A couple of months before Michelle Manders disappeared, her mother Jan befriended a woman named Teri Mueller. Teri stayed at the Manders’ house one night when her husband failed to pick her up at 10 p.m. The next morning, both she and Michelle were gone. Two and a half weeks after Michelle disappeared, Teri tells police she opened the door for Michelle that night. They base their classification of accidental death largely on her statement, even though she has an intellectual disability and suffers from schizophrenia that sometimes causes delusions.

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For more reporting on cold cases, unsolved cases and true crime detectives, as well as additional true crime stories and investigative journalism visit witness.usatoday.com. Crime reporter and investigative reporter Gina Barton is also host of Untested: A true crime podcast, in which Annie Harrison joins the rank of true crime detectives as she solves the cold case of a possible serial rapist. Subscribe to Untested: A true crime podcast at https://art19.com/shows/untested

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