Wanda Jean Mays

In 2008, twenty-two years after her disappearance, it was confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, that formerly unidentified skeletal remains discovered in 2003 were those of Mays. Her death was officially ruled accidental.

In October 2003, a hiker searching for ginseng plants discovered human bones at the foot of a 150 foot (46 m) cliff approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km) from the Dormans' home in Guntersville. The remains were unidentified until 2008, when they were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's DNA lab in Quantico, Virginia, for testing; the FBI confirmed in January 2008 that the remains matched Mays.

The unusual details surrounding Mays' disappearance led her case to receive national attention, and it was profiled on the series Unsolved Mysteries twice beginning in 1987. With no leads, however, her disappearance became a cold case.

After meeting her parents for dinner on the evening of May 11, 1986, Mays stopped by the home of her aunt and uncle, Tyrus and Betty Dorman Sr., located on Georgia Mountain in Marshall County, Alabama, near Guntersville Lake. According to her father, Mays had reportedly been exhibiting signs of emotional distress at the time from a "chemical imbalance" that had been attributed to dieting. Mays decided to spend the night at her aunt and uncle's home rather than drive back to her apartment that evening, and went to bed at approximately 10:30pm. This was the last time she was seen alive.

On the morning of May 12, 1986, a local resident reported seeing a young woman matching Mays' description walking along Alabama State Route 62 near Guntersville, wearing oversized jeans. The witness stated that the woman's hair was wet, as if she'd been swimming. This report is now known to be false. The following day, May 13, approximately 30 miles (48 km) away in Huntsville, Alabama, a female witness claimed to have seen a woman matching Mays' description sitting in the back seat of a car with two unidentified men at a convenience store; according to the witness, the woman appeared to be afraid. When the witness exited the convenience store, she saw the woman again, this time talking on a payphone beside one of the unidentified men. This report is also now known to be false.

Wanda Jean Mays (August 19, 1959 – May 12, 1986) was an American woman who disappeared on Georgia Mountain near Guntersville, Alabama in 1986. She was reported missing by her aunt and uncle in the early morning hours of May 12, when they found the guest room in which she was staying empty, its window apparently broken from inside. Mays' bloodied nightgown was found behind the family's home on Guntersville Lake, as was an empty canoe, also covered with blood, floating in the lake.

Wanda Jean Mays was born in 1959 to Jim and Dorothy (Dot) Mays in Panama, where her father had been stationed in the military. Mays grew up in Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas. She attended Arab High school in Arab, Alabama, and graduated from Wallace State College. At the time of Mays' disappearance, she was working as a secretary at Redstone Arsenal, a United States Army post.