AR AR - Mary Jimmie Shinn, 25, Magnolia, 20 July 1978

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https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/show/10738

On 07/20/1978 Mary "Bobo" Shinn was called to show a house to an unknown male subject. She was a real estate agent. She has not been seen or heard from since that time.

Dental: Charted and available.

DNA sample submitted-tests complete.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3071dfar.html
More details at doe network.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/arti...ntinues?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
6:15 PM, Jul. 5, 2011 |


Many people have forgotten Mary Jimmie "Bobo" Shinn. And a whole generation has grown up knowing nothing about the Magnolia, Ark., teacher who was much loved by her family, friends and co-workers

http://s10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t4719.htm
Porchlight has one article that I can't find on the internet (it's post number 1)

Bobo has been missing 33 years. Come home soon.

(Picture from NamUs first link posted in this posting)
 

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I wonder how it could have been an "unnamed male"? I would imagine that Mary kept records on her clients, even just the potential inquiries. No doubt she kept a calendar or appointment book and would've written down who she was meeting with that day...
 
This case reminds me a lot of the Suzy Lamplugh case here in the UK. In 1986 Suzy Lamplugh she was am estate agent disappeared after she went to meet an unknown client.

I hope this family gets some answers and closure.
 
I wonder how it could have been an "unnamed male"? I would imagine that Mary kept records on her clients, even just the potential inquiries. No doubt she kept a calendar or appointment book and would've written down who she was meeting with that day...

She wasn't a real estate agent. She was just selling a house. She was a teacher.

This happened when I was 13. I haven't forgotten her.
 
http://www.magnoliareporter.com/new...cle_fbabeb12-08d5-11e4-903b-0019bb2963f4.html

The family of Mary Jimmie “Bobo” Shinn plans to conduct a memorial service for the missing Magnolia woman on Saturday, July 19. The service will be held at 2 p.m. at Central Baptist Church and will be open to the public. The service comes 36 years after her car was found in a parking lot at the corner of East Main and North Dudney...

Authorities believe that Shinn met a man who was interested in looking at a house on East McNeil Street that Shinn had remodeled and hoped to sell. But Shinn apparently never told anyone with whom she was meeting.

The condition of Shinn’s 1976 Buick Special also suggested that Shinn may not have been the person who left the car in the parking lot of what was then Smitty’s grocery store. Her wallet and keys remained in the unlocked car, but her address book was missing.
 
http://www.magnoliareporter.com/new...cle_c1024fd4-0f96-11e4-9a16-0019bb2963f4.html

Memorial service remembers the late Mary Jimmie "Bobo" Shinn

“We are drawing to a close a long chapter when we think about Bobo and the events connected with her disappearance 36 years ago that affected this family so personally and so deeply,” said Dr. Michael Seabaugh, pastor of Central Baptist Church.
Seabaugh also mentioned the impact that the Bobo Shinn disappearance has had on the community.
“The world has changed a lot since 1978. Back in 1978, it was a very rare thing to hear about this type of thing happening. And for it to happen to someone that we knew and that was so precious to us was a reminder that we do not have control over this world and that we can be touched by such painful things,” Seabaugh said.
The cemetery gathering was “an ending of hope -- that we were acknowledging the death of Bobo. For some time this has been something we’ve all feared and suspected and today, acknowledged. But here, this afternoon, we move on,” Seabaugh said.
 
http://m.nwahomepage.com/display/18898/story/94b2c431470470ceac7ff8d08f7b438f

Cold Case: Missing Woman Case Reopened After 30 Years
MAGNOLIA, AR --
But during those decades, Loe has never left the case. The evidence files are still fixtures in his office. "There's an answer to everything," he said. "We sat down, looked at the case file and decided to start over."

Loe and a trio of investigators are starting over from scratch. "Start reinterviewing people, start checking leads, that maybe the early investigators didn't check that we maybe know a little bit about now."

For the first time, the findings will be sent to the F.B.I's behavioral science unit that specializes in criminal profiling.

"We've identified a couple of areas that you really can't go in to today that wasn't done... hat got overlooked."

The federal resources are what this longtime sheriff says could lead him to answers he's been searching for the last three decades and possibly fulfill the final assignment in law enforcement.

"My hope is that I can resolve this before I go home," he said.

Leaving no lead overlooked and no leaf unturned.
 
Cold Case Spotlight

Sheriff Still Haunted by 1978 Disappearance of Magnolia Woman Mary Bobo Shinn

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/sheriff-still-haunted-1978-disappearance-magnolia-woman-mary-bobo-shinn-n451176

It was a sweltering July afternoon in 1978 when Mary Shinn, whom everyone in the small town of Magnolia, Arkansas called 'Bobo', went to show a home to an unknown man.

She didn't tell her friends the name of the person who contacted her asking to take a look at the place that July afternoon.

Shinn's blue Buick was found parked, unlocked and abandoned in the parking lot of town's grocery store the next day. Most of her belongings were still tucked inside, including her purse, wallet and a pair of tennis shoes. Only her address book was missing. The condition of the car hinted that Shinn was not the person who left it in the parking lot.
 
How would Mary been a threat to the biz operations of the man who boiled her alive?
 
Very lengthy article.
March 2016
http://arkansaslife.com/come-looking-for-me-if-im-not-back/
attachment.php

“Come looking for me if I’m not back”
The story of the most perplexing unsolved cases in Arkansas history
by paul mcdonnold | photography by sara reeves
Bobo told Anita she would call back after talking to the man. It was only about five minutes later when Anita’s phone rang. On the other end, Bobo said she’d spoken to the prospect. He’d said he had a house out of town he might like to trade. They were going to meet that afternoon. Bobo said she’d try to come over after they were finished.

“Come looking for me if I’m not back this afternoon,” she added, half-jokingly, before hanging up.
When she did not return home as supper time neared, her mother worried. She contacted Bobo’s friends, but unfortunately no one knew the name of the man Bobo had gone to meet. All they knew was what Bobo had said: The man’s car was being worked on at the Pontiac dealership on Main Street and they were going to meet at the E-Z Mart just across from there. Mrs. Shinn went to the dealership, arriving as it was about to close for the night. It didn’t have any cars in the shop that might belong to the unknown man. But an employee did recall seeing a car that looked like Bobo’s pick up a man in his 20’s at the E-Z Mart around noon.
The employee then got in his car and left for home. As he passed Smitty’s, a local grocery store along Main, something caught his eye. It was Bobo’s car, a blue 1976 Buick, sitting empty in the parking lot. He pulled in and looked around. Bobo was nowhere to be found. He got back in his car and went to find Mrs. Shinn. When he told her what he’d seen, she called the police.
Inside the Buick were the keys, Bobo’s purse, a copy of the novel The Thorn Birds and a pair of sunglasses. Her white tennis shoes were shoved beneath the pedals, as if she’d been driving with them off. Missing was an appointment book that Bobo carried around with her. Police surmised it may have been taken because it held information about the man she was meeting. Exterior analysis found grass and seed fragments on the lower body of the car, suggesting it may have been driven through a field. Strands of hair and some partial fingerprints were also found, but were thought to belong to Bobo.
Taking the various witnesses as credible, investigators had a rough timeline. At 11 a.m., Bobo had spoken with her prospect on the phone.
At 11:30 a.m., the two had looked at Bobo’s house. About noon, they had been seen leaving town in Bobo’s car, possibly struggling. Around 1:30 p.m., Bobo’s car was abandoned in Smitty’s parking lot. There was an hour-and-a-half gap between the sighting of Bobo’s car leaving town and when it was left at Smitty’s. The case turned on figuring out what happened in that hour and a half.
 

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I'm glad to find a post about her. I lived in Magnolia when this happened and I remember how shocked I was that such a thing could happen. Over the years, I've watched the proceedings about this case. A very good friend and high school classmate of mine was rumored to have had something to do with her disappearance but not as a suspect. He allegedly committed suicide shortly after she disappeared but I believe he was murdered because he knew too much about what happened. That's just my opinion. All I can say is he showed no signs of depression before the alleged suicide. I saw him only a couple of days before and he was excited about life. I would love for her case to be resolved.
 
Cold but not closed

http://www.arklatexhomepage.com/news/local-news/cold-but-not-closed/1152020404

Boxes of evidence surrounding the disappearance of 25 year-old Mary "Bobo" Shinn sit inside the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. She vanished on July 20, 1978. But Columbia County Sheriff Mike Loe is not giving up. "We're still trying," he said.

The day she vanished, Bobo, an art teacher who dabbled in real estate, told friends she was going to show a house she had renovated. She was supposed to meet a man who had seen her ad in the newspaper. But she was never seen or heard from again.
 
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Mary Jimmie Shinn – The Charley Project
Mary Jimmie Shinn
  • mary_jimmie_shinn_1.jpg
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Shinn, circa 1978; Shinn's 1976 Buick

  • Missing Since07/20/1978
  • Missing FromMagnolia, Arkansas
  • ClassificationEndangered Missing
  • Age25 years old
  • Height and Weight5'6, 118 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionSeveral jewelry pieces, including a custom-designed gold necklace with three diamond pendants.
  • Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Shinn has a scar on her left cheek and a birthmark on her forehead. Her nickname is Bobo.
Details of Disappearance
Shinn was last seen in Magnolia, Arkansas on July 20, 1978. She owned an art studio on Magnolia Street and taught regular classes there. She was trying to sell a house on east McNeil Street and had advertised about it in the newspaper.

Authorities believe she showed the house to an unknown man at 4:00 p.m. on July 19. He reportedly wanted to trade her house for a parcel of land he owned on Taylor Highway, nine miles south of town, but Shinn didn't seem to think the transaction would go through.

At 11:00 a.m. on July 20, however, Shinn got a call from the man and he said he wanted to see the house again. He told her his car was in for repairs and he needed to take a cab to east McNeil Street.

They agreed to meet at the EZ Mart across the street from Shinn's art studio, and they would go together to the house at east McNeil Street. Shinn told a friend to expect her back by 1:30 p.m. She has never been heard from again.

A carpenter who'd been working across the street from the house Shinn was selling recalled having seen her with a man on the day of her disappearance. He placed the sighting between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.

The man is described the man as Caucasian, 25 to 28 years old with dark-brown collar-length hair, a medium-length beard and mustache, 6'1 - 6'2 tall and 215 - 225 pounds. The man wore a mesh baseball cap and drove a dark green Pontiac with a lighter green vinyl top, possibly a 1969 - 1970 or 1972 Bonneville or Catalina model.

Police are uncertain whether the man the witness described actually had anything to do with Shinn's disappearance, however; a neighbor who took his lunch break at 11:30 a.m. that day closely resembled the witness description and they think the carpenter may have seen him instead.

A more promising sighting came from a young girl who was at the EZ Mart at 11:00 a.m. the day of Shinn's disappearance. She said a man came in and asked for a quarter to make a phone call, spoke on the pay phone for five minutes and left.

Because this corresponds to known facts about Shinn's disappearance, investigators believe the man this witness saw may have been the man who was supposed to meet Shinn. He is described as Caucasian, in his mid-twenties with dark curly hair, approximately 5'8 tall and 185 - 200 pounds.

Shinn's blue 1976 Buick Special was found unlocked with the keys inside it at Smitty's Grocery on the afternoon of her disappearance. Two employees at the store said they saw it there at 1:00 p.m., but the police didn't secure it until 5:00 or 6:00. A photo of the car is posted with this case summary. By the time law enforcement got control of the vehicle, several people had been inside it and may have disturbed a potential crime scene.

Authorities stated the items found inside the car indicated Shinn hadn't left of her own accord. There was Shinn's navy blue denim purse, emptied out on the driver's side floor with its contents scattered; Shinn's white canvas sneakers pushed under the gas and brake pedals, a pair of sunglasses and a novel. Shinn's wallet was there with some cash inside, but her address book was missing.

The rear left fender of the Buick had deep scratches in the paint and inside the car were seeds and bits of grass; investigators believe it was driven into a meadow.

The man Shinn was supposed to see on the day of her disappearance has never been identified, although various suspects' names have surfaced over the years. In spite of an extensive investigation, there's been no trace of Shinn since 1978. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance.
 
I'm actively researching this case. Both of my parents knew Bobo. I've read basically every article out there about her, but does anyone have any idea where I can find newspaper stories from 1978? I've only found one - it was published a week after she disappeared. Thanks for the help!
 
I'm actively researching this case. Both of my parents knew Bobo. I've read basically every article out there about her, but does anyone have any idea where I can find newspaper stories from 1978? I've only found one - it was published a week after she disappeared. Thanks for the help!
 
I'm actively researching this case. Both of my parents knew Bobo. I've read basically every article out there about her, but does anyone have any idea where I can find newspaper stories from 1978? I've only found one - it was published a week after she disappeared. Thanks for the help!
 
There are a number of articles on newspapers.com, its a paid site. Might be worth joining for a trial period? Search under Mary Jimmie Shinn
Here is one from November 1979.

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