Jan was last seen in May 2002 in Cameron Park, California. Her friends and family last saw her on May 14, 2002, but her estranged husband, Glyn Wolfgang Scharf, whom she was in the process of divorcing, claimed he saw her on May 16 at 8:00 p.m. when he visited her home. A photograph of Glyn is posted below this case summary. The couple was legally separated but still lived together to save money. Glyn spent the night there in a different room than his wife and left at 6:40 a.m. the following morning. He said that when he left the house, he noticed that Jan's bedroom door was closed and her car was gone.

Jan usually went to work at 5:30 a.m., but May 16 was her day off. Neighbors reported hearing a scream in the area at approximately 8:00 p.m. on May 16.

Jan was reported missing on May 18 after failing to show up at work. She was employed as an emergency room nurse at U. C. Davis Medical Center and had been since 1985. Her car, a tan Ford Explorer, disappeared at the same time she did; it was found abandoned on May 19 in front of 24-Hour Fitness in Folsom, California. A photograph of the automobile is shown below this case summary. Jan did not check into the fitness facility that day and no one saw her there.

The same month Jan disappeared, she went to the police with complaints that she was being poisoned by Glyn. She tested positive for digoxin, a heart medication that had not been prescribed for her. Glyn, who worked as a paramedic for a private ambulance, would have had access to the drug. Jan also reported that a gun had disappeared from her house. No charges were brought against anyone in either incident, however.

Jan has not used her cellular phone or automatic teller machine (ATM) card since her disappearance. She disappeared a day after she applied for a promotion at her job. She had been planning to go water-skiing with a friend on Memorial Day weekend, and go to Las Vegas over the summer with another friend. At the time Jan disappeared, she had also been making preparations for her daughter's wedding. Jan is described as a responsible, reliable person. Her loved ones say it is extremely uncharacteristic of her to leave voluntarily.

On May 16, 2003, a year almost to the day after Jan was last seen, police conducted an all-day search on her husband's home. They then arrested him for her murder. Prosecutors said Glyn was a jealous and violent husband who lay in wait in Jan's home and ambushed and killed her after she arrived home from work, but Glyn maintained that Jan had probably run away with another man.

Glyn was convicted of first-degree murder in October 2004 on mostly circumstantial evidence. Some pieces of Jan's jewelry were found buried in the front yard of Glyn's girlfriend whom Jan had never met, neighbors reported hearing a scream at Jan's house around the time Glyn would have come home the night she vanished, and the jury was allowed to hear about the possible poisoning attempt on Jan. Glyn attempted suicide twice after the verdict was given. A third attempt succeeded in May 2007, two and a half years after his conviction; Glyn died at Pleasant Valley State Prison after overdosing on his antidepressant drugs. His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the prison.

Jan's remains have never been located.

Left: Jan's van;
Right: Glyn Scharf