CA CA - Patricia Crandall, Shasta County, 18-19 years old, 13 March 1949

[Mysteries1974]

Patricia Crandall

• 

Crandall, circa 1949

• Missing Since03/13/1949
• Missing FromShasta County, California
• ClassificationEndangered Missing
• Age18 - 19 years old
• Height and Weight5'3, 112 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionA green hooded cape coat. Carrying a black suitcase.
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance
Crandall was last seen in Shasta County, California on March 13, 1949. She has never been heard from again. Few details are available in her case.
Investigating Agency

• Shasta County Sheriff's Department 530-245-6025

Source Information

• California Attorney General's Office

 

[Darling136]

On the attorney link i can not find her case. We will need a link to the information (msm or LE) to keep the thread. Can you please add?

 

[Mysteries1974]

Ok the only link is on the Charley project. Is that acceptable?

 

[Mysteries1974]

Patricia Crandall – The Charley Project

 

[Coffee56]

Patricia Crandall

 

[Mysteries1974]

Does anyone have information on Patricia’s case? I found her case and I found out she didn’t have a thread so I created this one. If you have any tips please submit here.

 

[Lilibet]

Do we know where in Shasta County was she last seen? Redding? This is a big county with lots of wilderness and water. The Shasta Dam had just been completed a few years earlier on 1945, creating Shasta Lake. Interstate 5 didn’t exist in 1949. Just highway 99. With a suitcase, I wonder if she was arriving or leaving.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,847 square miles (9,960 km2), of which 3,775 square miles (9,780 km2) is land and 72 square miles (190 km2) (1.9%) is water.[5] Mountains line the county on the east, north and west. The Sacramento River flows out of the mountains to the north, through the center of the county, and toward the Sacramento Valley to the south.
Shasta County, California - Wikipedia

Shasta Dam - Wikipedia

 

[Coffee56]

I too am curious about the suitcase. Leaving? Arriving? Visiting? Vacationing? Running away? Someone reported her missing “with a suitcase”. I find it strange that there is no explanation to go with the suitcase.

 

[Lilibet]

I too am curious about the suitcase. Leaving? Arriving? Visiting? Vacationing? Running away? Someone reported her missing “with a suitcase”. I find it strange that there is no explanation to go with the suitcase.

Thinking about it, the fact that she was reported “missing with a suitcase” may indicate that she was leaving, rather than arriving. Whoever reported her missing would have known she had her suitcase if she had left from a location in Shasta county. She could have been visiting and on her way to the bus station, or leaving home. Running away with a boyfriend?

 

[Lilibet]

Does anyone have a way to check the 1940 census records for Patricia? Maybe start with Shasta county and Redding.

 

[CeiliMom]

There were three Patricia Crandall possibilities on the 1940 census for California that fit within the age frame. All were either 9-10 years old when the census was taken.

Patricia Crandall
Age: 9
Estimated birth year: 1931
Home in 1940: Chico, Butte, California
Lived on: Mangrove Avenue
In the home were her father (Benjamin Crandall), mother (Gladys Crandall), brother (age 23, Leroy Crandall), female lodger (age 74 Mary Jane Alben), and male lodger (age 46 Erlin Thayer)

Patricia L Crandall
Age: 10
Estimated birth year: 1930
Home in 1940: Shasta, California
In the home were her father (Fred A Crandall), mother (Leona M Crandall) and sister (age 9 Virginia L Crandall)

Patricia Crandall
Age: 9
Estimated birth year: 1931
Home in 1940: San Diego, San Diego, California
Lived at 3793 29th
In the home were her father (Jefferson Crandall), mother (Hilda Crandall). sister (age 20 Marion Crandall)

 

[Lilibet]

There were three Patricia Crandall possibilities on the 1940 census for California that fit within the age frame. All were either 9-10 years old when the census was taken.

Patricia Crandall
Age: 9
Estimated birth year: 1931
Home in 1940: Chico, Butte, California
Lived on: Mangrove Avenue
In the home were her father (Benjamin Crandall), mother (Gladys Crandall), brother (age 23, Leroy Crandall), female lodger (age 74 Mary Jane Alben), and male lodger (age 46 Erlin Thayer)

Patricia L Crandall
Age: 10
Estimated birth year: 1930
Home in 1940: Shasta, California
In the home were her father (Fred A Crandall), mother (Leona M Crandall) and sister (age 9 Virginia L Crandall)

Patricia Crandall
Age: 9
Estimated birth year: 1931
Home in 1940: San Diego, San Diego, California
Lived at 3793 29th
In the home were her father (Jefferson Crandall), mother (Hilda Crandall). sister (age 20 Marion Crandall)

BBM

Thanks so much! I’m going to assume that “our” Patricia is the one in Shasta, CA. and see what we can dig up.

Shasta (not to be confused with the town of Mt Shasta City in Siskiyou County) is about six miles west of Redding on highway 299.

Shasta, California - Wikipedia

 

[Lilibet]

Just for elimination purposes, Patricia Crandall from Chico was murdered in 1946 at age 15 by a 14 year old boy named Albert Jones! He also murdered a 47 year old housewife and planned to murder his best friend by drowning him. Yikes!

Patricia Ann Crandall (1930-1946) - Find A Grave...

 

[Lilibet]

I looked for a possible marriage record for Patricia on the theory that she might be leaving home to run off and get married. I struck out, but I’m not an expert searcher. People often ran off to Reno to get married back in the day. I think their laws were pretty loose, so she might have been able to use a different name.

How does a young girl just disappear?

 

[Mysteries1974]

Thank you for all of the information that has been submitted. Hopefully we can find some sort of key clue that may crack patrica’s case. Thank you.

 

[Lilibet]

Thank you for all of the information that has been submitted. Hopefully we can find some sort of key clue that may crack patrica’s case. Thank you.

Thank you for opening the thread, Mysteries. Unfortunately, it’s keeping me awake. I wonder if she left alone. Was there anyone else reported missing around the same time, male for female?

 

[Lilibet]

Still assuming Patricia is from Shasta, I’m looking at her family to see if we can research any clues.

Her father was born in North Dakota and her mother in Missouri. They are buried in Shasta.
Fred Adam Crandall (1908-1995) - Find A Grave...
Leona May Koepke Crandall (1907-1985) - Find A...

She and her sister were born in Los Angeles county. Patricia Louise was born September 29, 1929 (not 1930) so she was 19 1/2 when she disappeared.
Patricia Louise Crandall - Los Angeles County Birth Records

Her sister Virginia Lois was born Jan 12, 1931, so they were only about 16 months apart. I wonder if they were close and how her sister felt when Patricia disappeared.
Virginia Lois Crandall - Los Angeles County Birth Records

I wonder when before 1940 and why they moved to Shasta. That’s quite a change from L.A. I assume the girls went to school in Shasta or in Redding.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Her sister Virginia Lois was born Jan 12, 1931, so they were only about 16 months apart. I wonder if they were close and how her sister felt when Patricia disappeared.
Virginia Lois Crandall - Los Angeles County Birth Records

Given the age Virginia would be if she were still alive today I wouldn't hold out too much hope for her still being entirely compos mentis. Maybe the way forward would be to see if she ever married and whether she had any children who might have more information.

 

[Lilibet]

Given the age Virginia would be if she were still alive today I wouldn't hold out too much hope for her still being entirely compos mentis. Maybe the way forward would be to see if she ever married and whether she had any children who might have more information.

Thanks for the suggestion. That’s one avenue I’ve explored a little bit, so far unsuccessfully.

As was the case with “Lyle Stevick” it’s possible the family figured and descendants still think Patricia didn’t want any contact with them. That is certainly a possibility that they could have eventually accepted even though someone reported her missing.

It’s entirely possible she lived out her life estranged from them. And it’s also possible she became unidentified remains somewhere.

 

[alb1on]

If this is Patricia Louise Crandall, born 29 September 1929 in LA, then she appears on Ancestry in at least two family trees as having married Curtis Marcus VonAhn. Interestingly her first child (Diana Maria VonAhn) was born in Reno in November 1949 - which would rather mesh with leaving to get married in March 1949. Unfortunately she died in 1962 in Hood River, Oregon. The Ancestry trees do not show the names of her parents but a birth record does confirm her mother's maiden name as Koepke.

I am not sure whether this information suggests this is the wrong Crandall or that it is right and she simply left to get married and lost touch on moving out of state.

There is one additional complication. Ancestry has a marriage record in Skamania, Washington in 1955 for Curtis VonAhn marrying Patricia Louise, born 1929 in Pasadena. Unfortunately the bride's surname is given as Horn (or Hom) rather than Crandall. Are the family trees wrong? Or did Patricia use a false name for the marriage? I can find no record of a Patricia Louise Horn (or Hom) born in Pasadena (or elsewhere in California) around 1929 - and Californian records on Ancestry are pretty good. Another problem to look into.