THE VANISHING WOMEN OF IOWA IV

Chapter Four Nine Missing Women In January 1974, investigators from three jurisdictions met informally in a conference room at the Scott County Courthouse. No task force existed. No state-level investigation had been authorized. There was no official serial murder case. At least not yet. What sat before them was simply a growing collection of missing-person files. Nine women. Nine disappearances. Six years. No bodies. No arrests. No answers. The Victims Victim 1 Carol Ann Whitaker Age 31 Missing: June 14, 1968 Location: Cedar Rapids Last Seen: Leaving a private gathering with an unidentified woman. Status: Never located. Victim 2 Janice Marie Cooper Age 26 Missing: September 3, 1969 Location: Iowa City Last Seen: Witnesses reported seeing her enter a light-colored sedan. Status: Never located. Victim 3 Patricia Ann Keller Age 23 Missing: October 17, 1971 Location: Davenport Last Seen: Speaking with an unidentified woman outside The Lantern Room. Status: Never located. Victim 4 Linda Crawford Age 27 Missing: March 9, 1972 Location: Iowa City Last Seen: Departing with a woman identifying herself as Susan Mills. Status: Never located. Victim 5 Ellen Rasmussen Age 34 Missing: July 28, 1972 Location: Cedar Rapids Last Seen: Leaving a neighborhood tavern. Status: Never located. Victim 6 Donna Pierce Age 24 Missing: October 8, 1972 Location: Dubuque Last Seen: Entering a cream-colored Pontiac. Status: Never located. Victim 7 Rebecca Nolan Age 29 Missing: April 12, 1973 Location: Clinton Last Seen: Speaking with an unknown woman at a social gathering. Status: Never located. Victim 8 Susan Hart Age 22 Missing: September 17, 1973 Location: Bettendorf Last Seen: Walking toward a parked vehicle with a female companion. Status: Never located. Victim 9 Margaret Doyle Age 35 Missing: January 4, 1974 Location: Davenport Last Seen: Leaving a bar shortly after midnight. Status: Never located. The Map When investigators pinned the disappearances onto a state highway map, an unexpected pattern emerged. The locations formed a rough corridor running through eastern Iowa. Nearly every disappearance occurred within reasonable driving distance of Interstate 80 or U.S. Highway 61. The route suggested mobility. Organization. Familiarity with the region. Former Detective Becker later described the moment. "That's when things changed. We stopped looking at missing persons and started looking at a hunter." Victim Map (1974) The Woman Who Escaped For years, rumors circulated about a possible survivor. Most were dismissed. One account, however, remained remarkably consistent. The witness agreed to speak only after her death. Her taped interview was released by family members in 2007. For legal reasons, her identity remains withheld. Investigators refer to her simply as: Witness X Interview Archive H Witness X Recorded 1985 Q: Why didn't you come forward earlier? Witness X: Because I wasn't sure what happened. Q: Explain. Witness X: At first I thought I was embarrassed. Q: Embarrassed about what? Witness X: Following a stranger. According to Witness X, she met a woman at a private gathering near Cedar Rapids during the summer of 1973. The woman introduced herself as Karen. She was attractive. Confident. Exceptionally charming. The two spoke for nearly an hour. Eventually Karen suggested driving somewhere quieter. Witness X agreed. Interview Archive H (continued) Q: What happened next? Witness X: We drove. Q: Where? Witness X: I don't know. Q: Why not? Witness X: She kept turning onto gravel roads. Q: Did that concern you? Witness X: Eventually. The witness described passing isolated farmland before arriving near an abandoned quarry. The area was deserted. The woman parked. Conversation continued. Then something changed. Interview Archive H (continued) Q: What changed? Witness X: Her expression. Q: In what way? Witness X: It disappeared. Q: Explain. Witness X: She stopped pretending. Witness X described feeling an overwhelming sense of danger. No threat was made. No weapon appeared. Yet she became convinced something was wrong. She asked to leave. The woman reportedly stared at her for several seconds. Then smiled. Witness X: "She looked disappointed." The woman drove her back. The encounter ended. Nothing criminal occurred. At least nothing provable. Yet when Witness X later saw newspaper coverage of the disappearances, she became convinced she had met the same woman. Witness X Reenactment (1973) The Quarry Rumor The witness's story reignited one of the most persistent legends in the case. For decades, local residents claimed victims had been taken to abandoned quarries scattered throughout eastern Iowa. Police investigated multiple sites. Searches were conducted. Nothing was found. No remains. No belongings. No forensic evidence. The theory survives largely because of Witness X's account. Whether the quarry existed exactly as described remains uncertain. FBI Interest In February 1974, federal authorities quietly reviewed the disappearances. The case never reached the level required for a formal FBI task force. Nevertheless, agents examined the possibility that the suspect had crossed state lines. The review produced no suspect. No arrests. No significant breakthroughs. Yet one observation appeared repeatedly in internal notes: "Offender displays unusually high level of social intelligence." It would become one of the few points on which investigators consistently agreed. The Last Sighting On February 18, 1974, a waitress in Muscatine reported serving a woman matching descriptions associated with Diane Carter, Susan Mills, and Karen Blake. The woman was dining alone. A cream-colored Pontiac sat outside. The waitress remembered her because she paid with cash and left an unusually generous tip. The sighting was never confirmed. No photographs exist. If the report was accurate, it remains the final known appearance of the woman investigators would later call: The Pontiac Woman After that night, she simply vanished. No verified sightings have ever been confirmed. The Last Sighting (Winter 1974) End of Chapter Four Next Chapter: "The Disappearance of the Pontiac Woman" In the spring of 1974, the suspect vanishes as completely as her alleged victims. Investigators trace a maze of abandoned apartments, false identities, employment records, and dead-end leads, discovering that the woman may never have existed under any real name at all.