Search renewed for missing Amy Sue Pagnac, quarter century later

Searching Amy Sue Pagnac's home
Authorities are searching the home where 13-year-old Amy Sue Pagnac lived in Maple Grove in 1989, before she went missing.
Peter Cox/MPR News

Twenty-five years after she vanished, authorities have turned up the heat again in their search for Amy Sue Pagnac.

The, girl, who was 13 years old at the time, went missing from an Osseo gas station while waiting in a car for her father in 1989.

Acting on a sealed warrant, authorities are searching the home where she lived in Maple Grove as part of their investigation in the case.

Her parents, Marshall Midden and Susan Pagnac, still own the house.

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"I don't understand their logic but they know, and they're doing something," said her mother, Susan Pagnac, on Sunday. "That's a big start in the right direction."

Maple Grove Police Capt. Keith Terlinden
Maple Grove Police Capt. Keith Terlinden outide the home where Amy Sue Pagnac lived in 1989 before she went missing.
Peter Cox/MPR News

Maple Grove Police Capt. Keith Terlinden would not discuss specifics of the search, but said the case has never been closed, and investigators will be working at the house around the clock for most of this week.

"We've been to Iowa, California, none of those have led anywhere specific. They were basically dead ends in the case," he said. "They didn't lead to any reliable information."

Terlinden says authorities have no suspects in the case and no one is in custody. He says the FBI and Hennepin County Sheriff's office are working with Maple Grove police and expect to be at the house all week.

Searching for Amy Sue Pagnac
One of two tents set up outside the home in Maple Grove where 13-year-old Amy Sue Pagnac lived before she disappeared in 1989.
Peter Cox/MPR News

Pagnac says police lost some of the records in the case, and she's urging anyone who's spoken to investigators in the past to contact them again.

Police initially suspected Amy might have run away, although Pagnac said her daughter was happy at home.

"She was looking forward to going to school. She planned a shopping list, because that evening, her and I were going to go out shopping. She had made a list of school supplies, and clothes that she wanted to buy. There had been no arguments, a peaceful time," she said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Amy Sue Pagnac's name.