Okonski was last seen at her residence in Tama, Iowa at 9:00 p.m. on April 16, 2000. She was living with her fiance, Tait Otis Purk, at the time and working as a waitress, having moved to Tama from Chicago, Illinois about a year before her disappearance. Purk stated that Okonski borrowed $5 to buy cigarettes and left their home, walking westbound on 5th Street, and never returned. He reported her missing on April 18.

The couple had planned to marry in May 2000, the month after Okonski disappeared. She left her young child behind in Purk's care; her family says it would be uncharacteristic of her to abandon the child.

In September 2003, in response to a tip, investigators conducted an extensive search of a rural farm on Iowa Highway 21 near Irving, Iowa in Tama County and a salvage yard in Irving. The farm is owned by Purk's cousin and she may have been at the property the night before she vanished. Authorities were looking for Okonski's clothing and jewelry and other items which might point to her whereabouts. They collected some articles of clothing and bone fragments but the evidence did not resolve Okonski's case and they stopped searching in October.

Purk is currently incarcerated on federal drug charges and is not being called a suspect in his girlfriend's disappearance. A former boyfriend of Okonski's is also in prison for assault, and Okonski herself was a suspect in narcotics, domestic violence, and burglary cases at the time she disappeared. Her case remains unsolved. Her family believes she is deceased.