RI RI - Frank Hanson, 15, Cranston, 12 July 1947

[John/Jane Doe]

Frank Albin Hanson Jr. – The Charley Project

 

[Pennysmom1]

Cold Case - Warwick Beacon

Gloria Coppola never stops looking for connections that will answer questions. In this case it is the disappearance of Frank Hanson Jr., 16 who lived in Cranston and was soon to move to Warwick …

warwickonline.com

IN MEMORY OF FRANK HANSON JR.: Gloria Coppola who retired as a major crimes investigator from the New York State Police (NYSP) Bureau of Criminal Investigation has hopes of finding remains of Frank Hanson who was last seen on July 12, 1947. She sits on a bench she bought and is across from the grave stone of Frank’s parents at Pawtuxet Memorial Cemetery in Warwick. (Cranston Herald photos)

<<Coppola visited Rhode Island last week to stop at the Pawtuxet Memorial Cemetery where Frank’s parents, Frank and Anna, are buried. The granite headstone looks as new as if the burial had taken place last week. It had grayed and was etched by lichen when Coppola located it more than a year ago. She offered to clean it. Steve Douglas, superintendent and Myra Durfee, secretary, at the cemetery told her not to use chemicals. The cemetery took on the job restoring the stone to its original luster.

In his more than 30 years at the cemetery, Douglas said Coppola is the first person to request a head stone for a deceased person who was not part of her family and she had never known. Douglas said he has no contact information for members of the Hanson family.>>

Frank Albin Hanson Jr. – The Charley Project

• Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes. Frank has chicken pox scars on the left side of his face and on his forehead, as well as an appendectomy scar on his abdomen and a scar on the right side of his head.

Frank did not have any known problems with his parents and he was a good student, and he had never mentioned the possibility of running away from home. He frequently hitchhiked at the time of his disappearance, a fact he kept concealed from his parents, and it's possible he met a predator that way.​

Frank's parents have since died, but his sister and her children are alive and would like answers in his case. His disappearance remains unsolved. In 2023, a bench was placed in Pawtuxet Memorial Park in his honor, across from his parents' graves.