Gone Before Dawn: What Happened to Teenager Stella Evon?

The 17-year-old disappeared while walking home from her sister’s apartment; and investigators believe she did not vanish voluntarily.

Corey Sobell
5 min readNov 10, 2022
Stella Anastasia Evon (pictured above) vanished the morning of September 29, 1996 (image/SitNews)

It’s an early Sunday morning in Bethel, Alaska, where 17-year-old Stella Evon is having fun at a friend’s residence, which was anything but irregular. Bethel was her hometown, and she had created several lifelong bonds throughout her short life.

“Stella was a very fun person, she was always laughing, she would always find something to laugh about, she was very outgoing,” her cousin, Juliet Stonecipher, said. “She’s very kind, she loved everyone.”

Around 2 a.m., Stella decided to call it a night. She bid farewell to her friends and headed to her house, which she shared with her grandmother. Without a vehicle, Stella took the journey on foot. Autumn in Alaska was intense, but she bundled up with a blue Georgetown sweatshirt and a brown leather jacket.

As Stella approached her front door, she knew she had to be quiet. At 2 a.m., it was well past the teen’s curfew. She grabbed the doorknob, but it would not budge. Her grandmother must have assumed she had decided to spend the night with her friends and locked the door.

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