AR AR - Maud Crawford, 63, Camden, 2 March 1957

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/746dfar.html

Maud Crawford
Missing since March 2, 1957 from Camden, Ouachita County, Arkansas.
Classification: Endangered Missing



Vital Statistics

• Date Of Birth: 1894
• Age at Time of Disappearance: 63 years old
• Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Reddish-grey hair. Crawford wears eyeglasses.
• Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 165 lbs.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Maud was the first female attorney in Camden, Arkansas. She was regarded as one of the top title and abstract attorneys in Ouachita County and was very skilled in estate management.
Maud was last seen at her residence on Clifton Street during the evening hours of March 2, 1957. Her husband, Clyde, went to a local movie theater and a liquor store during the night. Maud was sitting on her couch stringing beans when Clyde left their home. Clyde returned several hours later and saw that the lights were on inside the residence and on both porches. Their television set was turned on and Maud's pan of beans sat on a table. Her purse was inside the home and $142 was inside of her wallet. Several legal files were placed on a table. All of the doors were unlocked and Maud's vehicle was parked in their driveway with the keys in the ignition, the way she normally left the car for the evening. The Crawfords' dog was laying undisturbed on the floor. Nothing seemed amiss near the residence, but there was no sign of Maud at the scene. She has never been heard from again.

Maud was very active in Camden's civic efforts in 1957 and did not have a reason to leave without warning. She was highly respected in the town at the time and there initially seemed to be no evidence to suggest foul play was involved in her case.

Maud's disappearance remained shrouded in mystery until reporter Beth Brickell returned to her hometown of Camden in 1986. She wrote a series of articles for The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that exposed some of the intrigue surrounding Maud's case. Brickell found that many of the people involved were still frightened about the circumstances over 30 years after Maud vanished. Brickell apparently received threats herself while researching the story. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was threatened with lawsuits from individuals after the first segment of Brickell's story was published. The newspaper ignored the efforts to stop the story and continued to run the entire series of articles.

I was reading about Maud today and wanted to bump her out of the ancient history here.

Nice website - has the archive of the archives of the articles published in the 1980's
http://www.luminousfilms.net/themaudcrawfordstory/maude_c_article1.htm

I found another bio on her (I wonder when luminousfilms project will be out?).

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2405


The link Gaia posted if fascinating.

Maud's Charley Project file has been updated.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/crawford_maud.html

It has now been 55 years since Maud went missing.

I ran across Maud's story while looking for something else and thought she should be posted here.



Maud was 5'5" and 165 lbs.

Greying red hair and glasses.

She was a respected estate and title attorney and the first woman attorney in Arkansas.

Here is a Charlie Project Page: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/crawford_maud.html

I could not find her in other missing persons databases.

Maud is listed at Doe Network:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/746dfar.html

Smells like foul play. She was helping Rose Berg with her state and that involved quite a lot of money.

It bothers me that her husband left for so many hours and when he came home she was gone but everything else seemed normal, including the family dog there.

Why would she have been stringing green beans in the evening, wouldn't that be something done before supper?

I wonder if her husband was looked at closely? Could something have happened earlier that day, and he later went to the movie and liquor store to set up an alibi?

Money is a powerful thing, and an estate worth $15 million dollars (nearly $132 million in today's money) is certainly enough for Maud to have been murdered over. I would like to know what happened to the proceedings after Maud disappeared - I would think that Mike wouldn't be able to just take over and revise the documents so that he had more control over the money, but if a random attorney who didn't really care about the case came in afterward, Rose Berg may have been totally ran over by the system. I don't know enough about that area of the legal system, so if someone more educated in it comes across this thread, please enlighten us!

The fact that the whole dispute between Mike and Maud didn't come out until almost 30 years later, and reportedly people were still scared to talk about it, tells me that Mike had friends in high places. Maybe he paid them to keep quiet about the situation. Unfortunately when a person has a lot of power like Mike seemed to have (within the business, at least) they can get away with a lot and nobody ever finds out about it.

746DFAR - Maud Robinson Crawford

Maud Robinson Crawford, circa 1950s

Name: Maud Robinson Crawford
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: March 2, 1957
Location Last Seen: Camden, Ouachita County, Arkansas

Physical Description
Date of Birth: June 22, 1891
Age: 65 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 165 lbs.
Hair Color: Gray with a reddish hue
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: "Miss Maud"
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Very fair skin with freckles

Identifiers
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Wears eyeglasses

Circumstances of Disappearance
Mrs. Crawford was last seen at her residence on Clifton Street during the evening hours of March 2, 1957. Her husband, Clyde, was not at home that evening, as he went to a movie at the Malco Theater and Carter Liquor Store. Maud was sitting on her couch stringing beans when the husband left their home. She had spoke with a cousin via telephone aroundt 8:30PM that evening.

Clyde returned around 11PM and saw that the lights were on inside the residence and on both porches. Their television set was turned on and Maud's pan of beans sat on a table. Her purse was inside the home and there was a significant amount of money still inside her wallet. Several legal files were spread out on a table. All of the doors were unlocked and Maud's vehicle was parked in their driveway with the keys in the ignition, the way she normally left the car for the evening.

The Crawford's Dalmatian usually would not let anyone near Maud, but the dog seemed unperturbed when Clyde arrived home that evening. Clyde told authorities when he came in and didn't find his wife, he asked the dog, "Where's Maud?" and the Dalmatian went to the door. Nothing seemed amiss near the residence, but there was no sign of Maud at the scene. Mass searches were conducted, and the case was publicized across the country. The FBI placed Mrs. Crawford on its official missing persons list. She was never heard from again. In 1969, the Probate Court of Ouachita County declared Maud dead, a victim of foul play.

Maud was the first female attorney in Camden, Arkansas, working for the Camden law firm of Gaughan, McClellan, and Laney for 30 years (Democratic Senator John McClellan was a former member of the law firm). Mrs. Crawford worked as a title expert for the firm. She was also the city's first female city council member, and very active in Camden society and civic matters. She also served as personal guardian for Mrs. Henry (Rose) Berg, a widow (probably suffering from dementia or Altzheimer's disease) whose had an estate worth millions of dollars.

In 1986, Camden native, Beth Brickell, wrote a series of articles in the Arkansas Gazette that unearthed the mystery of what happened to Mrs. Crawford. Henry Myar "Mike" Berg was believed to be connected to her strange disappearance in an effort to silence Mrs. Crawford about his criminal efforts to change the will of his aunt, Mrs. Rose Berg, in favor of him receiving her entire estate upon her death. He did receive his aunt's entire fortune, totalling around $20 million. He died in 1975, and no charges were ever brought against anyone. Mrs. Crawford's remains have never been found.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Camden Police Department Criminal Investigation Division
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: (870) 836-5755
Information Source(s)
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
The Disappearance of Maud Crawford
Beth Brickell's original article from the Arkansas Gazette (7/25/86)
Northwest Arkansas Times (3/5/57)
Camden (AR) News (7/16/57)

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Missing Age 65 Years
Current Age 129 Years
First Name Maud
Middle Name Robinson
Last Name Crawford
Sex Female
Height 5' 5" (65 Inches)
Weight 165 lbs
Race / Ethnicity White / Caucasian

Circumstances
Date of Last ContactMarch 2, 1957
NamUs Case CreatedJuly 7, 2018
Last Known Location Map
LocationCamden, Arkansas
CountyOuachita County
Missing From Tribal LandUnknown
Primary Residence on Tribal LandUnknown
Circumstances of DisappearanceLast seen March 2, 1957.
Physical Description
Hair ColorGray or Partially Gray
Head Hair DescriptionGray with a reddish hue
Eye ColorBlue
Eye DescriptionWears glasses
Distinctive Physical Features
Item
Description
Other distinctive physical characteristic
Very fair skin with freckles

Clothing and Accessories
Eyewear
Wears eyeglasses

Murder Mystery: The Disappearance of Maud Crawford - AY Magazine

Background info:
She married Clyde Falwell Crawford in 1925, and in 1927 was admitted to the Arkansas Bar, becoming the first female attorney in the history of Camden. She practiced at the same law firm in which U.S. Senator John McClellan had been a partner. She was well-known about town and was frequently seen walking her Dalmatian or driving her dark blue, two-door 1956 Mercury sedan. Active in civic affairs, she had won awards for her contributions to the community.

But when she disappeared, it was not just Camden that stood up and took notice. It was the whole country. Her story made national headlines because of her ties to McClellan. He was chairing a Senate inquiry into organized crime, and speculation arose that Maud may have been abducted by the Mafia in retaliation against McClellan. But when no threat or ransom note was ever received, friends and neighbors were mystified as to why anyone would want to harm Crawford. Two weeks after the disappearance, Police Chief G. B. Cole was quoted in The Camden News as saying, “We have not turned up a single clue.”

Murder Mystery: The Disappearance of Maud Crawford - AY Magazine

To Note:
•Night of disappearance: At 8:30 p.m., Maud’s cousin phoned and talked to her for a while. Everything seemed normal.
•Her husband had gone downtown to see a movie and stopped for a couple beers on the way home.
•When he arrived home at 11:30pm, lights and television were still on, and a pan of beans was on the dining table, but Crawford was gone.
•Her clothes were in the closet; her car was in the driveway; and her purse was in the living room. •Her billfold still had $142 in it.
•Her dog, Dal, was unharmed and resting peacefully on the floor.
•Nothing was missing, except her.

•Shortly after her disappearance, her husband sold her vehicle.
•April 1957, a receipt was found in the car; dated March 2, 1957, the same day Crawford had disappeared. A Camden telephone number had been written on the back of it.
•The receipt was given to LE but nothing was ever heard about it again.
•In 1969, the Probate Court of Ouachita County declared Maud Crawford dead, a victim of foul play.

Murder Mystery: The Disappearance of Maud Crawford - AY Magazine

Even after 30 years after Maud Crawford’s disappearance, there were still people afraid to talk. Brickell, a journalist, stepped on some big toes, and as a result, her life was threatened. The Arkansas Gazette was told to abandon the project or face legal action. The newspaper and Brickell stood their ground and proceeded with the sensational story.

(more info on this can be found on the link above)

Encyclopedia Of Arkansas Minute: Maud Crawford

Encyclopedia of Arkansas

PressReader.com - Your favorite newspapers and magazines.

This gives some additional details.

Poster offering reward for information concerning the disappearance of Maud Robinson Crawford.



LINK:

Encyclopedia of Arkansas