I believe the page will just stay invisible. That's what happened when I submitted a missing person whose report they were unable to locate. They might reach out to the submitter to ask where they got the info.
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Hey all! Got derailed by life for a few months but haven’t forgotten about Ann.
There’s a 3rd option, which is that no LE agreed to take ownership of the case. That could be because of 1 and/or 2, or simply due to the jurisdictional issues. Tucson? El Paso? Amarillo? Plainview? Etc.
This is the most compelling reason to think she’s still missing - the fact that she apparently never had one issued. It became a requirement for jobs, credit, marriage, etc by the 1970s. Today, they issue them very near birth, but as an example, I didn’t get mine until 1986 (first job).
I guess she could’ve married well, or I dunno, joined a convent.
For the FBI, back when I was trying to find literally every scrap of information, my thought was simply to file a FOIA request for anything they might have. That said, my understanding of the Bulletins is that they posted requests from local LE, and an appearance in one doesn’t mean the FBI was involved otherwise.
Someone mentioned looking for a cancellation notice upthread, which is a great idea. I was never able find a set of the Bulletins (online) that included the missing person inserts after that one - the one where she appears was just luck.
This touches on some of weird dangling mysteries of this case.
She doesn’t appear in any University of Arizona yearbooks.
She also doesn’t appear in any of the published sorority rushes for either Fall semester 1955 or Winter/Spring 1956, which were held in February. ( For you non-USians, a sorority rush is where you visit the various sororities on campus and they vote you in (or not) for membership.)
Last fall, my morbid mind formulated the theory that, based on a published statement from her father about her being somewhat out of sorts before she left, the truck drivers’ comments about her state of mind, AND - a sheltered girl, from an all-girls boarding school, is suddenly on a coed campus. She was a beautiful young woman.
Theory was: she met her first boyfriend and got ‘in trouble.’ The trip to Texas was to get an abortion. Maybe she died during the procedure, etc.
2nd theory: there was a lot of hitchhiking going on. 2+2 =
But still, these days, I learn more towards
It is odd how her immediate family doesn’t mention her in their obits, but this is one of the reasons I think they eventually found her or found out what happened to her:
Her father gave a pretty long interview in the early 1970s about his ham radio hobby, and never brought up his missing daughter.
There are definitely lots of dangling, tantalizing threads to pull on here, but having gone through the whole range of deep dives, theorizing, etc, today I kinda lean towards the idea that whatever happened, the family knew.
(Which isn’t to say I don’t still spend time digging on this case, because I do.
Wasn't that article proved to have probably not been Ann in January? Post #85 to be exact. Can't tell how logical that is. I'm not saying anything else as I'm not interested in having a redo of what happened in January.And we do have a record of an Elizabeth Caldwell coming back from Mexico six months after 'our' Ann Elizabeth Caldwell disappeared. Surely officials checked the border crossing records during the time period she was missing. It's pretty obvious this was a private family matter (as I showed in my Post #71 and #72 in this thread) which may have resulted in Ann Elizabeth being disowned by all of her family members, including any mention of her name in their obits. Her parents weren't even available for a comment when she was sighted according to the article below. Very telling.
The officer from the Plainview Police Department wouldn't give out any information as to where she was and wouldn't say anything until he talked to the parents. "I can't say anything until we get the entire thing cleared up" Entire thing was a euphemism for a personal problem between the parents and the adult daughter.
The article below clearly shows that Miss Caldwell was found as of March 30, 1957. She was no longer missing from that point on. Hence, this can no longer be classified as a missing person case.
IMO, this case has been solved using logical deduction. Thank you to SimsGuy67 for being the catalyst leading up to this case being solved by posting the discussion five months ago. Hopefully Websleuths (and NAMUS) classifies this case as being solved.
And, for all we know, Ann Elizabeth Caldwell could still be alive at age 85 and still doesn't want to be found. Again.
Migration • United States Border Crossings from Mexico to United States, 1903-1957
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XLY7-V6R
View attachment 414867
I found the document for the Elizabeth Caldwell returning from Mexico. She was from Tennessee, so probably not Ann. There were Elizabeth Caldwells who lived in TN at the time.And we do have a record of an Elizabeth Caldwell coming back from Mexico six months after 'our' Ann Elizabeth Caldwell disappeared. Surely officials checked the border crossing records during the time period she was missing. It's pretty obvious this was a private family matter (as I showed in my Post #71 and #72 in this thread) which may have resulted in Ann Elizabeth being disowned by all of her family members, including any mention of her name in their obits. Her parents weren't even available for a comment when she was sighted according to the article below. Very telling.
The officer from the Plainview Police Department wouldn't give out any information as to where she was and wouldn't say anything until he talked to the parents. "I can't say anything until we get the entire thing cleared up" Entire thing was a euphemism for a personal problem between the parents and the adult daughter.
The article below clearly shows that Miss Caldwell was found as of March 30, 1957. She was no longer missing from that point on. Hence, this can no longer be classified as a missing person case.
IMO, this case has been solved using logical deduction. Thank you to SimsGuy67 for being the catalyst leading up to this case being solved by posting the discussion five months ago. Hopefully Websleuths (and NAMUS) classifies this case as being solved.
And, for all we know, Ann Elizabeth Caldwell could still be alive at age 85 and still doesn't want to be found. Again.
Migration • United States Border Crossings from Mexico to United States, 1903-1957
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XLY7-V6R
View attachment 414867
From Tennessee, according to the manifest
National Archives NextGen Catalog
The online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records.catalog.archives.gov
I agree, probably not Ann Caldwell from Arizona. We'll rule out Elizabeth Caldwell from Tennessee. It still doesn't negate all the other information about her. Miss Caldwell was found as of March 30, 1957 and had been located by the Texas Rangers. In a telephone interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Frank Miller, a warrant officer with the Plainview Police Department, said that the girl had not been picked up yet. Obviously, she was found in Plainview, Texas since a Plainview PD officer was handling the case. She was no longer missing from that point on. Again, this can no longer be classified as a missing person case. Based on that newspaper article alone. Good job, Texas Rangers!
The problem with the missing children thing is that Ann wasn't a child. She was a young adult, even just barely. Not sure if 18 is counted as a child or not. Could also be more evidence of Ann's case file being lost, not just being found.
I'm Canadian, but from another case I was following, 1987 was the year that SS cards came to the forefront in the USA from what I understand. New to this case, is there any indication who the female seen walking with Ann was when they left town?
Maybe write to LE once more to enquire? I'm not American either, but I have done so in past re. another case and got a polite response.
I wonder about her SSN. I'm not from the US so I don't know how they work now or then, but let's say she was never employed, later when everyone needed to have one, would she need it for a driver's license? Or marriage? Could you get away with never getting a SSN?
I tried looking for the episode (awful show btw), but of course the ones available weren't even in '57, most were destroyed since apparently that was normal back then, and the few still available might be in some archives.
