Found Deceased TX - Carolyn Riggins, 69, missing after winning bingo jackpot, Watauga, 11 Jul 2020

Saturday's search turned up no evidence of Ms. Carolyn. They'll be searching again this Saturday.
FindingCarolyn
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Man, this case has certainly dropped off the radar. I wonder what that means?

Where is Carolyn??
Thank you for bumping Carolyn's thread. This update regarding the search efforts was posted on 21 Sept. Apparently there's not much happening since they have no idea where she or her car is located. Other than searches near her last known location and along the route where her plate was detected, there may not be much else they can do besides search in/near those areas. I wish them well and hope they're able to find Carolyn soon.
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FindingCarolyn
***SYNOPSIS OF SEARCH EFFORTS AND FOCUS OF UPCOMING SEARCHES***

We have focused our searches on wooded/secluded areas in Watuaga, TX, around the bingo hall and along HWY377 - the route we have deduced was a likely route that led to Carolyn’s license plate being read heading north on IH35 in Denton, TX, just past the US380 feeder.
The license plate was scanned on 07/12/2020 just a couple of hours after she was last seen around 10:30 pm at the Watauga Road Bingo Hall and convenience store in the same plaza on July 11, 2020. There is no evidence that indicates if Carolyn was or was not in the car when the license plate was scanned.

We have begun to search along US377, US380, and N IH35 towards and into Oklahoma with a focus on areas that a car could possible go off the road and possibly be lost in wooded areas or high grass/weeds/crops or obscure side roads that lead into more secluded areas.
The remaining ground searches around Watauga and areas north of Denton will be coordinated and searched by the K9 Search and Rescue team that has joined our search efforts. However, their primary focus is along the highway where a driver could have lost control and the car could have gone off the road into a brushy or wooded area.

It is critical that we find Carolyn’s car as we have no leads of any kind that can help us locate her at this time. Locating the car will likely lead us to her. We will continue to focus on wooded areas, areas with high grass/weeds/crops and increase our focus on areas near bodies of water.
Carolyn did not have her mobile phone with her. It was left at her apartment that evening. She did not have her medications with her that she would have had with her if she was planning to go anywhere besides home. She would not likely have accepted a ride or given anyone a ride. By all reports, Carolyn had won several jackpots and smaller pots over 3 or so nights at the Bingo hall. She had a decent amount of cash with her. There have been no transactions with her cards, no attempts to use her medical insurance, and no activity on her credit report. We have called all tow yards, hospitals and shelters in the area. The police continue to check for any license plate scans, or other activity that they can monitor.

We simply have nothing to go on at this point.
 
As someone who plays bingo at a large bingo hall I can help with how the winnings are paid out. When you go to the bingo hall, depending on the time, you buy a pack that contains all of the games that will be played that night. Usually if you come early the sell ‘early bird’ games individually that pay out smaller amounts than the later games. Also throughout the night they will add in games that are not in the packs and you can also buy extra sheets for the games in your pack before the games begin. So it’s not uncommon for someone to get lucky and win several games in a night. Depending on how early you get there and if you play early birds you can play anywhere from 25-50 games a night maybe more depending on how many people are there.

As the night progresses the big winning games are played toward the end of the night. Then the final game is usually a ‘jackpot’ game. Believe it or not the ‘buy in’ of the nightly pack is not that much money compared to what you can win. It’s the extra games and extra sheets that can run up the money. I’ve played the large and smaller bingo halls. Some nights I’ve won several games and some nights nothing. So she could have easily walked out of there with a nice pile if she’d won a couple games. We always worry about being followed both at the casino and bingo hall. At a casino unless someone is right beside you it is rare that someone even knows you won anything but at a bingo game everyone knows who won and how much and it is always cash (at least at the places where I have played).

At most places they will have security staff that will walk you to your car if you ask...but most people are riding that high of winning and rarely think about someone robbing them in the parking lot and it happens quite a bit. Just type in ‘robbed at bingo hall’ in google and you will see what I mean.
Oh dear god!! :eek:
This has been my theory since the beginning but I really had no idea!! Such a terrible thought. It wouldn’t be hard to keep an eye on her to see if she leaves alone and hop in a different car to follow her. People will do an awful lot for an awful little amount of money. Ugh I’m so sad about what I think happened to Carolyn :( sigh
 
Lincoln's version of Onstar is VCS (Vehicle Communication System) but I think it was an option on the Town Car. After this length of time I would think LE would have been able to locate the vehicle if Carolyn's car had the VCS.
 
Still praying for Carolyn and her family. I'm in DFW too and there doesn't seem to be anything new in the case. She is the same age as my Mom and I feel so heartbroken for her daughter and the rest of her family and friends.
 
FindingCarolyn
9 Oct 2020
So many of our days are consumed by grief that it is simply unbearable sometimes. We may have been just lucky enough to have a couple of okay days and then the grief jumps up out of nowhere and we just can’t hold it together. We are grieving day in and day out...we will greive long after we bring Carolyn home. But, we still need to bring her home. My heart aches a terrible ache today
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#missingher #findingcarolyn #untilshecomeshome
 
Posted a few minutes ago on the Finding Carolyn page:

We would like to thank everyone who has followed findingCarolyn and prayed for us along the way. To those of you who searched with us, put out fliers, donated time, money, snacks, supplies and effort, we thank you. To those of you who wanted to do something but couldn’t, we felt your hearts and we know that you were with us in our search, our hopes, our sorrows. We are hurting now but the healing can begin now.
We await positive identification, but part of us already knows...we get to lay my sweet sister to rest now. We get to commend her sweet soul to heaven.
We ask that you all give us time to process this information. We ask for privacy for our family in this difficult time. We will respond to your thoughts and prayers as we can.
Thank you all again,
The family of Carolyn Kay Riggins
 

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