Hammond was last seen in Clinton, Missouri at 11:45 p.m. on April 4, 1991. She was talking to her fiance, Rob Shafer, at a telephone booth in a parking lot outside the Food Barn Store in the center of town, in the area of Jefferson Street and 2nd Street. Hammond told him she was too tired to meet with him as planned and she would go to their home and take a bath instead. She also told him a suspicious man circling the parking lot in his old truck. Hammond described him as a "filthy, bearded man." She said he parked his truck near the booth and got out of it with a flashlight, as if he was looking for something. Suddenly Shafer heard Hammond scream, then the line went dead. Her car was later found abandoned in the parking lot.

Shafer immediately drove to the phone booth. On the way there, he passed a late 1960s or early 1970s model green Ford F-150 pickup truck and heard Hammond scream his name. Shafer followed the vehicle for about a mile on 2nd Street and Culvert Drive, but his own car's transmission failed and he had to stop driving. Shafer stated the truck he saw had a decal of water or outdoor scene completely covering the rear window, possibly a white top, and possible damage to its left front fender. Witnesses reported seeing a Caucasian male driving a similar truck near the telephone booth at time Hammond disappeared. The man, who has never been identified, was wearing coveralls and a dark-colored baseball cap. He had eyeglasses, a beard and a moustache.

Shafer himself was considered a suspect for a time after Hammond's abduction and was given a polygraph test. He was cleared of any involvement in her case, however. Hammond's case may be linked to two other Missouri women. Cheryl Ann Kenney, a convenience store worker, disappeared after locking up her store in Nevada, Missouri, 70 miles from Macks Creek, on February 27, 1991. Trudy Darby, another convenience store worker in Macks Creek, Missouri, was abducted from her workplace on January 19, 1991, six weeks prior to Hammond's disappearance. The store was found robbed of $220 afterwards. Darby's nude body was found in the Little Niangua River two days later; she had been shot twice in the head with a shotgun. Half-brothers Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney were later convicted of the robbery and Darby's rape and murder. There are similarities between Darby's murder, Hammond's abduction and Kenney's disappearance, but there is no hard evidence to link the cases. All three cases remain unsolved.

There were several unconfirmed sightings of Hammond in several states and in Canada after her disappearance. At the time she went missing, she worked in a bank and also attended classes at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Missouri.