Adams was last seen at the Artesian Lounge in Herculaneum, Missouri on July 25, 1976. She asked her daughter to drive her there so she could meet Jimmie Lee Mills, a man she'd met earlier, who was a regular patron of the bar. At the bar, Adams danced with Mills and appeared to be very happy. Mills offered to drive her home. She has never been heard from again. Mills claims they left the bar at closing time and he dropped her off at a donut shop in Crystal City, Missouri at 4:00 a.m.

Mills was convicted of attempted rape and was released from prison in 1975, a year before Adams disappeared. At the time she went missing, he was out on bail awaiting trial for the rape of a teenage girl. He received probation and a suspended sentence in that case. He maintains his innocence in Adams's disappearance and says he has no idea what happened to her.

Adams was born and raised in Arkansas, and she lived in Festus, Missouri at the time of her disappearance. She has ten children, two of whom were still living at home at the time of her disappearance, and she was a devoted member of the Pentecostal Church. She was married twice; her first husband died in 1969 and her second marriage ended in divorce. It's uncharacteristic of her to go to bars, as she did on the night of her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.