Hudakoc's mother and stepfather were out of town when she disappeared from her hometown of Naples, Florida on November 15, 1998. One of her stepfather's coworkers was staying at the house to watch her and her older sisters. Hudakoc got a phone call at 11:00 p.m. on November 14. She sneaked out her bedroom window a short time afterwards to attend a party. She took a pager with her and asked her sister to page her if there was any trouble. She didn't take any personal belongings, and she left a candle lit in the window. She never returned home and has never been heard from again.

Authorities determined Hudakoc went to the party with a 20-year-old friend, Ronald DePeppo. They left the gathering together between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m., driving his blue 1991 Mazda. When questioned, DePeppo said Hudakoc got a page and they stopped at a pay phone at the corner of Airport Road and Davis Boulevard so she could make a call. He said afterward, she asked him to take her home because she planned to meet someone else. He said the last time he saw her was when he dropped her off at her house.

On December 1, DePeppo's car was destroyed in a fire. Authorities concluded the blaze was an accident. He turned the charred vehicle over to them for forensic processing, but the analysis didn't turn up any evidence. DePeppo cooperated with authorities during the beginning of their investigation into Hudakoc's case, but he has since hired an attorney and refuses to answer further questions or take a polygraph. Authorities were unable to verify that Hudakoc got a page that night as he said she did. Depeppo was never identified as a suspect in Hudakoc's disappearance, although investigators said they were looking at several persons of interest. Her immediate family have all passed polygraphs and been ruled out as suspects.

Hudakoc was born in Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She and her family moved to Naples when she was in middle school. She was a freshman at Naples High School in 1998. Records show she hasn't applied for a driver's license or gotten a job since she went missing. She had run away once before, but only for about a day, and although authorities initially thought she'd left of her own accord when she disappeared in 1998, they now believe she is deceased. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance, which remains unsolved.