The Chilling, Unsolved Disappearance of Virginia Carpenter

Virginia was a beautiful 21-year-old woman, known to friends for being happy-go-lucky and polite. She had recently enrolled at Texas State College for Women in Denton, where she planned to become a laboratory technician. She previously attended Texarkana Junior College and saved up money so she could pursue her dream of working in the sciences. However, Virginia would not be able to attend even one of her classes at Texas State College for Women. Something—or someone—stopped her in her tracks.

On June 1, 1948, Virginia left home in Texarkana, Texas and boarded a train to the Denton campus to begin her summer classes. Upon arriving, she hailed a taxi to her student housing at Brackenridge Hall. She got into a cab driven by driver Edgar Ray “Jack” Zachary. The driver said he arrived with Virginia in front of the hall around 9:30 P.M. When they pulled up, Zachary noted that two men in a convertible were parked out front and calling to her. According to the driver, Virginia called out to the boys, “Well, what y'all doing over here?” 

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Because one of her trunks had yet to arrive, Virginia paid Zachary a dollar to fetch the item from the train station the following morning. As for the luggage she had with her in the taxi, Virginia told Zachary that the two men would assist her. She said she knew the pair and talked with them for a bit as Zachary drove off. This was the last reported sighting of Virginia Carpenter; she never checked into her dormitory. The following morning, Zachary picked up and dropped off her trunk at Brackenridge Hall where it sat unopened at the front door. 

The identities of the two men remain a mystery to this day. The only information authorities possessed was a loose physical description of the two men provided by Zachary—one was tall, the other short and stocky—and their cream-colored car. 

Three days later, on June 4, Virginia's boyfriend Kenny Branham contacted Virginia's mother; he could not get ahold of the young woman. Virginia's mother contacted Texas State College for Women, and discovered that Virginia never checked in on campus. The following day, on June 5, Virginia's mother called Denton authorities to report her daughter missing. 

Police zeroed in on boyfriend Kenny Branham and the cab driver. Branham passed polygraph tests and insisted that Virginia would have no reason to run away. She didn’t have a lover coaxing her to run off, no jealous exes, no wishes to leave her life behind. Branham was also the first to report Virginia missing to her mother, making his involvement unlikely. According to both the boyfriend and Virginia's mother, Virginia was sincerely looking forward to starting her semester at Texas State College for Women. This led investigators to conclude that she had been taken. 

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Police then focused their attention on the cabby, the last person to see Virginia alive. In 1948, Zachary and his wife both claimed the driver was home by 10:00 P.M. and went back to Virginia's dorm the next day to drop off her trunk. In 1957, however, this story changed. Zachary's wife—now his ex-wife—told police that she had lied in 1948 when she claimed her then-husband came home that night. She said he actually did not return until 2:00 or 3:00 the following morning. 

Zachary was brought in for questioning throughout the investigation; he passed multiple polygraph tests and was never charged. In 1984, he passed away.  

In the weeks and months following Virginia's disappearance, numerous sightings of the young woman poured in from south Texas to Louisiana and Arkansas. One report from a ticket agent in DeQueen, Arkansas is particularly compelling. The agent claimed that on the night of Friday, June 11, a young woman disembarked a bus from Texarkana and found a seat in the bus terminal lobby. She matched Virginia's description. According to the agent, she also seemed nervous, as she paced about, chewed her lip, and inquired about local hotels. Ten minutes later, a man in his mid-twenties with light brown hair arrived, and the two vanished into the night. Not long after their departure, the agent received a phone call from a female caller. She wanted to know if Miss Virginia Carpenter happened to be at the station. 

The agent's sighting, as well as all other sightings, could not be confirmed. Soon, Carpenter's case grew cold. In 1955, she was legally declared dead.  

The case has had a few new leads and tips over the years. In 1998, police received a tip by a man in his 70s who claimed to know not only who killed Virginia, but also where her body was buried. He claimed two men had raped Carpenter and killed her, and then dumped her body in a dam at a stock tank. Police searched the alleged burial site, but found no remains. The sheriff also said the two suspects who were named by the informant had since passed away, meaning their names were never released to the public. 

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Still others speculate this case could have a connection to The Phantom Killer in Virginia's hometown of Texarkana. That killing spree took down five victims and happened a year prior to Virginia's disappearance. Intriguingly, Virginia knew three of the victims. Was she somehow connected to the killer? Did he track her down in Denton to do away with her? Sadly, we may never know the answer.

[via The Charley Project; Wikipedia ] 

Featured photo: Wikimedia Commons