Over 42 years ago, on the early fall afternoon of Sept. 30, 1983, Joan Hall, a 17-year-old Warrenton High School senior, disappeared and was never seen again.
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43 years later, family seeks answers
Over 42 years ago, on the early fall afternoon of Sept. 30, 1983, Joan Hall, a 17-year-old Warrenton High School senior, disappeared and was never seen again.
To this day her family still remembers her, honors her, and holds hope that someday they will find her again.
Amanda Gilman is Joan Hall’s — “Joanie’s”— niece. She operates the “Finding Joanie Hall” Facebook page and on Tuesday, held a candlelight vigil with family members in remembrance of Joanie.
“There’s a lot of grief going with not knowing what happened to a family member,” Gilman said. “And then it completely changed my upbringing. I wasn’t allowed to go out and do things or walk places by myself.”
Gilman said her aunt’s disappearance had an even bigger impact on her grandparents, Joanie’s parents, both of whom have since passed.
“I can’t speak for them too much, because they’re deceased,” Gilman said. “But from the sounds of it, they were completely devastated. She was their youngest, so all of their other kids were basically grown; you know, I don’t think they ever recovered — I mean how can you?”
Joanie was the youngest of six children when she disappeared while walking on Main Street in Warrenton.
“So she was last seen around 2 o’clock at Warrenton Mini Mart,” Gilman said. “She was driven there by her friend Mike Moore and he was the last one to be seen with her. She was supposed to go help her aunt at Warrenton Grade School —- and she just never showed up.”
Two of Joanie’s siblings, Frank and Charlotte, have since passed away. But her older brother Chuck Hall remembers her fondly.
“She was a really good kid, straight and everything else,” Chuck Hall said. “I never believed she was going to run away or nothing, so I knew instantly something was very wrong. Yeah, she was a great kid.”
Chuck Hall said Joanie was a member of an Explorer post, which was sponsored by the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Department. The night before her disappearance, she was elected the post’s president.
Hall recalled the weeks that followed his sister’s disappearance and how he searched for her.
“I was home, and my sister came over and told me that she (Joanie) didn’t make it home from school. So I went on and talked to my parents and then went out looking for her,” Chuck Hall said. “There was a football game over in Warrenton that night, so I ended up going over there and checking it out too — didn’t see her there. Two weeks later I (had) looked everywhere — logging roads and everything — and never could find a clue.”
Detective Ryan Humphrey with the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Department is in charge of cold cases for the department. He said that while tips occasionally do come in on Joanie’s disappearance, they often do not contain actionable information.
“I would say every three to four months we typically get some kind of tip … and we follow up on those tips. To date, none of those tips have worked out,” Humphrey said. “There are some tips that are ongoing … (but) a lot of it is people remember stuff that’s already been reported in the past and followed up on.”
Humphrey said the fact that the case happened more than 40 years ago also presents challenges.
“People scatter across the country, and so now we have … people that we’d like to interview, but they’re in other states,” Humphrey said. “Before we would use resources for something like that, we would want to do a little more background (so) we’re not going to fly across the country on a wild goose chase.”
Humphrey said since he took over Joanie’s cold case in 2014, the department has received some tips that provided additional information, and there are avenues law enforcement is pursuing. But unless someone comes forward with critical information, solving the case is unlikely.
He said in only three cases during his 27-year career in law enforcement, has Humphrey seen a case solved by a deathbed confession.
“I’ve been in a couple of cases where you get somebody who, they get a terminal cancer diagnosis (and) want to get something off their chest,” Humphrey said. “Or just somebody else who maybe was a witness to a crime. And they just get to the point where they’re tired of keeping the secret after 40 years … Unfortunately, I think at this point, somebody’s going to have to come forward and tell us the truth.”
And Joanie’s siblings believe someone out there does know the truth of what happened to their sister — somebody who has not come forward yet but needs to.
Becky Hall is Joanie’s older sister.
“God was horrible … I think about it every day,” Becky Hall said. “It’s something you don’t forget … (it) crushed my heart.”
Becky Hall said she believes someone in the area knows something about Joanie’s disappearance.
“I say somebody knows something. It’s a small community. Somebody knows something,” Becky Hall said. She said Joanie’s disappearance made her a cautious mother.
“You asked my boys, (when they were) children. They would say I was overcautious as a parent,” Becky Hall said. “Because I remember my son says, ‘Mom, we’re not Joanie; we won’t disappear.’”
Chuck Hall said he hopes someone will come forward and give his family the closure that his parents and two siblings never got.
“I really would like that (to find Joanie some day). My mom and dad passed away 10 years later because of this. My dad died in July and my mom died in September of ’94,” Chuck Hall said. “Then my older sister died about 10 years ago, maybe 15 — I just hope because I know somebody knows something still … Get a conscience or something. Because I don’t wish this on nobody — it’s so hard.”
