THE VANISHING WOMEN OF IOWA XI

Chapter Eleven

The Fourth Name

For nearly fifty years, investigators believed they understood the aliases.

Diane Carter.

Susan Mills.

Karen Blake.

Three names.

Three identities.

Three masks worn by the woman at the center of the mystery.

Then, in February 2022, archivist Rebecca Morgan made a discovery hidden in plain sight.

The document had been scanned years earlier.

Nobody paid attention to it.

Nobody recognized its significance.

Until now.

The Employment File

The document originated from a temporary staffing agency in Des Moines.

Dated November 1973.

The applicant's information appeared ordinary.

Female.

Age twenty-nine.

Single.

Previous clerical experience.

Excellent references.

Nothing remarkable.

Until investigators reached the signature line.

The name written there was unfamiliar.

Not Carter.

Not Mills.

Not Blake.

Instead it read:

Evelyn Shaw

At first, researchers assumed it was another dead end.

Another unrelated record.

Then they examined the handwriting.

Several forensic document analysts independently reached the same conclusion.

The signature closely resembled known samples attributed to Karen Blake.

Interview Archive AG

Rebecca Morgan

Q: What was your reaction?

Morgan: I thought it was a mistake.

Q: Why?

Morgan: Because we'd spent decades looking at three names.

Q: And suddenly there was a fourth.

Morgan: Exactly.

The forgotten employment record that introduced a fourth possible identity.

A Different Woman

Witnesses connected to the Evelyn Shaw file described someone subtly different from previous accounts.

Still intelligent.

Still charming.

Still difficult to remember clearly.

Yet there were differences.

Several coworkers recalled a woman who appeared exhausted.

Distracted.

Occasionally anxious.

Interview Archive AH

Former Coworker

Janet Keene

Q: Did Evelyn Shaw seem unusual?

Keene: She always looked like she was waiting.

Q: Waiting for what?

Keene: I don't know.

Q: Was she afraid?

Keene: Maybe.

For researchers, the testimony raised an intriguing possibility.

What if the Pontiac Woman herself believed the end was approaching?

The Storage Unit

The Evelyn Shaw trail led to Cedar Rapids.

There, investigators discovered records for a rented storage unit.

The lease lasted only four months.

November 1973 to March 1974.

The renter's name:

Evelyn Shaw

The contents had been auctioned decades earlier.

No inventory survived.

No purchaser could be identified.

Whatever the unit contained disappeared long ago.

The Auction Notice

One surviving newspaper advertisement offered a tantalizing clue.

It listed:

• Two suitcases

• Assorted clothing

• Books

• Personal papers

• One locked metal box

The box was never recovered.

Its contents remain unknown.

The contents of the storage unit vanished into private ownership after auction.

The Mechanic

Perhaps the most important witness connected to Evelyn Shaw was a retired mechanic named Earl Thompson.

In 1974, Thompson owned a small garage outside Davenport.

He claimed to have serviced a cream-colored Pontiac several weeks before the suspect vanished.

Interview Archive AI

Earl Thompson

Recorded 1995

Q: Why do you remember the vehicle?

Thompson: The odometer.

Q: What about it?

Thompson: Too many miles.

Q: Explain.

Thompson: Somebody had been driving nonstop.

According to Thompson, the woman paying for repairs used the name Evelyn.

She appeared nervous.

In a hurry.

Eager to leave.

Earl Thompson's Garage (1974) - Reenactment Photography

Interview Archive AI (continued)

Q: Did she mention where she was going?

Thompson: No.

Q: Anything at all?

Thompson: One thing.

Q: What?

Thompson: She asked how long it would take to get to Colorado.

Colorado Motel Ledger (1974)

One of the last possible traces of the woman investigators spent decades trying to identify.

The statement immediately attracted attention.

Colorado had never previously appeared anywhere in the investigation.

The Colorado Theory

Researchers began reviewing records throughout Colorado.

Within months, several possible sightings surfaced.

Most proved unreliable.

One, however, remained intriguing.

A woman resembling the Pontiac Woman reportedly worked briefly at a motel near Grand Junction during late 1974.

The employee name recorded:

Evelyn Shaw

No photograph survives.

The Journalist's Final Theory

Among Michael Donovan's notes, investigators discovered a page dated only weeks before his death.

Across the top, he had written:

SHE DIDN'T VANISH ALONE

Below the heading appeared several names.

Most were crossed out.

One remained untouched.

A name never publicly released.

Authorities refused to reveal it.

Claiming disclosure could affect future investigative leads.

The decision sparked immediate controversy.

Some believe Donovan identified an accomplice before his death.

The Accomplice Question

The possibility of an accomplice changed everything.

If another person assisted the Pontiac Woman:

• The aliases become easier to explain.

• The disappearances become easier to coordinate.

• The disappearance in 1974 becomes easier to understand.

For decades, investigators focused on one woman.

Perhaps they should have been looking for two.

The Final Witness

In late 2022, a ninety-one-year-old nursing home resident contacted researchers.

His memory was fading.

His health declining.

Yet he insisted he possessed information.

According to his account, he encountered a woman resembling the Pontiac Woman at a Nebraska bus station in August 1974.

The woman was not alone.

A second woman accompanied her.

The pair purchased tickets.

Then disappeared.

Interview Archive AJ

Q: Did you hear their names?

Witness: No.

Q: Did anything stand out?

Witness: They looked relieved.

Q: Why?

Witness: Like people who'd finally escaped something.

The New Mystery

For fifty years, the question had been:

Who was the Pontiac Woman?

Now a second question emerged.

Who left with her?

The answer may have been buried in forgotten records.

Or lost forever.

But investigators were about to uncover one final piece of evidence.

A discovery hidden within the case from the very beginning.

A clue nobody had noticed.

Because nobody had thought to examine the victims themselves.

End of Chapter Eleven

Next Chapter:

"The Secret Connection"

A genealogist examining family histories discovers an astonishing overlap among several victims. The revelation could explain why these women were targeted—and may finally expose the true identity of the Pontiac Woman.