Disappearance of Virginia Carpenter

Mary Virginia "Jimmie" Carpenter was a 21-year-old American missing person from Texarkana, Texas, who went missing in Denton in the summer of 1948. 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 (later Mrs. Hazel Smith), spent many years helping police chase down rumors and leads. She eventually gave up hope, believing that her daughter was dead, although she still wanted her body to be found. In 1998, Denton police received an anonymous tip that Carpenter 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 unsolved, but remains open.

Speculation of Carpenter's disappearance was that the serial killer responsible for the Texarkana Moonlight Murders had murdered her, since she knew three of the victims. The girl's mother convinced herself that Carpenter 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. Provided by Wikipedia