TX TX - Virginia Carpenter, 21, Denton, 1948

Interestingly, the lead investigator of the time, Lewis C. Rigler, finally believed that Virginia ran away to start a new life for herself. I'm not sure how he arrived at that conclusion, as there was no evidence for it and every reason to suspect foul play. Perhaps it was just his way of dealing with the fact they never found out what happened to her.

Anyway, I agree with you. The taxi driver was the last confirmed witness to see Virginia, he was later accused of sexually assaulting another young woman, and apparently he was known to abuse his wife and kids. Not to mention his decision to leave Virginia's trunk on the lawn instead of delivering it to her dorm is very suspicious.

 

The Decatur woman can't be her.

Here's that Virginia in the 1940 census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWRX-WQS

 

https://www.peoplemagazine.co.za/real-people/real-stories/true-crime-missing-virginia-carpenter/

By Walton Golightly

On June 1, 1948, Virginia Carpenter 21, travelled by train from Texarkana to the Texas State College For Women in Denton to begin classes. Taxi driver Edgar Zachary dropped her off at her college residence at 17h30. Two men in a cream-coloured convertible – one tall, the other short and stocky – called out to Virginia. According to Zachery, she responded by saying, “Well, what y’all doing over here?”
Because one of her trunks had yet to arrive, Virginia paid Zachary a dollar to fetch it from the train station the following morning. The two men would help her with the luggage she had with her, she added. Zachary drove off. The following morning, he dropped off the trunk at Brackenridge Hall, but Virginia was missing – she hadn’t even checked into the residence yet.
In the months following Virginia’s disappearance numerous sightings of the young woman poured in from south Texas to Louisiana and Arkansas.
“One report from a ticket agent in DeQueen, Arkansas is particularly compelling,” says crime writer Stephanie Weber. He claimed that on the night of Friday, June 11, a young woman matching Virginia’s description climbed off a bus from Texarkana and found a seat in the bus terminal lobby.


About 10 minutes later, a man in his mid-20s with light brown hair arrived, and the two vanished into the night. Not long afterwards, the agent received a phone call from a female caller. She wanted to know if Miss Virginia Carpenter happened to be at the station.

 

I can think of an additional reason to suspect Zachary:

- In addition to being a cab driver, wife beater and sexual assailant, Zachary was also a mechanic and an auto trader. Yet, he could only describe a claimed sighting of an unusual nice car in very general terms as a "cream colored convertible"- or was it yellow? He appears to have given to different color descriptions. This and his inability give the general make of the convertible does not seem very likely given his auto interests.

But, his ex wife's claims also seem strange:

- Zachary was described as being badly educated. He was probably functionally illiterate or perhaps even completely illiterate. Yet, his wife describes him knowing that the Denton paper carried articles about the case and then driving hours to buy a paper that he probably could not fully read. This is in contrast to most murderers of his education who follow the "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy regarding crime. No arrest and a move to Midland put Zachary way "out of sight".

Even considering that "un-educated" does not always mean "un-intelligent", especially in earlier generations, the Texas Ranger does not describe Zachary as being quick witted. Rather, he points out that he was uneducated. This could imply a fairly simple individual and not likely to read a lot of papers, nor be concerned about their contents.

Perhaps she was changing her story as way to incriminate her husband for the years of abuse?

 

Name: Mary Virginia Carpenter
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: June 1, 1948
Location Last Seen: Denton, Denton County, Texas

Physical Description
Date of Birth: January 25, 1927
Age: 21 yrs old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 120 lbs
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Jimmie/Virginia Carpenter
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Long hair

Identifiers
Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Striped chambray dress, White hat and Red platform shoes
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: A bag

Circumstances of Disappearance
Carpenter was last seen in Denton, Texas on June 1, 1948. She left her home in Texarkana, Texas and took a train to Denton. She got off the train in Denton and took a taxi to the campus of what is now Texas Woman's University. She stepped out of the cab in front of Brackenridge Hall at the Texas State College for Women a little after 21.00. She gave the cab driver the ticket for her trunk and a dollar to fetch it the next day from the train station. She walked over to talk to two young men she appeared to know. ``Well, hi. What are you doing here?'' she asked them. The cab driver then drove away.

The cab driver delivered Carpenter's trunk the next morning. It sat on the porch for days. In 1948, police questioned Miss Carpenter's boyfriend for 12 hours the first time around and interviewed him more than a dozen times after that. He also passed a polygraph test. Police searched the cab driver, looking for scratches or bruises. They grilled the cabby numerous times. He was 45, with little education and a reputation for physical abuse. According to reports in the Denton police files, the cabby was a ``bootlegger, part-time mechanic and automobile trader''.

In 1957, his wife, who was married to someone else by then, told Midland police she had lied when she said he was home that night by 22.00. Actually, according to the police files, she said he had come in at 02.00 or 03.00 a.m. the next morning. And each year on June 1, when the Denton Record-Chronicle rehashed the unsolved case, he traveled from Midland to Denton and bought a paper, his wife told the officers. He was never charged.

The year before her disappearance, five Texarkana teens were murdered by a person who has never been identified. The press dubbed him the ``Phantom Killer.'' Miss Carpenter and her family were friends with three of the five victims.

In May of 1998, police were given a tip by a man in his 70s who claimed to know who killed Ms. Carpenter and where she was buried. Police said the informant was close to some of the people who were allegedly involved in Ms. Carpenter’s disappearance. The sheriff said the two suspects in the murder are now dead.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Denton County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Captain Rick Clark
Agency Phone Number: 940-349-1600

Information Source(s)
Doe Network
Denton County Sheriff's Office
Laredo Morning Times
Denton Record-Chronicle - 8/3/97

Admin Notes
Added: 1/29/06; Last Updated: 7/8/2017

 

You have a really valid point Cryptic. If he was a mechanic or an auto trader he would of imediately said oh yeah it was a canary yellow 46 Ford or a Cream Convertable 48 Chevy or a 47 GM..
Your absolutely right. I have dated mechanics and Car enthusiasts and have gone to car shows and racing events. With that in mind all the men talking about cars always mention Make and Year. Your right how could a mechanic and a auto trader be so vague with a description of a car?!

 

I do have to say this bowling Virgina has an uncanny resemblance to the missing Virginia. Does anyone know anything more? Has this woman ever been contacted.. it is kind of weird.

 

Missing for over 51 years...

 

Returning to this case, I haven't changed my mind. I still think the taxi driver is the best suspect.