Wilson was last seen in the 1600 block of Central Avenue in Colonie, New York, on March 27, 1985 at approximately 7:20 p.m. She gone to the Colonie Center and bought a red t-shirt and a blue t-shirt in preparation for an upcoming spring break trip to Florida. She may or may not have gotten a tan at the Tanning Hut; she had booked an appointment, but no one at the salon remembers seeing her there.

Investigators initially believed Wilson got on a bus near the Butcher Block restaurant on Central Avenue and took that to Fuller Avenue, but it was later determined that she could not have gotten on the bus and probably walked to Fuller Avenue instead. Witnesses told authorities that she was spotted there shortly afterwards. Wilson has never been heard from again. Investigators have been unable to locate the personal belongings that she carried with her on the night of her disappearance; she had a gray cloth pocketbook and possibly also a blue knapsack.

Authorities believe Wilson probably walked south on Fuller Avenue towards the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, where she was a senior political science major. They think she was abducted somewhere near Six-mile Waterworks, the entrance ramp to Interstate 90 westbound and the Northway.

Another SUNY-Albany student, Suzanne Lyall, disappeared in 1998, thirteen years after Wilson. Her disappearance remains unsolved. Authorities have not found anything to link the two cases, but they stated the circumstances of the women's disappearances were similar.

Wilson's family lived in Plattsburgh, New York in 1985; her father was in the Air Force there. Wilson aspired to a career in the foreign service and had interned at the State Assembly. Her case remains unsolved.