It’s been 35 years since Veronica Jill Blumhorst drove home from her job at a Mendota grocery store and parked her blue Chevrolet Corsica in her family’s detached garage.

The 21-year-old never entered her home and vanished without a trace. Her purse, keys, VHS tapes and her red smock from the Super Valu supermarket, where she worked for five years, were never recovered.

Blumhorst’s family and friends, the community and law enforcement are still searching for answers.

Paul Blumhorst, Veronica’s father, said in a recent interview that the years following Veronica’s disappearance were filled with a lot of ups and downs.

“It’s been very stressful for both my wife and I and our daughter,” he said. “We basically turned it over to the Lord and said ‘You handle it.’ ”

Blumhorst left the supermarket at 1:05 a.m. on September 21, 1990, drove home four blocks away, and parked her car in the detached garage. She locked the driver’s door, closed the overhead garage door, turned off the light and exited.

She was wearing a light green short-sleeve sweater with a white tank top underneath, cream corduroy pants, brown shoes, a purple satin jacket, a class ring with a blue sapphire stone and a black watch.

In the decades since Blumhorst’s disappearance, investigators have been stymied. They interviewed Veronica’s friends and co-workers. They questioned her boyfriend, but he eventually asked for an attorney.

The Blumhorst family grew progressively unhappy with the police investigation, which prompted them to move out of town and out of state to Arizona.

A stumbling block in the investigation was that Veronica had been adopted, which made it hard for DNA purposes.

Paul said they had turned in a sheet and other items of Veronica’s for DNA, but later learned the Mendota Police Department had lost it.

“They lost it somewhere,” he said. “They lost the evidence.”

However, according to an Oct. 2014 NewsTribune article, Blumhorst’s extensive dental work has since been added to a national database and can be used for comparison if an unidentified female body is uncovered.

The Blumhorsts privately retained cadaver dogs and psychics to locate Veronica, or her remains. Repeated attempts, including an excavation in 2014, were all unsuccessful, according to a November 2021 NewsTribune article.

Paul said he believes Veronica is dead and mentioned a potential person of interest (no one has ever been charged in her disappearance), but also said he’s more interested in laying his daughter to rest than in prosecuting whoever is responsible.

After repeated calls from friends and family, Blumhorst’s case garnered the attention of the Cold Case Foundation, which led to the case being handed over to the FBI in April 2020.

Paul said the FBI was able to get in contact with Veronica’s birth mother to obtain DNA.

Public Affairs Officer for the FBI Chicago Field Office, Gabrielle Szlenkier, said in a statement that the FBI cannot comment on specifics regarding an ongoing investigation. FBI Chicago assesses every lead that comes in and, if credible, pursues it accordingly.

“We will continue to aggressively investigate this case until a positive resolution is reached,” she said. “As with all our investigations, we adjust and refine our strategy based on the results of ongoing leads, which include tips we receive through public outreach.”

Mendota Police Chief Jason Martin said when he took over the department, he reached out to and is now in close contact with the FBI regarding this case.

“I am not authorized to speak on behalf of the FBI and can’t really comment on the leads that they have followed up on,” he said. “The FBI and the Mendota Police Department continue to seek information about this case, regardless of how significant they feel it may or may not be.”

Paul said he is not aware of any updates in the case, but thanked the community of Mendota for continuing to reach out and support the family.

“They’ve been fantastic,” he said. “They have been supportive of us. We even have people to this day who contact us.”

Looking back, Paul said he hopes the community remembers Veronica for who she was.

“She always had a smile on her face,” he said. “She enjoyed talking to people, having fun. You know, she wasn’t an angel, but she was a very good girl and she had lots of friends in Mendota and other towns too. So, just remember her as being a very happy girl.”

The FBI and the Mendota Police Department encourage anyone with information, even if they’re not certain of its value, to call 1-800-225-5324, 815-539-9331 or submit online at tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters may choose to remain anonymous.