Toni Bachman lived in White Bear Lake Township, Minnesota and was last seen at the family home in the 1700 block of Stillwater Street on Wednesday, April 25, 1997. She lived with her husband, Norman Allen Bachman Jr., and his three sons. Toni worked in human resources at Hamline University and was communicating with friends online the day she was last seen, saying her husband was threatening her and that he was looking over her shoulder as she typed.

Norman gave conflicting accounts about Toni’s disappearance, saying at different times that she locked herself in a bedroom after an argument, that she left a goodbye note, or that she disappeared over Sunday night and he only discovered she had not gone to work. The Bachmans’ home was searched in May 1997; investigators found a bloody sheet hidden in the master bedroom and bloodstains, human tissue and fat in a basement freezer. DNA testing later identified the biological material as Toni’s. Norman was charged with an unrelated assault in August 1997 and later pleaded guilty.