Sharon Hensley was 24 years old when she disappeared after being last known to be in Key West, Florida around early February 1973. She was described as a white woman with brown hair and brown eyes, about 5'9" and roughly 125 pounds.
According to accounts summarized by investigators and missing-persons organizations, Sharon’s family last had contact with her in February 1973. Her relatives did not immediately realize anything was wrong and reportedly did not understand she was missing until more than a year later, and the case was not formally reported for decades—creating a painful gap of time in which leads, records, and memories could fade. A Louisiana-based missing persons repository has also noted she may have traveled through Louisiana en route to Florida, reflecting the uncertainty about her exact movements during that period.
The central known thread in the disappearance is Sharon’s relationship with her boyfriend, William Felix Vail Sr.. Vail told Sharon’s family that while they were in Key West, she chose to leave him and join an unidentified Australian couple who were sailing around the world. He claimed she burned her identification and said she wanted to become a different person, severing ties with everyone she previously knew. Over time, Vail’s story reportedly shifted, including inconsistent names for the couple he said she left with—an instability that has contributed to longstanding doubts and concern about what really happened. Sharon has never been heard from again.
Public reporting and later legal proceedings added a darker context around Vail, amplifying the worry that Sharon may have come to harm. Vail’s first wife, Mary Horton Vail, died in Louisiana in 1962; decades later, renewed scrutiny and courtroom testimony led to Vail’s conviction for Mary’s murder in 2016. In that case, a judge allowed evidence tied to the missing-person investigations of Sharon Hensley to be presented at trial—an acknowledgment that investigators saw potential relevance—while also noting that Vail has not been charged in Sharon’s disappearance.
Today, Sharon Hensley’s disappearance remains unresolved in the publicly available records: there has been no confirmed contact, no verified trail consistent with a voluntary new life, and no public confirmation of her being found. What survives is a brief, heartbreaking outline—last contact, a disputed account of her departure, and years of uncertainty for the people who loved her—alongside the hope that any overlooked record or witness memory could still help clarify what became of her.
Last Seen: Feb 01, 1973
