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Jan 27, 2026
Jan 27, 2026
Valerie
Lorraine Cuccia
72
20
5'6 inches
120 lbs
White
Female
On a spring evening in 1974, twenty-year-old Valerie Lorraine Cuccia, a talented musician and college student, vanished from Brooklyn, New York. On May 4th, she and a friend met at a local park and then hitchhiked to a nightclub called the Banana Fish on 3rd Avenue and 96th Street. Once inside the bustling club, the two friends became separated. The last time Valerie's friend saw her, she was in the company of two unidentified men. Later that evening, at approximately 9:00 p.m., the friend witnessed Valerie getting into a blue metallic car with Massachusetts license plates with the same two men, who she described as "hard looking". Some accounts suggest that Valerie may have been forced into the vehicle. She has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of her disappearance, Valerie was a student at the City College of New York and lived with her parents and younger sister in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. She was a gifted musician who enjoyed playing the guitar and had even sold some of her musical compositions. Her family described her as a wonderful girl, full of life, who rarely dated and did not have a serious boyfriend. She left behind her personal belongings, including two guitars. Valerie is described as a white female with black hair and brown eyes, standing at 5'6" and weighing around 120 pounds. She has a scar on her left calf and dimples in her cheeks when she smiles. On the night she went missing, she was wearing a plaid coat with a faux fur collar and a belt, tan or camel-colored pants with cuffs, a striped polo shirt, and black boots with studs on the sides. The years following Valerie's disappearance were filled with anguish for her family. Her parents, who have since passed away, endured cruel hoaxes and false leads in their desperate search for answers. One of Valerie's brothers, a retired New York State Police investigator, has continued to seek justice for his sister, expressing his belief that she was murdered. The family's hope is to one day find her remains and give her a proper burial. The New York Police Department continues to investigate her case, which remains one of Brooklyn's oldest unsolved missing person cases. The tragic disappearance of Valerie Lorraine Cuccia is a heart-wrenching story of a young woman with a promising future whose life was cut short, leaving her loved ones with decades of unanswered questions and a void that can never be filled.
May 04, 1974
Brooklyn
New York
Brooklyn
New York Police Departmen
646-610-6914
09/07/2026
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