Pah Pow, 30, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was last seen on April 17, 2016. Pow and her husband, both natives of Thailand, had lived in Lincoln, Nebraska before relocating to Aberdeen roughly two years before her disappearance. According to an FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) alert, Pow left her residence in the 1000 block of 7th Avenue SE at approximately 11:00 p.m. following an argument with her husband and was believed to be walking to a boyfriend's residence. A separate account, reported by The Charley Project, states that Pow's husband returned home from a park with their one-year-old son around 7:00 p.m. that evening and found her gone, and that the couple's ten-year-old son told his father Pow had left in a car with a man he recognized but could not name. Pow was last seen wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and pink tennis shoes, along with a silver ring and a silver necklace with a heart pendant. She did not report for her next shift at the DemKota Ranch Beef Plant, and her cellphone has been turned off since she was last seen. Her husband reported her missing more than a week later, after a miscommunication in which her family believed she was staying with friends and her friends believed she was with family; the delay was resolved only once she missed work.
The Aberdeen Police Department is the lead investigating agency, with the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program assisting. Investigators have stated that Pow is not with the boyfriend referenced in witness accounts and that she has not contacted him, her relatives in Nebraska, or family in Thailand since she disappeared. Her DNA profile has been entered into a national database, and a family reference sample has been collected and uploaded to CODIS. Pow has a documented history of seizures triggered by emotional distress, as well as anxiety and depression, and is a native Karen- and Thai-speaking Thai national with limited English proficiency. As of April 2026, ten years after her disappearance, the case remains open and unsolved; the lead detective has said tips continue to come in periodically but have slowed over time. The case is listed with NamUs (#MP35793) and carries agency/FBI ViCAP case number 16AP08437. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Aberdeen Police Department at 605-626-7003, or to submit anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers.
