The Search for Missing Girls

July 13 -- Almost 3,500 women in their 20s are missing in the United States today and while some may have gone into hiding voluntarily, hundreds more — like Chandra Levy — disappear each year.

In the upcoming issue of People, the magazine highlights three such cases. It looks as the stories of three young women with promising futures, who were there one minute and gone the next.

Jill Behrman

Jill Behrman was planning to meet family members for lunch in May 2000. She had just finished her freshman year at Indiana University and was looking forward to summer. But that morning, she disappeared from home. Her backpack was left in the driveway and her bike was abandoned in a field more than 10 miles away.

For days, hundreds of volunteers scoured the area, looking for clues. The FBI has interviewed nearly 3,000 people and investigators have conducted land and lake searches, but so far they've found nothing.

Molly Bish

Molly Bish was a 16-year-old spending a carefree summer as a lifeguard at a pond near her home.

The Bish family had moved from Detroit, believing a small town in central Massachusetts would be safer. One day, Bish's mother dropped her off at the beach. It was the last anyone ever saw her.

Police searched by ground and air but failed to turn up any evidence. They distributed pictures of one suspect, a stranger Bish's mom had seen in a nearby parking lot the day before.

It's been 13 months and their efforts have turned up nothing.

Amy Bradley

Amy Bradley loved basketball, playing and teaching others the game. She had a love for people. In March 1998, the 23-year-old was about to start a new job.

But before beginning work, she and her family vacation left for a Caribbean cruise. Early one morning, after the ship had docked on the island of Curacao, Bradley vanished.

Her dad was the last one to see her sitting on deck outside their cabin. There was one mysterious reported sighting months later, but nothing since then. Her parents say they still have hope they'll one day find her.