Kortne Stouffer never went anywhere without her beloved dog, Sheba. So after high school graduation, Kortne would move out into an apartment with her boyfriend and she made sure she could bring Sheba with her.
Kortne was a lover of all animals, and as a young adult, became a free-spirited, beautiful, sociable young woman. Kortne was exceptionally close with her family, which included her mother and father, and her siblings.
In the summer of 2012, Kortne was doing what a lot of young 21-year-olds were doing- having a good time with friends. She was living with her boyfriend, Brad, on West Main Street in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.
On July 28, 2012, however, a strange series of events would lead to a mysterious outcome.
Police would come to Kortne and Brad’s apartment for a disturbance call. Brad would be arrested for underage drinking and probation violation.
Kortne was devastated and would spend the rest of the night hanging with friends and going to different bars, until returning back to her apartment. Once back at her apartment, Kortne had a confrontation with a neighbor. The police would come to the apartment two more times that night.
The next day Kortne was supposed to meet her brother at the county fair. She didn’t show, but her family wasn’t too panicked…yet. Kortne is an adult now after all.
After a few more days of no contact, her mom goes to her apartment and finds all of Kortne’s belongings, including her cell phone plugged into the wall, and her dog Sheba. It was clear that Kortne had not been there for a few days.
Kortne was reported as missing to the local authorities.
Almost eleven years later, Kortne remains missing.
Where is Kortne Stouffer?
Kortne was born on April 24, 1991, to mom, Wendy, and dad, Scott. She grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania with her parents and four siblings.
When Kortne was eight years old, however, her parents would divorce. But the family remained close and both parents were very active in their children’s lives. Kortne spent a lot of time with her family, and even as a young adult they all meant the world to her.
Growing up, Kortne had a variety of interests. She was competitive in sports and loved to push herself to be the best. She was also a singer, and an artist and had both the girly girl in her and the tomboy that loved to get dirty on the farm and on family campouts.
Kortne also loved animals and grew up being very active in 4H. When she was 8 years old, she also got a dog that she would name Sheba. Sheba was Kortne’s best friend and went everywhere with her.
After high school, Kortne obtained her cosmetology license and began working in a salon alongside her mom. Soon after that, Kortne decided to take another route. She loved dogs so much and made the career move to become a dog groomer. This seemed well suited to Kortne and her love for all animals.
Kortne would soon meet her boyfriend, Brad and they would date for about 9 months before moving in together.
They found an apartment in Palmyra, Pennsylvania and Kortne was thrilled to be on her own. She was also able to bring Sheba, her beloved dog, with her.
While living on their own, Kortne and Brad were known to have house parties. This was something that their neighbors were not happy about, however.
THE DISAPPEARANCE.
On July 28, 2012, Kortne and Brad had one of these parties, and before long, the police were called to the noise. When authorities showed up, they realized that Brad was on probation, and there was alcohol in the house. Since Brad was only 20 years old, he was arrested for probation violations and taken into custody.
Kortne was furious, and the animosity between the neighbors grew. Kortne blamed them for what had happened.
Kortne did have a couple of friends step up and they offered to Kortne that they should all go out and hit some bars. They hoped to distract Kortne from what was going on.
Kortne met these friends, Cody and Milton, along with another couple, at a bar near her apartment, called The Gas Station. Cody was the designated driver, and the four of them decided to drive out and go to a bar in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
While at this bar, Kortne had an altercation with another couple there, and the group would leave. Cody drove Kortne back to her car at The Gas Station and then followed her back to the apartment.
Around 3:00 a.m., Kortne and Cody arrive back at her apartment. Because Kortne is still fired up over what happened earlier in the night with Brad and her neighbors, when she sees the neighbors still awake, she confronts them. The incident results in the police being called to the residence.
Palmyra Police arrive at the residence around 3:15 a.m. Kortne reported that the neighbors came out and began to yell at her while she was walking her dog. The neighbors reported Kortne was being loud and unruly towards them. One of the neighbors said that Kortne tried to physically attack him. Everyone appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and was told, by the police, to go back into their homes.
By 3:49 a.m., police have “cleared” the scene and reported that everyone is back in their homes.
At 4:11 a.m., another neighbor contacts the police department once again, claiming to hear screaming, stomping, and slamming doors coming from Kortne’s apartment, which is right above his.
Palmyra Police arrive at the residence with backup from two nearby jurisdictions. They are met outside by the neighbor who had called them, and he said that Kortne was stomping on the floor and slamming doors and that she sometimes does this to aggravate him and the other neighbors. Police did attempt to make contact with Kortne at her door without a response. They were able to see into the residence through a patio door and a nearby window. They saw nothing out of place or unusual. The dog barked from inside when they knocked.
4:36 a.m., the police, with no answer from Kortne’s apartment, leave the scene since all seems quiet now.
Kortne’s friend Cody, the one that had taken her to the bar in Harrisburg, had returned back to her apartment with her. He says he fell asleep and spent the night there, waking up around 8:00 a.m. He said Kortne wasn’t there when he woke up, and he texted her asking her where she was.
He then drives home and texts her a couple more times to check in on her, with no response.
That Sunday, Kortne was supposed to meet her brother at the county fair. But she didn’t show up. Kortne’s mom also tried to contact her a few times with no response.
On Monday, July 30, Wendy, Kortne’s mom shows up at her apartment to check on her. The door is unlocked, and Sheba, the dog, is inside. She immediately noticed that Sheba had an accident which was not like the dog at all.
Wendy walks around the apartment and notices that Kortne’s keys are on the countertop, her purse is there, and her cell phone is plugged into the wall next to her bed.
But no sign of Kortne.
She is immediately alarmed and calls Kortne’s father, Scott, who rushes over. Scott decides they have to alert the authorities and report Kortne as missing.
THE SEARCH.
When the police were first alerted of Kortne’s disappearance, they advised her parents to wait 24 hours. They believed with the stresses that she had the night of July 28th and early morning hours of July 29th, that she likely just took off for a couple of days to chill out.
Kortne’s family didn’t buy that. Kortne had never done that before, and she would never, ever, leave her dog behind uncared for.
Her mom and dad stayed at Kortne’s apartment while trying to track her down themselves.
Finally, after 24 hours went by, Kortne’s parents were able to file an official missing person report.
Law enforcement does start investigating right away- although, they had already made the family wait, so I don’t know if that actually constitutes right away, but they do start looking for Kortne.
They actually seal off Kortne’s apartment, and search the apartment thoroughly, even bringing in forensic teams.
They question the neighbors, and they track down Cody, the friend that was with Kortne that night.
Cody’s story matched what evidence authorities found as well- they matched up the phone calls and text messages between their phones and they verified Cody’s stop at a convenience store via CCTV footage.
One of the neighbors had an ongoing issue with Kortne, according to Kortne’s family. He was the last one to phone the police in those early morning hours, and Kortne had apparently had a lot of issues with him before.
It also seemed that his behavior was odd, taking black bags in and out of his apartment that whole day, putting them in his car, and returning without them.
Authorities question him, and search his residence, but don’t turn up anything to lead them to Kortne.
Police also track down the couple that Kortne had a confrontation with at the bar in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Remember, they drove all the way out there, only to have to leave when Kortne got into an argument.
But they found nothing to tie them to Kortne’s disappearance.
Hundreds of residents of Palmyra and surrounding towns came out to physically search the area around Kortne’s apartment. In fact, so many came out that some had to be turned away.
It seemed everyone came together to search for Kortne.
But while suspicions were high, especially when it came to Cody and the neighbors, no solid leads came in to find Kortne.
Search efforts would continue non-stop as the family fought for answers and never gave up looking for Kortne. But it seemed like she vanished into thin air.
Two years later, In March of 2014, authorities announced they were planning a search of Memorial Lake based on a tip they received. A young woman came forward to say that she had heard a confession that Kortne was killed when a couple of young men broke into her apartment to look for drugs. Her body was allegedly wrapped in a carpet, and disposed of in Memorial Lake.
Authorities didn’t put much stock into this tip but searched the lake anyways.
Nothing was found.
(I did find a couple of reports stating that an area rug was missing from Kortne’s apartment, but couldn’t 100% verify the truth of that.)
And, forensics teams did search the apartment and found nothing. If something did happen to Kortne in there, they did a good job of cleaning up any evidence.
PALMYRA, PENNSYLVANIA.
Kortne vanished from Palmyra, Pennsylvania. Palmyra is a small town in the southeastern part of the state.
Palmyra has just over 7,000 residents. Palmyra itself is pretty quiet- but is only three miles from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Hershey, of course, is a tourist town with Hersheypark and Hershey Chocolate Factory.
Kortne and her boyfriend Brad lived in a home at 810 West Main Street in Palmyra. This looks like a house that was sectioned off into apartments, and we know that Kortne lived in the upstairs apartment.
It’s a pretty busy road during the day, but in this small town, things get quiet early. And we also know that Kortne vanished sometime in between 4:00 a.m. and 7:58 a.m. if we believe Cody’s story.
So it’s likely the street would have been quiet then.
One area of interest that came up during the investigation, was Memorial Lake.
Now, Memorial Lake is a pretty big lake, about 10 miles from Kortne’s home. Memorial Lake covers 230 acres and is pretty deep- registering about 20 feet deep at its deepest.
Search teams used underwater sonar and cameras to search the deep areas of the lake for any signs of Kortne. They also had cadaver dogs on standby just in case.
Nothing would be found.
Another interesting point is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Kortne and her friends went to a bar in Harrisburg, before getting kicked out due to an altercation that Kortne got into.
Harrisburg is a bigger city and has a popular bar scene/nightlife. It’s about a 30-minute drive to the west, from Palmyra, and would make sense that Kortne and her friends would head there for a night out.
That bar and the people she had an altercation with were checked out, and nothing of consequence was found or discovered. And we do have confirmation that Kortne along with Cody, did make it back to her apartment in Palmyra.
Kortne was last seen at her apartment in Palmyra, and it seemed she vanished from there.
Kortne’s family would not quit searching and fighting for answers, and the entire town of Palmyra was behind them.
THEORIES and POSSIBILITIES.
There are plenty of thoughts on the disappearance of Kortne Stouffer, but little to no actual evidence.
Some of the circumstances surrounding Kortne going missing, however, do lead to a few possibilities.
First, the last person to be with Kortne was her friend Cody. Cody was 29 years old and was the friend who spent the evening with Kortne after her boyfriend was arrested. Kortne was upset, and he wanted to help her through it.
Cody was concerned enough about Kortne that after returning to her apartment after 3:00 in the morning, he decided to stay the night. She had gone through a lot that night with the police, her boyfriend’s arrest, the incident in Harrisburg, and then more confrontations with her neighbors.
But when Cody woke up just before 8:00 a.m., he noticed that Kortne wasn’t there, but he didn’t think anything about it. He just left?
He wasn’t worried something else may have happened with the neighbors? He wasn’t worried about Kortne at all?
He also didn’t hear Kortne leaving between 4:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.
Cody is someone that has been looked at. He was given a polygraph, but those results were never made public.
Another theory that some have considered is the behavior of the neighbor- or neighbors. While Kortne was having issues that night- and early morning- with all the neighbors, there was one, in particular, she had repeated issues.
This man was seen the next day carrying black trash bags to his car, half-filled, and taking them somewhere, returning only to take a few more bags.
I don’t believe it was ever determined what was in those bags, but his residence was searched and nothing was found. He was also given a polygraph and once again, those results weren’t made public.
There’s also the issue about the incident she had that night at the bar in Harrisburg. Did those people follow her back to Palmyra? What was their dispute really about?
But again, wouldn’t they have been seen arriving there? Either by the neighbors or by Cody?
The last police visit happened just around 4:00 a.m. This call was made by the downstairs neighbor who said he heard thumping and yelling and slamming doors. He claimed this happened every time Kortne got riled up. But was it perhaps something? An attack maybe?
Everything was quiet by the time police arrived, and Kortne was never heard from again.
What do you think happened to Kortne Stouffer? Leave your comments and thoughts below!
Kortne is described as a Caucasian female, about 5’8 inches tall and weighing around 115 pounds when she was last seen in July 2012. Kortne was 21 years old, and would today be 32.
Kortne had blonde hair, in dreadlocks to her shoulders, and green eyes.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Lebanon County Detective Bureau at 717–228–4408.
