Lincoln police and Nebraska State Patrol investigators spent Thursday tearing into the basement floor of a Havelock home, searching for possible human remains connected to Regina Bos, the Lincoln woman who vanished after leaving a downtown bar more than 25 years ago. Crews pulled up concrete and dug into the dirt beneath it at a house near North 68th Street and Burlington Avenue, working through a tip that linked the property's deceased former owner to both Bos and Duggan's Pub, where she was last seen.
Technicians and investigators arrived at the home around 9 a.m. Thursday, according to klkntv.com. Crews removed part of the concrete floor and worked in two separate areas of the basement described as a bedroom, according to seed facts drawn from an Omaha World-Herald report, which noted the slab was about 4 inches thick. The home, built in 1946 according to 1011now.com, sits roughly seven miles from where Bos was last seen, the station reported.
A Tip Three Months in the Making
The excavation traces back to a tip Lincoln police received about three months earlier, alleging the home's previous owner had a connection to Duggan's Pub and to Bos herself, per the same 1011now.com report. That previous owner has since died, the station noted. The current resident, who has owned the house since 2002, did not live there when Bos disappeared and has cooperated fully with investigators, klkntv.com reported.
Investigators brought in a University of Nebraska anthropologist to help assess anything uncovered during the dig, according to klin.com. Any remains found would be sent to a laboratory for DNA testing, with the possibility of comparisons using dental or skeletal evidence, klkntv.com reported. As of the latest update, preliminary testing at the scene had come back inconclusive and nothing had been found, per the 1011now.com report.
The Night Regina Bos Disappeared
Bos was 40 years old in October 2000 when she vanished after leaving Duggan's Pub near South 11th and K streets, according to the seed facts. In the early morning hours of Oct. 17, 2000, she left an open mic night at the bar, wowt.com reported, and was never seen again. She had put her guitar in the trunk of her car after singing at the pub and did not make it home.
Her light-green late-1990s Saturn was found abandoned across the street from Duggan's Pub the next day, Oct. 18, 2000, with her guitar and sheet music still inside the trunk, klkntv.com reported. Friends who found the car discovered the trunk open about 4 inches, according to the seed facts. People who knew Bos said she would not have missed work or wandered off without her guitar.
Bos' boyfriend of three months, Michael Johnson, had expected her to stop by his place after she finished playing at the pub, according to the seed facts. When she never arrived and her children told him the next morning that she had not come home, Johnson called police. Investigators went on to interview dozens of people in connection with the disappearance, and reports at the time noted Bos was reportedly seen talking to two men near her car outside a downtown bar, though investigators were later unable to confirm those accounts.
Still the Department's Oldest Open Case
Bos remains missing today, and her case stands as the Lincoln Police Department's oldest unsolved missing-persons case, 1011now.com reported. A new lead developed in August and prompted renewed, active investigative work, according to klkntv.com, with police pointing to new technology and forensic capabilities as additional tools for examining old evidence and tips.
Bos' disappearance helped spark the creation of Nebraska Missing Persons Day and the 411Gina Foundation, klkntv.com reported. The seed facts note that Nebraska Missing Persons Day was held for the third time just days before the Havelock search, and that Bos' sister, Jannel Rap, had returned to California after attending before receiving more tips in the days that followed. Rap has said she continues searching for answers nearly 26 years after her sister vanished, hoping investigators reach the end of this phase of the case and find her sister, but says she is prepared to be patient if nothing turns up.
Anyone with information about Regina Bos' disappearance is asked to call the Lincoln Police Department at 402-441-6000, per the seed facts, or to contact Lincoln Crime Stoppers anonymously at 402-475-3600.
