Case Details

Photo URLs:

This person was missing Missing Since 01/09/1982

Missing Since:

Missing Since 01/09/1982

Missing From:

Missing From San Lorenzo, California

Classification:

Classification Endangered Missing

Gender:

Female

Race:

Race White

Date of Birth:

Date of Birth 05/30/1903 (121)

Age:

Age 78 years old

Height and Weight:

Height and Weight 5’5, 103 pounds

Clothing/Jewelry Description:

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. White hair, blue eyes. Gladys’s maiden name is Plemon. Her ears are pierced.

Details of Disappearance:

Gladys Conklin vanished from her San Lorenzo, California home on January 9, 1982. Her husband, Irving, said she had Alzheimer’s and sometimes wandered off, even using the BART train. He usually kept their gate locked, but fell asleep that day and forgot, finding Gladys gone when he woke up sometime between 1 and 3 pm. No one else had seen her for a day before she was reported missing.

Police investigating found the yard freshly tilled (Irving claimed it was regular gardening) and discovered Irving had recently withdrawn $20,000, which he said was for a nursing home. While some, including Irving’s son, suspected he’d killed Gladys, others believed he might have done it out of compassion to prevent her suffering from her worsening Alzheimer’s.

Gladys and Irving had a long marriage, running a goat farm in Oregon before moving to California. Gladys was a successful children’s librarian and author, writing 25 popular nature books. Irving died in 1988 without ever being charged, and Gladys’s disappearance remains a mystery.

Agency:

Alameda County Sheriff’s Department 510-667-3699

Source Links: