Cheryl Miller and Pam Jackson went missing in a case that went cold for over 40 years

This week Gone examines the tragic case of Cheryl Miller and Pam Jackson, who went missing on a drive and were not seen again for more than 40 years.

It was 1971 and end of the school year in Vermillion, S.D., when Pamela Jackson and Cheryl Miller decided to head for a party with their friends from school out at a local quarry.

They never showed and at first nobody thought anything of it as the pair were not exactly party animals.

However, alarm bells were raised when they and their 1960 Studebaker car seemingly disappeared entirely.

The boys in the car they were following said that they themselves had taken a wrong turn and missed the turnoff for the party but when they turned around there was no sign of the girl’s car behind them.

For weeks locals searched the surrounding area and even the Missouri River, but nothing was found.

Unbelievably it would be over 40 years later in 2013 that the mystery was finally solved when their car was found in a local creek. A fisherman noticed a couple of tyres above the water level in Brule Creek, near where the party was that night.

When police recovered the car they found Miller’s purse in good condition and were able to identify her through the documents in it. Tests on the car revealed no mechanical faults and it’s not thought the pair had been drinking.

Perhaps one of the biggest tragedies about the accident is that Oscar Jackson died aged 102 just five days before his daughter’s body was found.

Gone airs at 5:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.