Pahl was last seen in Vinton, Texas on August 1, 1980. She left home after an argument with her husband, saying she was going to take the bus to Anthony, New Mexico to get groceries. Her oldest daughter was in Georgia at the time, and went home to take care of her siblings after Pahl didn't come home. There were six children in the family, one of whom was less than a year old. Pahl and her family had moved from El Paso to Florida in 1978 and lived in a house in the 100 block of Holguin Road. She didn't have a driver's license at the time of her disappearance. In the years since then, her family has left El Paso.

The police didn't conduct any investigation after Pahl disappeared; they merely filed a missing persons report. The investigation was reopened in 2000, thirty years later, and authorities began looking into the possibility that foul play was involved in her case. They excavated her family's former home and found no evidence, and Pahl's oldest daughter stated she didn't believe her father was involved in her mother's case. Little information is available in her disappearance.