In the early evening hours of a Thursday in March of 1979, 23-year-old Arrilla Webb-Vaul said goodbye to her husband at the Eastgate Shopping Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. After he got out of the car to start his shift at a local K-Mart, Arrilla began her short drive home to Bossier Parish. A tire on her vehicle had been punctured, though it was not entirely flat.
She drove across the Jimmie Davis Bridge, traveling about 200 yards into Bossier Parish before pulling her car over onto the shoulder of the road. It was there that witnesses saw a white truck, driven by an unidentified white man, pull in behind her vehicle. This would be the last time anyone reported seeing Arrilla Webb-Vaul. Later that night, her husband found her car abandoned. Her personal belongings were still inside, but there was no trace of Arrilla.
Initially, investigators considered the possibility that Arrilla had left on her own. She had reportedly been experiencing some distress around the time of her disappearance. Just days before she vanished, she had written a letter to her mother with a peculiar request to be removed from her will. The letter also stated that if anything were to happen to her, her car should go to her mother instead of her husband. This detail gave some pause, but those who knew her could not believe she would willingly walk away from her life. She had moved to Louisiana after marrying in 1976 when her husband, an airman, was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base. Foul play was strongly suspected by her loved ones and eventually by law enforcement as the days turned into weeks with no word from her.
The case grew more complex and alarming just one month after Arrilla's disappearance when another young woman, 18-year-old Ladoisha 'Dodie' Gay, went missing from the very same Eastgate Shopping Center. Gay's car was also discovered abandoned with a punctured tire. Tragically, Gay's remains were found six weeks later under a bridge in rural DeSoto Parish. The similarities between the two cases led investigators to believe they were connected. A potential suspect was later identified in both cases: James Edward Wood, a former truck driver and suspected serial killer who had lived in the Shreveport area for many years. Wood was convicted of a murder in Idaho and was suspected in dozens of other crimes, but he was never charged in connection with Arrilla's disappearance or Dodie Gay's murder. He died in prison of natural causes in 2004. The disappearance of Arrilla Webb-Vaul remains an unresolved case, a haunting story that began with a disabled vehicle on the side of a Louisiana road and has left a family searching for answers for decades.Last Seen: Mar 15, 1979
