In the early morning hours of July 8, 1995, 48-year-old Stephanie C. Gibson was seen leaving Memories Bar, located in the 800 block of Main Street in Peoria, Illinois. She was not alone; she was in the company of a man named Arlie Ray Davis. The two were seen getting into his vehicle, a light blue 1979 Dodge Dart with the license plate number MMJ 296, and driving away at approximately 2:30 a.m.
Stephanie was wearing a distinctive outfit that night: a tight-fitting black blouse with diamond-shaped designs, black spandex pants, and black gym shoes. She also had on earrings. Stephanie had several distinguishing physical features, including pierced ears and a tattoo of a broken heart on her upper left arm. Her hair was described as graying brown, and she had green eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she resided in the 600 block of Voris Street in Peoria.
Following her departure from the bar with Davis, Stephanie Gibson was never heard from or seen again. Davis later claimed that he and Stephanie had gone to Kingston Mines after leaving Memories Bar, but investigators found no evidence to support his statement. The disappearance of Stephanie is one of several cases of missing women from the Peoria area, raising concerns about a potential connection between them. Other women who went missing from the same area include Loretta Tinkham and Cheryl Murray. The remains of another woman, Sheryl Murwin, who vanished from Peoria in 1994, were discovered and identified years later. Authorities have not definitively linked these cases, but the possibility that the women may have encountered the same individual has been considered.
The man Stephanie was last seen with, Arlie Ray Davis, had a violent history. In the early 1990s, reports from sex workers in the Peoria area indicated that Davis had a propensity for violence, including strangulation and beatings. Investigators noted that he reportedly had a sexual dysfunction and harbored feelings of inferiority towards women. In the late 1990s, Davis was convicted for the murder of another Illinois woman and was subsequently sentenced to death. Throughout his time on death row, he maintained his innocence in the disappearances of the other women. Arlie Ray Davis died of a heart attack in October 2002 while still incarcerated. Despite the passage of time and the death of the primary person of interest, the case of Stephanie Gibson remains an unresolved and deeply troubling mystery, leaving her family and community without answers.Last Seen: Jul 8, 1995
