Sad Details About The Nebraska Woman Missing For 18 Years —And Why Police Think She Was Murdered
Her body has never been found.
411Gina.org It's been 18 years since Regina Bos vanished. Although her body has never been found, police believe she was murdered.
On October 16, 2000, Regina "Gina" Bos, a musician, went to Duggan’s Pub in downtown Lincoln after work for an open mic night with her boyfriend, Michael Johnson. He decided to stay home instead, so Gina dropped Michael off at his place and headed to the bar. She would pick him up on her way home, Gina said.
Hours passed but Gina never showed up to Michael's home. He reported Gina missing early the next morning when he realized no one knew where she was, according to Detective Greg Sorensen, who worked on the case from the beginning. Michael went to Duggan's Pub to ask around to see if anyone knew where his girlfriend, a mother of three, could be.
Her ex-husband reportedly saw her there and spoke to her for awhile around 10 pm. Gina was spotted leaving the bar around 1 a.m., and told her friends she was going to pick up Michael and go home to her three children. But she never arrived.
Michael woke up around midnight, realizing that Gina had failed to come to get him as planned. He went back to sleep, thinking she had forgotten, and woke up a few hours later. He began to page her, and the sound of her pager going off woke up her children. She was reported missing around 6 a.m.
Gina's car was found outside the pub. The trunk was ajar and her beloved guitar and music sheets were inside.
“There were no screams, there was no blood evidence, no fingerprint evidence, her purse wasn’t found,” Jannel told The Orange County Register. “There was nothing.”
Sorensen said that he believes Gina is dead — and that he knows who the killer is — but cannot take action.
"We don't have enough probable cause to arrest somebody,” Det. Sorensen told Dateline NBC. “But do I think I know who killed her? Yes.”
The case remains an open investigation, and Sorensen is committed to finding Gina so that he can bring justice to her kidnapper or killer, whom he says she most likely knew.
"There is no way she would be forcibly taken off the street — in front of all those people that night — by a stranger,” he told Dateline. “I think she knew her assailant was.”
Sorensen added that he will continue to speak with the person he believes is connected to Gina's disappearance in order to close the case.
"He knows that I know. But, he also knows that I don't have enough to arrest him yet," Sorensen explained. "But, if I find a body, maybe I do. Maybe that's the only thing I'm lacking at this point... I just keep going. Sooner or later, maybe I'll get lucky."
"Maybe he'll have a change of heart," he continued. "Maybe he'll come talk to me. I don't know, but I'll continue to talk to him."
Although multiple tips and possible sightings of Gina come in every year, Sorensen, as well as Gina's family, has come to assume the worst.
“We feel a very deep grief and loss and not knowing,” Jannel told Dateline. “I believe that somebody took her and ended her life.”
The mother of three has not been seen or heard from in 18 years but Jannel has never stopped looking for her missing sibling, despite believing she was murdered. She created the GINA for Missing Persons FOUNDation, a nonprofit group that helps raise awareness of her sister's disappearance as well as hundreds of other missing men, women, and children.
“It only takes one flier, one share, one newspaper article," Rap told The Orange County Register. "It only takes one set of eyes that knows something.”
So far, her organization has helped locate over 1,100 missing persons, but not Gina. She hasn't given up.
Regina "Gina" Bos is described as being 5'6” tall and weighed 105 lbs. at the time of her disappearance. She has auburn hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information related to Gina’s disappearance is urged to call the Lincoln Police Department at (402) 441-6000.
Sarah Gangraw writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.