GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Kent County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help solving the 45-year-old disappearance of Deanie Peters. The 14-year-old was last seen at Forest Hills Central Middle School on February 5, 1981.
KCSO Public Information Officer Sergeant Scott Dietrich joined FOX 17 Morning News to discuss the department's renewed push for information following our special report on the case.
Where is Deanie?
New timeline details in Deanie Peters cold case
"This case has been worked on for 45 years," Dietrich said. "We've had so many detectives throughout those years work on this. We've had the cold case team around 2008 dump years into it, and we want this to come to closure."
During our reporting, detectives shared that several witnesses made observations of note the night of Deanie's disappearance. Investigators want to know more about those sightings.
"If you watched the special, we're looking for things like the kids that were at the door banging on the door, the vehicles that were involved... We're looking for who owned those. We're looking for somebody who maybe has never talked to us before and knows something."
Where is Deanie?
Deanie Peters' mother holds on to hope for answers in daughter's disappearance
Dietrich encourages anyone with information to come forward, even those who may have been reluctant to speak up in the past.
"You know there's probably two [types of] people that are reluctant to come forward. One that maybe thinks, 'they probably already know that,' to which I say send in the tip anyway. Let us decide that," Dietrich said. "The other side would be somebody who knows something and is afraid of getting in trouble, or is afraid of getting someone else in trouble, and to that we say do the right thing, do the right thing and bring closure to this family who's waited 45 years for an answer."
Watch our interview with Sergeant Scott Dietrich:
Submit a tip
The Kent County Sheriff's Office is actively pursuing any information in the disappearance of Deanie Peters. If you have a tip, you are encouraged to contact detectives through the methods below.
- Call: (616) 632-6125
- Online form
- Silent Observer: (616) 774-2345 or online form
WATCH: FOX 17's full report on Deanie Peter's 1981 disappearance
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
