A woman's remains are found four days after she left her home to go to a store On a Saturday evening in Wichita, Kansas, September 8, 1979, 47-year-old Caucasian female Mary Crupper left her home around 5:00 p.m. to make a quick trip to the local grocery store. When she failed to return, her husband grew worried and reported her missing. The initial search for Mary yielded a significant clue: her white 1973 Ford station wagon was found abandoned near 10th and Cleveland.
A witness later came forward, stating they had seen a man parking the vehicle in that location around 10:00 p.m. on the night Mary disappeared.
For four long days, the community held its breath, hoping for Mary's safe return. Tragically, those hopes were shattered on September 12, 1979, when her body was discovered in a field in Wichita. An investigation determined that Mary had been strangled, and it was believed she was killed shortly after her abduction on the very night she went missing. Curiously, the clothing she was wearing when found was different from the outfit she had on when she left for the grocery store.
During the investigation, police received reports of a suspicious man who had been seen at the same grocery store where Mary was headed and was also reported to have been following women at a farmer's market on the day of her disappearance. This individual was described as being in his thirties, with brownish hair that was balding in the middle and combed back on the sides, and he wore dark-rimmed glasses. He was reportedly seen driving a brown 1972 or 1973 four-door Maverick with chrome trim. Despite these leads and descriptions of a person of interest, no arrests have ever been made in connection with Mary Crupper's murder. Her case remains an unsolved homicide with the Wichita Police Department, a lingering mystery that has left her family and the community without answers for decades.
