Judith Mae Andersen, 15, was the only daughter of four children born to Ralph and Ruth Andersen of Chicago, Illinois. In August of 1957, weeks from her sixteenth birthday, she was shortly to begin her junior year at Chicago’s Austin High School (today known as Austin Community Academy).

"She loved flowers and she liked to bake. She often helped her father, Ralph, 43, a bookbinder, when he worked around the house, for she was a strong girl - 5 feet 8 and weighing about 150 pounds. Blonde and pretty, she had passed a normal summer, highlighted by a crush on the 18 year old boy in Oklahoma...” - Chicago Tribune September 2, 1957

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Austin High School aerial photo (date unknown)