MD MD - Zita Cecilia Gutierrez, 24, Bethesda, 22 Aug 1980

Richard

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Zita Cecilia Gutierrez
Missing since August 22, 1980 from Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: October 23, 1956
Age at Time of Disappearance: 24 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'0; 110 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Hispanic female. Black hair; brown eyes.
Dentals: Slight separation between upper front teeth
AKA: Cecilia

Circumstances of Disappearance

Gutierrez was last seen leaving the Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland on August 22, 1980.

The Montgomery College student from Rockville, who was known to most as Cecilia, was working two summer jobs to pay for her education and make ends meet. She had a position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and had been working for about a week as a cocktail waitress at Kenwood Country Club, also in Bethesda. After finishing her shift at Kenwood one night, Gutierrez left to meet her fiancé and some friends at a local nightclub.

Gutierrez has not been seen since.

On August 23, 1980, the day after her disappearance, her 1971 Dodge Challenger was found in a parking lot adjacent to a bus stop near NIH, said Detective Jayne Bowers of the Montgomery County Police Department, who has been working on the case since 2003.

Gutierrez was supposed to pick up a friend near NIH by 9:30 p.m. August 22, 1980. Although a co-worker saw her car leaving the country club shortly after she checked out of work at 9:25 p.m., he could not confirm whether she was in it, Bowers said. Authorities believe Zita thought that she would meet that friend at the bus stop that is right at NIH, but her friend was waiting at a different bus stop farther from the facility.

Her fiancé, an Iranian student visiting from Pennsylvania, thought Gutierrez’s car may have broken down. He picked up Gutierrez’s friend and they tried to find Gutierrez, but after an unsuccessful search they called police at 2 a.m.

Police did not find any hair or nails or other evidence of a struggle in the vicinity where her car was found.

Gutierrez is a native of Ecuador who had come to the United States five years previously.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Montgomery County Police Department Major Crimes
240-773-5070

Agency Case Number: RD# W 039 422
NCIC Number: M-072984567
Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
NCMA
Washington Post
Gazette.Net 8/31/05
The Doe Network: Case File 820DFMD

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/820dfmd.html
 
Bumping up. This case is 28 years old this month.
 
As in other cases we've discussed, if someone else had driven this vehicle there should have been indications. The '71 Challenger was a big car, one of the longest overall of the musclecar era. The interior featured bucket seats, with a manual (3- or 4-speed) transmission being standard (an automatic transmission was optional). Because of the interior design, it's a long reach from the driver's seat to the pedals...A girl only 5' in height would have been practically sitting on the steering wheel to drive. Anyone else, say a typical male around 5'7" or 5'8", would almost certainly have had to adjusted the seat in order to drive the car.

71_challenger.jpg
 
Bump

Today marks 30 years that Zita has been missing.
 
This case is still unsolved and Zita is still missing after more than 30 years.
 
Bumping case up. This year marks 35 years since Zita went missing.
 
NAMUS: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/1866/

2554
7670


Gutierrez was last seen leaving the Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland on August 22, 1980.
The Montgomery College student from Rockville, who was known to most as Cecilia, was working two summer jobs to pay for her education and make ends meet. She had a position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and had been working for about a week as a cocktail waitress at Kenwood Country Club, also in Bethesda. After finishing her shift at Kenwood one night, Gutierrez left to meet her fiance and some friends at a local nightclub. Gutierrez has not been seen since. On August 23, 1980, the day after her disappearance, her 1971 Dodge Challenger was found in a parking lot adjacent to a bus stop near NIH. Gutierrez was supposed to pick up a friend near NIH by 9:30 p.m. August 22, 1980. Although a co-worker saw her car leaving the country club shortly after she checked out of work at 9:25 p.m., he could not confirm whether she was in it.

 
I just feel like we need more information. Ms. Gutierrez seems like a successful person with ambitions in life, someone who wouldn't just walk away from everything. In the picture, she looks to be a friendly person who would have a wide circle of friends. Do any of her friends have suspicions? What does the fiancé make of this? Working at either the NIH or the country club, she may have had an "admirer" stalking her, or something. Last seen departing country club, only employed there for a week. Hmm. And she was from Ecuador, originally - wonder if there were issues surrounding her immigration status or if she was leaving a bad situation back in her home country?
 
Nice to see people still try and help the missing, including Cecilia. I am all too familiar with this case since she is my cousin. I was pulling up some information to share with family members and came across this board.

The case is still open as of today and no resolution in her case. Her family here and in Ecuador are still hoping for some answers, but over 40 years with nothing to go on leaves little hope. Again, thank you for keeping her information out there.
 
Nice to see people still try and help the missing, including Cecilia. I am all too familiar with this case since she is my cousin. I was pulling up some information to share with family members and came across this board.

The case is still open as of today and no resolution in her case. Her family here and in Ecuador are still hoping for some answers, but over 40 years with nothing to go on leaves little hope. Again, thank you for keeping her information out there.

Rick, I'm so sorry for you and your family's loss. I hope that eventually, there will be answers forthcoming that will provide some sense of closure after all this time, and allow everyone to properly grieve. She seems like a great person to have known. I'm sure she's missed by many.
 

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