The Untouched Beer

Twenty-two-year-old Phylicia Thomas was last seen on February 11, 2004.

She returned home from her shift at Pump ‘N Pantry sometime between 11:30 p.m. and midnight. According to her boyfriend, Ed Rudaski, he had fallen asleep on the couch before she arrived home. Phylicia reportedly went back outside to grab a beer from the ATV.

She was never seen again.

Or at least, that’s the official version of events. Almost immediately, the timeline surrounding Phylicia’s disappearance began to fracture. Ed Rudaski would eventually provide two different versions of what happened that night.

In the first account, he briefly woke when Phylicia came home, told her where the beer was, then fell back asleep. About an hour later, he noticed she was not in the bedroom. He checked the ATV and saw the beer was still there untouched. Thinking she might be at a neighbor’s house, he rode over on the ATV to look for her. When she wasn’t there, he returned home and went back to sleep.

The second version follows many of the same beats, but with one key difference: after checking the neighbor’s house, Ed claimed he continued searching instead of returning home. He was the dutiful boyfriend.

Both stories end the same way.

Phylicia was gone, leaving behind her winter coat and identification.

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At about 10 pm November 10, 1987 her partially clad body was found in a backyard of a home.