In the late autumn of 1983, in Bossier City, Louisiana, a one-year-old girl named Rebecca Tompkins, affectionately known as Becky, vanished under deeply troubling circumstances. She was last seen with her mother, Desiree Tompkins, on November 20, 1983. Five days later, on November 25, Rebecca's father and Desiree's husband, Royal R. 'Dick' Tompkins Jr., reported both his wife and daughter missing from their home in the 3300 block of East Texas Street.
The report initiated a search that would soon take a grim turn, leaving a family shattered and a community with unanswered questions that persist to this day. The initial hope of their safe return was tragically extinguished, leading to a dark and complex investigation into their disappearances.
The case escalated significantly on December 3, 1983, when hunters discovered the nude body of Desiree Tompkins in a ditch on Rice Road near Greenwood, Louisiana. She had been fatally stabbed. There was no sign of young Rebecca at the scene, and she has not been seen or heard from since. The investigation quickly focused on Royal Tompkins Jr., who was arrested and charged with the first-degree murders of both his wife and his infant daughter. He subsequently confessed to the crimes, providing a chilling account of a domestic argument on the evening of November 20. According to his confession, he became enraged by Rebecca's crying, strangled the child, and then stabbed Desiree to death with a fishing knife when she tried to intervene. He claimed to have wrapped his daughter's body in a blanket, placed it in a garbage bag, and disposed of it in a dumpster.
In a dramatic reversal, Royal Tompkins Jr. later recanted his confession regarding his daughter's death. To avoid a possible death sentence, he pleaded guilty in March 1984 to two counts of second-degree murder and received two life sentences without the possibility of parole. However, in June of that same year, he changed his story, asserting that Rebecca was still alive. He claimed that Desiree had told him Rebecca 'wasn't ours anymore' and that he did not know her whereabouts. He stated that he only confessed to killing his daughter because the police did not believe his initial claims of ignorance. This recantation prompted a two-week search of a landfill in Caddo Parish for the infant's remains, but the search yielded no results. The case remains a haunting mystery; while the murder of Desiree Tompkins was legally resolved with her husband's conviction, the fate of her one-year-old daughter, Rebecca, has never been officially determined. Foul play is strongly suspected in her disappearance.Last Seen: Nov 25, 1983
