Jennifer was last seen at approximately 3:00 p.m. in the Lemmon Valley area of Reno, Nevada on June 28, 1987. She bought candy and a soda a 7-11 convenience store and disappeared while walking away from the business towards her home a short distance away. Jennifer should have arrived home in less than five minutes, but she never did. When twenty minutes passed and she hadn't come back, her older brother went to the 7-11 to look for her, and couldn't find her. She has never been heard from again.

Authorities treated Jennifer's disappearance as a possible abduction from the onset of the investigation. She is described as an independent child who was capable of asserting herself around adults and wouldn't have willingly gone into a stranger's car. She had no history of running away from home.

A defrocked priest named Stephen Kiesle became a suspect in Jennifer's case in mid-2002. He has since been arrested and charged with molesting three girls at the Santa Paula Catholic Church in Fremont, where he worked from 1968 to 1971. Police searched his yard three times, using cadaver-sniffing dogs, radar, and a backhoe. They were looking not only for evidence in Jennifer's disappearance but also evidence in the disappearances of Amber Swartz-Garcia and Anthony Franko. The only item that was located was a bag full of dirt and decomposed clothing. The searches concluded in July 2002.

No strong suspects have ever been identified in Jennifer's disappearance; it remains unsolved.