60 years ago...
The last post to this thread was over two years ago. I thought that I would bump it up as this year marks the 60th anniversary of Virginia Carpenter's disappearance. Perhaps there will be some news articles about it.
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Virginia Carpenter
Missing since June 1, 1948 from Denton, Denton County, Texas
Classification: Endangered Missing
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: about 1927
Age at Time of Disappearance: 21 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 120 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Long brown hair; brown eyes.
Clothing: She was wearing a striped chambray dress, a white hat and red platform shoes and 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 9 p.m. 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 drove away.
The cab driver delivered her 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 still-open Denton police files, the cabby was a ``bootlegger, part-time mechanic and automobile trader'' who beat his wife and kids.
And 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 10. Actually, according to the police files, she said he had come in at 2 or 3 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 became nervous, uneasy, and she believed he had something to do with the girl's disappearance. 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.
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Denton County Sheriff's Office
940-349-1600
Source Information:
Laredo Morning Times
Denton Record-Chronicle - 8/3/97
The Doe Network: Case File 1880DFTX
LINK:
1880DFTX - Mary Virginia Carpenter