Katharina Buczek
In 1983, Michelle Hart was a twenty-year-old known as a free spirit. She lived with her boyfriend, Mickey Kirlin, in a van in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and impacted every person she met.
“Michelle was somebody to everybody who knew her,” said Judith Hampson, Michelle’s mother.
But, early that year, Michelle, unfortunately, lost her job. She had previously worked on a shrimp fishing boat and spent the morning of February 11, 1983, searching for a new job opportunity.
Afterward, Michelle returned home to her van to change clothes before hitchhiking to a meeting with her attorney.
According to her family, Michelle often hitchhiked to get around and was very trusting of strangers.
She made it safely to her attorney’s office–whom she met with from 3:30 p.m. until about 4:30 p.m. But, Michelle never took the bus back to Fort Myers beach as planned.
Instead, she went to a local pool hall known as Pic-Wic.
Everyone who knew Michelle knew how much she loved playing pool. And the twenty-year-old reportedly stayed at Pic-Wic until around 10:00 p.m. Some witnesses reported seeing Michelle trying to hitch a ride back to her van.
Facebook; pictured above is Michelle
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