AZ AZ- Ann Caldwell, 18, Tucson, Pima County, March 13, 1956

[mst]

Did we have this article?

Sep 13, 1956, page 27 - Tucson Citizen at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Tucson Citizen dated Sep 13, 1956, page 27.

www.newspapers.com

 

[cenazoic]

You know what really bothers me about this whole thing?

You bring up really good points. While I can believe the truck drivers id’ed her correctly (she was very distinctive in appearance and height), and it seems (based on newspaper accounts) she made it at least as far as El Paso, there are lots of loose ends left dangling (Plainview TX sighting) and lack of hard statements of fact reported.

I also question the sorority party story, since I haven’t found any evidence she belonged to one - not in UofA yearbook, or the newspaper lists for fall ‘55/spring ‘56 (which happened in February) sorority rushes.

Always thought it was strange the papers didn’t seem to track down any friends/classmates to interview.

 

[Diavola]

While I can believe the truck drivers id’ed her correctly (she was very distinctive in appearance and height)

Also they spent more time close to her and talked with her compared to others.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Miss Caldwell was found as of March 30, 1957 and had been located by the Texas Rangers. In a telephone interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Frank Miller, a warrant officer with the Plainview Police Department, said that the girl had not been picked up yet. Obviously, she was found in Plainview, Texas since a Plainview PD officer was handling the case. She was no longer missing from that point on. Again, this can no longer be classified as a missing person case. Based on that newspaper article alone. Good job, Texas Rangers!

Maybe the Plainview Police Department has the answer:

1. To request a public copy of a police report, submit your request along with $5 $6 cash, check, or money order in person or by mail to the Plainview Police Department at:
108 W. Ninth St.
Plainview, TX 79072
For more information, please call the Police Department records office at (806) 296-1179.

Well, I took my own advice and had someone contact the Plainview Police Department for me. They stated they have no records about Ann Caldwell. But, they were close enough in their knowledge of the case to give a statement to the newspaper.

"We are just interested in letting her folks know where she is," he added. Quote is from the Arizona Daily Star 30 Mar 1957 news article on Websleuth's post #107

I guess the next records request by my friend will be to the Texas Rangers. Lubbock's Texas Rangers are 47 miles from Plainview, so that smaller division the clerk referred to is probably:

Ranger Service
1108 S Columbia St.
Plainview, TX 79072

They didn't say who the wrong skull, that they buried with Plainview Jane Doe 1982, belonged to.

Plainview Jane Doe 1982

Plainview Jane Doe 1982 - DNA Doe Project

Follow the DNA Doe Project case from Plainview, Texas. This case is currently in progress as our team of volunteers work the data.

dnadoeproject.org

 

[salamanderqueeftp]

Bump

 

[cenazoic]

contact the Plainview Police Department for me. They stated they have no records about Ann Caldwell

Oh dang, how I did I miss this?? Awesome job @Quoththeraven, and thanks for doing this. (I keep threatening to and not doing it, because I am a lame.) Okay, so they’re recommending contacting the local Ranger unit.

In re:

“We are just interested in letting her folks know where she is," he added. Quote is from the Arizona Daily Star 30 Mar 1957 ..” (from post #107)

I think I remain ambivalent about whether they had an actual contact/positive identification because she was still being compared to unidentified remains as late as 1959 (as far we know), which strongly implies to me that she was still listed somewhere as missing.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Oh dang, how I did I miss this?? Awesome job @Quoththeraven, and thanks for doing this. (I keep threatening to and not doing it, because I am a lame.) Okay, so they’re recommending contacting the local Ranger unit.

In re:

“We are just interested in letting her folks know where she is," he added. Quote is from the Arizona Daily Star 30 Mar 1957 ..” (from post #107)

I think I remain ambivalent about whether they had an actual contact/positive identification because she was still being compared to unidentified remains as late as 1959 (as far we know), which strongly implies to me that she was still listed somewhere as missing.

Ranger Service
1108 S Columbia St.
Plainview, TX 79072

I don't think the friend ever got around to contacting the Ranger Service about Ann Caldwell. Here's your chance...

 

[strangerthanfiction1200]

I don't believe she made it to the sorority meeting. If she ran away, it could possibly have been a cover story but I'm not sure about that yet. There were records of her buying a bus ticket to El Paso, TX or Albuquerque, NM. We are not sure as there are conflicting reports but I believe it was El Paso so yes we believe she was in Texas at some point. Ann was never heard from again after this.

How is the comparing of a Jane Doe a rehash? The Doe was found in November 1959, after the Plainview sighting! Also, this stuff happens. Take Susan Lund for example. She was reported on after her disappearance in the 90s and was reported on until about August 1993, saying she was alive (obviously she wasn't) and then crickets for a long time until she was identified as the Ina Jane Doe last year. This happens! I just don't want to leave her case without true confirmation that she is not missing.

Ann’s case is the one I return to most often, re-checking the online sources for any newly added newspapers, trying different search terms, etc. I’ve even gone so far as to build out a fairly extensive family tree, although for what reason, I’m not sure.

I do know she had relatives in Amarillo, which is where she was headed when she left El Paso. Whether she actually made it there is unclear.

I even started a list: books about Arizona, Tucson, New Mexico, or Texas mysteries that don’t mention Ann.

Slender threads to create or pull on:

- a map, using 1956 data, showing confirmed sightings

- table/ spreadsheet of known facts, and unconfirmed ones (the second girl a witness reported seeing her with near Alamagordo, NM)

- requesting any remaining case files (long shot) from the various LE jurisdictions

- find a copy of the 1955 Ocotillo, her senior yearbook (others are in Classmates). Just want to see if it gives any greater sense of who she was. I’m even willing to buy the dang thing, but I’ve only sen it offered for sale once (on Etsy) long after it sold.

- contact Radford School to see if a copy can be made, or if they have any other documentation relating to her disappearance. Unlikely, but it was a small class (and school) and its hard to believe the admin/students/alumna weren’t aware of it at the time.

- track down graduating classmates to see if they ever heard anything.

- find 1956 copies of the University of Arizona student newspaper (the Wildcat), to see if they mention her.

- she does have a ton of living cousins who may know somethings/heard a family story.

- additional newspaper research on Jane Does in New Mexico and Texas, otherwise unreported today.

Probably other stuff I’m not thinking of at the moment!

Try "unclaimed money". It was mentioned that she had a checking account, what happened to it? She knew Spanish, she could have gone to Mexico but not come back. What was she studying at the University? Did she graduate from High School in 1955? What were her interests? Do phone bills still exist. Did she really call her mother from Tucson? Any reporters still alive that would have notes? Hope this helps. Regarding SSN, I received mine when I was fourteen in New York. It was a family business, and rules were different in the 1980's in New York on who can get a card.

 

[strangerthanfiction1200]

In response to Cenazoic #166: Which police department has her as missing. Here is a list of towns mentioned.
l. Tucson, Arizona 2. El Paso, Texas 3. Las Cruces, New Mexico 4. Albuqueruque and Alamagordo New Mexico 5. Amarillo, Texas 6. Plainview, Texas 7. Colorado (a possible sighting a police report generated?) 8. Dallas, Texas (an uncle in area, a possible Jane Doe there?) What about her mother's side of the family any relatives in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado? Immediate family might not have mentioned Ann, but what about distant relatives? IMO- Ann could have been distant from Her father's side of the family but what about her mother side? Beside an Aunt.

 

[branmuffin]

The thing that cements it for me that Ann's disappearance was planned was the fact that she isn't mentioned at all in any obituaries. That suggests to me that they excised her from their lives. Most people who have missing relatives still refer to them in obituaries.

 

[strangerthanfiction1200]

The thing that cements it for me that Ann's disappearance was planned was the fact that she isn't mentioned at all in any obituaries. That suggests to me that they excised her from their lives. Most people who have missing relatives still refer to them in obituaries.

That is true, I have come across that in obituaries who have missing relatives or IMO make peace with the living before they die. My late brother did that before he died with me.

 

[cenazoic]

Try "unclaimed money". It was mentioned that she had a checking account, what happened to it?

Oh, that’s a good one! I always assumed it was a joint account with her parents but I’ll dig around on this. (I HAVE searched for probate records and any legal declarations of death to no avail.)

She graduated high school (as valedictorian) in 1955 from the Radford School in El Paso TX.

I’ve seen her referred to as a ‘liberal arts’ major in a newspaper article with a comment from the University of Arizona.

She played sports and piano, rode horses, and was involved in various clubs, (chorus/theater) in high school, but we otherwise don’t know a lot about her as a person. Her mother described her as ‘quite shy’. She won a radio trivia game the fall of 1955 and won (I think) $50. (On mobile so can’t attach clippings atm)

Her mother’s family (Speaks) were, from what I can tell from my very amateur Ancestry dabbling, old Arizona pioneers and had been there since at least the 1880s. Her mother had a brother and sister, both in AZ. Her father was from Arkansas but was in Arizona by the 1920s, because he had a relative with ranch there. In addition to his (half) brother in Dallas, there were other members of her father’s family in Amarillo,TX.

Also - the question about the call to her mother is a good one. She lived with her parents in Tucson. Where did she call from?

 

[cenazoic]

The thing that cements it for me that Ann's disappearance was planned was the fact that she isn't mentioned at all in any obituaries.

Do you have any theories on why she may have left?

I mean, she clearly ‘meant’ to leave, but without any real luggage and maybe as much as $100 (her father reported he thought she might have $50-100 on her).

We know she made it as far as El Paso (according to the police). There are then the unconfirmed but plausible sightings after that in Alamagordo, NM, and Plainview, TX. Both are on the bus route to Amarillo, and we know she bought a bus ticket there.

After that, it’s just dust in the wind.

Maybe if we could concoct a reasonable theory about why she left, that could point us to some new avenues to research.

 

[strangerthanfiction1200]

Do you have any theories on why she may have left?

I mean, she clearly ‘meant’ to leave, but without any real luggage and maybe as much as $100 (her father reported he thought she might have $50-100 on her).

We know she made it as far as El Paso (according to the police). There are then the unconfirmed but plausible sightings after that in Alamagordo, NM, and Plainview, TX. Both are on the bus route to Amarillo, and we know she bought a bus ticket there.

After that, it’s just dust in the wind.

Maybe if we could concoct a reasonable theory about why she left, that could point us to some new avenues to research.

I do not remember who wrote this, but maybe she was pregnant and went for an abortion. How about the opposite, she was pregnant and wanted the baby, but was sent to a convent or unwed mother's home and put the baby up for adoption? In the fifties, that was very common, (a reason for silence from family members). Also, 18 years old in the fifties was different from when I was 18 in the 1980's. In the fifties, girls were supposed to be more mature and adult like. Also, to get married and have children. Was there a nearby military base? Any horse farms in Amarillo? About shyness (I am shy around family), but very talkative around strangers. Try Newspapers.com (if you have a subscription) for articles when she was in school. Theatre and piano, (I do not know the area), but was there any carnivals, plays being put on, or what I learned from professional genealogists is to learn about the history of the area (El Paso). Any radio stations nearby? Sorry, this is long. I am still searching Ancestry, Familysearch.com, and Find a grave