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Disappearance of Virginia Carpenter

Virginia Carpenter
Mary Virginia Carpenter
Virginia Carpenter
Born Mary Virginia Carpenter
(1927-01-25)January 25, 1927
Texarkana, Texas, U.S.
Disappeared June 1, 1948 (aged 21)
Denton, Texas, U.S.
Status Missing for 68 years, 9 months and 18 days
Home town Texarkana, Arkansas, U.S.
Height 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Weight 120 lb (54 kg)
Parent(s)
  • Hazel E. Carpenter (mother)
  • Floyd Carpenter (father)
Relatives
  • Rudolph D. Carpenter (uncle)
  • E.C. Dodd (uncle)

Mary Virginia "Jimmie" Carpenter was a 21-year-old woman from Texarkana, Texas, who went missing in Denton, Texas, in the summer of 1948. Her disappearance remains unsolved. Carpenter was last seen by a taxi driver around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1, 1948. Numerous individuals have reported seeing her over the years, but none of these sightings have been confirmed. Her mother, Mrs. Hazel E. Carpenter (who became Mrs. Hazel Smith later in life), spent many years helping the police chase down rumors and leads. She eventually gave up hope, believing that her daughter was dead. Although she still wanted her daughter to be found even if she was deceased. In 1998, Denton police received an anonymous tip that she was buried at the campus she was supposed to attend, but it turned out fruitless. Countless man-hours and almost a quarter of a million dollars were spent on the investigation. The case is cold but remains open.

Speculation of Carpenter's disappearance was that The Phantom of Texarkana had gotten her since she knew three of the victims. The girl's mother convinced herself that Virginia was a victim of amnesia, not knowing who she was or where she was from, which prompted her to give the girl's life story for the second anniversary of her disappearance in the Denton Record-Chronicle; although the year before, she was convinced that her daughter was dead. Bones were found around Denton County in 1949, 1958 and 1960, but they were declared to not be Miss Carpenter. In 1985, Lewis C. Rigler, a Texas Ranger who was a lead investigator in the case, said that he was not surprised that what may have been the most famous missing person case in Texas was still drawing attention.

An only child, Virginia Carpenter was 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) tall, weighed 120 pounds (54 kg), and had dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a light white chambray dress with brown and green stripes (some descriptions include red stripes) and silver buttons down the front, a small white straw hat with the brim flipped up and a white feather stuck in the back, red leather platform high-heeled shoes, and a gold Wittnauer watch. Carpenter took with her a red purse, a black pasteboard hat box, and a brown steamer trunk with a matching cosmetics case. According to Mrs. Carpenter, her daughter left with no more than 15 or 20 dollars.


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