A Stanwood woman who was reported missing in 1993 and was featured on cold-case cards called Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives from California last week, ending a nearly two decade search for her, The Everett Herald reported Thursday.
Judith Bello left a telephone message last week for Snohomish County sheriff’s detective Kelly Willoth, saying she had seen her profile on the sheriff’s website, the Herald said.
Bello was featured on the eight of hearts as part of the county’s cold case playing cards. She was among seven people included in the deck of cards who vanished under suspicious circumstances.
Bello left her job in December 1993 at the National Food Corp. in Silvana. She didn’t pick up her 3-year-old son from day-care or make it home. Her car was found later that day at the Stanwood Post Office.
Detectives believed her disappearance was suspicious. She was close to her family and it seemed unlikely that she would voluntarily leave her son.
The woman who called Willoth last week said she was living in California, and detectives worked to confirm the caller’s identity. Through conversations with her family and other evidence, detectives are confident that the Bello is alive, sheriff’s Chief Kevin Prentiss told the Herald.
The investigation revealed that Bello left the state in 1993 because of problems with her husband. Investigators don’t know why she didn’t contact her family or the sheriff’s office until now, the Herald said.
This case shows that “there are a lot of reasons why people go missing, and not all of them are bad,” Prentiss told the Herald. “Sometimes people just don’t want to be found.”
