In May of 2000, shortly after having dinner with her parents to celebrate the launching of a new career, Alison Thresher vanished.

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Now, though, a case of sexual abuse may provide a crucial break in the case of a woman who went missing from Bethesda 12 years ago.

More than a decade has passed since the 45-year-old Thresher vanished, and prosecutors say she disappeared shortly after she tried to inform authorities about the abuse of a young girl.

Her car was later found near Glen Echo Park, but after that, the trail went cold. However, the break authorities have been looking for may have come in a Rockville courtroom.

Fernando Asturizago, a 45-year-old Vermont man, is currently on trial for child sexual abuse. Prosecutors in that case tried to introduce evidence about Thresher trying to contact Montgomery County authorities because she knew about the abuse.

The judge refused to allow any evidence about the Thresher case into Asturizago's trial, but witnesses do say that they saw her with a Latino man shortly before she went missing.