Crime & Safety

Missing: Macungie Woman, 55, Last Seen Friday

Denise Kuhns disappeared on Aug. 16, according to her daughter.

“This is a living hell. That is what I have been telling people. You see this on TV. You don’t think this is going to happen to you and it is here.”

That’s how Shannon Toth of Macungie describes what life’s been like since her mother disappeared Aug. 16.

No foul play is involved. There hasn’t been an abduction. Toth’s mother, Denise Kuhns, just walked out the door last Friday morning and she hasn’t been seen since.

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The 55-year-old Macungie woman does suffer from depression, Toth explains, but she is not medicated for the condition. She doesn’t drive. She left for work at 6:30 a.m. Friday and hasn’t been seen since.

Nobody knows what Kuhns was wearing when she disappeared. But she is described as 5-feet-6, 130 pounds, with short blond hair and hazel eyes. She does not have any tattoos or other distinguishing marks, according to her daughter.

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“She is gone and nobody knows anything,” Toth says. Kuhns lives with Toth’s father and he was the last person to see her when she left their home to go to work.

He came home from work that day and his wife didn’t. Apparently she never even got to work. Toth’s father eventually found what Toth describes as a “ bizarre note” from his wife saying that she might not be back.

“It came totally out of the blue,” Toth says. “A total bomb dropped on our family. She obviously had a mental breakdown that is clearly obvious. I am assuming people like that need to be hospitalized.”

Toth says that her family did talk to Macungie Police, but the police cannot classify her mother as a missing person because that means there has been an abduction or some sort of foul play. The police did put out what is called an “attempt to locate” but that didn’t bring any clues.

“To me and our family she is missing, she is gone,” says Toth, who has two sisters and a brother who also live in the Macungie area.

“We have literally exhausted everything,” she says. “The police did talk to people. We went to my mom’s work. We talked to all of her friends. We did everything. All we can say is she has been gone since Friday and we have no idea where she is.”

Anyone with any information on where Denise Kuhns is can call her daughter, Shannon Toth, at 610-573-3602.

Or they can contact the Macungie Police at 610-966-2222.

“We just want to know where she is and that she is all right,” Toth says. “If anyone knows anything, whether or not she wants to be found, we need answers.”


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