Linda Perhacs, '70s Folk Music Legend, Found After Being Missing For 8 Months

According to reports, 1970s folk music legend Linda Perhacs has been safely located after spending the last several months unaccounted for. On July 27, 2026, Perhacs' former manager, Laurel Stearns, used her Instagram to announce the surprising news that she had been missing. Stearns called on the public for help after her friends and family had failed to find or get in touch with the singer since she was discharged from an assisted living facility eight months prior, around November 2025. Stearns elaborated in a statement shared with the media later that day, writing (via Entertainment Weekly), "Concern is growing among friends, collaborators, and members of the music community regarding the well-being and current whereabouts of acclaimed singer-songwriter Linda Perhacs."

The LAPD opened a formal investigation into Perhacs' disappearance as well, after Perhacs' team filed an official report with Adult Protective Services in the Los Angeles County Aging & Disabilities Department. A spokesperson for the department's Missing Persons Unit confirmed in a statement to The Daily Mail on July 29 that they had located the psychedelic folk singer. "She was found today. She's safe," they said, though they added that because of HIPAA-related concerns, they were not at liberty to say much more than that. In any case, Perhacs' friends, fans, and colleagues can seemingly breathe a sigh of relief knowing that she's alive and well after dropping off the radar for so long.

Linda Perhacs is the very definition of a cult-favorite artist. Living in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Perhacs was working as a dental hygienist (a profession that actually makes very good money) when she became enamored with the hippie lifestyle. It was also around that time she was discovered by one of her patients, Leonard Rosenman, the Oscar-winning composer behind the films "Barry Lyndon," "Bound for Glory," and "Rebel Without a Cause," to name just a few. Rosenman would produce Perhacs' debut album, "Parallelograms," which dropped in 1970.

"Back then I was jumping between two worlds: the hippy one and the straight one," Perhacs told The Times in February 2014. "I could have got fired from my job if they thought I was part of the hippy subculture, but I wasn't Janis Joplin," she continued. She was certainly right about that, because hers was not an overnight success story. Unlike Joplin, Perhacs definitely didn't become one of the defining female rock stars of the '70s. In reality, "Parallelograms" largely flew under the radar upon its initial release and quickly faded into obscurity — at least, for a while.

Perhacs' album gained a cult following after being reissued on CD in the late '90s, with additional reissues bringing it further mainstream attention — and acclaim — in the 2000s. This eventually encouraged Perhacs to put out a second album, "The Soul of All Natural Things," in 2014, more than 40 years after her debut. This was followed by a third, "I'm a Harmony," in 2017. One of Perhacs' close friends recently told Page Six that the singer's memory had begun to fail, and that he hadn't seen her since they celebrated her 80th birthday in the health care facility she had been in since at least 2024. Dementia and Alzheimer's can have devastating effects — just look at the tragic details of Jay Leno's wife and her health issues — so everyone is infinitely grateful that Perhacs was located safely.