A Night Out at Time Out Lounge
Schultz vanished weeks before her own July 25 birthday. She was working part-time at RGIS Inventory Specialists in Carmel and recently picked up another part-time job at the Pike County Trustee’s Office.
Those close to her characterized her as devoted to her job, church and family. After discussing divorce with her husband on July 3, 1997, Schultz kissed her daughter goodbye and met her co-workers at Houlihan’s. They later attended a house party, then ended the night at Time Out Lounge. Schultz was seen leaving the bar just before 5 a.m., about 12 hours before her husband reported her missing to Marion County police.
A month later, investigators acknowledged they had few leads.
“There have been no sightings, tips or activity on her bank account or credit cards. There’s no physical evidence of foul play, but we’re not going to completely rule that out,” Lieutenant Dennis May told The Indianapolis Star in August 1997. “It’s amazing that a car would just disappear. A body is relatively easy to hide, but a car is difficult to stash.”
Years later, the Crime Junkie podcast obtained a transcript of the police’s interview with Rick Schultz shortly after his wife’s disappearance. While he mentioned noticing changes in their marriage and a lack of intimacy, investigators reportedly zeroed in on the part of the interview where he apparently stutters after stating that his wife was at the Time Out Lounge on the night she vanished.
The exchange stands out because Schultz had been confiding in a co-worker named Anita, who was reportedly with Schultz on the night she vanished, about her marital issues. Rick called Anita when his wife did not come home. Anita was adamant that she never mentioned them going to the Time Out Lounge and wondered how he knew where they spent the evening.
A timeline of Schultz’s night has provided few answers about her whereabouts. Anita reportedly left the lounge at around 2:30 a.m. Schultz remained at the bar, where she was seen talking to John, a co-worker she was dating, until closing time at 3:30 a.m. The two continued to talk in the parking lot outside of their cars. It would be the last reported sighting of Schultz.
Following Schultz’s disappearance, John and Rick took polygraph tests. John passed, while Rick’s test indicated deception.
“Over time, people sometimes have fits of conscience, and they'll tell you things simply because they were never asked,” Rogoff says. “The way time can cover up evidence, it can also reveal evidence.”
Has Bonnie Lee Schultz Been Found?
Schultz’s disappearance remains unsolved, no suspects have officially been named and authorities have repeatedly said that the most important missing piece of evidence is her station wagon. Without it, the timeline—and specifically what happened to her—will likely never be fully solved.
“The fact that the vehicle is still missing is a huge potential opportunity because it's a lot more difficult for an automobile [to vanish], particularly under the pressure of time,” private investigator Steve Ridge tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “I would try to locate that vehicle. Whether her remains are in the vehicle, you could learn a great deal by recovering it.”
Ridge notes one clue that could be found in the car. “A 1990 Mercury would probably have manual seats, where you have to adjust the seat,” he says. “If a tall man were to be driving that car, he would not think to move the seat back up into a small woman's position when he got out. That would be a clue right there.”
While Schultz’s station wagon has become a focal point for detectives, she also had a cellphone with her when she went missing. The phone also vanished, and Ridge notes that the technology to pinpoint its whereabouts did not exist in 1997. (A law went into effect in October 1999 requiring phones to have the capability of being pinged in a 911 situation.) Still, police monitored her phone activity at the time and did not find anything.
Schultz was last seen wearing her wedding ring and a herringbone necklace. Her 10-year-old daughter recalled Schultz wearing a No. 1 mom necklace when kissing her goodbye. Police confirmed to Crime Junkie that detectives were at the family’s home shortly after Schultz’s disappearance when her daughter came downstairs with that necklace.
The event raised questions about whether Schultz’s daughter correctly remembered her mother wearing the necklace before leaving home. Investigators never publicly said whether the necklace had provided any clues or if any forensic evidence had brought them closer to closure.
Questions Left Unanswered
IMPD Missing Persons Detective Catherine Byron noting that the person responsible had to go through the arduous task of getting rid of both Schultz and her vehicle.
“A lack of a body is problematic, but good investigators can find the circumstantial evidence that can be pieced together. Almost invariably, people involved in something like this will eventually talk to somebody,” Ridge says. “I've surfaced witnesses who've never spoken to police in 31 years. There are ways to get after a case without having a body or a vehicle.”
No arrests have been made in connection with the disappearance of Schultz, who would be 73 today. Her family moved to Michigan after she vanished, and Rick died in 2022. Their two surviving children rarely speak publicly about their mother’s case.
"I've missed her since the day she was gone," her son Josh told WTHR in 2007. "When it first happened, I held out hope for quite a while that something would turn up, as far as her coming back. And over the years, I've lost that hope.”
