Opitz was last seen leaving the Edison Mall and heading towards the parking lot in Fort Myers, Florida on the evening January 16, 1981. A package she was carrying at the time was found near her car later in the day. She was initially believed to be a runaway, as there was no evidence of a crime in her case.

Mary Hare, an 18-year-old who physically resembled Opitz, disappeared from the same parking lot on February 11, almost a month after Opitz. As in Opitz's case, no clues were left behind. Authorities at the time were uncertain as to whether the cases were related. In June 1981, Hare's badly decomposed body was found in Lehigh Acres, Florida. She was the victim of a homicide; she had been stabbed in the back. There has been no trace of Opitz, however, and she has never been heard from again. Authorities began to suspect foul play was involved in Opitz's case after Hare's body was discovered.

Authorities theorize that Christopher Wilder, a man linked to at least a dozen disappearances, rapes, murders and/or attacks of numerous women in the early to mid-1980's, is a suspect in Opitz's disappearance and Hare's homicide. A photo of Wilder is posted below this case summary. He was known to frequent the Florida region during this time; he sometimes attempted to lure young female victims by offering non-existent 'modeling sessions' or other tactics. Wilder was put on probation in 1980 after pleading guilty to attempted sexual battery towards a teenage girl. While on a visit home to Australia that same year, he was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two teenaged girls. His parents bailed him out of jail and he flew back to the United States, promising to return for his trial which was set for April 1984. He is a also a suspect in the Florida disappearances of Colleen Orsborn, Rosario Gonzales, Elizabeth Kenyon, and and Tammy Leppert. He was killed during a shootout with authorities in 1984. Opitz's case remains unsolved.

Above Images: Wilder