Friends and family of Susan Swedell are hoping a ceremony this weekend will help bring attention to her case.
Swedell, 19, went missing during a blizzard in Lake Elmo on Jan. 19, 1988, and hasn’t been seen since.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, Swedell’s friends and family will gather at Christ Lutheran Church in Lake Elmo and plant a crabapple tree in her memory. A social gathering will follow in the church atrium.
There also will be a gathering at 1 p.m. at Lake Elmo Coffee; live music will be performed by Danny Trudeau, a classmate of Swedell’s.
The events are free and open to the public.
The tree planting will be a “visual sign of hope for the family … at Susan’s faith community,” according to a news release from the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. “It is also their hope that the person or persons who has information on Susan’s case will reach out to law enforcement. Someone knows something.”
“When we were children, we’d run around town looking for as many blossoming trees as we could,” her sister Christine Swedell said Friday. “I fondly remember Sue surrounded by a group of blossoming crabapple trees — her eyes glistening with an ear-to-ear smile —always amazed of the regrowth after a long cold winter. Trees were a symbol of hope and strength for the both of us.”
During a blizzard on Jan. 19, 1988, Swedell finished her shift at Kmart in Oak Park Heights at 9 p.m. and headed home to Lake Elmo to watch a movie and eat popcorn with her mother and her sister.
A half-hour later, a gas-station attendant gave her permission to leave her overheated car at the K Station, a mile from home. The clerk said she saw Swedell get into another car with a man.
Anyone with information about Swedell’s disappearance is asked to call 651-430-7850.