no evidence she lived in either place, nor any record of how she might have left Fargo (no cab company, bus line, or acquaintance could be identified). Ronald was questioned multiple times, declined a polygraph, and retained an attorney; he was never charged. He remarried in 1977 and continued to live in the same Fargo home. In 1996, Fargo police excavated the backyard of that residence and found nothing of investigative significance. Ronald Roche died in 2018. The case remains open with the Fargo Police Department (701-241-8281 / tip line 701-241-5777, text keyword FARGOPD to 847411), and foul play is suspected. NamUs Case #MP23460. Case Number TT136817.
