Crystal Gail Mangum Arrested Yet Again

Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players
by Robert A. Waters

The meta-narrative was rife with error, but still the media persisted: three privileged white athletes attending Duke University had brutally raped a poor black girl who just wanted to make a better life for her child. The few who protested this rush to judgment were branded racists, which seems to be about the worst thing you can be in this day and age.

Crystal Gail Mangum was the black girl. The fact that she was a stripper who had already run afoul of the law and had already falsely accused a man of rape was ignored.

Reade Seligman, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans were the white lacrosse players. Their anguished protestations of innocence were laughed away. Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, newspapers large and small, the administrators and professors of Duke University itself, the national true crime talk shows—everyone assigned guilt to the players because the case confirmed what they already believed. The white world is racist, so the meta-narrative reads, and black people are almost always victims of hate-filled whites.

On March 13, 2006, members of the Duke lacrosse team hired two strippers to dance for them at the off-campus university-owned home rented by several players. Mangum and Kim Roberts, another black dancer, arrived at about 11:30 p.m. Several players were drunk, as was Mangum. The dance didn’t go well, and the two hired girls left at around 1:00 a.m. (There had been name-calling between a couple of the drunken players and the dancers.)

As they left, Kim Roberts, who’d had enough of Mangum’s drunken outbursts, stopped at Kroger’s Grocery Store and attempted to get her partner to get out of her car. Someone called police at 1:22 a.m. “"There's a lady in someone else's car,” the caller said, “and she will not get out.... She's like, intoxicated, drunk or something."

When officers arrived, Mangum accused twenty lacrosse players of raping her. The responding officer didn’t believe her, and Roberts was incredulous. She claimed she’d been with Mangum the whole time, except maybe five minutes, and there was no rape.

Enter a prosecutor running a tight re-election campaign. Mike Nifong needed the black vote to win, and suddenly it seemed that a case had dropped in his lap that would seal the deal. He began making pronouncements to the media about the case, even going so far as to label the players "hooligans." His unethical and illegal statements to reporters convinced many that the players were unquestionably guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping, and rape.

Few in the media expressed any skepticism about Nifong’s accusations. Fewer still bothered to check the background of the accuser. And while she remained anonymous in news stories about the case, the photos and names of the three players were plastered all over every newspaper and television show in America. Eventually Nifong charged Seligman, Finnerty, and Evans--if convicted, each player could have received up to thirty years in prison. Even though it was obvious that two of the players (Seligman and Finnerty) were not even at the party when the alleged rape occurred.

While their rich white-boy status brought heaps of fire on their heads, it at least allowed them to hire a group of experienced, high-quality attorneys. Those lawyers were eventually able to rip the lid off the case and shine the light of truth onto a corrupt investigation.

Even as Nifong’s carefully orchestrated case broke apart, the media continued to attack the lacrosse players like slobbering wolves. Nothing seemed to be able to overcome the meta-narrative. Police fudged reports and timelines, Nifong hid DNA tests that exonerated the players, and the defense attorneys weren’t given evidence that proved the players were innocent.

By this time, most Americans could smell the stink emanating from the case, but the media slogged along as if there were no question about the players’ guilt. (It’s hard to admit you’re wrong, and most never did.)

Finally, the charges were dismissed. The State Attorney, who had taken over the investigation, informed the press that not only were they "not guilty," the three players were totally innocent. Many law enforcement officers, Duke administrators, and members of the media had their reputations shredded. Mike Nifong resigned and was disbarred, and lawsuits have been filed against many of the participants in the witch hunt.

Crystal Gail Mangum went about her life in the same manner she did before she gained infamy. After a fight with her live-in boyfriend, she was arrested in 2010 for arson, attempted murder, assault and battery, and several other charges. She eventually was convicted of child abuse, resisting an officer, and damage to public property.

On April 2, 2011, Mangum was arrested yet again. This time she was charged with stabbing another live-in boyfriend. The victim, Reginald Daye, died two weeks later and Mangum has now been charged with murder. Let’s hope that those who rushed to judgment in the Duke case will let the courts sort out the case.

The Unsolved Murder of Jodi Parrack

Death in a Cemetery
by Robert A. Waters

November in Constantine, Michigan is usually bitter cold, but on the 8th, in 2007, it was shirt-sleeve weather. The girl riding the slick silver Mongoose bike wore a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. It was 4:45 in the afternoon, and Jodi Christine Parrack was on her way home after visiting a friend.

She had straw-blond hair and brown eyes. She was pretty, in the tom-boyish way of eleven-year-olds. Her friend’s house was less than three blocks from the home Jodi shared with her mother and siblings. But somewhere along the route, she disappeared. When she wasn’t home by 5:30 (her curfew), Valerie Carver and several friends began looking for her.

At about 7:00, Valerie reported her daughter missing and police joined residents in searching for the girl. A few hours later, her bicycle was found leaning against a tombstone in the Constantine Township Cemetery. Jodi’s body was nearby, still clothed. Her mother was one of those who found her. The cemetery is about a mile from Jodi’s home. The ironic thing is that the child hated graveyards and wouldn’t go near them, so it’s highly improbable that she went there on her own.

Constantine is called the Seed Corn Capital of the World. It has all of 2,065 residents and a small police force. Jim Bedell, who retired as a detective after 25 years with the state police, was recently hired by the village as chief of police. He announced that his top priority is solving the girl’s murder. To help him, he asked his old employers, the Michigan State Police, for help. In January, 2011, they sent a team of experienced cold case investigators in to help work on the case.

Unlike many jurisdictions, the local police have released little information about the case. Even the cause of death has not been given out. It is known that a DNA profile was obtained from the scene of the crime, although whether it was discovered on her body, her clothing, or elsewhere is unknown. Numerous people have been tested, but there have been no matches.

It is also known that police interviewed more than two dozen registered sex offenders in the area.

Bedell claims that no one, not even relatives, have been ruled out. The killer is likely someone who lives or works in the area. The police chief thinks the murderer may have known Jodi or her family. With such a small pool of possible suspects, it’s likely that the case will eventually be solved.

It’s unfortunate that Michigan has no death penalty. When he’s caught and convicted, the killer will live the rest of his life eating, sleeping, and doing many of the things that pleasure mankind.

Monster-Slayer

Meghan Brown

The Lady with the Pink Pistol
by Robert A. Waters

In the early morning of March 12, Meghan Brown, 25, heard a knock on the front door of her Tierra Verde, Florida home. But when the former beauty queen cracked open the door, a stranger barged into the room. He grabbed her by her neck and placed his hand over her mouth and nose, then began dragging her toward the master bedroom.

Hearing the struggle, her fiancé, Robert Planthaber, rushed into the living room and confronted the assailant. “I attacked him,” Planthaber said, “and took a severe beating to the head. But I got him off of her long enough for her to scramble to the room where she keeps her pink .38 Special.”

Planthaber, who came out of the fight with two black eyes, made out better than the home invader. When the dust cleared, Albert Franklin Hill lay on the floor dead.

Brown later described her actions to reporters. “I had my gun drawn,” she said. “[I] focused in on him--as he moved, my gun moved. I waited for my shot and when I saw an opening, I fired.”

Hill was hit four times: in the chest, groin, thigh, and back.

While this is a fairly typical self-defense shooting, the question on the minds of many Floridians is why Hill was out on the streets to begin with. With his criminal background, he should have been locked up for life.

According to a report from Fox News, “Hill had a criminal record stretching back nearly three decades--including arrests for burglary, battery, drug possession and grand theft. He reportedly served a 13-year prison term in 1987 and was released in September [2010]...”

Here’s a list of a few of his charges and convictions: burglary; assault and battery on an officer or firefighter; disorderly conduct; dealing in stolen property; resisting arrest; larceny; theft; disorderly intoxication; possession of burglary tools; criminal mischief and damage to property; sale, manufacture, and delivery of cocaine; possession of cocaine; and grand theft.

If that’s not bad enough, MyFox Tampa Bay reports that Hill was arrested on March 8 on a felony warrant: “Hill is no stranger to law enforcement with an arrest record that goes back nearly three decades. The deceased spent a large majority of his adult life behind bars serving five stints in the state prison system according to a Florida Department of Corrections report. He was arrested by [Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office] on Tuesday on a warrant out of Manatee County on a theft charge.”

He bailed out on March 9, then attempted to invade the Tierra Verde home on March 12.

Meghan Brown had the last word. “The way I see it,” she said, “is the guy was a really bad guy...It's not like he was going to turn his life around.”

True Stories from Past Seasons

Texas & Pacific Rail Road

The Man Who was Hanged Twice and Other Strange Tales
Compiled by Robert A Waters

From the Freeport (IL) Journal-Standard

El Paso, Texas, December 16, 1937. A "wild west" holdup of a Texas & Pacific freight train near Van Horn early this year was attempted by 27-year-old Cecil Mann of El Paso, who was finally over-powered by hoboes on the train after Mann Jumped into the train cab, firing wildly at the fireman and engineer, who after dodging bullets, jumped from the train. Mann was brought to El Paso and declared mentally unbalanced by a court.

From the Trenton (NJ) Times

Pensacola, Fla., March 10, 1900. Wayman King, a negro, who murdered Victoria Watkins Sept. 16 last because she refused to marry him, was twice hanged within half an hour here yesterday. The drop first fell at 1:05 o'clock p. m., and after the body had hanged from the gallows five minutes County Physician McMillan pronounced him dead. The body was cut down, put into the coffin and carried into the jail. There it was discovered that King was breathing in spasmodic gasps and giving utterance to smothered groans. By order of Sheriff Smith, King was again taken to the gallows, a new rope was rigged, the noose was fitted around his neck, and at 1:29 o'clock the trap was sprung for the second time. In 11 minutes life was extinct, but the body was kept suspended four minutes longer to make sure that he was dead. King was perfectly calm on the gallows, smoked a cigar, took a chew of tobacco, drank a glass of water, delivered an address and did not flinch when the rope was fitted around his neck.

From the Butts County (GA) Argus

April 5, 1877. The legislature of Massachusetts is engaged in investigating charges of cruelty against the Superintendent of the Reform School of that State. It seems that the practice prevails there of stripping the boys naked when they are refractory and lashing them, and of confining them in a sweatbox with closing sides, and keeping them there until exhausted, and other refinements of cruelty which have hitherto been accredited alone to the Spanish Inquisition. Are there no laws for the prevention of cruelty to children on the Massachusetts statute books?

From the Kingsport (TN) Times

Bristol, Tennessee, May 25, 1916. Stricken with paralysis while fishing in Denver Creek, near Pendleton’s Crossing, in north Bristol, Mrs. John Aldred, a widow, nearly 50 years old, fell into the water. Her young daughter, who had been sitting on the bank beside her, began screaming and attracted the attention of a gang of Norfolk & Western section men. Mrs. Aldred is a corpulent woman, and her clothing kept her afloat until the section men could pull her out. Chief of Police, B. D. Kellor and patrolman Worley T. Crosswhite, were summoned and took the woman to her home.

From the Santa Fe New Mexican

July 25, 1928. Murder for revenge and murder for profit have been discussed but mass murder for amusement is a novelty. And this "crime" now is attributed to a mountain lion which has been roaming around Macho canyon, 15 miles east of Santa Fe. The tenderfoot who came out to New Mexico this summer to get thrills, has them in this report. And may have chills if he runs into this mountain lion whose tracks have been found around a sheep camp. The local forestry officials received word today that a native herder reported that in the Macho canyon recently a mountain lion's tracks had been found and also the carcasses of no fewer than 20 fat and healthy sheep. It appears that the lion killed for amusement. He knocked down the sheep much as a bowler would tenpins. One after another of the hapless and harmless little creatures were killed by the terrific slaps of the lion's paws. The lion did not enjoy mutton chops, it seems; after killing 20, he retired to his pinon jungle.

From the Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner

March 19, 1935. Convicts at work in a California county road camp, in Elizabeth canyon, rebelled "because they had no hashed-brown potatoes" for breakfast. It was a substantial breakfast, prunes, cereal, griddle cakes, but no hashed-brown potatoes. Men change. When Parmentier, for whom the excellent potato soup potage Parmentier is named, brought the first potatoes to France, nobody would eat them. An intelligent king ordered the nobles at court to wear potato blossoms in their button holes in the spring. Immediately the people said, "Potatoes must be good.”

Will Justice Ever Come for Pamela Cahanes?

Who Murdered the Sailor?
by Robert A. Waters

Twenty-five years after her murder, the soul of Pamela Cahanes cries for justice. There’s little information on the Internet about the Navy recruit who was killed before she even completed her training. I found a photo of her cold case playing card and some newspaper clippings posted on a true crime forum. But from all indications, this case is as cold as they get.

Pamela, 26, had just completed basic training at the Navy Training Center in Orlando, Florida. An Airman’s Apprentice, she remained at the base while she waited to start a second training session.

On August 25, 1984, passing motorists reported seeing a body in the front yard of a vacant home at 2416 Old State Road 44 in Sanford. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Department responded and found a strange scene.

The badly beaten body of the young woman was posed in an unusual position: crouched on all fours. She wore only her panties. Her Navy uniform lay beside her, and her bra was found about a hundred yards away. The body was soon identified as Pamela Cahanes. Her military-issued purse was missing. According to the sheriff’s department, she had been brutally beaten about the face.

Because she had about $100 in her uniform, investigators didn’t believe robbery was the motive. “More than likely it was a sex assault that led to murder,” said Lt. George Hagood of the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department.

On the day of her murder, Pamela was seen at a local K-Mart. Receipts scattered beside her body confirmed the sighting. It was thought that she left the store with a man, possibly another serviceman. An article in the Orlando Sentinel reported that “investigators believe the man [she was seen with] may have been connected to the Naval Training Center...Recruits’ activities are so restricted they have no opportunity to meet outsiders.”

Pamela was from Stillwater, Minnesota. “She was a happy-go-lucky girl who loved life,” her mother, Alice Cahanes, said. “She was outgoing, wanted more for herself, and worked hard to get it.”

Who murdered the sailor? After two-and-a-half decades, could investigators obtain the records of all the men who were at the Orlando Navy Training Center in the summer of 1984 and check to see if any have records of violence toward women? Could the Navy place a billboard near the training center asking for information about the cold case? Although police have hinted that there was no semen left at the scene, could Pamela's clothes be retested for saliva or skin cells that may have been left by the killer?

The murderer of Pamela Cahanes has walked the streets long enough. He needs to meet the cold hands of justice.

If you have any information, contact 1-800-226-8477.

“Disorganized Wartime Living” Syndrome

Baby snatched from Ohio hospital
by Robert A. Waters

On July 8, 1945, it had been two months since Germany surrendered, ending the European phase of World War II. In the Pacific, American bombers were preparing to attack Tokyo for the first time. Two months later, after a rain of allied destruction that included the use of two atomic bombs, Japan would finally surrender.

But on the home front, an unspeakable crime turned attention away from the war for a few days.

On that Sunday, six-day-old Jean Eileen Creviston was stolen from her crib in the maternity ward of Marion City Hospital in Marion, Ohio. No one saw the kidnapper steal into the area reserved for nurses only. No one saw her take the baby and vanish without a trace.

Jean Eileen, as newspapers referred to the victim, was the daughter of Tech. Sgt. John L. Creviston and Helen Elizabeth Creviston, referred to as a “Marion Society matron.” Sergeant Creviston was stationed at Lockbourne Army Air Base near Columbus.

As soon as he learned of the abduction, Marion Police Chief William E. Marks launched a massive search for the child. Helicopters flew over a wooded area near the hospital while local police, aided by the state highway patrol, began questioning all hospital workers and residents in nearby neighborhoods.

Mrs. Creviston addressed the kidnapper directly. “Whoever took my baby,” she said, “be kind to her.”

A flurry of excitement was caused when someone discovered a baby diaper in a 400 acre field on the west side of town. Chief Marks recruited 42 boys on bicycles to search the field but they found nothing.

Sergeant Creviston quickly became the focus of the investigation. He was an Air Force gunner whose plane had been shot down over Germany. He was captured and remained in a prisoner-of-war camp until being liberated and returned to the United States.

After enduring hours of interrogation, he was eliminated from suspicion.

Then, on July 12, Chief Marks announced an arrest. Phyllis Ann Webster, 30, was taken into custody when someone reported that she was showing off a child who may not have been her own. After the baby’s footprints were compared with those of Jean Eileen Creviston and found to match, Webster broke down and admitted that she had feigned pregnancy for three months before snatching Jean. She told investigators that for a three-month period she "stuffed her clothing with cotton batting and bought baby clothes and a bassinet." Then she went to the hospital with the specific intention of taking a baby.

Her husband was also in the military. Stationed overseas at the time of the abduction, Sgt. Ernest Webster was quickly given an emergency furlough and flown back to Ohio.

It seemed to be an open-and-shut case. Then her attorney, Paul Michael, came up with an ingenious strategy. As the trial began in September, the lawyer argued that Mrs. Webster was not guilty by reason of insanity as the result of “disorganized wartime living.” With soldiers being stationed in bases away from home and sent to fight all over the world, he argued, many women on the home front lost control of their senses and did strange things--like abduct babies from hospitals.

Attorney Michael knew that juries have always been reluctant to convict pretty women of serious crimes. And Mrs. Webster was beautiful. Her husband, being a serviceman fighting for freedom overseas, was also viewed in a sympathetic light by the jury.

Sgt. Webster testified that he was partially to blame for the abduction because he’d made it clear to his wife that he didn’t want children. Even so, she’d gotten pregnant twice and had two miscarriages. The trauma caused by the miscarriages as well as his wife's knowledge that a baby was unwanted by the father, he said, may have contributed to her stealing the Creviston baby.

Sgt. Webster told the jury that now, after seeng how much his wife wanted kids, he'd changed his mind. While overseas, he testified, he’d seen other soldiers receive letters from their wives with photographs of their babies. This, along with Mrs. Webter's burning desire to have children, made him reconsider the matter. If his wife was acquitted, he implied, he would welcome children.

It also helped Mrs. Webster’s case when it became known that the victim’s mother stated that she didn’t want the defendant to be “punished any more than she had been.”

Much to the chagrin of the prosecutor, Mrs. Webster was acquitted. According to the jury, she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

A few days after the trial, Phyllis Ann Webster was released from custody.

Within two months, World War II was over. In the euphoria of victory, the case faded from the headlines and the abduction of little Jean Eileen Creviston became just a footnote in history.

Execution

When will Linda Raulerson’s killer be brought to justice?
by Robert A. Waters

It’s been exactly two-and-a-half years since Linda Raulerson, 56, was gunned down as a video camera recorded the execution. The Lake City, Florida convenience store clerk was closing for the night when she was murdered.

If there was any justice in this world, her killer would already have been caught, tried, convicted, and executed. But 912 days later, there have been no arrests, no trials, no convictions, and no executions--only that lingering vision of a different type of execution.

Within hours of Raulerson’s death, the few dollars snatched by her executioner were likely already up his nose. He may have already been bragging to other crack-heads about the clerk he offed. Within a short time, he would almost certainly have been preying on other innocents.

Meanwhile, a hard-working lady, well-loved by family and friends, lay in a cold morgue. She’d done absolutely nothing to deserve her execution--in fact, the video shows her complying with her killer. By all accounts, Linda Raulerson led an exemplary life as a wife, mother, and citizen of her community.

Her killer has walked free long enough. If you have any information about this case, you can call America’s Most Wanted at 1-800-274-6388 and remain anonymous.

Who Murdered Innocence?

Six months later, the killer of Norma Lopez still walks free
by Robert A. Waters

It’s been six months now since Norma Lopez vanished. The seventeen-year-old was walking home from Valley View High school in Moreno Valley, California when she was kidnapped. Some of her belongings were located in an open field just blocks from her home. Investigators told reporters that it looked as if a struggle had occurred.

Five days later, the decomposing body of Norma was found in a remote area about two miles from where she was abducted. She still wore her jeans but her top was missing.

Who killed the pretty teen?

While investigators continue to search for the murderer, it’s disturbing to note that fourteen registered sex offenders lived within a two-mile radius of Valley View High School. Within hours of the abduction, police were checking the alibis of these individuals. None have been charged.

Norma’s older sister, Elizabeth, spoke to the killer. “Just get the touch of heart and turn yourself in,” she said. “‘Cause you killed her when we want her here home. Just turn yourself in. That's all we want.”

While that’s unlikely, it is possible that someone knows who committed this heinous crime. If so, maybe he or she will grow a conscience and call police.

In the meantime, a family and community grieves while a killer is still at large to stalk other children.

If you have any information on this case, call the Moreno Valley Police Hotline at 877-242-4345.

Last Flight of the "Port of Brunswick"

Whatever happened to Paul Redfern?
by Robert A. Waters

Several websites chronicle the life and disappearance of aviator Paul Redfern. By 1927, the young pilot had already made a name for himself as the first person to fly solo across the Caribbean Sea.

According to EarlyAviators.com, “Redfern...weighed about 110 pounds, had barnstormed in 40 states and once busted 80 stills in a week as an airborne revenue agent. He had been jailed in Texas for buzzing a railroad car and in South Carolina for dropping a football dummy from 2,000 feet, which caused widespread fainting at an air show. Once he took the ‘world's smallest flying machine’ on a national advertising tour.”

So when the Brunswick Chamber of Commerce raised $25,000 so that Redfern could attempt to be the first to fly non-stop from Brunswick to Brazil, he named his plane "Port of Brunswick."

At the time, aviators all across the globe were setting records. The most famous was Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. Other pilots were looking for the next record. A successful flight from Georgia to South America would almost certainly have put Redfern in the super-star category of pilots.

The trip from Brusnwick to Rio covered 4,600 miles. According to CapnBilly's website, Clara M. McCall, writing for The Masonic News, stated: [Redfern] “apparently planned to steer southeast, at just about 135 degrees on the compass, pass Puerto Rico and Trinidad, and pick up the coast line of Brazil at its northeast corner. He was to drop a flare over the town of Macapa in Brazil, north of the Amazon, as he passed it the second night, and follow the coast line to Rio if all went well.”

At least one experienced pilot had warned him that the 48 hours he would spend making the flight was too much for one person. But Redfern was determined.

On August 25, the South Carolina native roared into the sky. He flew a six-seat Stinson Detroiter. The plane had been specially designed to hold extra fuel. Painted green and yellow, “Brunswick to Brazil” was stenciled in white across its sides. The plane flew over a shrimp boat near the Georgia coast, then veered toward the Carribean.

The last confirmed sighting of Redfern was at around 3:00 p.m. near the island of Trinidad. The Norwegian ship Christian Krohg was about 160 miles from Venezuela when a green and yellow plane suddenly appeared. It circled above the ship, then dropped a note in a carton. The note fell onto the surface of the ocean and was picked up by a crew member of the Christian Krohg. The note asked for directions to land and was signed by Paul Redfern.

The captain turned the bow of his ship toward Venezuela and used hand signals to direct the pilot. (The note was later sent to Redfern’s father who identified the handwriting as that of his son.)

An article from CapnBilly’s website stated that “Redfern lined his plane up with the direction of the ship, wagged the wings of the airplane in appreciation and began flying away toward Venezuela.”

After that sighting, Paul Redfern disappeared into the fog of history.

The following day, when he failed to arrive in Rio, a massive search was launched. There were the usual rumors of him having been sighted in various places, but none were confirmed. In one tale, it was said that a pilot had "fallen from the sky" and was being held captive by natives in the jungles of Guyana. The Smithsonian Institute sent a search party to investigate, but found no evidence of Redfern or his plane.

Although no one knows for sure what happened to the adventurer, the most likely scenario was that he crashed into the jungle north of Rio De Janeiro. At least one pilot, Jimmy Angel (discoverer of Angel Falls), stated that he'd flown over the wreckage of Redfern's plane many times. Each time, the plane had sunk deeper into the swamp until the only thing visible was "the sun's light on the cabin's glass," as Angel's widow described it.

An American engineer in Venezuela's Ciudad Bolivar plaza confirmed that he had seen a green and yellow plane flying low over the city. According to the engineer, the plane was trailing black smoke.

The evidence is that Paul Redfern nearly made it to Rio. Then his plane crashed into the jungle where it was eventually sucked into the quicksand. Paul Redfern likely died in the crash.

His body was never found.

Cold Case Playing Cards - Laurie L. Partridge

“She fell off the face of the earth”
by Robert A. Waters

Washington’s new cold case playing cards feature Laurie Partridge on the Ace of Diamonds. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed seventeen-year-old disappeared as she walked home from school on December 4, 1974.

At first, police thought she had run away. Had they aggressively pursued the case as an abduction, investigators may have quickly solved it. Laurie’s father had given her tickets to a Beach Boys concert. After she disappeared, several officers went to the concert to look for the missing girl. They didn’t see her, but later discovered that her ticket had been used. Did her kidnapper use the ticket? Someone did, and that person would have known what happened to Laurie.

At the time, Laurie wore a long navy blue coat, a tan sweater, and tan plaid pants. She carried a brown leather purse that had a blue flower design and a braided leather strap.

Detectives who once thought Laurie was a runaway now agree that she was kidnapped. A few suspects were questioned, including Ted Bundy, but no one has ever been charged.

It’s been 35 years since Laurie vanished. One investigator told a reporter that “it’s like she fell off the face of the earth.”

The mystery of what happened to Laurie Partridge is still solvable. If you have any information about this case, call the Spokane Sheriff’s Office at 509-477-4760.