Crime & Safety

Advocates Hope Sonar Device Will Locate Missing Woman

Dundalk resident Bernadette Stevenson Caruso disappeared after leaving her job at Eastpoint Mall in 1986 and hasn't been seen since.

If Bernadatte Stevenson Caruso is still alive, she turned 49 on July 2.

But it's highly unlikely the Dundalk native and Patapsco High School graduate, missing since September 1986, is still alive.

It's not something family members want to acknowledge, but they are realistic.

Find out what's happening in Dundalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We don't want to give up that last sliver of hope that she's still alive, but we know in our gut that she didn't go on her own," Susan Bowerman, one of Caruso's six siblings, said last week. "Bernie would never have gone on her own and left her 3-year-old child behind."

Caruso was just 23 and in the midst of a "nasty divorce" and custody battle when she disappeared, Bowerman said. She worked a scheduled shift at her job at Shaw's jewelry store at Eastpoint Mall on Sept. 27, 1986, and was never seen again.

Find out what's happening in Dundalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Nearly 26 years after Caruso's disappearance, an effort is underway to raise money for a special piece of sonar equipment that friends and family members hope could be used to find her body.

Tracey Reitterer, who befriended members of Caruso's family through her volunteer work with the Maryland Missing Persons Network, is spearheading a fundraising effort to buy the specialized piece of equipment for the Baltimore County Police Department.

"After finding out that Baltimore County does not own this equipment, I decided in May to start raising public funds to buy it," Reitterer said. "Maryland has older sonar equipment, but I'm pushing for the Humminbird sonar."

Reitterer, a former Dundalk resident who now lives in Arbutus, believes Caruso's body and car are submerged in a body of water, and hopes more sophisticated equipment might help locate her remains.

"She's not been found and neither has her car," Reitterer said. "It's very hard to get rid of a body and a car—she's out there somewhere."

With the 26th anniversary of Caruso's disappearance approaching, Reitterer is hoping to raise $26,000 for the effort.

The piece of sonar equipment costs about $3,000.

The body of water where she suspects Caruso's body is (which she declined to name) is thought to contain many cars at its bottom.

A crane and flatbed truck will be needed to remove those cars, and Reitterer said she has received estimates of $2,000 to $2,500 per day for that work to be performed.

"I'd like to raise enough money for the sonar and to have those cars all removed," she said. "The rest of the money can go to the reward fund — sometimes money is a motivator."

Baltimore County Police Department officials said they welcome any assistance they receive.

"We appreciate any support and effort by the community to help us return missing loved ones to their families," Cpl. Cathy Batton said in an email. "We routinely re-evaluate our cases as new investigative and forensic techniques emerge and will use whatever resources are available to us to locate the individuals who have been reported missing in our county.

"If the Maryland Missing Persons Network is able to raise the funds to purchase sonar equipment to loan to law enforcement agencies, we will use the equipment in the Bernadette Caruso case."

Police officials did search bodies of water looking for Caruso and her car at the time of her disappearance, Batton said, without success.

"We consider all information equally credible until we can thoroughly investigate the information that has been provided," Batton said when asked if tips of Caruso's body possibly being in a specific body of water were credible.

Both Reitterer and Bowerman want to find Caruso's body to give family members and friends some sort of closure.

"I can't fathom what it's like to get up every morning knowing that a loved one is just gone," Reitterer said. "Bernadette needs to be found for her family— her family deserves answers, they deserve to bring her home."

Caruso's disappearance has "totally changed my family's life," Bowerman said.

"When cancer or something else takes a loved one, they die with dignity and the family knows what's going on—they are able to grieve and bury their loved one," Bowerman said. "But with Bernie, we don't know—we're in a living hell."

Caruso's mother, Patricia Stevenson, is nearly 80. She has lived for nearly 26 years with not knowing what happened to the baby of her family.

"I want Bernie back for my family, but mostly for my mom," Bowerman said. "We want our loved one back, for her dignity—no one deserves to be taken against their will and we want her back."

And while finding Caruso is the motivation for the fundraising effort, Reitterer and Bowerman believe other families will benefit, and perhaps won't have to wait as long as the Stevenson family has to find out what happened to a loved family member.

"There's no guarantee that we will find Bernadette with this equipment, but hopefully this will renew interest in the case," Reitterer said. "And then the police department will have this equipment to assist with future cases."

Bowerman said she can't believe such a "simple machine" could make the difference in finding the body of a missing loved one.

"This isn't just for Bernadette, this is also for all of the other families that this could help," Bowerman said. "This is for the future."

To Make a Donation:

Anyone desiring to make a donation to the sonar equipment fund can visit the Bring Bernadette Home page at gofundme.com.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.