True Crime Vault: Missing From the Mall

In November 2003, 22-year-old University of North Dakota senior Drew Shadin finished a shift at Victoria's Secret in the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, bought a purse for her mother at Marshall Fields, and walked to her car while talking to her boyfriend, Chris Lang. Her last words to him were "okay, okay," and the call cut off. She never arrived at her second job that night. Her red Oldsmobile was found in the mall parking lot, and near the driver's side rear tire, a police officer spotted a knife sheath—an object he picked up without yet understanding how crucial it would become.

The search and early suspects

Drew's disappearance triggered an immediate, multi-agency investigation spanning North Dakota and Minnesota. Because Grand Forks sits on the state line, the Federal Kidnapping Act could apply if Drew had been taken across state lines, which would allow for harsher penalties including the death penalty. Police first looked at those close to Drew: her boyfriend Chris Lang was quickly ruled out because he was 300 miles away in Minneapolis. Her ex-boyfriend Adam Schultz, an aerospace student, raised concerns—Drew's roommate said the breakup hadn't gone well and that Drew had become scared of him. Schultz cooperated, gave DNA, and consented to searches, but his alibi for getting gas the day Drew vanished turned out to be a receipt from two days prior. Still, cell phone d