OK OK - Joan Croft, 4, Woodward, 9 April 1947

[falkenberg3132]

Then a car would have been found... and bodies.

 

[Same Old Stella]

Probably a number of accidents in those 140 miles that night. If they had no ID on them, stolen license plates, stolen car or were so badly mangled or burned as to be unrecognizable, how would anyone know who they were? There is also the possibility that they brought her back and laid her among the deceased and she is the unidentified 4 year old. Stranger things have happpened and we have to be open to new ideas.

 

[falkenberg3132]

Oh i agree -- as I said, though, Joan Gaye has become more of a myth/legend than a post-war years midwestern pre-schooler. The real person has almost been lost twice :'(

 

[jlosu]

Having read about this in a few locations, I guess I'm surprised there are so few who believe what strikes me as the most likely explanation for all the facts/claims: Joan Gay was injured worse than initially believed and her removal witnessed by her sister was not the taking of a healthy child to an unknown location but rather the disposal of a dead body (or the earnest effort to save a dying child who would perish later). Yes, the sister's story doesn't perfectly line up with that, but she was a young child. Maybe someday it would be possible to recover DNA from the unidentified dead child who was initially deemed not to be Joan Gay despite similar age. It seems too many of Joan Gay's family have died for there to be much motivation from her camp for that kind of thing.

 

[strangerthanfiction1200]

Having read about this in a few locations, I guess I'm surprised there are so few who believe what strikes me as the most likely explanation for all the facts/claims: Joan Gay was injured worse than initially believed and her removal witnessed by her sister was not the taking of a healthy child to an unknown location but rather the disposal of a dead body (or the earnest effort to save a dying child who would perish later). Yes, the sister's story doesn't perfectly line up with that, but she was a young child. Maybe someday it would be possible to recover DNA from the unidentified dead child who was initially deemed not to be Joan Gay despite similar age. It seems too many of Joan Gay's family have died for there to be much motivation from her camp for that kind of thing.

Is there other living relatives? Cousins, etc. I agree with that she could have been injured severely, but internally. It was a stressful moment and only 2 years after WW2. We do not know the training they had back then. Today they call these patients, the walking wounded, not taken seriously because they cannot see internal injuries. My late sister was an operating room nurse.