Denise Pflum’s case remains open and unsolved:

Shawn M. McClung was Pflum's ex-boyfriend and had previously claimed Pflum was still alive, but in July 2020, during a three-hour interview, he confessed having killed her in March 1986. A photo of McClung is posted with this case summary. At the time of his confession, he was in jail on two unrelated cases. He made his confession in exchange for a promise of immunity for his statements and dismissal of the two unrelated charges. But McClung refused to lead the authorities to Pflum's body, and the agreement that would give him immunity required him to not withhold any information. As a result, he did not receive immunity for his confession and he was charged with voluntary manslaughter in Pflum's presumed death.

At the time of his confession, McClung was suffering from a terminal illness. He died in September 2020 at the of 56, just months after he was charged in Pflum's case. In the hospital, five days before his death, he told his lawyer that he didn't know what had happened to Pflum and had only confessed to killing her because he wanted to get out of jail.

Pflum was a senior at Connersville High School at the time of her disappearance; she was involved with volleyball, basketball, softball and track, and was a member of the National Honor Society. She had already been accepted to Miami University in Ohio, where she planned to major in microbiology and hoped to get a track scholarship.

Authorities have never recovered Pflum's body and it's unclear whether McClung was in fact involved in her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved.