Overview

Last Seen: April 17, 1992
Location: Granger, Sweetwater County, Wyoming
Age: 33
Status: Missing; disappearance remains unresolved
NamUs #: 12576
Doe Network #: 3209DFWY

Main circumstances: Novak had been living an unsettled life in the years before she vanished and sometimes went long periods without contacting relatives. However, her family said she had historically reappeared and maintained at least occasional contact. A female friend reportedly identified April 17, 1992, as Novak’s last known sighting in Granger and reported her missing approximately three months later. Novak has not been located.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Kimberly Kay Novak Missing Person Case: The 1992 Disappearance in Granger, Wyoming

Kimberly Kay Novak, also known by her married name Kimberly Kay Allen, disappeared in Wyoming more than three decades ago. The most current case information available through a source-linked NamUs listing identifies April 17, 1992, as her last-seen date and Granger, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, as the location. She was 33 years old.

Novak’s disappearance remains unresolved. Although older missing-person records contain conflicting dates and locations, later reporting based on information from her family and investigators places her final known sighting in Granger in April 1992. Her family has continued to seek information about what happened to her.

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: April 17, 1992
Location: Granger, Sweetwater County, Wyoming
Age: 33
Status: Missing; disappearance remains unresolved
NamUs #: 12576
Doe Network #: 3209DFWY

Main circumstances: Novak had been living an unsettled life in the years before she vanished and sometimes went long periods without contacting relatives. However, her family said she had historically reappeared and maintained at least occasional contact. A female friend reportedly identified April 17, 1992, as Novak’s last known sighting in Granger and reported her missing approximately three months later. Novak has not been located.

Who Was Kimberly Kay Novak?

Kimberly Kay Novak was born May 25, 1958, in Montana and grew up in the Helena area with her sisters. Family members remembered her as a free spirit who participated in rodeo and enjoyed floral arranging. After high school, she worked in flower shops.

She later married Tom Allen and was therefore known in some records as Kimberly Kay Allen. The couple had two daughters before divorcing. At some point afterward, Novak became involved with another man whose work reportedly brought her to Wyoming. Her family was unsure exactly where she lived during portions of that period.

Public case information has also associated Novak with the aliases Kim, Kimberly Harris and Kimberly Giargiari. She was described as having brown hair and green eyes, approximately 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall and roughly 125 to 135 pounds. Reported identifying features include a mole near her nose, an abdominal surgical scar and a tattoo on her left shoulder blade depicting Pegasus, pine trees and the words “Rolling Thunder.”

Years of Limited Contact With Her Family

One reason Novak’s case became difficult to reconstruct is that periods of limited contact were not unusual for her.

Her younger sister, Becky Carter, told The Wyoming Truth that Novak sometimes disappeared from family contact for extended periods. According to Carter, Novak struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but her family remained an important part of her life. She would return for significant family occasions and was remembered for contacting her father on Father’s Day.

Carter said she last saw her sister in 1986, when Novak returned to Helena. Novak continued sporadic communication with relatives afterward.

The last known direct contact between Novak and her immediate family occurred in early February 1989, when she telephoned while visiting her father’s cattle ranch. She told her sister that she loved both her and their father. Her father was unable to come to the telephone at the time, and Novak was encouraged to call back. According to the family, she never did.

That family contact predates the later reported sighting in Wyoming by several years, illustrating one of the central challenges surrounding the case: relatives were not necessarily aware of Novak’s movements during her final years.

The April 17, 1992 Disappearance

Later case information identifies Granger, Wyoming, a small community in Sweetwater County, as Novak’s last-known location.

According to The Wyoming Truth, Novak was last seen there on April 17, 1992. A female friend reportedly filed a missing-person report approximately three months later.

Current CaseTrace information linked to an official NamUs source also lists Novak as missing from Granger on April 17, 1992, at age 33, under NamUs case 12576.

What happened after that sighting has never been publicly established.

There has been no publicly confirmed discovery of Novak’s remains, verified contact establishing that she survived under another identity, or publicly announced arrest in connection with her disappearance.

Why Do Some Records Say She Disappeared in 1990 or 1991?

Kimberly Novak’s case contains an unusual and potentially confusing record problem: several different disappearance dates have circulated publicly.

The Charley Project lists her as missing from Sublette County on July 3, 1990, stating that she was going to Jefferson County, Montana, concerning a custody matter and never returned.

Other historical records have used June 1991 dates. A Websleuths discussion documenting changes among the public databases noted that NamUs, the Charley Project, the Wyoming missing-person system and the Doe Network did not always display the same date.

The later Wyoming reporting and current CaseTrace listing tied to NamUs instead use April 17, 1992, in Granger.

Because of those discrepancies, older accounts should not automatically be treated as describing separate disappearances. Kimberly Kay Novak and Kimberly Kay Allen are the same missing woman, and the public record appears to have undergone corrections or revisions over time.

The custody-related trip to Montana has also appeared repeatedly in older accounts, but publicly available sources do not provide enough documentation to establish precisely when that trip occurred or how it relates to the April 1992 sighting.

Why Her Family Suspects Something Happened to Her

Novak’s relatives have said they believe her disappearance was more than an intentional decision to leave her life behind.

They acknowledged that Novak sometimes disappeared for stretches and struggled with addiction. But they also emphasized that she historically resurfaced and maintained connections with people she loved. Her prolonged absence eventually became fundamentally different from her previous behavior.

Before disappearing, Novak had also reportedly expressed a desire to improve her life and regain custody of her daughters.

Her sister and niece have publicly stated that they believe Novak would have contacted someone in the family during the decades since her disappearance if she were able to do so. Family members therefore believe she may have been the victim of a crime, although no homicide has been publicly confirmed and Novak remains officially classified as a missing person.

The Case Returns to Public Attention

For years, relatively little information about Novak’s disappearance was publicly available.

Her sister helped revive attention to the case in 2012, when Novak was reported to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

The expansion of Wyoming’s statewide missing-person resources and online awareness groups later brought her photograph and case information before a much larger audience.

The Doe Network has assigned Novak case number 3209DFWY, and its published update archive records an information update to her case in 2024.

Social-media communities and missing-person researchers have likewise continued circulating Novak’s case, although information from discussion forums and social posts should be treated as leads or awareness material rather than confirmed investigative findings.

Latest Public Investigation Information

The most recent detailed public statement from law enforcement located during research came through The Wyoming Truth on December 31, 2023. Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office Special Services Lt. Michelle Hall told the publication that Novak’s case was active and continued to be investigated, although she declined to release investigative details.

The Doe Network subsequently recorded that Novak’s case information was updated in 2024.

Current case-directory information available in 2026 continues to identify Kimberly Kay Novak as missing and links her case to NamUs #12576, using the April 17, 1992 Granger disappearance date.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation also continues to operate its statewide missing-person database. DCI explains that people remain on that public site until the agency is notified that the entering law-enforcement agency has removed the person from NCIC, although DCI cautions that its online database is not real-time.

A June 3, 2026 missing-person program again brought public attention to Novak’s disappearance, showing that her case continues to circulate among missing-person advocates.

As of August 25, 2026, I located no publicly announced recovery of Kimberly Novak, identification of remains as hers, arrest, criminal charge, or official resolution of the case. The latest explicit law-enforcement statement located still describes the investigation as active.

Anyone with credible information should provide it directly to investigators rather than posting possible tips or accusations publicly.

More Than Three Decades Without Answers

Kimberly Kay Novak would now be in her late 60s. Her disappearance has outlasted multiple changes in missing-person databases, investigators and methods of publicizing cold cases.

The inconsistencies in her historical records make the case particularly important to share accurately. The strongest later information places 33-year-old Kimberly Kay Novak in Granger, Wyoming, on April 17, 1992.

More than three decades later, the central question has not changed:

What happened to Kimberly Kay Novak after she was last seen in Wyoming?

Anyone with information, including information that may have seemed insignificant at the time, is encouraged to contact the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office or the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.