This year marked 45 years since Diane Chorba disappeared from her home in Lake County.

Clarence ‘Ollie’ Bean was eventually convicted of killing Chorba. The two had a child together and Diane was pregnant when she disappeared. It is believed that Bean was also the father.

But Diane’s body has never been found.

The bond between mother and daughter is special, a bond that Victoria Bennett and her mother Diane Chorba undoubtedly share.

“She loved children. I mean, she was probably some of my cousins’ favorite aunt when she was alive and, I don’t know, I think she died too young. “He’s too young to know what it is,” Bennett said.

Victoria was 12 years old in the summer of 1979 and still remembers many of the details surrounding her mother’s disappearance.

“Well, my parents ended up separated for a while. They lost a son in ’74. My sister was six years old when she died of pneumonia. And they sort of blamed each other for that. So I think that was the end of their entire existence together. In a way they blamed each other. And this man, Clarence Beam, that my mom and dad knew was part of our lives. He was my father’s employer. And I think he took advantage of the fact that they had problems and they sent my father on a trip and they left my mother at home. And they had a child together and she was pregnant again with her second child,” Bennett said.

Victoria says Bean was at her house the morning her mother disappeared.

“The bedroom door was closed when I left for school. I remember saying goodbye to her out the door, which wasn’t unusual. Usually there was a hug, a kiss goodbye, you know, and that day I went to school and came home. And as I was getting off the bus, I saw Ollie’s wife, Judy’s car or truck in our driveway. And what really caught my attention was that there was smoke burning in the trash can, and the trash barrel outside was something we didn’t do,” Bennett said.

Victoria then remembers being told that her mother had left for Reed City and would return later that night.

When her mother did not return, she was told she was on an American Airlines flight that crashed in Chicago.

“That was a story Ollie and his wife made up to buy time. So there was no investigation or search for my mother for almost more than two months. And at that point, they had cleaned out our house, packed everything up, brought it to their house, packed it up, and put it outside in a storage area. And that was it,” Bennett recalled.

Chorba was reported missing in July 1979.

Bean was eventually convicted of killing Chorba in the early 2000s.

He later died in prison.

But Chorba’s body has never been found, that’s the part of the case Victoria is still trying to solve.

“He left a confession with the prison inspector. And he told us what he did with the body, how he murdered her, how he wished he hadn’t done that, and told us where we could find the body. So we’ve been looking in those areas. It’s an area I had work in,” Bennett said.

But where exactly it is remains a mystery. Victoria thinks it’s somewhere in the woods of Lake County.

“We have looked in many areas. And I can’t even, I don’t know how many miles, with ground penetrating radar across two runways.

“If she is where I think she is, it is beautiful there. And she is part of that forest now. So if I took it out of there, I wouldn’t really take it out because it’s been 45 years. She is part of everything that surrounds that area. If you look at it in a scientific way. And I know I probably wouldn’t get much in return. And then that’s not even the important part. It was just knowing that they found her. And I didn’t leave this for generations after I died, you know, for my children or anyone in my family to have to deal with it,” Bennett said.

If you have any information about where Diane Chorba’s body is, please contact the Michigan State Police.