WY CARLENE BROWN: Missing from Rawlins, WY - 4 July 1974 - Age 19

The Doe Network:
Case File 2217DFWY

Brown, circa 1973

Carlene Brown
Missing since July 4, 1974 from Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming
Classification: Non family Abduction

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: January 14, 1955
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight: 5' to 5'3; 100-120 lbs
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female.
Dentals: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Brown was last seen with her friend Christy Gross, age 19, while visiting the Little Britches Rodeo in Rawlins, Wyoming on July 4, 1974. The skeletal remains of Christy Gross were found on October 27, 1983, three miles south of Sinclair, Wyoming. She had been killed by two heavy blows to the skull. There were four murders or disappearances of young women within a seven-week period in July and August 1974 in and around the town of Rawlins. Deborah Rae Meyer left a relatives home on August 4, 1974 to see a movie and was never seen again. Ten-year-old Jayleen Banker vanished while visiting the Carbon County Rodeo after being separated from a friend on August 23rd. Her body was later recovered in a field. Carlene and Deborah have never been located. The suspect in the 1981 Oklahoma abductions of Cinda Pallett and Charlotte Kinsey, and the 1984 abduction of Sharon Baldeagle was considered a possible suspect in the 1974 cases because he lived in the area and worked in fairs and carnivals like the ones being held at the time. But, no evidence has ever connected him to them.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Carbon County Sheriff's Office
Sheriff Jerry Colson
307-324-2776
Agency Case Number: 12921
NCIC Number: M028734844

Source Information:
Rawlins Daily Times - May 1973
Serial Killer Crime Index
"The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes" by Michael Newton, 2004.
NamUs MP #14488

Doe Network: International Center For Missing and Unidentified Persons

Doe Network is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to bringing awareness to missing persons and unidentified persons throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia.

www.doenetwork.org

edited by staff to media link

CARLENE BROWN has been missing from Rawlins, WY since 4 July 1974. There were other missing/murder cases in the area at the time!

Brown was last seen with her friend Christy Gross, age 19, while visiting the Little Britches Rodeo in Rawlins, Wyoming on July 4, 1974. The skeletal remains of Christy Gross were found on October 27, 1983, three miles south of Sinclair, Wyoming.

www.crimewatchers.net

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Thanks @Sunburst for the link:

More Than 50 Years Later, ‘Rawlins Rodeo Murders’ Of Young Girls Remain Unsolved

More than 50 years after four young girls vanished in what has become known as the “Rawlins Rodeo Murders," the case remains unsolved. "We lost our…

cowboystatedaily.com

More Than 50 Years Later, ‘Rawlins Rodeo Murders’ Of Young Girls Remain Unsolved​

It was the early 1970s and Rawlins was at the dawn of an energy boom. Oil and gas rigs studded the high-desert plains while Union Pacific trains hauled out coal around the clock.

The population swelled to nearly 11,500 — many of those people transitory workers drawn to southwest Wyoming by high-paying jobs.

New houses cropped up in the formerly empty fields around the county faster than downtown businesses could absorb the growth. It was a prosperous time.

Then girls started to vanish before anyone could figure out what was going on.

The first two disappeared on Fourth of July weekend in 1974.

They were 19-year-olds Carlene Brown and Christine “Christy” Gross, who had been visiting Rawlins from South Dakota.

The pair had gone to the Little Britches Rodeo at the Carbon County fairgrounds, and just vanished.

Neither was seen again.

Nine years later, Gross’ remains were discovered in a field 3 miles outside the neighboring town of Sinclair.

Brown has never been found.

The third was 15-year-old Deborah Meyer, who disappeared on her way to the movie theater downtown. Meyer had been visiting her aunt from Red Lodge, Montana. She was last seen leaving her aunt’s house near Seventh and Spruce streets downtown.

She told her family she was off to see a movie, but never made it to the theater.

Meyer also remains missing to this day.

Then the disappearance and death of 10-year-old Jaylene Banker at the Carbon County Fair in late August brought the community to a breaking point — the last in a string of losses that summer that the city has never fully recovered from.

The culprit behind the disappearances and murders has never been identified, despite decades of investigation by law enforcement in what is now colloquially known as the “Rawlins Rodeo Murders.”