It was December 27, 1974 when Joanne Elaine Coughlin would be seen for the last time.

"I love her. I loved her, she was my saving grace," said Coughlin's niece Debra Burkey.

Burkey says they spent Christmas together as a family, just two days prior to Coughlin going missing.

"I was the last one to speak to her out of the family as a matter of fact," Burkey said.

The day she went missing, she went to work, then to a European Health spa in Boardman but her family believes she never arrived.

"They said she signed in, but no one saw her really," said Burkey. "My grandmother didn't think the signature looked like her daughter's signature. So we're not even sure that she even made it to the health spa," she said.

Burkey says her aunt's disappearance never made sense.

"She mailed her life insurance premium on the day she vanished, why would you take off and wanna leave and pay life insurance," Burkey said.

It's been reported by the Charley Project that Youngstown police were able to track down two suspects, after a woman posed as Coughlin at a bank just three days after she went missing, trying to take $800 from her account.

However, the suspects were never charged and to this day, Coughlin's body has never been found.

Next December, it'll be 50 years Coughlin's been missing and Burkey says, hopefully by then some new evidence will have turned up or maybe some closure for her family. She tells 21 News Reporter Sydney Canty that if not, it might just be time to put this all behind her.

Burkey wants the public to know that they can reach out to her at [email protected] if they have any information.