Joan Gay Croft (Newspaper clippings) -- Missing After 1947 Tornado in Oklahoma
Author: Shane Lambert -- December 21st, 2020
Missing Person: Joan Gay Croft
Last seen or contact date: April 10th, 1947
Where last seen: Woodard Hospital
Joan Gay Croft went missing in April of 1947 during a tornado that hit her town, Woodard, Oklahoma. The tornado hit other parts, including parts of Texas, however, the town of Woodard was the worst-hit urban area.
Joan went missing in the aftermath of the chaos that the tornado caused. Her mother died in the tornado and other family members were injured. Joan, herself, suffered severe injuries.
Importantly, her NamUs profile states that her injuries were not treated at the time of her abduction. If that's true, then that would mean that this little girl was abducted with a broom-handle-sized splinter of wood through one of her legs. In modern journalism, the wood is called "pencil sized" but I will defer to the journalism from 1947 that states the splinter was much larger than a pencil. Joan also suffered wounds to her face and may have been difficult to recognize because of that. That too could be a major clue.
The oddness of her alleged abduction is striking. The picture that has been painted with this alleged abduction is that two men in military khakis took her from the hospital, men that appeared at night and claimed that they were taking her to be with her family.
I have trouble picturing abductors taking a 4-year old out of a hospital that has a broom-handle-sized splinter in her leg. For me, the accounting of what happened with Joan doesn't quite make sense. I feel like I have to discount some sources while putting weight on others. Overall, I think a lot of wires got crossed in this missing person's case due to the chaos at the hospital that came in the aftermath of the devastating tornado. That's a good enough reason for me to suggest that a lot needs to be thrown out with this case, especially since there was a guess as to what happened to her back in 1947.
It has been stated that Joan was abducted in the darkness of the hospital at night. It has also been stated that she suffered wounds to her face that would have made her harder to recognize. Additional to that, her mother was dead and her father was critically injured and not mobile at the time Joan disappeared. I'm not picturing Joan in an environment where a lot of people knew her well. Even if someone did, then who is to say that their attention was divided among the wounded?
What if the girl that was taken away by men in military clothing wasn't actually Joan but another girl? What if the men in military clothing were, quite simply, military men that served the public during a natural catastrophe?
Does it seem too convenient to make such assumptions? It's pretty clear while reading the journalism on the topic of the tornado in 1947 that there was a lot of confusion with identities in the hospital. Some wondered if Joan was buried under a different name than her own.
One clue with this case is that the FBI didn't take action in searching for Joan because they had no jurisdiction. According to one article I read, the FBI did not see proof of a kidnapping and, of course, one reason for that could be that no kidnapping took place.
My thinking with this case is that a lot got jumbled around. Timing, facts, and identity might all be off. However, what's not debated is that Joan Gay Croft had a splinter in her leg and she had injuries to her face that changed the way she looked. She could have, unrecognized, died from blood loss or infections. The men in military clothing could have taken a different girl.
If anyone wants to find this missing child, then my opinion is not to look for an adult even though Croft could still be alive if she survived after 1947. My hunch instead is to go with the viewpoint that some had back in 1947 and to look in the graveyard. It's possible that they might have to perform some exhumations with this case.
NamUs # and link: #MP32412
Ethnicity/Race: White
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 4 years old
Hair: Strawberry blonde (called "platinum blonde" in another source)
Eye color: Blue
Height and weight at the time of disappearance: 3'5" and 42 pounds
What happened to the two children who were unidentified, the two-year-old and the eight-year-old? It might pay to start by trying to identify them. Perhaps Joan was buried under the name of one of those children. Perhaps that child remained unidentified because her family thought that they had already buried her.
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