Women With Car Troubles Go Missing: The Cases of Robin Graham, Kelly Dae Wilson, Cindy Lee Mellin, and More
By: Shane Lambert
Robin Graham disappeared in the early hours of the morning on November 14th, 1970. She was driving home from her place of employment, Pier 1 at 5711 Hollywood Boulevard, when something went wrong with her vehicle (employment address as per a landing page for her at Ancestry.com). For those interested in tracing her route, I think she was traveling to 2227 Lemoyne Street in Los Angeles. Her disappearance is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it caused the LAPD to enact a change in policy. A police officer saw her in the minutes before she disappeared but he left her alone. After her disappearance, police officers were required to stay with stranded female motorists. Secondly, her disappearance and probable murder can be compared to other disappearances of women where some kind of vehicle mishap is part of the chain of events surrounding the disappearance.
Robin Ann Graham's details:
Last seen: About 2:30am on November 14th, 1970
Born: June 22nd, 1952 (18 years old at the time of disappearance)
Physical: white female, 66" (5'6") and 125 pounds, brown eyes and hair
Clothing/accessories: red blouse, blue jeans, dark-blue corduroy jacket, red-clog shoes, and leather purse
A California Highway Patrol officer was the last person to see Robin Graham on November 14th, 1970. She had been driving her boyfriend's vehicle when she apparently ran out of gas and stalled on U.S. Highway 101 southbound near the Santa Monica Boulevard offramp at about 2:00 am.
The officer stopped to see if she needed help, but Ms. Graham said that help was already coming. She had just called her parents to inform them of her situation.
Later, the officer noticed a white male, 25-26 years of age, 5'8" with dark hair, wearing bell-bottom trousers and a white turtle neck top talking to her. A 1958-1960 light blue Corvette hardtop was observed parked behind her vehicle at this time. The officer later assumed the man in the Corvette was the help she had called for. The next day, her parents searched for Robin and found her car, locked up and abandoned on the side of the freeway where she was last seen. She hasn't been heard from since.
The description of the man may or may not be entirely accurate with NamUS. The following (left margin below) is excerpted from the Nov. 19th, 1970 Valley News (Van Nuys, California) regarding the patrolman's description. It describes a "blond-haired man" instead of a dark-haired one. The range of dates for the Corvette is also a little off between the two sources (ie. NamUs is 1958 to 1960 while the article says '57 to '59). I found a 1960 light-blue corvette convertible picture and posted it below. When it comes to contradictions between NamUs and media source, there's no way to know who to show a preference for. Certainly, both the media and NamUs can be error-riddled.
The penultimate statement in the NamUs description above may be incorrect or confusing. According to the newspaper articles I read from 1970 her parents did not discover her car "The next day" but rather they discovered it at 2:30am, a half-hour after she was last seen. See the snipping below from The Capital Journal (December 12th, 1970/page 11).
The point to take away from the Ashe rape and murder, once again, is that the man that shows up to 'help' a woman with car trouble may have caused the car trouble himself.
Rose Tashman's unsolved murder has been mentioned in conjunction with the Robin Graham disappearance for decades. William J. Drummond, a writer, made comparisons between Graham and Tashman in The Los Angeles Times on November 18th, 1970.
In this case, it's not clear that Tashman's flat tire was caused by someone that wanted to help her. But that car trouble can precede the disappearance or murder of a young woman can't be overlooked. The criminals may simply be opportunists as opposed to carrying out a modus operandi involving vehicle sabotage. However, more examples could still be looked at.
Cindy Lee Mellin, also often mentioned in conjunction with Graham, was last seen in a mall parking lot in 1970 in Ventura, California. According to NamUs (#6849) "She was last seen standing next to her car in the shopping center parking lot while an unidentified male changed her tire. When she failed to return home that night, her father went to the shopping center looking for her and found her car still up on a jack with the flat tire still attached." That description certainly leaves much to the imagination. But it's not a stretcher to assume that the man that pretended to want to help her actually had more sinister motives in mind.
Note that Michael Biby, who went to high school with Wilson, served jail time for slashing her tire. If he did not disappear Wilson then it's very possible that the slashed tire made her vulnerable to an opportunist.
Robin Graham disappeared in the early hours of the morning on November 14th, 1970. She was driving home from her place of employment, Pier 1 at 5711 Hollywood Boulevard, when something went wrong with her vehicle (employment address as per a landing page for her at Ancestry.com). For those interested in tracing her route, I think she was traveling to 2227 Lemoyne Street in Los Angeles. Her disappearance is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it caused the LAPD to enact a change in policy. A police officer saw her in the minutes before she disappeared but he left her alone. After her disappearance, police officers were required to stay with stranded female motorists. Secondly, her disappearance and probable murder can be compared to other disappearances of women where some kind of vehicle mishap is part of the chain of events surrounding the disappearance.
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| Robin Graham |
Last seen: About 2:30am on November 14th, 1970
Born: June 22nd, 1952 (18 years old at the time of disappearance)
Physical: white female, 66" (5'6") and 125 pounds, brown eyes and hair
Clothing/accessories: red blouse, blue jeans, dark-blue corduroy jacket, red-clog shoes, and leather purse
NamUs' description of the event (paraphrased):
A California Highway Patrol officer was the last person to see Robin Graham on November 14th, 1970. She had been driving her boyfriend's vehicle when she apparently ran out of gas and stalled on U.S. Highway 101 southbound near the Santa Monica Boulevard offramp at about 2:00 am.
The officer stopped to see if she needed help, but Ms. Graham said that help was already coming. She had just called her parents to inform them of her situation.
Later, the officer noticed a white male, 25-26 years of age, 5'8" with dark hair, wearing bell-bottom trousers and a white turtle neck top talking to her. A 1958-1960 light blue Corvette hardtop was observed parked behind her vehicle at this time. The officer later assumed the man in the Corvette was the help she had called for. The next day, her parents searched for Robin and found her car, locked up and abandoned on the side of the freeway where she was last seen. She hasn't been heard from since.
Inconsistency regarding man's description
The description of the man may or may not be entirely accurate with NamUS. The following (left margin below) is excerpted from the Nov. 19th, 1970 Valley News (Van Nuys, California) regarding the patrolman's description. It describes a "blond-haired man" instead of a dark-haired one. The range of dates for the Corvette is also a little off between the two sources (ie. NamUs is 1958 to 1960 while the article says '57 to '59). I found a 1960 light-blue corvette convertible picture and posted it below. When it comes to contradictions between NamUs and media source, there's no way to know who to show a preference for. Certainly, both the media and NamUs can be error-riddled.
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| 1960 Chevrolet Corvette Fuelie (Creative Commons/Rex Gray on Flickr) - Not a car expert; If you can suggest a better photo then it's welcome. |
NamUs wrong about the time of parents discovering vehicle
The penultimate statement in the NamUs description above may be incorrect or confusing. According to the newspaper articles I read from 1970 her parents did not discover her car "The next day" but rather they discovered it at 2:30am, a half-hour after she was last seen. See the snipping below from The Capital Journal (December 12th, 1970/page 11).
The same article discusses the change in police procedures when it came to stranded female motorists.
The Robin Graham case may not simply be a case of a criminal taking advantage of an opportunity where he finds a young woman vulnerable. Women who meet an abductor after car trouble may actually have had their car tampered with by the actual abductor. Graham ran out of gas and it's possible that the gas may have been siphoned by the abductor himself as part of a modus operandi. Consider the following cases below where car trouble is central to the abduction of a woman. Note, in many of the cases below the car trouble was caused by the man that harmed the woman.
Kathleen Johns
Kathleen Johns was driving at night in a rural location when she was summoned to pull over in March of 1970 by a fellow driver, a male. He advised her that she had a problem with her tire. The man then 'helped' her by loosening the tire and when Johns drove away the tire fell off. The 'helpful' man then offered to drive Johns and her child to a service station.
Of course, this man may have been The Zodiac Killer. However, the point to be aware of is that the 'Good Samaritan' that shows up to help a distressed female motorist might be her mortal enemy. Whether by loosening a tire or some other sabotage, he may have caused the problem with the vehicle himself in hopes of putting the woman into a vulnerable situation.
Of course, this man may have been The Zodiac Killer. However, the point to be aware of is that the 'Good Samaritan' that shows up to help a distressed female motorist might be her mortal enemy. Whether by loosening a tire or some other sabotage, he may have caused the problem with the vehicle himself in hopes of putting the woman into a vulnerable situation.
Julia Ashe
Sedrick Cobb lurked in mall parking lots. According to writer David Krajicek, Cobb "used a valve stem remover to deflate a tire on the car of likely victims, then offered to change the flats when they returned from shopping" (Dec. 31 2013 article/Daily News). Cobb, employing this tactic, earned the trust of a woman before he raped and murdered her. That woman's name was Julia Ashe and the year was 1989. The blurb below from the September 13th, 1991 issue of The Hartford Courant accounts of some of the details:
The point to take away from the Ashe rape and murder, once again, is that the man that shows up to 'help' a woman with car trouble may have caused the car trouble himself.
Rose Tashman
In this case, it's not clear that Tashman's flat tire was caused by someone that wanted to help her. But that car trouble can precede the disappearance or murder of a young woman can't be overlooked. The criminals may simply be opportunists as opposed to carrying out a modus operandi involving vehicle sabotage. However, more examples could still be looked at.
Cindy Lee Mellin
Cindy Lee Mellin, also often mentioned in conjunction with Graham, was last seen in a mall parking lot in 1970 in Ventura, California. According to NamUs (#6849) "She was last seen standing next to her car in the shopping center parking lot while an unidentified male changed her tire. When she failed to return home that night, her father went to the shopping center looking for her and found her car still up on a jack with the flat tire still attached." That description certainly leaves much to the imagination. But it's not a stretcher to assume that the man that pretended to want to help her actually had more sinister motives in mind.
Kelly Dae Wilson
Kelly Dae Wilson is yet another example of a missing woman who had car trouble at around the time of her disappearance. Wilson went missing in Upshur County, Texas in 1993 after completing a shift at a video store. She is NamUs MP #6816. On the night that she went missing one of the tires of her vehicle was slashed. The following timeline of events, in this case, was published as per the details below (click to enlargen):
Conclusion
It's certainly soul-destroying to learn that someone who seems like a Good Samaritan is actually in the midst of committing a heinous crime. But the lessons of the missing-person's cases or murders mentioned above can't be ignored.
For the women readers, if you are facing car trouble and a man arrives to help you then you have to be skeptical: Mr. Johnny-on-the-spot with the perfect tool handy to fix your car might be the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper. That statement might wreak of paranoia to some, but minimally I would argue that you shouldn't stop driving if your vehicle is operational, even if someone is trying to flag you down. Get to a well-viewed area with lots of people around. Additionally, I would recommend not going to a secondary site with a Good Samaritan, whether that be in his car or yours.
For the women readers, if you are facing car trouble and a man arrives to help you then you have to be skeptical: Mr. Johnny-on-the-spot with the perfect tool handy to fix your car might be the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper. That statement might wreak of paranoia to some, but minimally I would argue that you shouldn't stop driving if your vehicle is operational, even if someone is trying to flag you down. Get to a well-viewed area with lots of people around. Additionally, I would recommend not going to a secondary site with a Good Samaritan, whether that be in his car or yours.
There’s also Brandi Wells who went missing from Longview, Texas on August 3, 2006, after leaving a club and potentially running out of gas. Longview is about 30 miles from Gilmer where Kelly DAE Wilson became missing from.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I will look at that addition.
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