More than four decades after Audrey Chin disappeared from East Norwich, the mystery of what happened to the 20-year-old aspiring nurse remains unsolved.
Chin vanished on July 7, 1981, after leaving her family’s home on Ross Lane in East Norwich. According to family members, she had spent part of the day picking up the family’s cat from a nearby veterinary office before leaving again to go shopping for her mother. She never returned.
About three weeks later, police found the mud-splattered Chevrolet Nova she had been driving abandoned in the parking lot of the former Plainview Diner at Manetto Hill Road and Old Country Road, roughly 10 miles from her home. The car doors were locked, and investigators found her purse, wallet and other personal belongings inside. Authorities also noted cigarette ash on the floorboard even though Chin was not known to smoke, and two of the vehicle’s tires were flat.
Family members have long maintained that Chin did not leave voluntarily.
Photo: Newspaper clipping/Facebook
Described by her sister as responsible, kind and intelligent, Chin was a night student at Farmingdale State College and planned to transfer to Stony Brook University. She worked as a typist and hoped to become a nurse.
The case has generated numerous theories over the years. The night before she disappeared, Chin fainted after injuring her finger and struck her head. Although doctors found no serious injuries, relatives later wondered whether the incident somehow played a role in her disappearance.
Photo: Audrey Chin with friends/Facebook
In a June 2024 Newsday investigation, Chin’s sisters revealed that Nassau County detectives had collected DNA reference samples from family members and entered the case into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, known as NamUs, nearly 43 years after her disappearance. The move renewed attention on one of Nassau County’s oldest missing persons cases.
The same Newsday report also revealed a startling discovery made by Chin’s family years after she vanished. While sorting through her belongings, relatives found letters indicating she had been involved in a secret relationship with an older married man. Her sisters later told Newsday they believed the man may have known more about her disappearance, though no evidence has ever publicly linked him to the case.
Chin’s family has never stopped searching for answers. Her sisters continue to maintain a Facebook page dedicated to keeping her story alive and encouraging anyone with information to come forward.
At the time of her disappearance, Chin was 4-foot-9 and approximately 95 pounds. She had black hair, brown eyes, wore glasses and had a distinctive freckle on the left side of her nose.
Forty-four years later, Audrey Chin remains missing, and what happened after she left her East Norwich home that summer day remains one of Long Island’s enduring unsolved mysteries.
