A Day at the Fair Gone Wrong
September 1992. The Puyallup Fair in Washington State was in full swing, drawing crowds with its rides, games, and quintessential fair food. For 14-year-old Misty Copsey, it was supposed to be just another fun day out with her friend Trina Bovard before returning to the routine of school and everyday life.
Misty's mother Diana worked overnight shifts as a caretaker for an elderly woman, which complicated transportation arrangements. She was initially hesitant to let Misty attend the fair without guaranteed transportation home, but eventually relented—as parents often do—after Misty promised she would catch the bus back to their home in Spanaway, about 20-30 minutes away by car.
The day at the fair went as planned. The girls enjoyed rides, ate fair food, and soaked in the atmosphere of one of the region's most popular events. But as the day wore on, Misty realized something that would change everything: she had missed the last bus home.
This is where the story takes its first critical turn. With no bus available, Misty called her mother at work from a payphone. She suggested having her 18-year-old friend, Rheuban Schmidt, pick her up—an idea Diana immediately rejected. Instead, she instructed Misty to call other friends for a ride and to let her know who would be bringing her home. Misty agreed and hung up.
What happened next has been pieced together through witness statements, but the full truth remains elusive even today.
The Last Known Movements
When Misty couldn't secure another ride home, she faced a difficult decision. Her friend Trina lived just a mile and a half from the fairgrounds and planned to walk home. Misty, however, lived much farther away in Spanaway—a distance that would take hours to walk.
Initially, investigators were told that Misty decided to begin the long walk home, heading toward the Highway 512 on-ramp. She never arrived home and was never seen again.
As the investigation unfolded, however, conflicting accounts emerged. Trina initially told police that before they separated, Misty had called Rheuban Schmidt for a ride despite her mother's instructions not to do so. According to Rheuban's original statement, Misty did call him, but he declined to help, claiming he didn't have enough gas for the journey. Trina reported that Misty called Rheuban a second time, suggesting he go to her home to get gas money, but he allegedly declined this offer as well.
At this point, according to Trina's first version of events, the two girls parted ways, with Trina walking to her nearby home and Misty beginning the long trek to Spanaway.
Investigation Reveals Deceptions
When police finally launched a full investigation into Misty's disappearance—a process sadly delayed due to a previously filed missing persons report and unsubstantiated rumors that Misty had been seen after her disappearance—they discovered that Trina's initial story wasn't accurate.
Trina hadn't walked home that night. She had received a ride from her 23-year-old boyfriend, Michael Rhyner. The age gap between 14-year-old Trina and 23-year-old Michael was concerning enough, but investigators soon learned something even more troubling: Michael had previously been accused of abducting and raping an 11-year-old girl when he was 16, though charges were never filed.
Under further questioning, Trina admitted that she had offered Misty a ride home with Michael. According to this revised account, Misty declined because she didn't feel comfortable around him. Police theorized that after dropping Trina off, Michael might have returned to offer Misty another ride. However, after questioning and a polygraph examination, which Michael passed, investigators dropped him as a suspect.
The Focus Shifts to Rheuban
With Michael no longer a primary suspect, investigators turned their attention back to Rheuban Schmidt. His story also began to change under scrutiny. In a startling development, Rheuban claimed that he had "blacked out" after Misty's second phone call and had no memory of what he did afterward. His next recollection, he said, was waking up at his grandmother's home in Enumclaw the following morning—a 45-minute drive from Spanaway.
This new claim raised serious questions. Rheuban had supposedly refused to give Misty a ride due to insufficient gas, yet the round trip between his home and the fair would have required less fuel than the drive to Enumclaw. When asked to take a polygraph test, the results came back inconclusive, particularly on the question of whether he could have harmed Misty during a blackout.
Adding to suspicions, several acquaintances told police that Rheuban had claimed to have Misty's remains buried on his grandmother's property. When confronted, Rheuban admitted making these statements but insisted they were lies told to stop people from questioning him about the disappearance. He subsequently passed a second polygraph examination, and with no concrete evidence to proceed, the investigation against him stalled.
Interestingly, Rheuban would later face unrelated accusations of rape from a female acquaintance (though she eventually dropped the charges), have a restraining order filed against him by his wife, and be arrested for theft—patterns of behavior that have kept him on the radar of those following Misty's case.
Physical Evidence Surfaces
In the midst of the investigation, some of Misty's belongings were discovered in locations that only deepened the mystery. Her underwear, jeans, and a sock were found in a ditch near Highway 410 and Weyco Road—nowhere near where she was last seen. Half a mile away, investigators located her toothbrush and hair pick, items she regularly carried with her.
Fifteen years after her disappearance, forensic technology had advanced enough to detect unknown male DNA on her jeans. This DNA was neither semen nor blood, and it has yet to be matched to a suspect.
A Self-Appointed Detective and New Theories
As often happens in cold cases, private citizens sometimes take it upon themselves to investigate. In Misty's case, a local man named Corey Bober developed a theory connecting her disappearance to two other missing teenage girls from the area: Anna Chebetnoy and Kimberly DeLange, who disappeared in 1990 and 1988 respectively.
Bober noted that the timing between disappearances followed a pattern—Anna vanished 2 years and 1 month after Kimberly, and Misty disappeared 2 years and 1 month after Anna. His intense interest in the case led him to integrate himself into Diana Copsey's life.
While Diana initially welcomed Bober's help and theories, she eventually became uneasy about his involvement. Both she and the Puyallup Police Department began to suspect that Bober himself might have been involved in Misty's disappearance. Bober once agreed to take a polygraph examination to clear his name but canceled and never rescheduled.
Despite these suspicions, Bober is not considered a serious person of interest in the case. He has a partial alibi for the time of Misty's disappearance, and authorities are aware of his history of mental health issues and drug-related arrests.
A Mother's Ongoing Search for Answers
For Diana Copsey, the years since September 1992 have been filled with anguish, false hopes, and the crushing weight of not knowing what happened to her daughter. Like many parents of missing children, she has never given up the search for answers.
The case of Misty Copsey highlights many of the challenges in missing persons investigations: delayed responses, changing stories, multiple potential suspects, and physical evidence that raises more questions than it answers. It also shows how the pain of not knowing can sometimes be exploited by those with their own agendas, as seen in Diana's complicated relationship with Corey Bober.
Unanswered Questions
More than three decades later, we're left with haunting questions:
- What really happened after Misty missed that bus?
- Who did she encounter on her way home?
- What is the significance of her clothing being found far from her last known location?
- Whose DNA was found on her jeans?
- Is there a connection to the other missing girls, or is that simply a coincidental pattern?
The disappearance of Misty Copsey remains one of Washington State's most perplexing cold cases. It serves as a reminder of how vulnerable teenagers can be, how quickly lives can change, and how the ripple effects of a single tragedy can affect families and communities for decades.
For now, the truth about what happened that September night remains elusive. But as long as people continue to remember Misty's story and authorities keep the case open, there remains hope that someday, Diana Copsey will finally get the answers she has sought for so long.
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