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E267: Joan Gay Croft
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On April 9, 1947, a monstrous F5 tornado tore through Woodward, Oklahoma—obliterating homes, claiming over 100 lives, and leaving behind one of the most haunting mysteries in American history. Four-year-old Joan Gay Croft survived the storm, injured but alive—only to disappear from a hospital basement hours later, never to be seen again. Who took her? Why was she taken? And why has no trace ever been found? In this episode, we unravel the heartbreaking case of Joan Gay Croft and the theories that still haunt investigators and listeners alike. This is not just a story about a storm—it’s about what was lost in the chaos, and the enduring hope that the truth might still be found.
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Transcript
Childhood Fear and Historical Tornado
00:00:00
Speaker
Growing up, I was captivated and terrified by The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy's adventure began with the raw power of a tornado, an ominous twisting cloud tearing her world apart.
00:00:13
Speaker
I vividly recall being both entranced by the swirling sepia tone disaster and petrified it might appear in my own sky.
00:00:24
Speaker
Tornadoes represented a blend of wonder and horror, a devastating phenomenon that could rip your home away, your family, and your very sense of safety.
00:00:36
Speaker
As I grew older, this childhood fear evolved into a mature understanding. My terror was not merely imaginative. Tornadoes truly embody destruction in its purest form.
00:00:51
Speaker
And nowhere was this destructive power more apparent than in the terrifying aftermath of the 1947 Glazer Higgins Woodward tornado, one of the deadliest storms in American history.
00:01:06
Speaker
On the evening of April 9, 1947, a monstrous F5 tornado two miles wide with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour descended upon the small town of Woodward, Oklahoma, leaving unparalleled devastation in its wake.
00:01:27
Speaker
Over 100 lives were lost entire neighborhoods obliterated, and among the chaos, a mystery
Podcast Introduction and Guest Expert
00:01:36
Speaker
emerged. The disappearance of a four-year-old girl who somehow survived the tornado, only to vanish into the storm's chaotic aftermath.
00:01:48
Speaker
This is the haunting and unresolved mystery of Joan Gay Croft.
00:02:30
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:49
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases Podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
00:03:02
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. All right. This week, Sleuth Hounds, we have something a little special for you.
00:03:14
Speaker
We have a fellow teacher who is joining us in our recording this week, Kenley. We invited Kenley to be on the show because she recommended this case and because she is a fellow teacher who is not only crime obsessed, but who incorporates true crime cases and podcasts into her classroom and Let me just say, i would love to be in your classroom. I hope your students appreciate you.
00:03:44
Speaker
Most of them do. i have a few that are not too excited about true crime cases, but I still try to find things that might pique their interest. so Right.
00:03:57
Speaker
It's the struggle. Yeah, of every day. Everyday life is a teacher right there. Well, we wanted to have Kenley on the show to illustrate to her students that when you have a passion for something and you take steps to make your goals happen, they can.
00:04:14
Speaker
So welcome, Kenley. We are so happy to have you join us this
The Woodward Tornado's Path of Destruction
00:04:19
Speaker
week. Thank you. I'm so excited. And Kenley, I may have missed this. What um grade do you teach?
00:04:26
Speaker
I teach honors and on-level ninth grade English. Oh, that's what I was before I moved to the world of kindergarten. It's not really that different. I bet in some ways it really isn't.
00:04:40
Speaker
So, Kenley, what is it about this case that made you want us to cover it? So I knew that the date, it came up recently, April 9th.
00:04:54
Speaker
huh And it's just a case that I've always like kind of kept in the back of my mind. i had heard about it a while ago and I'm familiar with Woodward. I do not live in Woodward, but it's...
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:11
Speaker
been there before and i know the region and everything so it just really intrigued me that this happened yeah and i'm sure it just it becomes part of the place when something this big happens there Oh, yeah.
00:05:26
Speaker
The Glazer Higgins Woodward tornado was a catastrophic force of nature. I mean, I'm terrified of tornadoes in general. I would be terrified if I saw an F1 tornado.
00:05:41
Speaker
This was an F5. And do you know, Allison, that tornado alley, we may have talked about this, but tornado alley is shifting. It's terrifying. Terrifying.
00:05:51
Speaker
So, Kenley, it's going from you to us. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this particular tornado, this Glazer Higgins Woodward tornado, that is what it is now referred to. on April 9th, 1947, it traveled nearly 100 miles crossing Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, leaving a horrifying trail. Its power, you guys, was unimaginable.
00:06:20
Speaker
A relentless fury with winds, I read at least well over 200 miles per hour. One source that I read, and I can't fathom how this is possible, but one source I read said that it could have been closer to 400.
00:06:36
Speaker
No. Yes, 100. and no yes Yes, there were reports of people seeing a car try trying to drive down the road, and the wind was so strong that it wasn't going anywhere.
00:06:51
Speaker
And I feel like in 1947, they did not have the um emergency communications that we have today. They did not. and There was something else that hindered communication that you'll hear about here in just a second. But this tornado, it reduced towns like Glaser and Higgins in Texas to mere rubble, leaving more than 184 people dead and almost 1,000 injured.
00:07:16
Speaker
But the worst devastation occurred when this massive twister barreled through Woodward, Oklahoma. The storm began ominously with intense rainfall, turning streets into muddy rivers and compounding the residents' fear and confusion. There's a lake, and Kenley, maybe you can tell us how close this is. I think I read that it was just outside of Woodward.
00:07:41
Speaker
It's called Experimental Lake. I don't know what experiments they were doing there, but that's that's what it's called. And it was situated just outside of Woodward. But I read that as the tornado passed over it, the water in the lake dropped a foot because the tornado was sucking the water up in it.
00:08:01
Speaker
And something about the the soil or the mud in the area The water was red because of that mud. And so it sucked it up into the tornado, which was then what was pelting people. So it was like this red.
Survivor Stories and Heroic Actions
00:08:16
Speaker
it was like they're being pelted with blood. it sounds like a horror movie to me. This red. We have red clay. So I can only imagine yeah what that would be like. It's super annoying when it's blowing on you with our crazy winds anyway. And I can't even imagine 400 mile per hour wind with.
00:08:36
Speaker
The red clay that has now, you know, become mud. Right. Yeah. So that's what's pouring down on them. So yeah i mean you can imagine this scene. It is apocalyptic is is what comes to my mind.
00:08:51
Speaker
And it even, i read on some of the victims of this tornado, it made those with blonde hair, it made them look like complete strangers because this red water made their hair look reddish or even brown because of that muddy rain.
00:09:09
Speaker
The electric lines as this tornado passed through were snapping, plunging the entire town into darkness, which of course would heighten the panic and complicate rescue efforts later.
00:09:23
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There was a choice though by a worker at the power plant named Erwin Walker to throw the master switch of the power plant. and that I didn't even know that was a thing. I i didn't either. Apparently one man Can control the power to the town.
00:09:42
Speaker
I did not know that. Yeah. But he decided to throw the master switch. And that was a choice that actually they say in hindsight saved a lot of lives. Because if you think these power lines are snapping everywhere and there are live wires on the ground.
00:09:58
Speaker
So he he did throw that switch. And of course that plunged all the remaining residences into darkness as well. And with this tornado, they said it only lasted about five minutes to pass through the town.
00:10:17
Speaker
But I want you to think, I mean, we're teachers. Think about the last five minutes of class before spring break. Oh, yeah. Or the end of the year. And how slowly that passes. Girl, the end of the day.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yes. so you can imagine when a tornado is going through and it takes five minutes. That has to feel so long.
00:10:42
Speaker
and Yeah, like a lifetime. The tornado in that time, like I said ah a moment ago, it destroyed a hundred city blocks everywhere. And it this was buildings, homes, of course, lives torn apart by these violent winds.
00:10:58
Speaker
And is this Woodward? Because I'm like Allison and I'm going to the Wizard Oz. I'm trying really hard not to. Yeah. and But is this like a bigger town? No, I think I read at the time it had around 5,500 people.
00:11:12
Speaker
okay. So it's pretty small. But I had to share with you some of the survivors' accounts. that were shared on the website, historynet.com.
00:11:24
Speaker
These survivors were talking about cars being lifted and thrown blocks away, trees that were stripped of their bark. And I hate to even bring up an image that's as funny as this next thing with how devastating this tornado was.
00:11:40
Speaker
But these survivors were talking about even seeing chickens and That had their feathers stripped off um because of the winds. Yes. And structures. I mean, they just simply vanished. One account from survivor Paul Nelson, he survived...
00:12:01
Speaker
only because he had been riding back to his house on his bike as the rain was coming in. And he was like, what the heck is this red rain that is coming down?
00:12:14
Speaker
And so when he, and he was hit by hailstones in addition to this red rain. So he gets home and he's like, okay, I've got to get in the bathtub. So he gets in the bathtub.
00:12:25
Speaker
When the tornado comes through, the tornado ripped his house away, but his bathtub stayed in place because of the attached plumbing.
00:12:36
Speaker
So there he is just butt naked. Yes. Yes. No house around. No house around. Mm-hmm. Amid the destruction, obviously bizarre, tragic scenes were unfolding. One woman suffered severe burns because as the tornado ripped through her home, she got pinned against her oven, which was warm.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah. Her oven was on and she got pinned against So... burning her. i mean, the storm's violence, it was ruthless and indiscriminate. I mean, obviously storms don't care your financial status.
00:13:13
Speaker
That reminds me. So whenever we have any tornado warnings or watches, like a lot of us have sellers and one of my friends always texts me and she's like going in the hole yeah and case, you know, like your house collapses on top.
00:13:29
Speaker
Yep. And so, yep, every time she'll text us going in the hole, I'll let you know when I'm out. Yeah. my question is, let's say you have a cellar and you go down there and your house does collapse.
00:13:42
Speaker
How do people know you're under there? I guess they just assume that that's where you would go. if like Kenley said. But what if it was all the way covered and you couldn't even tell? I'm not sure what most people do, but like I have a cellar and even though it's not under my house, it's actually like next to my house. I would still let people know if I needed go.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. That is very Wizard of Oz because their storm cellar is outside the head outside the house. Yeah. Yeah. See, when I grew up and I really, i was terrified of tornadoes and I don't know about you, Kenley, but my favorite movie and Maggie's favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz.
00:14:26
Speaker
um But I would be so terrified that I grew up in a trailer. And so ah Our only course of action was to take a mattress into the bathroom and lay it over the bathtub because that's about as good as we could get.
00:14:42
Speaker
And so i would convince my mom to let me carry, i would stuff it into a garbage bag. I was just telling Maggie this story. I would stuff my favorite toys into a garbage bag. And if there were a tornado warning, I would just take that bag into the bathtub so it was ready.
00:15:00
Speaker
So I could save my favorite toys just in case. And by the way, this is a side note, but very important for those who experience tornadoes, the difference between a watch and a warning.
00:15:15
Speaker
The best illustration i have heard is with tacos. So yes yeah but yes, if it is a watch Then it's like, watch me because I have all the ingredients to make the tacos.
00:15:29
Speaker
I just haven't made it yet. But warning is like taco warning. ah Dinner is ready. You better get your butt down here and eat. So like tornado warning, it's coming.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah. that that one Yeah. I just, that was the best illustration. But regardless of all of this, this particular tornado, i mean, it was unimaginable, the amount of pain and despair that it caused.
00:15:55
Speaker
And the problem with it basically desecrating this entire town is that Woodward Hospital, so they did have a hospital in town, but it was so small. It 28 beds.
00:16:09
Speaker
well they were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in Woodward who were injured And Dr. Dewar, who was a physician at the hospital, recounted the night as utter chaos.
00:16:24
Speaker
Because remember, we have no power. They also had no water supply. So the water stopped. Here's medical staff struggling to treat all kinds of wounds, perform emergency surgery, and even just maintain basic sanitation.
00:16:43
Speaker
This reminds me of Pearl Harbor when the nurses have to put the... X on the forehead of the people that can't be saved because they're so overran. Oh, yeah. Yep. And that did happen.
00:16:54
Speaker
i mean, the the injuries, even ones that maybe on the surface... Well, these they're all horrific. One i read about was to an infant who was brought in with wood splinters so deeply embedded in its tiny body that it couldn't survive.
00:17:16
Speaker
Just so many little wood splinters. And I mean, that again, that's just a heartbreaking example of not just this tornado, but any tornado's merciless nature. Elsewhere in town, the popular pool hall, which some people were trying to, you know, wait out the storm in, was reduced to splinters.
00:17:34
Speaker
And adding to the surreal aftermath, as if the tornado itself coming through wasn't devastating enough, the following morning brought three inches of unexpected snow.
00:17:46
Speaker
Mm-mm. that blanketed Woodward's devastation in just this ghostly layer of white. So think about the contrast here. You've got the tornado's violence and then this calm white snow You know, the tornadoes raining down red mud. Yeah. And you have all this pure snow. Yep.
00:18:06
Speaker
And it's 100% Oklahoma's unpredictable weather. Yeah. We thought Kentucky was bad. Apparently Oklahoma's worse. ah We had snow the other morning. Oh my gosh.
00:18:18
Speaker
For like an hour and then it melted away and it was just a normal spring day after that. Wow. So this is not unheard of for you to hear this.
00:18:30
Speaker
No, this is like, we're all rolling our eyes like, yep, typical. Yeah.
The Croft Family Tragedy
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and of course, you know, that that snow complicated rescue efforts even further.
00:18:42
Speaker
ah And yeah again, you've got no power. Now it's cold. You've got snow. I mean, it was just ah disaster all around so I did read that because of the snow and of course the the devastation from the tornado that it was so bad that they actually had boy scouts local boy scouts who stepped in to deliver crucial messages between people in the devastated area well good for them
00:19:13
Speaker
That was always crazy to me, though, that they would just, like... Trust children? Yeah, send, like, Boy Scouts out for, like, even I heard of other cases where, like, they send them out for, like, recovery, you know, missions. And I'm like, we're just sending all these little Boy Scouts out. i here you Go find these dead people. Right? Ooh.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's bad. They did take... What's their oath that they take? Be prepared. Be prepared. steve Black scar. Okay. They were prepared then. they were prepared to help yes they were prepared for childhood trauma yeah i mean it's don't know why i'm laughing i'm laughing because it's a nervous laugh i should not be laughing at this but and hello but well you know it just it's like a sign of the time like it's the 1940s they're like here let's just send these boy scouts out yeah
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah, obviously, you know, again, we don't have power. We can't turn lights on. We can't. This isn't ah a time when we have cell phones to call people. So I just want you to kind of put yourself in the minds of these Woodward residents as they are trying to grasp the extent of their losses. They don't know if their family members are safe. They don't know exactly what they've lost, you know, and there are all these lives, of course, um that are now gone. And amidst this chaos, there's one family i want us to focus on.
00:20:41
Speaker
Because I said in the beginning that the case this week is about a little girl who survived the tornado, but then went missing. So i want us to focus on her family.
00:20:56
Speaker
So amidst this chaos, the Croft family home was demolished, which set the stage for the heartbreaking personal tragedy that we're going to talk about this week.
00:21:08
Speaker
And again, not knowing where your family members are, where they picked up by the tornado and dropped somewhere else. Are they buried in the rubble? Like Maggie said, are they stuck somewhere and we need to get them out.
00:21:22
Speaker
And all you're thinking about is finding your family, right? Because, and And your only way to do this, especially if your car is destroyed, I guess is to to walk to wherever they might be. Or ride a horse if you had a farm. If they didn't run away.
00:21:42
Speaker
In the Wizard of Oz, they let them run. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and who knows if they even, like, where do the animals go when something like that happens? Like, besides running away.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's why in The Wizard of Oz they let the horses go because that's probably their only chance of survival. Because otherwise, I mean, they're just trapped.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah. The Croft family, though, they were respected. They were well-known in Woodward. Hutchinson Olin Croft, who was known as Olin, who was the father of this family. He was a prosperous sheep rancher who provided comfortably for his family.
00:22:21
Speaker
Friends described him as hardworking, dedicated, deeply committed to his wife and his daughters. His wife, Cleta Maycroft, which is like the most nineteen forty name ever, was ever was equally admired for her warmth and her gentle nature. She actually worked as a telephone operator. Yes. So vital role, particularly in the 40s, you're still patching calls through.
00:22:49
Speaker
and I feel like if you were like a gossiper, that would be the ideal job for you. It would. You'd be like, did you know who Kinley called yesterday? Yeah. You get to hear all the news. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yes. Well, together, olin and Cleta, they created a nurturing home for their two beloved daughters. Geraldine, affectionately known as Jerry, was Cleta's daughter from a previous marriage.
00:23:13
Speaker
She was eight years old and she was lively, outgoing, protective of her younger sister. And then there was four-year-old Joan Gay Croft, who was the heart of the family.
00:23:27
Speaker
I feel like all these women you need to say that it is like,
00:23:32
Speaker
Joan Gay, Cleta May. They definitely went by first and second names. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Joan Gay, she was this strikingly beautiful child. She was known for her shy, gentle manner. She had these strawberry blonde curls.
00:23:50
Speaker
I just think of Shirley Temple here that framed this sweet, innocent face. And she had piercing blue eyes. She was super timid. She would hide behind her mom's skirts.
00:24:04
Speaker
And she spoke with a slight lisp, which is the cutest thing for these little kids. And people would say, what's your name? And she would say, Joan J. Cofft.
00:24:16
Speaker
That's people would say it. I know. And so that's, of course, how people remember her because it's one of those things I think I have grandchildren. And so when they say cute things, like one of mine calls the golf cart, the Tolf Tart.
00:24:31
Speaker
And so we're always like, what do you want to ride? And she's like, the Tolf. art And so I feel like with Joan Gay, they'd be like, what's your name? And you just know she would say Joan J. Cofft.
00:24:42
Speaker
She was, like I said, particularly attached to her mother. And she would, she was so shy. She would like tug at her mother's skirt and just kind of whisper, you know, what she wanted.
00:24:54
Speaker
And neighbors described Joan Gay as just the epitome of a happy child. Sweet, vulnerable, endearing. all of those wonderful adjectives.
00:25:06
Speaker
And family loved to come and visit the Crofts, including Aunt Ruth, who was Cleta's aunt. So she was Joan Gay and Jerry's great aunt. She lived just outside of Woodward, and so her visits were always eagerly anticipated by the Croft girls because I feel like in in the 40s especially your kind of extended family they might not live in the same town but generally they live pretty close geographically like I think of even when I grew up most of my family was all in that centralized location I could walk to both of my grandparents houses is that how it is in Oklahoma too Kenley I assume it is
00:25:52
Speaker
Yeah, and the smaller towns for sure it is on April 9th, 1947, which is the day of the tornado, Aunt Ruth had actually spent the day with the Groft family. She arrived mid-afternoon for a visit, and they just spent this typically...
00:26:11
Speaker
warm day outside telling stories laughing just spending time with family but as evening approached around 8 p.m aunt ruth was preparing to leave obviously when she did she was unaware that her goodbye that she gave to the family would be the last moment of normalcy For the Croft family. So what time did this tornado hit this town? It was just shortly after 8.
00:26:42
Speaker
So as Ruth is leaving. She steps outside. And she actually noticed. Remember I used the the adjective apocalyptic.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah. Earlier. Well Aunt Ruth and the family noticed that the sky was this you eerie shade of red and And it was just casting this strange kind of unsettling glow over the entire town. That's how she remembered It would have been like, please, Lord, protect my soul. Yes. Yeah. It was just this unusual color for the sky. And then she said, you know, it would normally be windy, but it was unnervingly silent. Yeah.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah. And so it was almost like, even though it was calm, when she stepped out, it's one of those moments where you you feel it.
00:27:39
Speaker
There's something off. It's the calm before the storm. Yes. Exactly. So the people in the house are the mom, dad, sisters, and Aunt Ruth. Yes. But Aunt Ruth is leaving to head back home. She lives just outside of Woodward.
00:27:55
Speaker
She goes out and into the the red beyond. Well, yes, she did. It wasn't raining or anything yet, though. Okay. This is just before.
00:28:06
Speaker
But like I said, she did say it it felt unnatural, almost like nature itself was holding its breath. So it's bad. That evening, I mentioned earlier that there was something else that hindered communication about this tornado. Yeah.
00:28:27
Speaker
There were already some complications in Woodward before the tornado even arrived. And that is that apparently in April 1947, there was a nationwide telephone operator strike.
00:28:45
Speaker
Because of this strike, those telephone operators... were not there to receive critical information from communities that had already been affected by this tornado that the tornado was coming. It's like the Titanic. They're just ignoring all the things. Yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
And it also meant that operators, because remember, Cleta Mae is an operator, telephone operator. So she wasn't even there. That's right. She was at home.
00:29:18
Speaker
rather than being at work. When the tornado, which again, they... There were no phone calls, nothing coming in, warning them that it was coming.
00:29:30
Speaker
When it violently hit Woodward, shortly after Aunt Ruth departed, just again, just after 8 p.m., the Croft family's home was instantly obliterated. The powerful winds tore apart their house, scattering its remains across the neighborhood, and tragically, Cleta May was crushed beneath a collapsing wall.
00:29:55
Speaker
And died immediately from severe injuries. And they're probably just, you know, hanging out, having a normal evening. Right. And then your house is smashed.
00:30:08
Speaker
Right. Yeah, because, okay, okay, this guy looks bad. You don't think, oh my gosh, ah devastation is headed this way in, you know, 15 minutes. Right.
00:30:22
Speaker
I know people say that the the tornado as it approaches sounds like a train whistle, but if you're like where the tornado touches down, you don't get the train whistle.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah. And it just makes me sad knowing that had the strike not been going on, number one, they would have been warned. And number two, Cleta Mae wouldn't have been there.
00:30:49
Speaker
And that's yeah that's really sad. Then father, Olencroft, he was gravely injured. And no matter what source I looked at, and I looked at a bunch of sources, I didn't read in any of them exactly what his injuries were, just that they were serious enough that...
00:31:10
Speaker
that he was transported to a hospital in Oklahoma City. So remember, they have the Woodward Hospital with the 28 beds.
00:31:22
Speaker
Well, in the Woodward Hospital, the beds were given, obviously, to the most injured. Those with lesser injuries were sent to the basement of the hospital, where they had like some makeshift cots,
00:31:38
Speaker
pulled up and they're there. So like, I guess as they have time to get to them, then the doctors would treat them, but the beds were given to the the serious injuries.
00:31:49
Speaker
So Olin was actually transported. He needs a bed. So they, they send him to Oklahoma city. There are more beds. They are more specialized medical care.
00:32:02
Speaker
And where are the girls? Well, they, The girls and Olin and Cleta's remains were actually discovered by a neighbor around 9.30 the evening of the tornado.
00:32:22
Speaker
So I guess Cleta Mae is crushed by the wall. Olin is... in such bad shape that he, he can't get up and, you know, try to look for and save his girls.
00:32:34
Speaker
And do they know that Cleta Mae has passed? They, i think, yes, because um Aunt Ruth is aware only hours later. So I think they found her pretty early.
00:32:48
Speaker
But were the girls aware, like while they're waiting to be rescued? oh No, they were not. um So the the girls and Olin and Cletus remains, they were discovered by the neighbor around 930 because the neighbors are out there.
00:33:04
Speaker
frantically looking for survivors. Like, we've got to get anybody who we can to the hospital for help. The girls were injured, but miraculously alive and not seriously injured. So Jerry had some cuts and bruises and obviously trauma from having just experienced this.
00:33:25
Speaker
Joan Gay, her injuries, witnesses would later dispute. It's... the entire gamut basically to describe Joan Gay's and ah injuries.
00:33:39
Speaker
Initially, i saw some reports that they were described as minor abrasions and cuts, but other reports mentioned a significant wooden splinter or stake added in her leg.
00:33:54
Speaker
And I mean, it was the the reports of her injuries. There's a huge difference between the descriptions. One of them said a a piece of wood embedded in her skin.
00:34:07
Speaker
Another source the wood went all the way through her leg. Some sources said it was the size of a pencil and other sources said that the wood was the size of a broom.
00:34:19
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Big difference. right I know. Yeah, I know. I guess we're talking about forties. And so, I'm just sharing all of the information with you because I don't know which one is correct.
00:34:34
Speaker
All of those were cited in it just depending on what source you looked at.
00:34:40
Speaker
So this neighbor who finds them quickly rushes them through the chaotic debris strewn streets in Woodward to the hospital. And when they get there,
00:34:52
Speaker
There's an unimaginable scene. It's like you were saying, Maggie, with the X's on the forehead. Well, the hospital, i mean, again, it in itself is severely damaged.
00:35:02
Speaker
It's overwhelmed beyond capacity. Staff is scrambling around frantically. They're actually working by candlelight to triage the movement.
The Disappearance of Joan Gay Croft
00:35:12
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And severely injured victim after a severely injured victim is flooding through the doors.
00:35:20
Speaker
Well, because also they shut the power off, right? Right. So they don't have any electricity to. They've got nothing. Yeah. So Dr. Dewar and the other medical professionals there, I can't imagine the horrors that they saw that night that were far beyond any a training that they could have had. Definitely had PTSD after this. Oh yeah.
00:35:42
Speaker
And I would have PTSD just seeing the next scene. The hospital was so overwhelmed with people coming in that bodies of the already deceased were just carried out and placed on the hospital lawn like a makeshift morgue.
00:36:00
Speaker
Oh, and then covered in snow after snowed. Yep. So due to the sheer number of critical injuries, hospital staff, they're forced to make heartbreaking decisions that i don't envy any anyone having to make. And they're having to prioritize and say, well, this person, we don't have the the tools that we need access to. We can't sanitize. This person's likely not going to survive.
00:36:27
Speaker
So we're not going to provide medical care. Let's go to this one. I can't imagine having to make those decisions, especially this is a small town.
00:36:38
Speaker
So, you know, these people. Yeah. They know who they're trying to help or who they have to let go. And imagine if that's, you know, if you have to say, okay well, I'm going to save this person who maybe I had a beef with and let my best friend go.
00:36:58
Speaker
ah just, the decisions, um, And like I said earlier, the patients with less critical injuries, including Joan Gay and her sister, Jerry, they were moved to the hospital basement. so Okay, so then that makes me feel like maybe Joan Gay did not have a piece of wood the size of a broom through her leg.
00:37:15
Speaker
Right. If they didn't think it was serious. Yeah. Yeah, enough for immediate action. So the girls, they're settling into the basement. Their injuries were noted. And again, like I said before...
00:37:28
Speaker
accounts vary dramatically regarding her condition, but initial accounts by hospital staff did suggest more minor wounds, like you just said, Maggie.
00:37:39
Speaker
But that inconsistency on the description of her wounds, it's going to come back up when we start talking about theories. So I did want to just, again, have you thinking about those discrepancies.
00:37:52
Speaker
In this overcrowded, dim basement, because again, all we have are candles, right? because the power's out. Jerry and Joan Gay, they clung to each other amid cries of pain, fear, echoing in the shadows. I'm sure there were cries of family members lost.
00:38:12
Speaker
I'm sure there were screams of pain. And here these two girls are, eight and four, without their dad and without their mom, sitting in the dark.
00:38:24
Speaker
And... Basements are already creepy as it is. And now your house has been, you know, blown over. You may have a, you know, pencil to broom sized piece of wood sticking out of your leg. Yeah.
00:38:40
Speaker
You don't know where your parents are and you're hanging out in a dark basement with a bunch of people who are also crying in pain. Yes. So traumatic. Traumatic.
00:38:52
Speaker
But little did they know, the ordeal was far from over, and the confusion surrounding Joan Gay's injuries, again, will become central to the mystery of her tragic disappearance.
00:39:04
Speaker
So let me go back to Aunt Ruth. Remember, Aunt Ruth was visiting earlier. After she left the Croft home that evening of April 9th, 1947, she herself got caught when she got back to her home on the outskirts of town in the storm's with fury, but she did survive unharmed.
00:39:24
Speaker
But she's thinking, oh my gosh, I have to go check on Olin and Cleta and the girls. So she's driven by this anxiety to find her family. She makes her way to Woodward Hospital to try to find them.
00:39:38
Speaker
And when she gets there, she finds Jerry and Joan Gay together in the basement. Oh, good. Yes. But there's not much that she can do right now because she's also still searching for other family members.
00:39:53
Speaker
So kind of just seeing that they're okay, they're alive, they're conscious, they have each other, their injuries while concerning don't look life-threatening.
00:40:05
Speaker
So that gives her this relief. And she thinks, okay, well, they're going to be safe here. She does not tell them that their mother, Cleta, had been killed by the storm.
00:40:16
Speaker
She just tells them, your father's hurt. They've taken him to the hospital. He's expected to make a full recovery. I think that was probably a wise decision on her behalf. Yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
She's thinking, ah let's just spare them from the pain of that knowledge ah that losing their mother would bring. ah Especially to a, well, four-year-old and eight-year-old. Yeah.
00:40:40
Speaker
So ah that was an act of kindness in my mind on her part. And there's already so much going on around them. Yes. And so...
00:40:52
Speaker
Newspapers are kind of trying to help reunite family members. They're trying to keep track of the dead, but also list who's still missing. they The newspaper actually accidentally reported incorrectly that both Olin and Cleta had perished in the tornado, though they did quickly fix that misinformation. But again, everything is chaotic. So it's easy to see how misinformation can spread. And, you know, I'm sure because they were so overwhelmed, I'm positive, they weren't taking note of, you know, who was coming in and, oh, these people are in the basement. These people are on, you know, in bed 10.
00:41:35
Speaker
I'm sure none of that was happening. So there's no record, I'm sure, of who was at The hospital and who wasn't. Yeah. And again, at this time, you're taking notes on paper.
00:41:49
Speaker
Yeah. And they did not expect the tornado. So they didn't expect, you know, having to take care of all of these seriously injured people. So they're probably, you know, just scrambling around trying to take care of the most urgent cases. And they're not really keeping track as well as they, you know,
00:42:10
Speaker
Could be. Yeah. I think you've got a great point, Kenley, because if I'm a nurse, I'm not going to be over here charting patients right and writing down what the doctor is doing. No. While the doctor operating on this one, I'm going to go try to stop the bleed over on this other patient.
00:42:27
Speaker
Yeah. So Aunt Ruth gets there. She sees that they're safe. And so she says, okay, now I have to try to go find my mom and my brother. So she's now looking for her own mother and brother.
00:42:41
Speaker
She does find them, but her mom is also severely injured. Yeah. She knows Woodward Hospital's full. She's just been there. So she makes the decision, Aunt Ruth does, to drive her mother to Moreland Hospital, which is about 10 miles away.
00:43:00
Speaker
And once she gets there, her mother's getting treatment. Aunt Ruth is just volunteering wherever she can. I know that they weren't keeping record of who was in and out of the hospital or, you know, like this is a minor that doesn't have a parent. Right.
00:43:16
Speaker
So were they just leaving Jerry and Joan Gay there until somebody could come back for them?
00:43:26
Speaker
Yes.
Theories on Joan's Disappearance
00:43:27
Speaker
Well, her plan was to return. Well, she was looking for her mom and brother. Obviously, if they were okay, they would go ahead and get Jerry and Joan Gay and take them home.
00:43:38
Speaker
But she finds her mom. Her mom needs immediate attention. So she decides to drive her to that other hospital as her mom is getting treatment. Aunt Ruth is just kind of volunteering, helping wherever she can.
00:43:53
Speaker
But even at that, the following day, Aunt Ruth returned to the Woodward Hospital because her plan was to get Jerry and Joan Gay, which again, she thought would be safe. They're in a hospital, right? So she's thinking, okay, they're going to be safe there.
00:44:11
Speaker
But when she got to the hospital, only Jerry was there, Joan Gay was gone.
00:44:30
Speaker
Aunt Ruth is panicked. She's frantically questioning staff, questioning Jerry what happened. According to Sister Jerry's recollection, sometime during the night or early morning,
00:44:46
Speaker
Two men in one report said khaki uniforms, another said khaki shirts with logos like where the front pocket would be, you know, kind of on the side, had approached the girls in the basement.
00:45:00
Speaker
And Jerry remembers the men saying that they were going to take Joan Gay to another hospital. And Joan, of course, she's four. She's scared. She's being carried away by these men.
00:45:12
Speaker
She reportedly cried out, I don't want to leave my sister. But here's, yeah, I know. and here's Jerry. i mean, she's kind of dazed. She's exhausted.
00:45:22
Speaker
She doesn't know. and she's also eight and they're grown up. Exactly. Yeah, I feel like an eight-year-old is, if an adult says, I'm here to take her to a hospital, like I'm here for her best interest, I don't think an eight-year-old is going to be like, really show me your credentials.
00:45:40
Speaker
Well, they would if they watched Dexter. I'm telling She doesn't press the issue, but she obviously remembers that these two men came.
00:45:52
Speaker
And actually, nurses at the hospital corroborated Jerry's account to some degree. One nurse recalled two men coming into the basement, claiming that they needed to get Joan Gates.
00:46:05
Speaker
And they were allowed to take her without much resistance. The nurse later admitted that she actually couldn't remember a whole lot of specific details. I'm sure she couldn't. She was on sensory overload.
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah, they're just all overwhelmed. So she doesn't remember what the men looked like, their names. If they presented to her any formal credentials, because in the chaos of the moment, I mean, their story was just accepted at face value.
00:46:36
Speaker
And so no one at the time viewed, if she were going to another hospital, viewed the transfer as suspicious because, again, given the conditions, no electricity, limited medical supplies, hundreds of patients crammed in, we only have 28 beds, moving patients who did need medical attention to other facilities actually seemed logical. And in fact,
00:46:59
Speaker
I read that a lot of the injured, including many children, were transported by both train and plane to other medical facilities.
00:47:10
Speaker
So these men coming in and saying, hey, we're going to take her someplace else for treatment. They're not questioning it. Right. And especially if she still has the injury ah her to her leg and she's just, you know, hanging out waiting for treatment. Right.
00:47:27
Speaker
yeah It would make sense to take her somewhere else. who Yeah. And again, like we said, they didn't have time to like, okay, hold on Let me take the pressure off of this person who's gushing blood to check your credentials and write down what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:45
Speaker
But tragically, it was this assumption that would lead to her disappearance and it being one of the most well-known unsolved mysteries, especially in that area of Oklahoma.
00:48:00
Speaker
There were several theories that emerged to explain what may have happened to four-year-old Joan Gay. The problem is each of the theories, it offers evidence.
00:48:14
Speaker
plausible motivation but it also has troubling gaps so I'll kind of go through what some of the theories were and there were lots of them and then I want to hear which one do you guys think is the most plausible are you ready yes yeah okay a particularly chilling theory links Joan's disappearance, and I had never even heard of this until I started doing research for this case, to organized child trafficking rings, which you don't think of in the 40s.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, that was a thing in 1947? Apparently. Okay, I guess there's always been horrible people in the world. You're right. So, yeah, this was no different. In the mid-20th century...
00:49:03
Speaker
Notorious figures like Georgia Tan and Ethel Nation operated illicit adoption networks. So they would abduct children under the guise of rescuing or relocating them.
00:49:19
Speaker
Georgia TAN operated the Tennessee Children's Home Society, which was later exposed for stealing hundreds of children, falsifying records, and then selling them to wealthy families nationwide. um So we're just stealing poor people's kids and selling yeah rich people?
00:49:39
Speaker
Yep. That's exactly what was happening. And Ethel Nation ran a similar, though less publicized, operation doing the same thing. So one theory is that in the chaos of disaster zones.
00:49:55
Speaker
Oh, these kids are like easy targets. We're just like to come up. yeah They're vulnerable. Right. Because ah think about if their parents are injured or gone. and here's Joan alone in a damaged hospital. She could have been a prime target.
00:50:11
Speaker
However, devil's advocate, skeptics out there, they point out that there's no direct evidence tying either Tan or Nation to Woodward, Oklahoma at the time.
00:50:22
Speaker
There's no paper trail that's ever been found clearly linking Jones' disappearance to some scheme like this one. And obviously without concrete evidence, this theory is disturbing, but it's just speculative.
00:50:36
Speaker
And didn't the two men ask for her like specifically? They did. That's exactly. Yes. I'm so glad that you brought that up because the big inconsistency with this theory is that in my research, just like Kenley said, and this was mentioned in, i would say yeah some of my sources, but not in all sources.
00:51:00
Speaker
But it is significant enough that if it did happen, it's it's very telling that when these men came to the Woodward Hospital, some sources say that they said they wanted to know the location of the, quote, Croft children, end quote.
00:51:19
Speaker
And in other accounts, specifically, like you said, Kinley, asked for Joan Croft. And that that's how these men knew where they were in the basement.
00:51:32
Speaker
And if that is the case, then it doesn't seem random because they were asked for by name. So they were a specific target. And I'm sure there were lots of children that didn't have adults there.
00:51:47
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Who they could have gotten more easily. Yeah. Yeah. Another disturbing possibility is that Joan was abducted by a sexual predator, because again, i know we don't like to think of this in the 1940s, but like you said, Maggie, there are bad people at all times and all places.
00:52:05
Speaker
So could there have been a sexual predator who exploited the overwhelmed conditions of the hospital? Because again, mass chaos, normal safeguards to protect children are not there.
00:52:17
Speaker
They could easily pose as officials or rescuers and face little resistance. Again, though, the problem is that despite extensive searches, no trace of Joan's body was ever found. So again, we have no evidence of an assault. There's no remains.
00:52:36
Speaker
Again, this theory is speculative. And we also have to go back to what you said, Kenley. If they were requested by name And here's why that sticks with me with this theory, because if we're going to believe this theory that there were a sexual predator, then it would have to be someone, if they're asking for them by name, or someones, since there were two who knew enough of Joan Gay to ask for her by name.
00:53:05
Speaker
But we know that these men weren't locals because this is a tiny town. And if they were local, then someone at the hospital would have recognized who they were.
00:53:16
Speaker
That's the problem kind of with that theory. Some have suggested that a family member or someone close to the Crofts may have orchestrated Joan's disappearance.
00:53:29
Speaker
They argued that family tensions or custody disputes or and some hidden motivations could have led someone to secretly remove Joan for personal reasons and Supporting this suspicion was the nurse's recollection that the two men had initially asked for the Croft children, plural, yet they only took Joan Gay. So you're questioning why would they only take one if both of them were available?
00:53:59
Speaker
Well, wouldn't maybe something to do with that is the fact that Joan is the daughter of...
00:54:10
Speaker
Olin and... Lita Mae. Whereas... Jerry... Wasn't Olin's. Right. So if you're thinking about who would have custody...
00:54:23
Speaker
of her Then who if we're thinking about, say, Cleta's family, which is kind of where the suspicion landed, then they wouldn't necessarily have to fight for custody of Jerry because right she's not Olin's biological daughter.
00:54:41
Speaker
But for Joan, they would. And so there's some suspicion there, but again, ah kind of feel like that's a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to bring it up because there are people out there who think that it's a possibility.
00:54:58
Speaker
Other potential explanations range from an opportunistic abduction, basically saying, you know, abducted because...
00:55:10
Speaker
was she abducted because ah Another family out there lost their child and they're just looking for a replacement.
00:55:22
Speaker
You know? So could could that be why she was taken? But again, if these men asked for the Croft children, i don't know. I feel like the men asking for her would have to know kind of who she is.
00:55:35
Speaker
And like, I think if this were the case... Then it would be somebody from out of town because you wouldn't want to take a child and have them assume a new identity in a small town.
00:55:50
Speaker
So how would they have known? Right. Right. How would they have known to ask for a specific kid? They wouldn't. They wouldn't. Some believed that maybe Joan was taken again, as the biological child of Olin Croft, to get ransom money because Olin was moderately wealthy, but no ransom requests were ever made.
00:56:15
Speaker
And so i guess a potential explanation for that, if that is the real theory, could be those initial newspaper reports. So they thought he's dead after they ah have already taken his daughter or I don't know, maybe maybe the plan was to take her, but Joan's injuries were actually fatal.
00:56:40
Speaker
And so then they're like, okay, well, we can't make a request because she's passed away. Still other theories are that
00:56:50
Speaker
ah maybe with the trauma of this event and the lack of oversight by the hospital, Maybe these men took her and maybe they were even...
00:57:04
Speaker
well-intentioned, right? Like maybe these really were men going to take her to another hospital, but her injuries, because when they checked for injuries, even if it were just a wood the size of a pencil, they didn't check for internal injuries.
00:57:22
Speaker
It could be the case that these men take Joan Gay, they're going to transport transport her, but she does have undetected internal injuries, right?
00:57:34
Speaker
And she passes away as they're transporting her. But maybe, i don't know. Again, we don't have written records. So maybe they're like, you know, I don't remember what her name was. What was her name?
00:57:48
Speaker
You know? I'm almost wondering, like, if it is along the lines of this theory. So these are reputable men. They're taking her to another location to receive treatment.
00:58:01
Speaker
But because records were so... non-existent, I guess. It's kind of like what you said. They're like, who is this girl? Where did we get her from? ah don't remember her name.
00:58:12
Speaker
And then it's like, almost like a combination of of the other theory. Like, she kind of goes to another family and she just assumes a new life. Or what if they, like, got her to a hospital and then she passed away because of internal injuries and those two men are gone.
00:58:32
Speaker
So they, like, yeah And I bet other hospitals are overwhelmed at this point, too, because they have flood people coming in. And there's no record of her name and maybe she's a Jane Doe. said jane doe um yeah I think that that is extremely likely. ah There were lots of bodies that were misidentified. They were buried without proper confirmation because you've got this mounting death toll.
00:58:59
Speaker
In fact, just in Woodward, there were three a small town, three unidentified children's bodies that that were recovered from the storm. After the storm, all were girls. One looked to be around 12.
00:59:13
Speaker
One was an infant around eight months old. And one was approximately four years old. So the right age to match Joan Gay. In fact, the funeral director, his name was Franklin Stecker.
00:59:26
Speaker
He initially suspected that though the four-year-old was Joan And so he reached out to Aunt Ruth and he said, hey, can you bring some of Joan's clothes?
00:59:37
Speaker
Like, we'll see if it's the same size. But when he saw ah Joan Gay's clothes, he said, no, those are too big. This four-year-old is really small. it it doesn't fit the young girl in the morgue.
00:59:49
Speaker
And Aunt Ruth was like, let me just see this child because I want to confirm that it's not her. Because in her head, she's thinking, okay, this could have been Joan. But...
01:00:01
Speaker
she She says, okay, when she sees the body, she says, nope, that's not her. But i want you to remember, too, this reddish mud, i mean, it is changing people's appearances. It could still be the case, that wishful thinking. Aunt Ruth is like, nope, that's not her, and it really was.
01:00:26
Speaker
Yeah, her hair could be, you know, Brownish red. Mm-hmm. And not blonde. Mm-hmm. Right now. Or like I said, she could be a Jane Doe in a neighboring city because maybe she was transported to another hospital and died and they had no record of who she was. Mm-hmm.
01:00:45
Speaker
And it makes me so sad, these three children, because we still don't know who they are, where they came from. i mean, this is, we talk, you know, we're all teachers, the power of teachers.
01:00:57
Speaker
The teachers from the surrounding communities actually came to this funeral home with their yearbooks to try to identify 12-year-old.
01:01:10
Speaker
And they weren't able to. So their suspicion is that these children were children of transient families who maybe didn't have the money too and this is so sad to think about, but I understand if you're one of these transient families and you don't have the funds to pay for a funeral, if your child is unidentified, they would get a funeral.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah. or they could have possibly... died in the tornado as well. so Yeah. So ah some people, again, they're thinking with this chaos, let's go back to this theory where maybe these men were taking her to the hospital.
01:01:55
Speaker
Another theory along those lines is that something happened to all three of them on the way to the hospital, right? There could have been ah car accident. There could have been Anything like that to explain why she doesn't get anywhere. They could have drove off into that lake that I've never heard of before. Yeah.
01:02:17
Speaker
Experimental lake. Yeah. Yeah. um It could be that they pick her up. She passes away. They're like, I don't want this on my... you know, record or whatever. And so they dispose of her without taking her to a hospital.
01:02:34
Speaker
it could be, and this is the saddest, I think, of the potentials kind of going along these lines of if these two men did have good intentions and they, they were taking her somewhere.
01:02:46
Speaker
If they asked her for her name and she said, Joan J. Coughed, it could have been written down incorrectly. It could have been a clerical error.
01:02:59
Speaker
She could have survived even, and her name is written down incorrectly, so they can't reunite her with her family because we don't have that connection.
01:03:11
Speaker
And so now she's kind of going under a different name, and with no one to claim her, she was fostered or adopted by a different family because, let's be honest, at age four,
01:03:24
Speaker
You're not going to remember anything. you know, when you're 10, you're not going to be like, when I was four, i you know, did this and this. So it could be that she's still alive out there somewhere.
01:03:36
Speaker
I think that she was, went transferred to another hospital. They forgot who she was and she was adopted by another family. Well, Maggie, you like to always think of the positive.
01:03:49
Speaker
I know. I am curious. So again, or it could be something as simple as ah clerical error or somewhere her, because again, we're not taking great records during all of this.
01:04:04
Speaker
Her records are misplaced or destroyed, kind of what you guys were talking about. And now those two men are gone and we don't know her name at all. And so there's just, you know, no sign of her.
01:04:19
Speaker
And I feel like all of these theories, they leave us with a lot more questions than answers. But I feel like each one, except maybe the child trafficking rings or the sexual predators, if if she were asked for by name, have some sort of plausibility to them.
01:04:37
Speaker
So I'm curious which theory you guys find the most probable. When I first found this case, all of the theories to me sound like, yeah, that could be, you know, what happened.
01:04:56
Speaker
But my biggest hang up is besides the traffickers that adopt the kids out who go to places where a disaster has occurred and there is chaos, how did these men know that First of all, she survived the tornado.
01:05:16
Speaker
And then to go to Woodward Hospital to find her because people were being transported to all kinds of different hospitals. That's true. And why this specific kid?
01:05:28
Speaker
There would have been multiple kids. So why are we asking specifically for Joan Gay? And then when asking for her specifically,
01:05:39
Speaker
they I think in the beginning, Allison had said that like she was exceptionally beautiful. So have people been like watching her?
01:05:51
Speaker
But then again, you can't plan for a tornado to happen. And I feel like strangers, they're not going to come in If the girls are already in the basement, they're not going to be like, let's ask for this one because she has the worst injuries. i mean, they wouldn't even know that.
01:06:06
Speaker
My, here's what went through my head. What went through my head is, and again, maybe this is wishful thinking, is that Olin is in the hospital in Oklahoma City.
01:06:20
Speaker
I would think if Oklahoma City is less bombarded and more organized than the Woodward Hospital, and they're asking him information about surviving family members, and if they say, do you have any biological children,
01:06:37
Speaker
And he says, yes, I have one, Joan Gay Croft. They're back in Woodward. They have to be because they're not here.
01:06:48
Speaker
Then if these two men did come from the Oklahoma City Hospital, then they couldn't legally, I'm sure, also take Jerry. She's not Olin's biological daughter.
01:07:01
Speaker
But they could maybe transport Joan to him. But we weren't checking credentials, though. And I would think you would have to have parental consent, and he would remember giving that.
The Search for Joan Gay Croft's Identity
01:07:14
Speaker
yeah And I'm wondering if, like, he's had Jerry for a while. Yeah. So was their relationship that of a father and a daughter? Or was it, like, a step relationship where he's like,
01:07:30
Speaker
mr Croft, you know? so I don't know the answer to that question. i would like, I hope that they continued a relationship after all of this. Right. Because I'm wondering if they were close, then he would have been like, yeah, I have two daughters, Joan and Jerry. Right.
01:07:48
Speaker
And I do know, and but I don't know the reason, but I do know that in the coverage of Joan's case, That Olin, before he passed, was very involved in making public appearances and pleas for information.
01:08:09
Speaker
But that Jerry wasn't as involved. But I don't want to read into that too much because... So, Kinley, just so you know, we we usually try to, especially on modern cases, we reach out to family members um to try to get information from them about the cases that we cover. Because newspapers, just like with the the wooden splinter or pencil or broom, get things completely wrong.
01:08:40
Speaker
There are some family members who are like, yes, I want to keep this in the public spotlight. I'm going to be out there talking about it every single day. Others, it's so difficult because it's like feeling the pain over and over again every day that they say for my own well-being and the well-being of my children or my parents or whomever, they say,
01:09:06
Speaker
I support you covering the case, but I personally don't want to talk about it. So I don't want to read too much into the fact that she hasn't been involved in kind of the public. Well, I mean, I'm sure she had a lot of trauma and a lot of guilt and a lot of a lot of emotions that she had to process through. oh yeah.
01:09:28
Speaker
Well, even just survivor's guilt. Yeah. Right. And seeing the men, but not being able to, you know, give... much more information. I'm sure she holds a lot of guilt, even though she was only eight years old. Like, how much can you do in that situation?
01:09:47
Speaker
Well, I have a couple of other interesting things that happened in the years since. Joan Gaycroft's case actually remained in the public consciousness for decades. Her story was actually on Unsolved Mysteries,
01:10:04
Speaker
And it was that exposure on the television show Unsolved Mysteries that led to an influx of new leads pouring in. We're talking around 200 that law enforcement followed up on.
01:10:17
Speaker
Wow. And so they're thinking, okay, maybe one of these will turn into something. Well, a lot of the leads were ruled out quickly. They were cases of mistaken identity. They were dead ends. Children who bore a passing resemblance to Joan, but who had verifiable family histories who were not Joan Croft.
01:10:37
Speaker
People coming forward saying, well, i have this vague memory of something, but they can't substantiate it. But one lead stood out more than any other. It was a woman named Jean Smith.
01:10:51
Speaker
Jean had grown up feeling different from her family. She was haunted by this persistent sense that she just didn't belong. She even suspected, you guys, that her birth certificate had been forged.
01:11:08
Speaker
Something that my research told me law enforcement were able to confirm. oh wow. They said the footprints on the certificate were not hers. The baby pictures that her parents had shown her were not of her.
01:11:26
Speaker
So she had just this gut feeling that something isn't right. And she realizes, i don't look like anybody else in my family.
01:11:37
Speaker
Here's law enforcement saying, yep, your birth certificate, it's forged. It's not real. And even more strange were the flashbacks of That she would have.
01:11:48
Speaker
She was haunted by tornado imagery. and bloody scenes. And she would see places and people who she had never met in her life.
01:11:59
Speaker
And she couldn't explain why she was seeing these these people in these places. And Joan and Jean are very similar names. So if I was going to...
01:12:13
Speaker
Sort of kind of still a child. Yeah. And I would, ah you know, Joan and Jean, that's not too much of a difference for a little kid. yeah Yep.
01:12:24
Speaker
Well, Jean, she actually had no memories of her life before the age of six. So she actually underwent hypnosis to try to recall these images.
01:12:36
Speaker
And it was when she was an adult that she learned about Joan Gay's case from Unsolved Mysteries, and she felt this uncanny recognition. In fact, as reported in an article for The Oklahoman, she said, quote, it was just incredible. It was as if the writer had been in my head, showing everything just the way I would have remembered, end quote.
01:13:03
Speaker
Hmm. So like these flashbacks of tornadoes, all of that. Could we not have done familial DNA between? We're getting there. We're getting there.
01:13:14
Speaker
When investigators, they actually met with Jean and they found intriguing similarities. She bore a strong physical resemblance to what Joan Gay may have looked like as an adult.
01:13:28
Speaker
Even more compelling, Jean had scarring on her leg. similar to the wound that Joan was believed to have sustained that night.
01:13:39
Speaker
So it's in like the exact same spot that that wooden stake injury would have been. Jean actually met with surviving Croft family members and all of them left the meeting with the same conviction. This meeting was emotional.
01:13:57
Speaker
The family members felt this strange, powerful bond with Jean and And all of them were like, you know what? After all these years of uncertainty, I think we finally found Joan.
01:14:11
Speaker
Oh, I bet they were so hopeful. They were. i mean, Jean looked like Cleta to them. And she had the same blood type as Joan. She had a lisp, just like Joan had had.
01:14:24
Speaker
Plus, again, yes, those scars. Checking boxes. Yeah. yeah chick Tick, tick, tick, tick. For a time, like you said, Maggie, hope bloomed. They were like, this this is Joan. We're convinced. We...
01:14:37
Speaker
Feel it. This is her. So they're thinking, okay, we're finally going to get closure. But DNA tests were conducted in June, 1994. They were actually paid for by Unsolved Mysteries, but the results were heartbreaking.
01:14:53
Speaker
Gene Smith was not Joan Gaycroft. So despite all of that, science ruled out what they so desperately wanted to believe.
01:15:05
Speaker
But even in this case, so her birth certificate was forged. Yeah. The footprints weren't hers. So yeah now we have, well. Yeah. So who is this girl? is I know. smith I know. Yeah. We have mystery within a mystery. And maybe she was, you know, kidnapped by the child adoption ring.
01:15:26
Speaker
ah She definitely could have been. Then, years later, another bizarre lead surfaced. An editor at the Oklahoman, who was a previous editor at the Woodward County Journal newspaper, who he would write about the tornado and about Joan Croft every year on the anniversary, started receiving a series of cryptic emails from someone claiming to be Joan Gay Croft.
01:15:55
Speaker
The emails were vague, but they were filled with claims of survival. But they were very confusing. Like the first email, it arrived on April 12th, 1999.
01:16:05
Speaker
ninety ninety nine Remember, the tornado was April 9th. So just a few days after the anniversary. The email was addressed to editor Robert Lee, and it read, quote, Mr. Lee, I know that you have written many articles about the 1947 Woodward tornado and about the missing Joan Gaycroft.
01:16:24
Speaker
How would you like to write an article about what really happened to Joan Gay and where she has been this past 54 years? She has been and is living in Oklahoma City off and on since 1956 under a different name with the full knowledge of her father, Orland Croft.
01:16:47
Speaker
She even graduated from an Oklahoma City high school under her different name, end quote. Question. Yeah.
01:16:56
Speaker
Did this author of this email spell gay differently? Or I wonder if that was like a mistake through the, you know, like a change that's happened through the years.
01:17:11
Speaker
This is from Robert Lee. This article in News, Oklahoma. The article is called Where is Mystery Woman Connected to 1947 Woodward Tornado?
01:17:23
Speaker
And in it, it does spell gay both ways. So in in in what they have said, the email said, and this is Robert Lee saying, on April 12th, 1999, I received this email.
01:17:42
Speaker
I would imagine that he also would have... copied and pasted it yeah yeah it could be a typo on his part but that is a great question because gay is spelled in the first sentence g-a-y-e but in the second sentence is spelled g-a-y it does spell the father not as olin but as orlin so i don't know if that's a typo on robert lee's part but Or if it were a typo on the email writer's part. But that would be a good indication.
01:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, that would be a good indication that this probably is not really Joan Gay. Well, regardless, this newspaper editor, Lee, asked to meet. And the email writer responded, quote, we will arrange to meet in person to discuss the details.
01:18:33
Speaker
I propose we meet at Penn Square for the first meeting. I would like to meet in public, but not publicly. And without photos. So I guess in public, but not in a super crowded place. don't know. Please let me know a time and date convenient for you.
01:18:50
Speaker
I'm on the internet on most Monday, Wednesday, Fridays between 9 and 1030 AM. As to compensation, i would prefer none. End quote.
01:19:01
Speaker
Because remember, this is still back in the day when you're not on the internet 24 seven, like we are now. Right. So you would be like, I'm arranging when I'm on it. Well, he wrote back and he was like, okay, let's please meet.
01:19:14
Speaker
Here's a time when I can meet. And then he mentions that his own wife was a survivor of the Woodward tornado. oh To kind of make her maybe feel more comfortable meeting. Yep. But after that, no more emails. And soon the email address stopped receiving emails completely. Yeah.
01:19:34
Speaker
Oh. So whether that was a hoax, a troubled individual, or even a lost opportunity to finally solve the mystery remains unknown.
Ongoing Investigations and Public Involvement
01:19:44
Speaker
And my thought, which i'm I'm leaning more towards it's just a hoax, but yeah Joan Gay was so young when she was taken that maybe she grew up spelling her name differently like they didn't tell her that there wasn't an e on the end but then again that doesn't explain why it's spelled correctly and then misspelled right i don't even know what to think i just know what's so sad is like you guys said with the the forged birth certificate with all of these things i feel like there are so many mysteries wrapped up in this one case
01:20:32
Speaker
I definitely think the emails were a hoax. I think it was just somebody trying to get attention. as far as Joan Gay, I don't think that, I mean, I would love to say that we're going to figure it out, but just don't know that we ever will. There's just a lot of holes there.
01:20:52
Speaker
And going back to what if she did pass away at a different hospital and she is a Jane Doe, then don't we have the DNA to test that? Like, can they do that or but how does that work?
01:21:07
Speaker
They would have to exhume the body. Of the Jane Doe. if they Because I would imagine that they've long since been buried. Right. So it would it would involve exhuming. And really I think financial reasons are what prohibits a lot of testing being done. That, you know, we feel could answer a lot of these mysteries. Yeah, I feel like there would have to be a lot of like public and family push.
01:21:39
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Definitely. And I feel like there would have to be at least one where they said, okay, the likelihood of this being her warrants the cost of exhumation and testing. Like we know this kid was four.
01:21:54
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Joan Gaycroft would be 82 years old, turning 83 in October of this year, 2025. She would be a woman whose life experiences are lost to us, a sister, ah daughter, perhaps even a grandmother, if fate had been kinder.
01:22:17
Speaker
Identifying features from the time of her disappearance remain crucial. She had piercing blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. She was shy, clinging to her mother's side, noticeably speaking with a lisp.
01:22:30
Speaker
Following the tornado, she was believed to have a scar on her leg from the embedded wood. Her family has never given up hope. DNA from Joan's relatives has been entered into the combined DNA index system, CODIS, ready to match if Joan or her descendants ever come forward.
01:22:51
Speaker
Advances in forensic genealogy, have brought renewed optimism, giving modern investigators tools that didn't exist decades ago. Hope does persist that one day a DNA match or a tip will reveal what truly happened to the little girl swept away in the chaos of one of America's deadliest storms.
01:23:13
Speaker
If you have any information about the disappearance of Joan Gay Croft, even if it seems insignificant, please contact the Woodward Police Department at 580-254-8517.
01:23:27
Speaker
Sometimes it is the smallest recollection, the vaguest memory, that holds the key to solving a mystery. As we reflect on Joan Gay's story, it's impossible not to feel a deep sense of loss.
01:23:41
Speaker
In a world torn apart by the raw fury of nature, a small, shy girl vanished without a trace. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's tornado transported her to a magical world, one from which she could eventually find her way home.
01:23:57
Speaker
For Joan Gay Croft, the tornado carried her into a different kind of world, not one of magic and wonder, but one filled with loss, silence, and heartbreaking questions.
01:24:09
Speaker
Unlike Dorothy, Joan never found a road home laid out before her. Instead, it has to be up to all of us across decades and generations to continue that journey on her behalf.
01:24:25
Speaker
Her story reminds us that after the fiercest storms, the meaning of home isn't just a place. It's the people we refuse to forget. It's the people who keep searching and who still hold on to hope that one day the lost can be found.
01:24:42
Speaker
For Joan's sake, may we never stop looking. Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee in Cases Podcast, to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode.
01:24:54
Speaker
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01:25:05
Speaker
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01:25:17
Speaker
Stay safe. We'll see you next week.