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COLD CASE SERIES: 1984 case still a mystery
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March 8, 2009 - 9:40 PM
Robbyn Brooks
Daily News
CRESTVIEW - Linda Kay Carroll would have celebrated her 49th birthday next Tuesday. Her grandchildren might have played at her feet while she laughed with friends and family gathered around a cake.
In reality, her own children barely remember Carroll and her family fears the community has forgotten about the woman they've spent the past 25 years trying to find.
About 30 minutes after she was dropped off at her home about 8:30 p.m. Sept. 25, 1984, neighbors heard screams coming from her home on Kingston Road. Her parents in Pensacola reported the young woman missing two days later after she didn't show up for work.
Not the life she'd imagined
At 24, Carroll was living alone in her home at Box 55-I Kingston Road with no electricity. She was working for the first time in her life at Showell Farms Inc., a poultry packing plant near DeFuniak Springs and had just gotten her driver's license, though she didn't have a car.
"We know she would not have just left," said Carroll's aunt, Marsha Ankeney. "I know everyone says that about missing people, but she wouldn't have even known how to leave."
Carroll's sister Cheryl Penrod said Carroll was an introvert who didn't have many friends. She said although her sister, the oldest of five, was funny and silly when she was with family members, she was quiet around others.
In February 1984, Carroll and her husband David Carroll bought the Kingston Road home in Crestview. The couple had already been married about five years and had two children, 4-year-old Melissa and 2-year-old Jason.
Family members said the marriage had gotten rocky and Carroll actually left her husband in July 1984 for a very short period of time. One night in August 1984 while Carroll was taking a shower, David packed the children's belongings in pillow cases and left, Ankeney said.
"She was devastated," Ankeney said. "Her children were her life."
With no job experience, it was hard for Carroll to find employment. She began working at Showell Farms at the end of August and was giving most of her money to an attorney who was aiding her at getting her children returned.
"She chose that over having electricity and other things at her home," Ankeney said. "If I had known she was living like that, I would have had her over. I would have insisted."
Ankeney said her niece wouldn't leave the home because she hoped her husband would return with the children.
She was just gone'
Because there was no electricity at Carroll's home, she'd laid her work jumpsuit across the back of a chair in the dining room and arranged her work books and fresh socks nearby so she could dress in the dark.
When her ride to work arrived Sept. 26, 1984, Carroll wasn't at home. She never arrived to pick up her last paycheck.
Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office investigators found her purse and shoes gone from the home and her bed had been stripped clean. The sheets were missing.
Family members noticed an unusual note in the kitchen left to Carroll's brother Tim. It said she'd gone to Baker to do laundry and asked that he wait for her. Tim was supposed to visit his older sister on the day she went missing, but wasn't able to make it.
The last time anyone reported seeing or hearing Carroll was about 9 p.m. Sept. 25, 1984 when neighbors heard screams coming from her home followed by the sound of a vehicle accelerating away.
According to a case synopsis from the Sheriff's Office, Dennis Carroll had stopped by his wife's home the night she went missing, but an interview with him didn't produce any leads. He told investigators Carroll wasn't home, so he left and drove to his mother's home in Meridian, Miss.
"She was just gone," Penrod said. "We just need to know what happened."
Still an active investigation
Shortly after Carroll was reported missing, dozens of people searched wooded areas surrounding Carroll's home and on Eglin Air Force Base's reservation.
A handful of Jane Does appeared in the south after Carroll's disappearance that roughly matched her description, but each time, the glimmer of hope she'd been found faded.
More than two decades have past, but it doesn't mean investigators aren't still pursuing leads to try and help Carroll's family answer their questions.
In 1984, then Sheriff's Office Sgt. J.R. Griffith said the contradictions investigators found at Carroll's home were puzzling. He said the missing sheets suggested she'd been carried from the home, but her missing shoes and purse suggested she'd walked out.
"It's frustrating because back in 1984 the technology wasn't there," said Sheriff's Office Investigator Mike Irwin.
Irwin has been assigned to Carroll's case for several years and said the case is active and he's working with another law enforcement agency.
"There will be steps taken in the future that will hopefully get us to the next level," Iriwn said. "We anticipate moving forward with it, but that doesn't mean there'll be an arrest anytime soon."
Because the case is active, Irwin was careful not to say anything that might jeopardize future investigation.
"It's been frustrating for law enforcement and it's frustrating for the family," Irwin said of the circumstantial evidence in the case. "She vanished without a trace. We're hoping for the best."
Carroll's family said an arrest is secondary to finding her.
"At this point, her mother just wants to know where her daughter's remains are," Ankeney said. "She knows she's not going to see her alive again. She just wants to bring her home."
Anyone who has information on this case is asked to call Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers at 888-654-8447. Callers do not have to leave their name and could be eligible for a cash reward.
