Merchant departed from her residence in Forest Acres, South Carolina on January 3, 1999 at approximately 6:30 p.m. She was planning to attend a church meeting on LeGrand Road at the time. Merchant carried a medium-sized dark brown shoulder purse at the time of her disappearance. She never arrived at her destination and has not been seen again. Merchant was driving her tan 1989 Nissan Sentra at the time of her disappearance. The vehicle was discovered abandoned and burned at approximately 12:00 a.m. on January 4, several hours after Merchant left her home. The car was located in the 2000 block of Commerce Drive in Columbia, South Carolina. There was no sign of her at the scene.

Authorities are uncertain if Reinaldo Javier Rivera is connected to Merchant's case. Rivera was charged with the murders of four women in the Augusta, Georgia area in October 2000. He was a student at the University Of South Carolina in the early 1990s and was familiar with the site of Merchant's disappearance. Photos of Rivera are posted below this case summary. There are discrepancies between Merchant's case and Rivera's alleged victims, but there are enough similarities between the crimes to allow further investigation.

Investigators are also exploring the possibility that Rivera was involved in the September 1992 disappearance of Dail Dinwiddie from South Carolina. He has not been charged in either Merchant or Dinwiddie's cases. Rivera pleaded not guilty to the four Georgia murders in July 2001. A trial date has not been established in his case.

Merchant is a graduate of Georgia State University and majored in anthropology. She planned to enroll at the University of South Carolina for a master's degree in anthropology. Her case remains unsolved.

Above Images: Rivera, circa 2000