MP of the week: Gary Williams

This week’s featured MP is Gary Curtiss Williams, who was 26 years old when he disappeared from Ennis, Texas, a small town south of Dallas, on May 13, 1989.

His case is one of those very few that has never been updated in the Charley Project’s twelve years on the web. I don’t know anything about his disappearance really, other than that foul play is suspected. The Doe Network says, “His family and friends informed investigators that Williams’ lifestyle may have played a role in his disappearance.” Does that mean to imply criminal activity?

I can’t find any mention of Gary in news archives. The media often did not and does not choose to cover missing black men. Having a name like “Gary Williams” doesn’t help my research either.

Make-a-List Monday: State Capitals #8

I haven’t done an “MPs missing from a state capital” list in over a year. See the previous seven lists:

• Alabama – California
• Colorado – Georgia
• Hawaii – Iowa
• Kansas – Maryland
• Massachusetts – Missouri
• Montana – New Jersey
  
• New Mexico – Ohio

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

1. Amber Renee Barker
2. Carol Ann Batterman
3. William H. Crandell Sr.
4. Teresa Gail Cupps
5. Crystal Gayle Dittmeyer
6. Judith Ann Elwell
7. Alexis Mae Johnson
8. Charlotte June Kinsey
   
9. Nancy Jean Medina
10. Cinda Leann Pallett
11. Glenda Jean Petersen
12. April Kelly Reed
13. Marque Allen Rhodes
14. Manuel Emilio Salado
15. Roshawna Stephens
16. Pamela Dawn Tinsley
17. Eva Susan West

Salem, Oregon

1. Sherry Melissa Eyerly
2. Heather Lorraine Mehlhoff
3. Brian Joseph Page

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

1. Mamie Brown
2. John Chocha Jr.
3. Patsy Arlene Gaisior
4. Anne Lillian Riggin
5. Diane Thomas Scott

Providence, Rhode Island

1. Nobody, actually

Columbia, South Carolina

1. Dail Boxley Dinwiddie
2. Herman J. Caldwell Jr.
3. Amir D’Rod Jennings
4. Gertrude Keene
5. Lillian May Mathis
6. Ronald Kemble McKeever
7. Kenneth Edward Quattlebaum
8. Anita Middleton Richardson
9. Shelton John Sanders
10. Montey Donnell Thomas
11. Louvenia Jamillah M. Vallone
12. Ernest T. Wright

Flashback Friday: Martha Ann Dicks

This week’s Flashback Friday case is Martha Ann Dicks, a 19-year-old who disappeared from Sumter, South Carolina on March 29, 1972. I’ve only got one photo of her and it’s of very poor quality. Martha’s sister said she was a lesbian, but she dated men sometimes; perhaps she was bisexual. I wonder if she was transgender; she liked to wear men’s clothing and used the name “Clyde.” She may have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance.

Serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins knew Martha and confessed to her murder sometime before his execution in 1991. Several of his ten confirmed victims were people known to him, which is unusual; serial killers usually murder strangers. The murder is also unusual in that it was an interracial crime; most murders, including serial murders, are intra-racial — that is, both killer and victim are of the same race. Pee Wee Gaskins was white and Martha Dicks was black.

In any case, Martha “Clyde” Dicks was never found. If she were alive today she would be 63. Her baby, if she actually was pregnant, would be about 44.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody

I hope everybody has had/is having a good Thanksgiving. I didn’t go see my family. I went to a restaurant with the Lianezes instead. Afterwards I was planning to go spend time with L.’s family also. (BTW, I’ve decided I’ve mentioned my friend L. often enough on here to upgrade her from Initial to Pseudonym. Henceforth, L. will be called Larissa. That isn’t her actual name; her actual name is another name that begins with L. But I want to protect her privacy.) But I’ve been so sleep-deprived lately that after we finished at the restaurant and got back to Michael’s, I went to bed instead and didn’t see Larissa after all. I did let her know I had changed my mind and asked her to pass my apologies on. I slept till 9:00 p.m.

I love the excuse to play dress-up and today I took advantage of the holiday to put on a royal blue velvet dress. For a coat I wore the very fuzzy fluffy sage-green coat/sweater Michael got me several Christmases ago. It’s real fur, but sheared, so no animals died to make it. Rabbit, I think.

Here’s two pics of me from today. One’s a selfie taken in the car on the way to the restaurant:

And this one was taken by Michael, showing me in the restaurant before dinner started:

MP of the week: Stephanie Edwards

This week’s featured missing person is Stephanie L. Edwards, who disappeared from Winter Park, Florida — a suburban community in the central part of the state — on May 24, 2010, six weeks before her 51st birthday. Stephanie went to visit a friend six blocks from home, stayed only a few minutes, left to go back and apparently never made it.

It’s unclear what caused her disappearance, but it doesn’t look good.

ET: Joseph Morley

I had an Executed Today entry posted today: Joseph Morley, a seventeen-year-old boy who, in 1887, brutally murdered his landlady for no apparent reason. He was hanged one month and ten days after the killing. The wheels of justice ground much more quickly then, although not so fine.

Awesome article on the Benjamin Kyle case

I thought I would share with you a comprehensive retelling of the famous unidentified man “Benjamin Kyle”, who is unidentified no longer, and the twelve-year search to give him back his name. Given my line of work, I’ve known about the case since the outset, but never followed it closely. This is a really good article about it. It’s really long, but it kind of has to be, as the case is so mysterious and took so long to come to a conclusion.

Make-a-List Monday: Bus Stops

This week’s MALM is of MPs who were last seen at the bus stop or bus station. It seems to me that people, especially women and children, are kind of vulnerable at bus stops. They’re often standing close to the curb, within grabbing distance of passing motorists. People who are waiting for the bus are often tired, distracted, perhaps hungry, perhaps with their hands full of shopping or whatever, and just generally not at their best. Maybe the weather is terrible; maybe it’s raining or snowing or blisteringly cold, or maybe it’s humid and 95 degrees in the shade. And anyone who’s waiting for a bus obviously wants to go somewhere, and if someone pulls up and offers them a car ride to their destination — especially if it’s someone they know — the person might just say yes.

I did exclude people who were last seen walking towards or away from a bus stop. There are quite a few of those. But if a person was at the bus stop about to leave, or was about to board or even had already boarded, I put them on the list (provided, in the latter instance, that the bus hadn’t left yet).

1. Ashok Ankam
2. Paget Renee Barr
3. Carol Ann Batterman
4. Susan Robin Bender
5. James Elwood Brady
6. Allen Briscoe Jr.
7. Larhonda Marie Bronson
8. Jose Moreno Caballero
9. Fernando Paul Cardenas
10. Kevin Andrew McCarthy Collins
11. Ingrid Siomara Contreras
12. Thwana Mithsell Darrough
13. Kimberly Sue Doss
14. Jeremiah Edward Foco*
15. Mary Frances Gregory
16. Gwendolyn M. Hooser
17. Sandra Lee Hopler
18. Rita Mae Hughes
19. Barbara Ann Hutchinson
20. Rochelle Maria Ihm
21. Willie Mae Jackson
22. Matthew Ellis Keith
23. Joseph A. Krainak Jr.
24. Alexandria Joy Lowitzer
25. Faloma Luhk
    
26. Maleina Quitugua Luhk
27. Suzanne Gloria Lyall
28. Heather Ann MacCrossen
29. Kimberly Ann Mallard
30. Pedro Castro Martinez
31. Marta Alicia Michel
32. Jackson Alexander Miller
33. Alan Lee Morse
34. Judith Erin O’Donnell
35. Ariza Maria Olivares
36. Carmen Maria Owens
37. Byron Eric Page
38. Francisco Robles Perez
39. Annette Deanne Sagers
40. Philistin Saintcyr
41. Lloyd Melvin Thomas
42. Kimberly Faye Thrower
43. Delight Marie Watson
44. John Albert Weichelt
45. Billy Wellman
46. Francis Loretta Heath Wells
47. Nancy Debra Willis

*maybe

Select It Sunday: Sharon Baldeagle

This week’s Select It Sunday is Sharon Baldeagle (often named as Sharon Bald Eagle), chosen by Fluttergirl. She was twelve when she disappeared on September 18, 1984, and her case has for some reason fascinated me since I started getting interested in MPs, back when I was the same age that Sharon was when she was taken. I actually blogged about her once before, exactly three years and one week ago.

Sharon and a fifteen-year-old friend ran away from Eagle Butte, South Dakota, which is on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, the fourth-largest reservation in the U.S. Sharon was Native American, presumably Cheyenne River Sioux, and probably her friend was too. They were hitchhiking in Casper, Wyoming, almost a six-hour drive from home, when they got picked up by Royal Russell Long, a truck driver who took them to his house in Evansville. There he attacked them, raping the older girl and beating Sharon. Sharon’s friend escaped and went for help, but by the time the authorities arrived at the scene, Long and his other captive were gone.

Long wasn’t arrested until the following year; by then he’d gone to New Mexico. He claimed Sharon was alive and well the last time he saw her, but let’s face it, what are the chances of that? He was convicted of two counts of kidnapping — that of Sharon and her friend — and died in prison 25 years ago.

Long was probably serial killer; he’s also a suspect in the cases of Carlene Brown, Christy Gross, Deborah Rae Meyer, Jayleen Dawn Baker, Charlotte June Kinsey, and Cinda Leann Pallett, who ranged in age from ten to nineteen. Carlene and Christy disappeared together from a rodeo in Rawlins, Wyoming in July 1974, and Deborah and Jayleen disappeared, nineteen days apart, from the same area in August of that year. Cinda and Charlotte from a fair in Oklahoma in 1981 — Long was actually charged with their murders, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Only Christy and Jayleen’s bodies were ever found.

I think it’s pretty obvious what must have happened to Sharon; I only wish her family had answers. Her father was alive as 2013 and still hoping to find her — he looked all over the country for her. I’m not sure if he’s still living as he had cancer in 2013, but I can’t find an obituary for him.

I wonder if anyone’s ever written a book about Royal Russell Long. Serial killers are a popular topic in literature, after all. If someone has, I’d love to read it.

Flashback Friday: Timothy Willoughby

This week’s FF case is Timothy Lee Willoughby, a 24-year-old who disappeared with his girlfriend, Mary Ann Higginbotham, from the tiny town of Clayton in central Indiana on June 6, 1978. A year later, Mary Ann’s body was found stuffed inside a drum in Mooresville, Indiana, twelve miles from Clayton. She’d been shot in the head. She was 22 years old.

At first the police thought Timothy had killed her, but now they think both of them met with foul play. Two men were arrested for the murders but were later released.