Fravel moved to Las Vegas, Nevada after graduating high school. She got an apartment and a job at a Taco Bell restaurant. In June 1986, her mother sent her money so she could come home to Rancho Cordova, California to visit. Fravel never arrived in California, however. She was last seen on June 13, 1986, when she left her apartment on south 3rd Street to visit her boyfriend. She also planned to go to Boulder Highway and Desert Inn to pick up her paycheck from Taco Bell. Fravel had not vehicle and often hitchhiked as a means of transportation; she may have been hitchhiking on the day of her disappearance. She never arrived at her destinations. When authorities checked her apartment, they found her two kittens had been left without food and were starving.

Fravel is described as a caring pet owner who would not have willingly left her kittens without food. She never picked up her last paycheck from work. There was a possible sighting of her in 1988; a California store clerk said he checked her identification to see if she was old enough to buy alcohol, and recognized her name. This sighting has not been confirmed. Foul play is suspected in Fravel's case, which remains unsolved.