She Left a Movie in the VCR and Vanished. Nearly 40 Years Later, Police Say Someone Still Knows the Truth.

When 23-year-old Carla Anderson disappeared from her apartment in Wadena, Minnesota, she left behind the kind of scene that still gives investigators chills.

Her rented movie was still sitting in the VCR. Her purse was inside the apartment. The door was locked. There were no obvious signs of a struggle. But Carla was gone.

Nearly four decades later, her family is still asking the same painful questions.

Did someone take her? Did she leave with someone she trusted? Was she harmed shortly after she disappeared? Or is there still one person in Wadena who has been carrying the truth all these years?

Carla vanished in November 1987, just after what should have been a happy weekend. She had gone out to dinner with her mother and stepfather to celebrate being named employee of the month at Hardee’s, where she worked as a fry cook and was affectionately known as “Spud.”

After dinner, Carla rented movies and was dropped off at Greenwood Apartments around 8 p.m.

Then she disappeared.

An Apartment Left Frozen in Time

Carla’s mother, Roberta Wells, knew something was wrong when her daughter did not answer repeated phone calls over the weekend.

Carla was close to her mother, and it was unusual for her to vanish from contact. Roberta had planned to help style Carla’s hair for her employee of the month photo that Monday. But when Carla did not show up for work, concern turned into panic.

When Roberta went to Carla’s apartment, she found the place strangely untouched.

Police said there were no signs of a break-in. Carla’s purse was still there. The rented movie was still in the VCR. Her apartment door was locked.

The only items missing were her keys and the Hardee’s rainbow jacket she had recently received for being employee of the month.

For Carla’s family, that moment changed everything.

Her brother, Dan Anderson, remembers getting the call from his mother that Monday morning. Carla, who loved her job, had not shown up. Dan immediately drove about three hours to Wadena. Then he had to make another heartbreaking call, telling their father, Marvin Anderson, who flew in from Alaska to search for his daughter.

A Small Town Search With No Answers

Wadena was a town of about 4,000 people, the kind of place where a disappearance like Carla’s shook everyone.

Her family, friends, and volunteers handed out posters. They searched. They talked to reporters. They offered a reward. They watched crowds, hoping to spot her face.

At first, there was hope. Maybe Carla had gone somewhere. Maybe someone had seen her. Maybe one small clue would bring her home.

But the searches turned up nothing.

Police looked into several possibilities. One early theory was that Carla may have left her apartment willingly. There had reportedly been a fire burning in a nearby swamp that night, and investigators wondered whether she may have gone outside to look at it. But Wadena Police Chief Naomi Plautz has said there is no evidence proving Carla went to see the fire.

Investigators later suspected foul play because Carla did not seem like someone who would choose to disappear and stay gone.

That is one of the most haunting parts of the case. Carla was independent, but she was also connected to her family, her job, and her routine. According to those who loved her, she would not have simply walked away forever.

Carla Was Vulnerable, But She Was Also Independent

Carla was only 4-foot-10 and weighed around 90 pounds. Her family worried that her learning disability made her vulnerable to people who might take advantage of her.

But Dan describes his sister as fiercely independent.

She had her own apartment. She had a job she cared about. She was excited about life and looking forward to what came next.

She loved music, especially “Delta Dawn,” which she would sing loudly enough that her brothers sometimes begged her to turn it down. She was happy, bubbly, loyal to her friends, and close to her family.

Carla’s family has spent decades not only searching for answers, but also trying to make sure people remember who she was before she became a missing person case.

She was a daughter. A sister. An aunt to nieces and nephews she never got to meet. A young woman who wanted a future.

Suspects, Theories, and Dead Ends

Over the years, investigators looked at multiple people.

Carla’s boyfriend and family members were reportedly ruled out after passing polygraph tests. Police also looked into a man Carla’s mother had previously reported for allegedly harassing her. According to old reports, he admitted he was in the area that night with a friend, but said Carla did not answer when he called her around 9:30 p.m. Both men reportedly passed polygraphs.

Authorities also examined whether a brown car stolen near Carla’s apartment building that same weekend could have been connected to her disappearance. To this day, police have not found evidence proving a link, though they have not completely dismissed the possibility.

Convicted killer Floyd Tapson was also once considered because he targeted women with mental disabilities, but investigators said he had an alibi that cleared him in Carla’s case.

Lead after lead went nowhere.

That kind of uncertainty can be unbearable for families. It is hard enough to lose someone. It is another kind of pain to spend decades not knowing where they are or what happened to them.

A New Reward and Renewed Hope

Now, police are hoping a new $25,000 reward will finally encourage someone to come forward.

Chief Plautz believes someone knows what happened to Carla.

She has called the case one that haunts investigators, even those who were not there when it first began. As police chiefs and detectives retired over the years, the weight of Carla’s disappearance was passed from one investigator to the next.

Today, the department is reviewing old tips, interviewing locals, and using newer tools like DNA analysis to revisit the case with fresh eyes.

Police are not ruling out people who may have been cleared in the past. They are also pursuing old and new leads.

That may be what gives Carla’s family a small measure of hope after all these years.

A Family Still Waiting

Carla would be 62 years old today.

Since she disappeared, she has missed birthdays, deaths, births, holidays, and decades of family memories. Five of her seven nieces and nephews were born after she vanished. Her mother, stepfather, and brother all died without knowing what happened to her.

Before Roberta Wells died, she arranged a shared headstone for Carla and Carla’s brother Scott, who died in 2007. Dan said the family believes his mother is now with Carla.

But for the relatives still here, the waiting continues.

They still wonder what Carla’s life might have looked like. Would she have married? Had children? Built a life of her own? Stayed close to family? Continued being the happy, music-loving woman they remember?

Nearly 40 years later, Wadena police say they are not giving up.

And maybe the answer is still out there; in an old memory, a rumor someone dismissed, a detail someone was afraid to share, or one “little nugget” that could finally point investigators in the right direction.

What do you think happened to Carla Anderson after she returned to her apartment that night? Did she leave with someone she knew, or did a stranger cross her path at the worst possible moment?