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In this episode of Box in the Basement, we examine one of Texas’s most enduring cold cases: the mysterious disappearance of William and Margaret Patterson of El Paso in 1957.

The wealthy couple vanished without warning, leaving behind their home, business, finances, and even Margaret’s beloved cat. A strange phone call, a suspicious telegram, questionable letters, and decades of unanswered questions fueled theories ranging from voluntary disappearance to espionage, domestic violence, and murder.

Despite multiple investigations and alleged evidence surfacing years later, no definitive answers have ever been found. Nearly 70 years later, the fate of the Pattersons remains unknown.

Was this an elaborate escape? A crime covered up? Or something even darker?

We break down the timeline, key evidence, and leading theories—and invite listeners to decide for themselves.

🔗 Sources & Further Reading

• CBS4: El Paso Couple Vanishes
  
  
• KFOX: Vanished Investigation
  
  
• Mental Floss: Patterson Mystery
  
  
• Missing Wiki: Margaret Patterson
  
  
• Charley Project: William Patterson
  
  
• Find a Grave: William Patterson
  
  
• Find a Grave: Margaret Patterson
  
  
• ChipChick: Strange Disappearance
  
  
• Charley Ross Blog: Patterson Case

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• Donate to Project Cold Case

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In 1985, 11-year-old Angelica Gandera vanished while walking home from her grandmother’s house in Temple, Texas. Despite eyewitness accounts and multiple persons of interest, no trace of her has ever been found.

In 2025, 48-year-old Monica Sanford disappeared after leaving to go camping near Bridgeport, Texas. Her car, belongings, and beloved dog were left behind—raising immediate concerns of foul play.

We explore the timelines, witness statements, possible suspects, and investigative gaps in both cases, while honoring the families who continue to search for justice.

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On May 20, 1989, Kimberly Rachelle Norwood, a 12-year-old honor student, left a friend’s house in Hallsville, Texas and began the one-mile walk home. She never arrived.

In this episode, join Arlene and Leah as they examine Kimberly’s disappearance, the early assumption that she had “run away,” and how that narrative stalled the investigation at a critical moment. We break down the timeline of her final hours, the overlooked red flags, witness sightings, questionable investigative decisions, and the theories that still haunt her family more than three decades later.

Kimberly’s case remains unsolved — and her family is still waiting for answers.

If you have information, contact the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office at 903-935-4888.

🔗 SHOW NOTES & SOURCES

• Kimberly Rachelle Norwood: A 12-Year-Old Who Vanished in Hallsville
• Vanished: The Disappearance of Kimberly Rachelle Norwood
• 14 Years Later: Family Still Searching for Kimberly Norwood
• Cold Case Spotlight: Kimberly Norwood
• New Photo Released in Kimberly Norwood Cold Case
• Have You Seen Kim? Hallsville Girl Missing Since 1989
• 33 Years Later: Kimberly Norwood Still Missing
• Searching for Answers: 1989 Disappearance of Kimberly Norwood

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• Leon Laurales: Website & GoFundMe
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Part 3 of our Highway of Tears series examines some of the most infamous missing and murdered cases along Highways 16, 5, and 97 in British Columbia, from the 1990s to the present day.

We explore the disappearances of Delphine Nikal, Ramona Wilson, Roxanne Thiara, Alisha Germaine, Lana Derrick, Nicole Hoar, and Aielah Saric-Auger, tracing patterns of neglect, systemic racism, and missed investigative opportunities.

Join Arlene and Leah as they confront how geography, isolation, and indifference created a killing ground, and why justice remains elusive decades later.

Show Notes

A Lingering Evil: From Residential Schools to Murdered Women
Delphine Nikal: Disappeared While Hitchhiking on Highway 16
Ramona Wilson: A Teen’s Murder That Changed Canada’s Awareness
Roxanne Thiara Remembered, 31 Years Later
Alisha Germaine: Murdered at 14
Lana Derrick: Forestry Student Who Vanished in 1995
Nicole Hoar: Alberta Tree Planter Missing Since 2002
Aielah Saric-Auger: Murdered Along Highway 16
If She Was White, She Would Still Be Here
The Stories of the Victims of the Highway of Tears

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For more than five decades, a remote stretch of road in British Columbia has been the epicenter of one of Canada’s darkest crises. The Highway of Tears is home to dozens of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and families — many cases mishandled, ignored, or never fully investigated.

In this episode, Arlene and Leah uncover: The disappearance of the Jack Family, the tragic story of Alberta Williams, RCMP misconduct and systemic failures, & how racism, isolation, and lack of resources compounded a national tragedy. 

🔗 Show Notes: Sources & Further Reading

Stories of the Victims Behind Canada’s Highway of Tears
Cold Case Files: Highway of Tears – Prince George
A Mother Still Searching for Answers: Shelley’s 37-Year Mystery
History of Residential Schools in Canada
The Jack Family Disappearance: 35 Years Without Answers
Police Renew Search for the Missing Jack Family
Stranger Offering “Odd Jobs” May Be Key in Jack Family Case
“Smoke on the Asphalt”: An Indigenous Family’s Fight for Justice
CBC’s Missing & Murdered – Episode Transcript
The Unsolved Murder of Alberta Williams
Police Abuse Allegations in Prince George RCMP
Province Orders Investigation Into RCMP Misconduct
Archived News Report: Early Clues & Coverage
Supreme Court Case: Landmark Decision Tied to Investigation
SCC News Note: Updates Related to the Case
Convicted Murderer of Two Indigenous Women Denied Parole

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The Highway of Tears is ground zero in one of Canada’s darkest ongoing tragedies. For more than 50 years, dozens of people – mostly Indigenous women and girls – have been murdered or gone missing along Highway 16 and its connecting routes in northern British Columbia. Despite RCMP task forces and national attention, these cases have been plagued by racism, mismanagement, jurisdictional confusion, and a chronic lack of funding and manpower.

In this episode of Box in the Basement, Arlene and Leah open the first boxes from the early years of the Highway of Tears – the late 1960s through the 1970s. They explore how a remote stretch of road with no public transit, limited cell coverage, deep poverty, and systemic indifference became a hunting ground for serial predators and a graveyard of unanswered questions.

Show Notes: 

Finding Closure Fifty Years After a Murder
Gloria Lee Levina Moody (1969): A Case Never Truly Closed
Micheline Paré: A Young Hitchhiker’s Unsolved Murder
A Case Never Opened: Tracey Clifton
Listening to Indigenous Women’s Stories
A Teen Disappears Months After Giving Birth: Helen Claire Frost (1970)
Searching for a Birth Mother Missing Since 1970
The Mysterious Disappearance of Helen Claire Frost
Jean Virginia Sampare: Vanished at 18 Along Highway 16
MMIW Profile: Jean Virginia Sampare
The Teen Who Vanished While Pregnant with Twins: Velma Marie Duncan (1972)
“Highway of Tears” Murder Solved With Improbable DNA Sample
Oldest DNA Match in Interpol History Links U.S. Serial Killer to Highway of Tears Victim
In Memory – Official Highway of Tears Victims
The Road That Swallows Souls: Investigating the Highway of Tears

Support Box in the Basement & Our Causes

• Leon Laurales: Website & GoFundMe
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Two Indigenous women—Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton—were both found dead at the home of a former Alaska mayor. Both had dated his sons. Both suffered violence. And yet, no one has ever been charged. Join Box in the Basement as Arlene and Leah uncover the disturbing failures, corruption, and silence surrounding two deaths that demand answers.

🔗 Show Notes – The Deaths of Jennifer Kirk & Sue Sue Norton in Kotzebue, Alaska

1. Alaska State Troopers Seek Public’s Help in 2020 Killing of Kotzebue Woman
   
   
2. Police Refuse to Reopen Case of Woman Found Dead on Former Mayor’s Property
   
   
3. Kotzebue Women’s Deaths at Former Mayor’s Home Did Not Get Thorough Investigations
   
   
4. Daily Mail: Two Indigenous Women Found Dead at Alaska Mayor’s Home
   
   
5. Families in Northwest Alaska Still Seek Answers on Unsolved Deaths and Suicides
   
   
6. ProPublica: Two Women Died on Alaska Mayor’s Property—No One Was Ever Charged
   
   
7. KTOO: Investigative Report Highlights Failures in Kotzebue Death Investigations
   
   
8. Alaska Public Media: State Charges 41-Year-Old in Death of Kotzebue Girl

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In this episode, Arlene and Leah uncover the tragic cases of Senovia Medina, a young mother who fled civil war in El Salvador only to vanish in Houston in 2006 — her boyfriend later convicted of her murder, though her body was never found — and Cecilia Huerta Gallegos, a San Antonio nurse and mother of four who told her sister, “If anything happens to me, look at my husband,” before disappearing in 2019.

 Join us as we trace the evidence, the contradictions, and the families’ tireless fight for answers in two Texas cases that remain shrouded in heartbreak and mystery.

Show Notes 

1. The Charley Project
2. Police Get Break in Case
3. Man Charged with Murder
4. Houston Police Search for Missing Pregnant Woman’s Body
5. Search Continues for Woman’s Remains
6. Houston Man Charged
7. Houston Police
8. Official HPD Statement
9. Houston Woman Vanishes

Cecilia Huerta Gallegos

1. Charley Project
2. San Antonio Police Arrest Husband
3.  Outrage After Husband’s Bond Changes
4. Search Continues
5. Husband Back in Jail
6. Search Underway 
7. Fight Caught on Surveillance Camera
8. Husband Charged
9. Family Still Searching

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• Leon Laurales: Website & GoFundMe
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 In this episode of Box in the Basement, Arlene and Leah uncover the chilling case of Vicki Lynn Nisbett, a Texas mother who vanished in 1991—without a body ever found. Her husband was convicted, released, and reconvicted in a legal saga that still divides Williamson County. Was justice truly served, or is the real story still buried in the evidence? 

🔗 Show Notes – The Disappearance of Vicki Lynn Nisbett

1. Missing Mother: The Disappearance of Vicki Nisbett in Williamson County
   
   
2. No Body, No Murder? Not Necessarily – Texas Case Study
   
   
3. The Charley Project: Case File for Vicki Lynn Nisbett
   
   
4. Appeal Filed After Reversal of Williamson County Murder Conviction
   
   
5. Court Overturns Flawed Murder Conviction in Williamson County
   
   
6. 2014 Murder Conviction for Vicki Nisbett’s Husband Reinstated
   
   
7. Central Texas Man Convicted of Killing His Wife Will Go Free
   
   
8. Attorney Claims State Delayed Release After Murder Conviction Reversal
   
   
9. Free to Kill: A Texas Murder Case Without a Body

Support Box in the Basement & Our Causes

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In 1987, 24-year-old Margaret Chauncy left her shift at St. Michael’s Hospital in Texarkana and asked a coworker to follow her home, fearing she was being stalked by a man in a black car. She pulled into her apartment complex in her red Pontiac Fiero—and vanished. Nearly 38 years later, Margaret’s case remains unsolved.

Two decades later, in 2007, 44-year-old Lisa Chandler spoke with her mother about her divorce and plans to see a doctor. The next day, her car sat in her driveway, her purse and ID were on the kitchen table, and her loyal dog guarded the yard—but Lisa was gone. Despite extensive searches, her trail ended five miles south of Wolfe City.

Join Arlene & Leah as they investigate. 

Show Notes – Margaret Jane Chauncy

1. The Disappearance of Margaret Jane Chauncy
2. FBI ViCAP: Margaret Jane Chauncy – Texarkana, Texas
3. Search for Missing Woman Yields Car in Lake
4. Texas Police Reignite Search in Decades-Old Missing Person Case
5. Vanished: Margaret Jane Chauncy
6. Help Police Solve This Cold Case
7. Doe Network Case File: Margaret Jane Chauncy
   
   

 Show Notes – Lisa Lee Chandler

1. The Disappearance of Lisa Lee Chandler
2. 11 Years Later: Texas Mother Still Missing
3. Without a Trace: The Lisa Lee Chandler Case
4. Sheriff’s Office Reopens Cold Case of Lisa Chandler
5. Cold Case: Wolfe City Woman’s Disappearance Still a Mystery
6. Video Feature: Cold Case – Lisa Lee Chandler
7. Disappeared Blog: Lisa Chandler
8. Hunt County Missing Persons – Lisa Chandler
9. New Appeal on 15th Anniversary of Lisa Chandler’s Disappearan

Support Box in the Basement & Our Causes

• Leon Laurales: Website & GoFundMe
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