Unsolved Ohio: Woman vanished after move to Columbus 27 years ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Days after moving from northeast Ohio to Columbus, a young mother of two vanished and has not been seen or heard from in nearly three decades.  

Anna Zirkle, 22 years old at the time of her disappearance, was a kind and “soft-hearted” person who always focused on others, her mother Luann Zirkle said. Anna was the mother of two sons aged 2 and 4 years old.

“She was all about her kids,” Luann said. “She loved her children and never went anywhere or did too much without them.”

Anna’s friend, Janet Luiz, said no matter what was going on in Anna’s life, she was always cheery and smiling. Even before she became a mother, Luiz said Anna was very nurturing and good with children. 

“She was always happy for the future,” Luiz said. “We and she laughed a lot. She had a beautiful smile.”

At the beginning of 1997, Anna and the father of her children were preparing to move from Warren, Ohio to Columbus for a “fresh start,” Luann said. The couple moved in late January, with Luann helping her daughter pack her belongings and sending her off on a Greyhound bus.

“Two weeks before I set her up in housekeeping,” Luann said. “I put her and the boys on a bus. She left from Akron, Ohio.”

On Feb. 1, 1997, Anna disappeared after she was last seen walking away from her new home in the 300 block of East Roosevelt Avenue. At the time, the father of Anna’s children was visiting Warren. 

A cousin of the boys’ father, who was in the area, reported to authorities that Anna sent him to take her two children on a bus to stay with their father in Warren that day because “she was tired of everything and needed a break,” according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. 

Five days later, a neighbor reported Anna missing, and no one has seen or heard from her since. Ruiz and Luann both said Anna would have never left her children. 

“She didn't walk out of their lives,” Ruiz said. “They need to understand that she would have never left them, and she didn't leave them.”

Ruiz added that Anna was expecting a check in the mail the same day she was reportedly last seen. She left without the check, personal identification or any belongings. 

“Why would (she) disappear and why would (she) not take that check?” Ruiz said. “Why would (she) not wait for that check and cash it?”

In 2011, authorities received a tip that Anna’s body was at a property in Orwell, Ohio. They searched with cadaver dogs, but did not find anything, according to Ruiz. 

Anna’s youngest son, Devonte Williams, is now 29 years old and has very few memories of his mother.

“It's just kind of hard to explain to people, when you've never had a person in your life, but you know that a part of your life is missing and a part of you is missing,” Williams said. "Everybody tells me that my mother was a strong, beautiful woman."

Ruiz said she hopes to bring renewed attention to the case and urged Columbus police to take a new look at the investigation. She believes more than one person knows what happened.

“This is heavy in my heart because when she went missing, I just felt like she didn't get a lot of attention,” Ruiz said. “I don't think she got a fair opportunity.”

Luann also begged for anyone with information to come forward, so the family can have closure.

"I have a picture of her in an outfit that she used to love to wear, and I look at that every day," Luann said. "That lump in your throat just never goes away."

At the time of her disappearance, Anna Zirkle was 5 feet 5, 135 pounds, and had black hair and brown eyes. As of Thursday, she would be 50 years old. 

Anyone with information regarding her disappearance is urged to call the Columbus Division of Police at 614-645-4545 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at 614-461-8477.

If you’re a family member of an individual with an unsolved missing persons or homicide case in Ohio, reach out to aboldizar@wcmh.com.