Missing Frame — The Jean Spangler Story

Hollywood has always been good at vanishing acts. Stardom flickers into obscurity. Names are etched in sidewalk stars, then stepped over. But in October 1949, one woman didn’t just fade from the spotlight—she disappeared entirely.

Los Angeles, 1949. The city was a furnace with diamond teeth. 

“You want a name in lights? First, they’ll carve it in shadows. I learned that fast.”

The air smelled like exhaust and gardenia. Jean Elizabeth Spangler—5’6”, striking, 26 years old—had the kind of face directors remembered. Long dark hair, curled soft at the edges. Green-hazel eyes full of dare. Lips curled into a half-smile like she already knew your secret.

She wasn’t famous. Not yet. But she lived on the fringes of fame—the chorus line, the party crowd, the second glance on a studio lot. A dancer at Florentine Gardens. Extra work in Technicolor dreams: *When My Baby Smiles at Me*. *Young Man with a Horn*. You might’ve seen her. One blink in a wide shot. She moved like liquid joy.

Her life wasn’t some starlit fantasy. Behind the makeup and pasted-on grins, she was a single mother to five-year-old Christine. Divorced from Dexter Benner—a man who didn’t take losing custody lightly. Jean had clawed her way to independence: living with her mother Florence and sister-in-law Sophie, dodging bills, sewing hope into every hemline.

But she made space for fun. Friends said she was flirtatious, warm, quick with a laugh. Lipstick that left ghosts on coffee cups. Fast talk and louder laughter.

“People remember me smiling, and that’s fair. But I had grit, too. You don’t survive in this town on charm alone.”

**October 7, 1949 — The Last Known Day**

That afternoon, Jean slipped out of her Park La Brea apartment. Told Sophie she was meeting her ex-husband about child support, then off to a night shoot. Winked as she left, like she knew something the rest of us didn’t.

She phoned later to say she’d be working late.

But the Screen Extras Guild confirmed—Jean wasn’t scheduled to work that night.

She simply vanished.

**Griffith Park, October 9, 1949**

 “They say the city never sleeps, but the park does. It dreams in silence. That’s where they found my purse—like a whisper left behind.”

Two days later, a groundskeeper named Henry Angu spotted her handbag at the Fern Dell entrance of Griffith Park. The strap was torn—violently, or suddenly. Inside were her ID, compact, lipstick… and one note.

 “Kirk: Can’t wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away,”

It ended with a comma. As if she’d meant to come back to it. As if someone—or something—cut her off.

Police ruled out robbery—her sister-in-law said Jean hadn’t left with any money. More than 100 volunteers and 60 officers combed the 4,000-acre park.

They found nothing.

Well—nothing but a denim jail uniform, half-buried in the soil. Unrelated, they said.

But eerie.

 “They said I liked to flirt with danger. Maybe I did. But I never thought it would flirt back.”

Jean had been seen with two men before she vanished: **Davy “Little Davy” Ogul** and **Frank Niccoli**. Enforcers in Mickey Cohen’s crime syndicate. Both under indictment. Both dangerous.

And both—gone.

Ogul vanished on October 9, two days after Jean.  

Niccoli had disappeared earlier—his car keys found in a sewer.

People said they saw Jean with them in Palm Springs. In Vegas. One El Paso hotel clerk swore she checked in with the two men. Border agents thought she crossed into Mexico.

But there was no paper trail. No receipts. Just traces. Just shadows.

“They said I got around. Maybe I did. But I wasn’t careless. I was curious. There’s a difference.”

That note—"Kirk… Dr. Scott…" It echoed louder than any scream. It was Jean’s handwriting. It was unfinished.

Police interviewed every Dr. Scott in Los Angeles. No one admitted to knowing her. Not officially.

But L.A. has always had two maps. One you read. One you whisper.

In 1949, abortion was illegal—and terrifying. Women turned to backroom clinics. Retired med students. Strangers with dirty instruments.

Jean’s friends said she was three months pregnant. She hadn’t named the father. But she had said: “I’m going to take care of it.”

There were rumors. A man called “Doc” who worked the Sunset Strip. A fixer in the shadows.

But no one ever found him. Maybe he vanished when Jean did.

 “I wasn’t reckless. I was careful. But when you’re a woman in 1949 with a secret, your choices shrink fast.”

#### 🔪 *Botched Procedure*

She died during the abortion. The doctor panicked. Disposed of her body and planted the purse as a distraction.

#### 🎭 *Staged Disappearance*

Was the note a red herring? A final act? But why write it in her own purse—unless she meant for it to be found?

#### 💣 *Mob Involvement*

If Jean was pregnant by someone powerful—someone connected—was it all arranged? And when it went wrong… was silence the only outcome?

Despite the leads, "Dr. Scott" was never found. No one charged. Nothing confirmed.

Jean's mother, Florence, said a man named “Kirk” had picked her up before. Always stayed in the car.

The city moved on. But Christine waited.

 “They kept looking for me. In diners. In border towns. In the faces of strangers. I became a rumor with lipstick.”

The years that followed weren’t silent—they *rattled*. Sightings, whispers, near misses.

 A gas station attendant in Central California saw a distressed woman mouth:  

 “Have the police follow this car.”  

  The man drove off. The police never found them.

In El Paso, a customs agent swore Jean checked in with Ogul. Hotel staff confirmed her likeness. But there were no names in the ledger.

A 13-year-old girl in North Hollywood said she saw Jean in a car with an older man.  

 “She looked nervous,” she said.  

  The tip went cold.

 “I became a face in the fog. A name whispered in diners. A question no one could answer.”

 “It’s funny. They try to solve me like a puzzle, but I was never the kind with edges that fit.”

Even now—75 years later—these are the dominant theories:

#### 🧬 1. *The Secret Pregnancy*

The botched abortion theory remains the strongest. But there’s no body. And no “Dr. Scott.” 

However, there was Kirk. Jean had recently worked as an extra on the film Young Man with a Horn, alongside rising star Kirk Douglas. He later claimed he barely knew her. But the tabloids had questions. Was "Kirk" in the note him?

#### 🕴️ 2. *Mob Retaliation or Escape*

She fled—or was silenced. Ogul vanished too. The connection runs deep.

#### 👔 3. *The Ex-Husband*

Jean told her family she was meeting **Dexter Benner** that night. He denied it. His wife backed him.  

Benner had motive. He hated losing custody. After Jean disappeared, he got their daughter—and fled the state.

Just... plausibility.

#### 🧠 4. *The Black Dahlia Echo*

Two young starlets. Two unsolved disappearances. Both in Hollywood’s orbit.  

Coincidence? Or something colder?

#### 🧤 5. *Voluntary Disappearance*

Could she have staged it? Started over?

She had no funds. No passport. No one heard from her again. And she loved Christine fiercely.

 “If I ran, it wasn’t away—it was toward something.  

If I stayed, it wasn’t willingly.”

### 🎬 *A Cold Case Still Warm*

Jean Spangler’s case remains officially **open** in Los Angeles. No remains. No suspects. No closure.

 “Maybe I wasn’t meant to be solved,” she might’ve said.  

 “Just… remembered.”

Rachel Cooke's Last Run

Rachel Louise Cooke was 19 years old when she disappeared on Thursday, January 10th, 2002. She had traveled from San Deigo to visit her parents in her hometown of Georgetown, Texas. She was last seen going for a jog in her parents' neighborhood.

Rachel Louise Cooke was described as beautiful. She was 5ft2 with hazel eyes and had auburn streaks running through her blonde hair.  People would say that she was a person that you love to be around with a free spirit who was full of life. She was vivacious and was always open to trying new things. She had great sense of humor and loved spending time with her friends and family. She loved shopping, had an innate sense of fashion and had dreams of making a career in the fashion industry and was always open to trying new things. She was also an accomplished cross-country runner.

Rachel was born on May 10, 1982, in Dallas, Texas, to Robert, a software engineer and Janet, an art teacher. When she was very young, she moved with her family to Georgetown, Texas. 

She started running in elementary school and was faster than most of the other runners. She joined the long-distance and the cross-county teams.

When Rachel was 18, she competed in the Miss Georgetown contest.

On January 10th, 2002, 19-year-old Rachel was on winter vacation from her school at San Diego Mesa College in San Diego, California and visiting her parents in the Northlake subdivision of Georgetown, Texas. She had extended her vacation to attend her cousin's wedding and been driving her parents and little sister JoAnn crazy asking them which outfit she should wear. Her boyfriend Graig had traveled with her, but by New Year's had already traveled back to California.

According to Rachel's family, Graig seemed really nice and attentive, and the pair seemed really in love. Rachel had planned to move in with him and had said that "he was the one." She also wanted to enroll in a fashion design school once she returned from her vacation.

That morning when Robert left for work, he was the first leave the house followed by Janet and JoAnn who told Rachel goodbye as she lay half asleep on the couch and then went off to school around 8 a.m. 

It was about 9:15 a.m. when Rachel received a call from her Graig. Rachel told him that she misses him and that she would call him back after she went for her morning run. Sadly, she would never make that call.

Shortly after she got off the phone with her boyfriend, she put on her green sports bra that showed of her two heart-shaped cherries tattooed on her left shoulder. She also put on either gray shorts or sweatpants then grabbed her gray shirt that she tied around her waist. She then grabbed her bright yellow Sony Walkman portable radio/cassette player with headphones and set out for her daily 4–5-mile run on the same route that she had always ran. She was last seen running in the direction of her parent's house between 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. near Neches Trail, which is just 100 to 200 yards from her family's residence.

At 3:00 p.m. Robert returned home to take Rachel shopping, but he couldn't find her. The way things were left in the house it appeared that she had never returned home from her run. Rachel had left her cellphone and purse at the house. It was said that anyone who knew Rachel new that she'd never go anywhere without her makeup. A worry Robert called Rachel's childhood friend Shannon Leech and asked her if she'd talked to Rachel. Shannon said that she hadn't talked to Rachel, but they had plans later to go out. Robert told Shannon that Rachel had left all her belongings behind, and Shannon began to worry.

Janet called the restaurant "Wildfire" where Rachel would work when she'd come to town. That said that they hadn't seen her, but she was to work that night. Her family thought that maybe she had gotten a ride to work from someone and had just forgotten her purse and phone. In the morning when Rachel hadn't returned, her family called the restaurant again. They learned that there was a mix-up and that it was a different Rachel that had worked the previous night.

Rachel's family went through all her clothes and finds out that only her running clothes are missing which further solidified their fears that Rachel had never returned from her run.

Robert decided to go drive the route that she'd always run while Janet went and checked the hospital but there was no sign of Rachel, so they went to the Sheriff's office to report her missing. Rachel's family said that they were told that Rachel probably had went to Mexico with her boyfriend and didn't tell anybody. 

Since it seemed like the authorities weren't going to do anything, Rachel's friends and family organized a search for her for that Saturday, which was interrupted and stopped by an investigator. The Sheriff's office had contacted Texas Ranger Mathew Lindemann and on January 13th he was on the case. Lindemann told Rachel's dad Robert that he didn't think that Rachel had left on her own and an official search for her began that day. There were ATVs, Helicopters and EquuSearch helped look for any sign of Rachel to no avail. After several days authorities stop their search for Rachel while family and friends continue the search for her for a few more weeks.

Several witnesses told authorities that two young males in a while Camero was circling the neighborhood the day Rachel disappeared. One of the reports was of a female jogger in Rachel's age range near the Camero while another report depicted of a woman struggling in the car. Several while Camero's were located and examined but there was no evidence that Rachel had been in any of them. Two young men also came forward and admitted that they had ditched school that day and were driving around the neighborhood. They were also investigated and there was no evidence found that tied them to Rachel's disappearance.

There were also reports of cars that had been plunged into Lake Georgetown. All the cars were excavated from the waters, and they were determined to have been stolen before Rachel went missing and had nothing to do with her.

Rachel's boyfriend had come back to help search for Rachel. He was ruled out early on as a suspect and also took and passed a lie detector test. Rachel's parents also volunteered to take a lie detector test. Janet passes but Robert failed one question on his test. The question was if he knew where Rachel was. Robert said that he thinks it is because he thinks she is in heaven.

Rachel's sister JoAnn was suspicious of Rachel's ex-boyfriend. She said that two days before Rachel disappeared, Rachel had told her that she saw the ex-boyfriend and that he had made a scene and had told Rachel that he couldn't live without her. Rachel's family and friends said that her past relationship with her ex had been volatile and that the ex had been very upset when she broke off the relationship. After they had broken up, he had been drunk and came over pounding on the door. Rachel's mom Janet had threatened to call the Sheriff's department to get him to leave. The boyfriend denied any involvement in Rachel's disappearance and there was no proof either.

Two years later there was a new Sheriff, and he organized a Rachel Cooke taskforce but didn't come up with much of anything. Fastforward to August of 2006 the taskforce had been disbanded, and Larry Hawkins was now in charge of Rachel's case. Convicted murderer Michael Keith Moore contacted investigators and said that he had murdered Rachel. 

Moore had spent nearly all of his adult life in prison. His father stated he began to get into trouble with the law at the age of 13, and many of his known offenses involve sexual misconduct and/or violence. At the time of his confession to murdering Rachel he was serving 4 life sentences for the robbery and murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child in a neighboring town.

Hawkins and Lindermann both interviewed Moore. Moore told them that he had attacked Rachel while she had been jogging, knocked her unconscious, drove her somewhere and raped her. He then murdered her with a hammer and wrapped her body in a tarp, weighted it with rocks and threw her into Matagorda Bay.

Moore was out of prison at the time of Rachel's disappearance and lived not far from her parent's house. He also was said to have had driven a white truck that had been seen in the area when Rachel disappeared. 

Divers searched Matagorda Bay and came up with nothing.

In November of 2006 Moore agreed to plead guilty to Rachel's murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, but in court Moore reneged and pleaded not guilty. He told the media he had been toying with authorities when he confessed to killing Rachel, and that he got special treatment in prison in exchange for his cooperation. He stated he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

Rachel's father Robert passed away on November 5th, 2014. All Rachel's mother Janet wants is that before she dies to know what happened to her daughter and if she was killed to give her daughter a proper funeral. Rachel's sister JoAnn is a social worker.

Rachel's disappearance remains unsolved.

If you have any information in Rachel's disappearance, please contact Williamson County Sheriff's Department at 512-943-1300.

At the time of her disappearance Rachel was a 19-year-old Caucasian female with blonde hair with auburn streaks. She had hazel eyes. She was 5'2 and 110 - 120 pounds. She had two heart-shaped cherries tattooed on her left shoulder and a black star tattooed on her left foot near her pinky toe. Her ears were pierced multiple times with one piercing in the upper cartilage, and her navel was also pierced. It is alleged she was last seen wearing a green sports bra, a gray shirt tied around her waist, gray shorts or sweatpants, and white Asics or Adidas sneakers. Carrying a bright yellow Sony Walkman portable radio/cassette player with headphones.

Betrayed by the Badge: The Disappearances of Felipe Santos & Terrance Williams.

Felipe Maximino Santos was humble and hardworking, and his hobbies included basketball and soccer. He spoke fluent Spanish and limited English. He was born on January 1st, 1979, in Oaxaca, Mexico and was the second of five brothers.

Around the year 2000, Felipe moved to Florida and started working as an undocumented immigrant in the farm fields and construction sites. Most of his salary went back to his family.

In May 2003 Felipe's wife had given birth to a daughter. He loved being a father, and he didn’t go out much. He was most often seen going to and from work or the laundromat. Felipe's brother Salvador wrote that “His dreams were to get ahead, to have a home where he lived with his family.”

On October 14, 2003, 24-year-old Felipe woke up not feeling well. His wife told him to stay home from work, but he left at 6:30 am anyway. He was driving with two of his brothers to work at a concrete and masonry company when his white Ford Tempo collided with a Mazda Protege near the Green Tree Shopping Center, at the intersection of Airport-Pulling and Immokalee roads in North Naples. Afterwards, Felipe and the Mazda’s driver, Camille Lach, pulled into a gas station parking lot. Lach told an investigator that one of Felipe's brothers offered her money if she wouldn’t call the police. Lach called the police anyway.

Collier County sheriff’s deputy, Corporal Steven Henry Calkins, was dispatched to the scene. He arrived at 6:55 a.m. and quickly determined that the crash that caused minor damage had been Felipe's fault. Felipe had no driver's license and no insurance. Calkins cited Santos for reckless driving and driving without a license or insurance and placed him in his patrol car and drove away. Felipe has never been seen since.

Later in the afternoon, Felipe's construction foreman contacted the Collier County jail so his brothers could post bail, but he was told that Felipe had never been brought into either of the county jails. Calkins claimed that he changed his mind about the arrest, because Felipe was "polite and cooperative". "I decided to issue him citations for the offenses instead of taking him to the jail… I didn’t want to leave him by his car, ‘cause I was afraid he was gonna drive off, as I’ve seen in the past. Um, so I went down just a few blocks away to the Circle K store located on Immokalee Road and Winterview Drive. Once there, I brought the driver outside and we talked, and I issued him his citations and I gave him a copy of the crash report and I gave him back his car keys and I explained to him not to drive his car anymore until he could get a valid driver’s license."

Lach contradicted that report, stating that Calkins was agitated about Felipe's lack of documentation. "He just stated that he was tired of pulling people over that didn't have licenses."

There was no evidence that Felipe ever arrived at the Circle K. Calkins' whereabouts after leaving the site of the accident was uncertain for nearly two hours. It was also uncertain why Calkins would have driven him there. Felipe and his brothers weren’t far from work, and their foreman was on the way to pick them up.

Felipe's family started calling hospitals. They also wondered since Felipe was undocumented, that maybe he’d been picked up by immigration authorities.

On October 29, two weeks later, after Calkins submitted his incident report, Felipe's family filed a missing person's report, as well as a complaint against Calkins. 

The sheriff’s office opened an internal-affairs investigation and assigned it to Sgt. Doug Turner to the case. On November 4, Turner interviewed Calkins. Turner said that he had found Calkin's story a little odd. Turner wondered why Calkins didn’t take him to jail and to the Circle K instead. 

On November 27th, a judge issued a bench warrant for Felipe after he failed to appear in court. The same day Capt. Jim Williams reviewed the internal-affairs investigation cleared Calkins of any wrongdoing. He wrote "I can find no basis for linking Cpl. Calkins with the alleged disappearance of Santos … I believe that Calkins’s actions in this situation were reasonable, lawful and proper." Felipe's wife, Apolonia Cruz-Cortez, has questioned the quality of the investigation into the disappearance, citing the fact that she had not been interviewed by investigators.

On December 2, Calkins was exonerated of "carelessness in duty performance" in the disappearance of Felipe Santos.

Terrance Deon Williams was an easy going and quiet man who liked reading about Socrates. He was born on January 17th, 1976, in Chatanooga, Tennesse to Marcia Williams. Marica was 17 when she had Terrance, so she basically grew up with him. He was her little buddy, and they would do pretty much everything together.

When Terrance was a teenager himself, he became a father and would go on to have four children by four different women.

In the 1990's Terrance was charged with trespassing and spent time in prison for aggravated robbery.

In 2001, Marica moved to Naples, Florida and Terrance came along with her at got a job in construction and as a cook at Pizza Hut in Bonita Springs. He also moved in with Jason Gonzalez who was a co-worker of Marica's.

Terrance’s young son Tarik lived nearby with Marcia. Terrance and Tarik played video games and went to the mall together, and Terrance regularly cut Tarik’s hair. He was a skilled barber who dreamed of opening his own shop. 

On Sunday January 11th, 2004, 27-year-old Terrance attended a work party at a friend's house.

Monday, Terrance was driving to work in his 1983 Cadillac. He was due at work at Pizza Hut at 10.a.m. when a patrol car with its lights flashing pulled up behind him. Terrance pulled into a parking space at the Naples Memorial Gardens cemetery. He didn't have a license due to it being suspended for driving under the influence he also didn't have proper registration. 

Jeff Cross, a family service counselor, was standing on the porch of an administrative building at the cemetery as he watched Terrance and sheriff's deputy Steve Calkins get out of their vehicles. The deputy then patted Terrance down. Terrance kept patting his pockets and putting his hands in the air, making it clear he didn’t have a driver’s license. Calkins put Terrance in the back of the patrol car and drove away.

Sometime after noon that day, the Calkins returned to the cemetery to have the Cadillac towed away. At 12:49, he placed a recorded call to dispatch. It was answered by Cpl. Dave Jolicoeur, a patrol deputy who was filling in on the dispatch desk. 

Calkins: "Yes, this is One Alpha 30 North Naples could you run a VIN for me, please?"

Dispatch: "For 30 bucks. You gotta give me 30 bucks first."
Calkins: "How about 20?"
(Laughter)

(Inaudible)

Calkins: "I got a homie Cadillac on the side of the road here. Signal 11, signal 52, nobody around."(Signal 11- abandoned, and Signal 52-disabled.)

Calkins: "The tag comes back to nothin’, it’s a big old white piece of junk Cadillac,” Calkins said. “I’m towin’ it."

Calkins: "It’s gonna come back to one of the brothers up in Fort Myers."

(LAUGHTER)

Dispatch looked up the number in a database and told Calkins the vehicle had no assigned registration. 

(LAUGHTER)

Dispatch: "It’s a homes’ car."

Calkins: "We just drive it, man."

Dispatch: "We don’t follow no rules, sucka."

Calkins: "We just be driven' it, man."

Dispatch asked where the car was, the deputy said it was at the cemetery at the corner of Vanderbilt and 111th.

Calkins: "Maybe he’s out there in the cemetery. He’ll come back and his car will be gone."

At 1:12 p.m., Calkins called to ask for warrants check on Terrance D. Williams and said the date of birth was April 1st, 1975. It was not Terrence's real date of birth; it was a false one that he would sometimes give the police when he was in a jam. After this call, Calkins was unaccounted for nearly an hour; this period may actually be closer to two hours, as Calkins' claims of other activities are not corroborated by any documentation.

The next day Gonzalez woke up and looked at his phone and realized that he had numerous missed calls from Terrance. Terrance never returned home, and his mother hadn't heard from him either. Marica had a bad feeling and went to Collier County to report Terrance missing. They told her that he was an adult and that he was free to do what he wanted to do and shrugged her off.

Gonzalez called every hospital and police department, but Terrance was nowhere to be found. Terrance's family called every place they could think of and one of those places was a tow company. It turned out that Terrance's car had been from Naples Memorial Cemetery after obstructing traffic and the officer that had it towed was Deputy Steve Calkins of the Collier County Sheriff's Department.

Marica went to the cemetery to talk to the workers. They told her that a Calkins had pulled Terrance over and had put him in the back of the cruiser and drove away with him. The name on the name tag was Steve Calkins. Before Calkins drove away, he asked the cemetery employees if he could leave the Cadillac in the lot. Calkins was witnessed returning to the cemetery between fifteen minutes and an hour later and moving the Cadillac from a parking spot to the side of the road. The car keys were found on the ground beside the car.

Marica had a friend that was a notary and had her come to the cemetery and have the workers sign sworn avadavats of what they saw. She then went to the sheriff's department and told them that she had proof that Terrance had been picked up and put in the back of a police cruiser. Dispatcher Kathy Maurchie called Calkins and asked him if he remembered having towing Terrance's car.

Kathy Maurchie: "Steve."

Calkins: "Yeah."

Kathy: "I hate to bother you at home on your day off, but this woman’s been bothering us all day. [LAUGHS] You towed a car from Vanderbilt and 111th on Monday? A Cadillac? Do you remember it?"

Calkins: "No."

Kathy: (PAUSE) "Do you remember — she said it was near the cemetery."

Calkins: (PAUSE) "Cemetery."

Kathy: "Anyway, the people at the cemetery are tellin’ her you put somebody in the back of your vehicle and arrested him, and I don’t show you arresting anybody."

Calkins: "I never arrested nobody."

Kathy: "That’s what I thought. Okay."

Calkins: "I gotta think about this one for a while."

Kathy: "But you’re sure no one was with that vehicle."

Calkins: "No."

Kathy: "It was around 12:30 in the afternoon?"

Calkins: (SILENCE) (LAUGHS) "Jesus, I can’t remember."

Kathy: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) "… you’re gettin’ to be my age, huh?" (LAUGHS)

Calkins: "Damn."

Kathy: (LAUGHS)

Calkins: "What do they want?"

Kathy: "Well, there’s somebody at the cemetery who’s telling the mother that you picked up the driver and he’s been missing since Monday."

Calkins: "Oh, for Pete’s sakes."

Kathy: "And I said, 'He didn’t arrest anybody.'"

Calkins: "No."

Kathy: "But she keeps calling and (saying), ‘Well, there’s got to be some way you can get a hold of ’im.’ … I think she spoke to every dispatcher in here today."

Calkins: (SIGHS)

Kathy: "Anyway, I was trying to figure out what color the Cadillac was. I forgot. I got it right in front of me. You picked it up at 12:27, on Vanderbilt and 111th. And Coastland came and got it. A large white Cadillac."

Calkins: "Large white Cadillac. I got to look it up in my notes. I don’t remember. God almighty."

Kathy: "But you’re sure you didn’t — you’re sure there was no one with it?"

Calkins: "No."

Kathy called Terrance's aunt.

Kathy: "Hi this is the sheriff's office. I talked to deputy Calkins."

Pamala Willams: "Mmm hmm."

Kathy: "And he did not pick up anybody with that vehicle."

Pamala: "He did not?"

Kathy: "He did not."

Pamala: "People at the cemetery said that they saw a police officer in a Collier County Sheriff's department car put him in the car and take him away."

Kathy: "Ok. If there was an officer out there... there's over 900 officers here. We'd have to have a car number to know who it was. There is no way i can find out if somebody gave him a ride somewhere."

Pamala: "When i called they said that the way you could track him would be the report at the street that he was picked up on."

Kathy: "There was no report taken. That is what i am telling you. There was no report taken from that area on Monday. No one picked him up. So, whoever is telling you this is either giving you the wrong information or it's not the same person."

Pamala: "Ok."

Kathy: "Ok?"

Pamala: "Thanks."

Kathy: "You're welcome."

A few days later, Calkins's supervisors asked him to submit an incident report. His report states that he first came in contact with Terrance when at 12:15 pm, after noticing that his car was driving "in distress". This was contrary to the time the cemetery workers claimed and didn't make sense since Terrance was due at work at 10 a.m. Calkins claimed he followed Terrance to the cemetery parking lot, and that he had asked for a ride to a nearby Circle K convenience store because he was late for work. Calkins claimed that he told Terrance “He had better make plans right away to get his car and he said that he would take care of it, and he thanked me. I asked him for his name, and he said Terrance. I also warned him that his tag was expired but he said the receipt and proper registration were in the glovebox, if I wanted to check it out." 

Calkins wrote that he returned to the Cadillac and discovered that the proper registration was not in the car, so he called Circle K from his work-issued cell phone and asked to speak to Terrance. “I now phoned the Circle K and asked for Terrance and the clerk that answered the phone said she did not know any Terrance. I now felt that that Terrance had deceived me. I now called for a wrecker … thinking that the Cadillac was now abandoned … and maybe even stolen. After Coastland Towing removed the car, I went back to the Circle K and the surrounding area to search for Terrance … but I could not locate him.” Investigators checked his phone records and could find no proof that he called the Circle K. 

According to the report, Calkins then called in the license plate number and found that the plates were expired. However, further investigation revealed that there was no sign of Terrance or Calkins on surveillance footage from the Circle K, and the phone records from Calkins's cell phone showed no call to the Circle K. Circle K employees were interviewed, and no witnesses could be found to place Calkins or Terrance there. 

A frustrated and worried Marica called the local CBS news station desperate for someone to help her find out what happened to Terrance. She also went around town putting up missing person flyers and knocking on doors.

Calkins took a polygraph which showed some deception.

In August of 2004 Calkins was fired by the sheriff's department because they couldn't get him to fully cooperate in the investigation in Terrance and Felipe's disappearances.

In October 2004 a grand jury invited Calkins to testify. He refused but wasn't indicted.

The Mexican Consulate in Miami contacted Marcia to tell her about Felipe who had vanished in a similar fashion. Calkins claimed that he had dropped off Felipe at another Circle K, approximately four miles from the location where he claimed he dropped off Terrance.

Terrance was declared dead in 2009.

In January of 2016, Calkins sold his home and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The new owners of Calkins' former home let the police search the property without a warrant, but nothing was found.

Fast forward to 2018. Tyler Perry had saw Marica's pleas on tv. He put her in touch with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. On August 30, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Calkins. In December of 2020 Calkins was compelled as part of the civil suit to sit for a four-and-a-half-hour deposition. During his sworn testimony, Calkins explained that he didn't take Terrance Williams to jail because what he remembered he "seemed like a really nice guy." That is pretty much all he claimed to remember. And he grew angry when a plaintiff's attorney tried to jog his memory.

Later that year, court appointed arbitrator ultimately ruled against the lawsuit, citing a lack of evidence. When Crump's attorneys missed a filing deadline to take the suit to trial, the judge sided with the arbitrator, dismissing the case and ruled that Marcia Williams had to pay Calkins around $5,600 for costs related to the lawsuit.

As of today Felipe and Terrance's disappearances remain unsolved.

Which Wolf Killed Little Red Riding Hood Arpana Jinaga?

Arpana Jinaga was talented, well-liked, a brilliant student and a dynamic girl. Arpana excelled in her studies and earned accolades from her mentors. 

She grew up in Hyderabad, India, and was the eldest daughter of Nirmala and Dr B C Jinaga, who was the head of the School of Information Technology at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. Arpana's sister, Pavitra, was pursuing her engineering second year from Naiduamma Engineering College.

Arpana has an early interest in art, writing, and gymnastics, but she showed remarkable aptitude for technology. She also was very active. She practiced taekwondo, learned to build her own motorcycle, joined a motorcycle group called the Pacific Northwest Riders, volunteered at the Redmond Fire Department and animal shelters, and even had aspirations of opening an animal sanctuary for endangered species. She was the type of person you’d want to get to know and hang out with.

Arpana completed her intermediate studies at Nalanda Junior College, KPHB Colony, and pursued her engineering degree at VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bachupally.

She was recognized as one of the top 20 winners in the Digital Signal Controller Design contest, which was held internationally by Microchip Technologies Inc., an Arizona-based company. Which she was highlighted for by The New Indian Express in June 2005 in a column titled "Young Inventors" where she had said she had plans to become a professor.

Arpana had left for the US in 2005 after completing her engineering. She received a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey in October of 2007. After graduation she was offered a job at EMC, a Bellevue, Washington software-development company, and according to her supervisor Muhammad Ali she became a "shooting star".

Initially, Arpana lived with friends in an apartment before relocating to her own place at Valley View Apartments on the 8900 block of Redmond-Woodinville Road in Redmond, Washington. She had been living there for six months when on the evening of Friday, October 31, 2008, the 24-year-old, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, co-hosted a Halloween party with four other tenants in their apartments. The building was motel-style, so everyone’s front door faced the outside of the building. There was food and snack tables set up outside the units. At any given time 40 or 50 people mostly residents and their friends and family were moving through the complex. Over a dozen people visited Arpana's apartment that evening. The majority of the guests departed after 9pm to continue the gathering at a different apartment.

Partygoers reported that Arpana got into a verbal altercation with a male, who made a race-related comment. Around 1am, Emanuel Fair who was dressed as a construction worker, visited her apartment to eat pizza. He had been in her apartment once earlier in the night too. Fair was staying in the apartment of Leslie Potts. Potts had met Fair on Myspace and had not known him for a long time.

Cameron Johnson, a neighbor of Arpana, arrived late at the party in Arpana's apartment. He was intoxicated and came with several bottles of liquor. Residents of the apartment noted that Johnson seemed to take an interest in Arpana.

At approximately 2:30 am, Fair and Johnson proceeded to Johnson's apartment, and subsequently to Johnson's car to listen to music. This event marks the final sighting of the duo by an independent witness.

At around 3 am, the party was mostly over, and Arpana was spotted talking with a tall man with olive skin as she stood in her third-floor apartment’s doorway. The description of the man matched Johnson's appearance.

During the night, neighbors of Arpana's heard muffled moaning sounds, and assumed she and a partner were having consensual sex.

Around 8 a.m., Arpana's neighbor, Kyle Rose, was roused by noises emanating from her apartment. He described hearing "a horrible growling" lasting about twenty seconds before a thud was heard. Once the noise ceased, Rose noticed the sound of footsteps followed by running water for an hour.

Arpana was in regular contact with her parents, and the last time they heard from her was the day before Halloween; she did not respond to their phone calls. Deeply worried, on Monday, November 3rd, Arpana's father called family friend, Jay Bodicherla to check on her. Bodicherla went to the apartment complex, where he encountered Cameron Johnson, who showed him the way to Arpana's unit.

When the two approached her locked door, they knocked, and it swung right open. They realized that the door had been kicked in. It was splintered at the jam, and the lock was broken.  When they got inside the apartment was in disarray. When they got to Arpana's bedroom, they found her nude body on the floor face-down on the carpet next to the foot of her bed and partially covered with a sheet. They didn’t approach her or check to see if she was alive; they ran outside and called 911.  

When the medics arrived, it was determined that Arpana died from strangulation from a bootlace which was later found in the trash bin of the apartment complex, along with a bag containing Arpana's Halloween costume, her bloodied robe and a discarded bottle of motor oil. Arpana had been gagged with her underwear and duct tape and had been brutally beaten around the head breaking her teeth. It had appeared that she had put up a fight. Her hands were covered in blue toilet-bowl cleaner, and her finger and fingernails were scrubbed. The rest of her body and other items were covered in motor oil. Her bed had been stripped, a fleece blanket as well as her arm was partially burned, and her comforter was found soaked in the bathroom bathtub. In the apartment, there was a strong smell of bleach, and also bleach stains were found everywhere.

The medical examiner determined that Arpana was killed sometime between 3:30 and 8 a.m. on November 1st as a result of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. She also had blunt-force trauma injuries to her battered body, and she was sexually assaulted.

It was later determined that there were items missing from the crime scene, including at least one of Arpana's ID cards, her Blackberry, and her digital camera; none of which would ever be recovered. Investigators later retrieve the cell phone's information from Arpana's provider.

Police found DNA evidence several people at Arpana's apartment. DNA from Aaron Gurtler’s semen was on a towel near Arpana’s body and was mixed with Arpana’s blood on a sheet covering her body even though he had not been to her apartment in several weeks, and she kept her apartment “very, very tidy.” Gurtler was a member of the Pacific Northwest Riders group. Two members of the group had a history of sexual crimes, and one had been sexually harassing Arpana.

Unknown male DNA was discovered on Arpana's wrist. The donor of this DNA was never discovered. Id. Unknown DNA from multiple males was found on duct tape, the string of a tampon near Arpana’s body, and her underwear which appeared to have been used as a gag

The first primary suspect was Arpana's neighbor Cameron Johnson. His DNA was on the bottle of motor oil. There were two calls made from Johnson's phone Arpana's phone around 3:00 a.m. the morning she was killed. 

At about 10 a.m., on the day that Arpana was killed Johnson printed out directions to a pawn shop and drove from Redmond to the Canadian border. At the border, he tried to “blow through” without stopping. The customs guards searched his car and refused him entry to Canada.

When Johnson was interviewed by police on November 3rd and 5th, he was noticeably limping with elbow and knee issues, but claimed it was due to an arm-wrestling incident. Johnson repeatedly told the police he had no memory of the evening. He asked others whether he might have killed Arpana and not remembered or did it in his sleep. Johnson admitted to police that he attended the Halloween party and admitted that he was sexually attracted to Arpana and wanted to "hook up" with her that night. He claimed that did not happen. He said he went to bed in his own apartment, alone, sometime after midnight and awoke around 3:00 a.m. to "moaning" originating from Arpana's apartment. Johnson said that he soon fell back asleep and stayed in bed until around 10:00 a.m. He said he did not remember calling Arpana in the middle of the night. When police confronted him with his phone’s call log, Johnson said, “oh crap.” Before the police got a search warrant for Johnson’s phone, he deleted his phone’s call logs and text messages. He also claimed that he could not explain why his DNA was on the bottle of motor oil.

The next suspect was Emanual Fair aka Anthony P. Parker. Fair who had weapon and drug offenses as a juvenile. In 2004 Fair was charged with the rape of a15-year-old victim. Fair had raped her numerous times, but this culminated in a final incident where fair choked the teenage girl at gunpoint. He was arrested for this crime and ended up pleading down from 2nd degree to 3rd-degree rape. Fair would begin serving out his four-year sentence in 2004 but was released by the end of 2006, serving less than three years and being labeled a "level one" offender.

Fair said that after the party ended around 1:00 a.m., he returned to Pott's apartment and went to sleep. Fair's phone records showed various calls to three women between 2:00 and 5:00 a.m. After the Halloween party, Fair spent several more days at the apartment complex and helped people clean up from the party. Fair’s DNA was found on the shoulders of Arpana's bathrobe, a tissue with faint blood stains, a mixed sample of DNA on the end of a piece of duct tape that may have been used as a gag during the incident, and on her neck.

On October 29th, 2010, Fair was charged with first degree murder on. The information alleged that the murder was premeditated and committed during the course of a burglary and rape. A special allegation of sexual motivation was also included. No charges were filed against Johnson.

Fair was held in jail for nine years before going to trial in February 2017. He spent most of that time in solitary confinement.

During the trial the defense surmised that when Fair used a tissue from Arpana's apartment after he got a bloody lip after he was hit accidently hit during the party, he likely used her bathroom where her robe hung. They also suggested that he may have touched the duct tape holding decorations during the party. Also, there were photographs that showed he touched Arpana and others while posing during the party.

Johnson, testified as witness for the defense and answered a limited set of questions after invoking his privilege against self-incrimination. He told jurors that he was interviewed by detectives four times and received immunity for two of those interviews; that he was not granted immunity for his trial testimony; and that he was never arrested, charged, or prosecuted in connection with Arpana's death.

The jury deliberated for eight working days before the court
declared a mistrial.

On June 11th, 2019, the jury in Fair’s second trial acquitted him after deciding law enforcement and prosecutors’ case wasn’t strong enough for a murder conviction.

Arpana's case remains unsolved.

Have you seen Brian Bleyl who went missing on his paper route in Arizona on February 28th, 1981?

This is what he might look like today. Here is his story https://darkmatter69.blogspot.com/2023/01/paperboy-brian-bleyl-went-missing-on.html Don't forget to check out the video i did about him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjwxvw0qf4A&t=0s 

Feds Arrest 3-year-old Da'Shawn McCormick's Father and Stepmother, But He Is No Where to Be Found!

“Dashawn, if I could see you today, I would wrap my arms around you and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ … Dashawn, I want you to know that I love you very, very much and I will never give up hope until you come home. Your brothers, sister, and I pray every night that you are safe and holding strong. We love you and miss, you Dashawn.” ~Jasmine McCormick

Da'Shawn was described as being like no other. He was the happiest kid you could ever know and could brighten up the whole room with that gorgeous smile of his. Even on his bad days he never once showed how bad he was feeling and always kept a smile on that face. He was always laughing and playing with his siblings and his mom. He also loved to play with his Nana and went everywhere with her. At night, he would entwine his fingers in her hair, ensuring that if she went anywhere, she wouldn't go without him. He was the most loving and caring child you could ever know. If you were feeling down, he would go out of his way to bring a smile to your face and lift your spirits. He was understanding and very loving. He loved going to the park and he loved to play in the snow.

Da’Shawn Leon McCormick was born on August 17th, 2007, to Floyd LeRoy Lee Jr and Jasmine McCormick.

Da'Shawn was 4 when Jasmine last saw him in Anchorage in March of 2012.That was the moment she departed from Lee, taking her three other children with her but leaving Da'Shawn behind due to Lee having full custody at that time. Jasmine characterized Lee as abusive and stated that she departed due to fear for her life. 

Jasmine is quoted as saying “I had to make the choice to stay and die or lose a child and leave and get the other children out of there. I wanted to take Da'Shawn with me, but I would’ve been put in prison."

Jasimine said that she last spoke to Da’Shawn in June 2012. Judy Holmes, Da'Shawn’s step-grandmother said that the last time she saw him was on July 4th, 2012. After that, whenever her grandchildren came to visit her, Da’Shawn wasn’t among them. 

Mary Transki

On April 1st, 2013, FBI agents arrived at the residence shared by Lee and Da'Shawn's stepmother, Mary Elizabeth Transki, and arrested them for securities fraud and mail fraud. Both were convicted; Lee received a 37-month sentence, and Transki was sentenced to 21 months in prison. They served their sentences and were subsequently released. At the time of Lee and Transki's arrest, Da'Shawn was nowhere to be found.

After the arrest of Lee and Transki, a witness came forward alleging that Transki had admitted to murdering Da'Shawn and burying the body on her property. Nonetheless, when interrogated by the authorities, Transki refuted the occurrence of such an event. Meanwhile, Lee has remained silent regarding the whereabouts of Da'Shawn.

Jasmine petitioned a Palmer court to gain custody of Da'Shawn, which was granted in December 2013. She lives in Alabama and is awaiting his return. She hopes that he was given to another family before Lee and Transki's arrests.

“Continue to pray for my son. If you know anything, please come forward. I know there are people who have information about this case but won't come forward for their safety. I just want to know what happened to him.” ~Jasimine McCormick

Da’Shawn may be in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough area. The circumstances of his disappearance are unclear, and his case remains unsolved.

At the time if his disappearance Da'Shawn was 4 years old biracial (African American/Caucasian) male. He was 3ft 6in tall, 45 lbs. with blonde hair and brown eyes.

He had a U-shaped scar in the center of his forehead and a burn scar on his left thigh.

As of this post Da'Shawn would be 16 years old and may resemble this composite.

If you have any information regarding Da'Shawn's whereabouts, no matter how small, please contact the Anchorage Police Department at 907-786-8500 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678.

Underground Pyramid in Alaska?

       

On May 22, 1992, scientists studying shockwaves from a Chinese underground nuclear test in Lop Nur recorded a grainy, pyramid-shaped spot of interference twice as large as Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. Researchers believe that this anomaly below Alaska's Mt. Denali is an artificial structure made of black stone. The top of this 550 feet tall "Dark Pyramid" is said to be 150 feet below ground.

The area was reportedly off-limits throughout the Cold War era possibly do to the fact that Alaska was on the front lines.

Retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence agent Doug Mutschler first attempted to bring the pyramid's existence into light on the show "Coast to Coast AM". He was also later interviewed by investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe who has spent years researching the pyramid.

Mutschler said that in the fall of 1992 he was stationed at Fort Richardson in Alaska. He was sitting in a room with some off duty soldiers when on Anchorage channel 13 broadcast a news story about then nuclear test and subsequent pyramid discovery. He said that went to the news station the next day and the manager of the station denied the story and said that he had no idea what Mutschler was talking about. On the way out a younger employee nervously ushered Mutschler over and claimed that the story was true. He said that a couple of scary guys in suites met with the station manager and confiscated everything that had to do with the story.

Mutschler was transferred the next year to Fort Meade in Maryland where there was a giant archive of top-secret government files. He found the Alaska files, but before he could read them, he was stopped by two men that said that he didn't have a need to know for that information and was told to leave.

Howe had asked from Mutschler and received his DD214, which is a certificate from the U.S. military that lists everything about the Indvidual's time in the service. Howe said that Mutschler is who he claimed to be and the timing and locations of where he was matched his record.
 
Another person that Howe has interviewed claimed that their father Marty B. Johnson worked for Western Electric and had been inside the pyramid. Johnson had told him that he had been taken on a bus with blacked out windows so he couldn't see what was outside.

When Johnson left the bus, he was in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness with a lonely shed as the only structure around. In the shed there was a large freight elevator.

Johnson and the others that he had traveled on the bus with now rode the elevator far down into the earth. When they stopped, they found themselves at typical military offices with concrete floors and only numbers on the doors.

At the end of the hallway was a15 feet tall steel door wide enough to drive a car through. The door opened and inside was a giant cavern. The military officer that was their guide then announced, "Gentlemen welcome to the dark pyramid."

Johnson told his son that he didn't know if the pyramid was of extraterrestrial origin, but he did say that it was technology way beyond anything he had ever seen. He said that there were control rooms at each corner. These control rooms measured the energy immitted from the pyramid.

Johnson said that his father made a small replica of the pyramid made out of aluminum. He ran a small voltage through the pyramid and the energy was magnified and produced more than enough electricity to power their whole farm.

Another person that came forward was Bruce L. Pearson. He said that his dad Lee had joined the Navy right after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and served on torpedo boat 492 during World War II.

In the 1970's the retired Navy veteran and his family moved to Alaska where Lee and his wife became schoolteachers. Bruce said that Lee then met a U.S. Airforce piolet, and they exchanged war stories. He then asked Lee if he wanted to ride with him on a classified delivery mission near Denali. 

When Lee got on board, he was informed that it was some weird underground power generating installation. Lee asked if it was nuclear. The co-piolet said that it was nothing that "they built." It was thousands of years old and shaped like a pyramid and that they didn't know where it came from. He said that it generates enough power to power the whole state of Alaska as well as the whole country of Canada.

When they got about 5 miles from their destination Lee was told that the helicopter's instruments were going to go crazy and not to panic and that they were going to just keep the ground in site to make sure they didn't hit any obstacles. Lee said that a couple of moments later everything on board the helicopter went crazy and then went dark.

When they touched down and the ground crew began refueling them with the engine still running. Lee had told Bruce that there had been a small couple of guard houses with towers as well as two freight elevators. Boxes of equipment were piled here and there and there was electric razor wire everywhere. Overhead a C130 was flying circles. Six men in plain black uniforms unloaded three heavy cases while heavily armed men in the distance had guns as well as jeeps with a 50-caliber machine gun pointed at the plane.

In about 4 minutes Lee and the piolets were on the helicopter and headed back. Once they were back at the airport they went to a bar where Lee had asked them what he seen was all about. The piolet told him that the place was more secure than the Manhattan Project and that nobody is supposed to know that it exists. He said that it was a giant underground pyramid made of what it is thought to be black stone. It is 10's of thousands of years old and that there have been engineers working there since the 1950's.

On June 13th, 2020, Nathan Campbell had someone fly him into Denali National Park in Alaska and dropped him off near Carey Lake, which was just few miles from what was thought to be the Pyramid's location. He had told the piolet to pick him up a couple of months later in the same location he was dropped off at. He had fishing gear, a couple of totes of food, and a big backpack. He also claimed he had a Garmin InReach satellite communication in case he needed to call for help and GPS tracking device. Campbell was never seen of or heard from ever again.

A search turned up the supplies Campbell had cached at Carey Lake, and a few miles away, a collapsed tent. Inside the tent was Campbell's diary, which appeared to have been chewed on by rodents. The last entry said Campbell had left his campsite to get water. There is no other sign of him.

Do you think the Dark Pyramid is real? Do you think it was built by aliens? What happened to Nathan Campbell?

"Little Farmer" Sherry Lynn Marler Is Still Missing.

"Sherry was always a happy little girl and that’s what I remember the most, even in my dreams." -Betty Stringfellow

Sherry Lynn Marler seemed always to be cheerful and was described as strong and outdoorsy. Her nickname was "Little Farmer because she had a passion for farming. One of her proudest achievements was that she could operate a plow.

She was a tomboy who loved Kenny Rogers’ songs. Her mother had bought her a small record player and some of his albums. Sherry loved listening to him sing. She also couldn’t wait for school to end so she could hop onto her moped to go for a ride.

Sherry was born on August 18th, 1971, to Betty and Ralph. Her parents split up when she was young, and Betty went on to marry a retired army sergeant named Ray Stringfellow. Ray became a farmer in 1979 and had a 400-acre farm where he grew crops. Sherry loved to stay out there on the farm with her stepdaddy and he would take her with him to the tractor shop and the feed store. By all accounts it seemed like Sherry had a good relationship with her family.

It was Wednesday, June 6th, 1984, before 7am when Betty headed off to work as a waitress at the Waffle House in Greenville, Alabama. One of Ray's aunts was spending the week with them, so Sherry was sleeping on the sofa in the living room that morning. As Betty opened the door to go to work, Sherry turned over. Betty thought that she had awakened her, but Sherry settled back down, and Betty went on to work. Betty said that was the last time she saw or heard from her daughter.

Not too long after Betty left, Sherry woke up as Ray headed to the kitchen to brew some coffee. It was only two months before Sherry's 13th birthday, which she anxiously awaited so that she could get a three-wheeler to replace her motorized scooter. She was also looking forward to seeing her grandmother that day as well as watching her favorite soap opera. 

Sherry was 5feet 4inches tall had brown eyes and long brown hair. She was wearing a red long-sleeved plaid flannel work shirt, faded jeans, new gray sneakers with Velcro fastenings, and a watch with a black band. It was 9:30 am and as she rode with Ray into town in his red pickup truck. Sherry followed Ray everywhere he'd go.

Ray had parked behind a furniture store in downtown Greenville. He was going to walk over to the First National Bank to discuss a farm loan. 

Sherry said she was thirsty and wanted to walk across the street to the Chevron station to get a drink out of the vending machine, so Ray pulled a dollar out of his wallet and told her to meet him back at the pickup truck. 

15 minutes later Ray had made it back to the truck, but Sherry wasn't there. He waited another 10 minutes and then started to get worried. Ray then called Betty and asked if she’d seen Sherry, thinking that maybe she had stopped by the Waffle House, but she hadn’t. Ray went searching for Sherry, but when turned fruitless, he contacted police at 11:46am and reported Sherry as missing. 

There were searches by air and on land by law enforcement and volunteers. Hundreds of acres were searched and so was an abandoned well nearby. The local police spent hundreds of man-hours combing over the fields and wooded areas of Greenville, but Sherry was nowhere to be found. There were no sightings of Sherry anywhere in town that day as well as no sightings of strangers. The investigators began to focus on the family. In any investigation authorities start out with those closest to the victim and work their way out.

Ray was the first to be questioned. He adamantly denied that he had involvement in Sherry's disappearance but agreed that it would have been difficult for a stranger to have attempted to abduct her by force and not be spotted because Sherry would have put up a fight.

Betty was questioned by police too. She had pointed to the fact that soda machines at the time did not offer change so Sherry would have had to ask someone for change for her dollar so she could get a soda out of the machine.

Ray and Betty were asked to take polygraphs which they both turned down. They thought that the police were biased against them and were angry and worried that the police weren't following other paths like they should.

Within days of Sherry vanishing, unconfirmed sightings began surfacing. One report was of a girl matching Sherry's description looking visibly distressed, as well as disheveled and "dazed" in Conely, Georgia at a truck stop with a 50-year-old man who had a husky build and a weathered complexion and crow's feet around the eyes.  It was alleged that the girl referred to him as "BJ". Allegedly they travel through Mississippi and Florida too.

Another alleged unconfirmed sighting was later that year at a mall in New Orleans.

There was also a call in 1986 allegedly from Arizona, but they hung up before the family could get any information.

Betty has said that she believes that Ray never had anything to do with Sherry's disappearance. She said that he always blamed himself. She said that on his death bed in 2003, Ray told her "Betty, I wish I could go get Sherry and bring her home to you, but I can't, because I don't know where she is"

In 2010, Betty and her family opened a restaurant called Carlisle's on Main. It was in the old Carlisle house, and they had put a sign out front that noted that it was opened in honor and memory of Sherry Lynn Marler. Betty said that they wanted to honor Sherry's memory and also to heighten people’s awareness of the reality of children missing every day in this country.

In 2013, cancer claimed the lives of Betty's brother, her sister and Ralph within three months. Betty and Ralph were engaged at the time of his death. There was also a land dispute that Betty claimed that could end up making her homeless. I don't know what the outcome of that was. She was also recovering from open heart surgery as well as had joined Team HOPE, a volunteer group that’s part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sherry's brother Larry spent most of his years searching for her until he passed away in 2016 age the age of 48.

To this day Sherry's whereabout remain unsolved.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

The Greenville Police Department at 1-334-382-7461 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.