Case Details

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This person was missing Missing Since 06/01/1948

Missing Since:

Missing Since 06/01/1948

Missing From:

Missing From Denton, Texas

Classification:

Classification Endangered Missing

Gender:

Female

Race:

Race White

Date of Birth:

Date of Birth 01/15/1927 (98)

Age:

Age 21 years old

Height and Weight:

Height and Weight 5’3, 120 pounds

Clothing/Jewelry Description:

Clothing/Jewelry Description A white chambray dress with brown, red and green stripes and silver buttons down the front, red leather high-heeled platform shoes, a small white straw hat with a flipped-up brim and a feather in the back, and a gold Wittnauer watch. Carrying a red purse.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Carpenter’s nickname is Jimmie. Many agencies refer to her by her middle name, Virginia. She has an appendectomy scar on her abdomen and she limps due to a prior bone infection in her right hip. Carpenter was recovering from a severe case of sunburn at the time of her disappearance.

Details of Disappearance:

On June 1, 1948, a young woman named Carpenter vanished. She’d traveled by train from Texarkana to Denton, Texas, to start summer school at Texas State College for Women (now Texas Women’s University). She planned to become a lab technician.

That night, a cab driver dropped her off near her dorm. He said she then talked to two men by a yellow car before he left. She never checked into her dorm and was never seen again.

Police investigated several possibilities:

* **A runaway lover:** Some of Carpenter’s ex-boyfriends thought she might have eloped, but her family didn’t believe that.
* **The cab driver:** The cabbie, Jack Zachary, had a criminal record and a questionable alibi. Though he denied involvement and passed lie detector tests, his story changed over time, making him a suspect.
* **The Texarkana Phantom Killer:** Around the time Carpenter disappeared, a serial killer was active in her hometown. Carpenter knew some of the killer’s victims, but police found no connection between the cases.
* **A tip about a murder:** Years later, a tip suggested two men had killed Carpenter and buried her near the university. The suspects were already dead, and the tip led nowhere.

Many leads and possible sightings emerged over the years, but none panned out. Carpenter was declared legally dead in 1955. Her family, now represented by her cousins, still hopes for answers. The mystery of her disappearance remains unsolved.

Agency:

Denton County Sheriff’s Office 940-349-1600

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