Unmissing

Lydia Coletto struggles vainly against her strong male captor in the remote Oregon woods. She is 5’ 1” and no match for his “Herculean strength” (2). She thinks of her husband, Luca, who stepped out to get groceries just before she went on a hike. He often forgets his phone, so she left him a note. She and Luca are newlyweds, and she moved to his hometown of Bent Creek, Oregon, where he plans to start an ocean-view restaurant while she goes to nursing school. Eventually, she hopes to start a family. These thoughts motivate her to survive.

The man releases Lydia, then covers her face with a white cloth doused with chloroform. When she wakes up, she is in a dark cabin, zip-tied to a chair. It’s nighttime, and she estimates she’s been there for about 10 hours. Seeing a cooler of food, she realizes her captor intends to keep her alive. The man enters with slow, patient movements, meeting her “with a twisted sneer and a chilling gaze” (4).

Ten years later, Merritt Coletto—who is eight months pregnant—opens her front door to a timid, gaunt, disheveled woman claiming to be Lydia, the long-vanished first wife of Merritt’s husband, Luca.