Audrey Chin Disappearance - Missing Since 1981

Missing Person's Name: Audrey Chin

Last contact: July 8th, 1981; another source says July 7th, 1981

Age when she disappeared: 20 (born June 1st, 1961)

Sex: Female 

Height in inches: 57 (broad range given of 48 to 57 inches; would be 4'0" to 4'9"); another source calls her 4'10.

Weight in pounds (lbs): 90-100

Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese background)

Hair color: Black 

Eye Color: Brown, wore glasses according to NamUs though not pictured with them in any photo I saw.

Scar or distinctive characteristic: Left side of nose freckle.

Facebook Group: Audrey Chin's Facebook Group for the Audrey Chin disappearance

Details from a government source (might paraphrased): MP left her residence in her mother's vehicle. The car was located abandoned in Nassau County. Her vehicle was found in a parking lot at a diner on Old Country Road in Plainview with three flat tires making this a "Car Found Person Missing" case. Other sources claim the number of flat tires were different. 

The vehicle was a 1976 Chevrolet Nova (Chevy II and Concours). The vehicle was sedan-style (meaning it was a four-door car). The car was blue (the color is inconsistent between sources) with New York State plates of 258FCL. Another source called the car "tan" with a vinyl top,

This is a Creative Commons image of a 1976 Chevy Nova. Chin's was described as blue with a tanned vinyl top. Image credit: By Carcheologisch onderzoeker from Area 070, The Netherlands - 46-RH-92, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12263677

Link to government source: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/116093?nav

Audrey Chin. 19 Jul 1981, Sun Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

Commentary and Research

By: Shane Lambert

The missing person case of Audrey Chin is one that had some journalism coverage, both at the time of her disappearance and even in modern times. Chin disappeared while, perhaps "ostensibly," driving to perform some errands. She left to get the family cat from the vet, returned home, and then drove out to get some orange juice. After she dropped the cat off at home, she was never seen again.

According to NamUs, she was last seen on July 8th, 1981, which was a Wednesday. However, the newspaper coverage at the time and in modern times says July 7th, 1981 was the day she disappeared. The first hit for her case in the newspapers appeared on July 19th, 1981 (the classified advertisement embedded above).

The dates slightly contradicting between the journalism and NamUs is one detail to be aware of. Also, another detail is that NamUs says that three tires were flat when the car was found. Contemporary journalism says that two of the tires were flat. A Facebook post says that all four tires were flat. The vehicle was found at a diner about three weeks after Chin was last seen. That means the car was found around July 28th, 1981.

June 3rd, 2024. Newsday.

They have DNA from a family member to see if it can help match to a Jane Doe. If there is a hit, then the news would be expected in August to October of 2024.

Chin was involved with a married man

According to the June 3rd article in Newsday from 2024, Chin was having an affair with an older man who was married. The article says that his man died more than a decade ago now.

I had several thoughts on this case. At first, I wondered if the flat tires meant that she might have been the victim of a Good Samaritan's Ruse. In this kind of missing person's case, the MP's car is sabotaged by someone who then shows up to help her with the vehicle problems. This person then disappears the MP. However, when I read about the affair with a married man, then my mind went another way. 

I wondered if she might have been pregnant. Also, one has to wonder whose cigarettes were found in the car. 

The flat tires might be a red herring in this case. Anything can happen to a vehicle that sits unattended in a parking lot for three weeks. But they might be part of the case as well.

Jane Does and My Guess on What Happened

Presuming she is dead, Chin's skeletal remains might mistakenly be considered to be an adolescent as she was diminutive. However, DNA from family is available. On the matter of DNA, I wondered if the cigarettes might yield some. I asked in the Facebook group if they tested the cigarettes for DNA and await a response. From what I read, DNA is hard to get from cigarettes unless the authorities are fast to test them. In this case, DNA testing what not yet established in legal cases.

There are two Jane Does from the area that are considered to be of interest. I'm not sure I would call either to be too promising.

One of them has a death date estimated between 2003 and 2008 while Chin disappeared many years before then. Another Jane Doe is of a small-statured individual that Boy Scouts found in 2003. However, the PMI (post-mortem interval) for this Jane Done is thought to be three years, meaning this individual is thought to have died in 2000 or so.

Death-date estimates when dealing with skeletal remains can be far off but they would have to be off by about 20 years for one of these Jane Does to be Audrey Chin. That said, the heights match and they are both in close proximity to where she was last seen.

The Plainview Diner

A classified ad with the address of the diner. April 20th, 1980 edition of the Newsday paper.

By my research, the address where the car was found would be 1094 Old Country Road. This was the address of the Plainview Diner. Over the years, the diner used a lot of classified advertisements to find staff and included the address in their ads sometimes. The restaurant, which was called closed in modern journalism, can be viewed on June 2024's edition of Google Maps. It appears in a grainy Google Maps image at the same location as early as September 2008. By modern routes, the drive from the MP's home on Ross Lane to the restaurant is only sixteen minutes.

If I was to hazard a guess as to what happened it would be that she was murdered by someone she knew. There was a lot of dirt on the vehicle, which was called "mud-splattered" in the Newsday article. There were thunderstorms predicted in the weather reports from July 5th and humid conditions in general, according to my research. This would make any dirt roads sloppy.

Has Audrey Chin Been Found?

My guess is whoever disappeared her put her in the vehicle and drove to a secluded location to bury her remains, perhaps using dirt roads to get to this location. This is the reason why the vehicle was "mud-splattered." This same possibly off-road trip may have damaged the tires or perhaps they were damaged deliberately as the unknown assailant tried to obfuscate the matter. Or the tires were simply vandalized as abandoned vehicles often are.