The Unsolved Disappearance of Daniel Andrew Weaver in Waco, Texas

The Unsolved Disappearance of Daniel Andrew Weaver in Waco, Texas

On Tuesday, January 18th, 1983, 20-year-old Daniel Andrew Weaver left his home in Waco, Texas, and disappeared, leaving behind a mystery unsolved after more than four decades. He told his wife, Tamara Weaver, he was visiting his father before heading to his 7-11 gas station job for a 4pm to midnight shift. Daniel never reached work, and he has not been seen or heard from again.

His vanishing spurred a robust investigation involving police, three grand juries, and private detectives hired by his brother, David Weaver. The case deepened in 2006 when his stepmother, Lydia Weaver, submitted a will she claimed Daniel signed. A Texas court deemed it forged, per a 2007 UPI report. David, who contested the will, had Daniel declared dead, calling the legal fight part of a broader puzzle.

Suggestions That Daniel Died Close to His Disappearance Date

Daniel did leave behind an uncashed paycheque from his job at 7-11. In my experience reviewing missing persons cases, failure to cash pay or failure to claim an asset has often been a very big clue that the person is deceased. Furthermore, that he didn't collect his inheritance is a big clue that he died at about the time of his disappearance.

In another case from the same era, Robby Peay's failure to collect his inheritance was long considered to imply his death. He was, in fact, found dead just recently.

Clothing and Accessories Not Mentioned in Case Files

I could not find any clothing descriptions for Daniel Weaver. However, the details of a John Doe are worth cross-referencing to Weaver's case if you come across one associated with a 7-11 or gas-station employee uniform. He was going to work when he disappeared, at least after going to his father's. Note that 7-11 convenience stores can have different brand names for gas service, so any gas station uniform could be in play. The address of the store was 1225 N. 56th Street, presumably in Waco, Texas.

Family History is on the Dark Side

The following newspaper article will provide insight into the investigation and family dynamics surrounding Daniel's disappearance. It is part 1 and part 2 side by side, as the article was printed on separate pages. These images will enlarge when clicked. I think this article is particularly important for someone interested in this case.

Waco Tribune-Herald, July 26, 1987 (Part 1)

Waco Tribune-Herald, July 26, 1987 (Part 2)

Later, Lydia and Daniel’s father (Ray Weaver, who died in 1997) both invoked their Fifth Amendment rights during a 1987 grand jury. The forgery does stand out as an important flag in this case. Furthermore, Daniel was in line for an inheritance when he turned 21. Could he be one of Texas’s unidentified remains? The table below lists his factual case details, followed by potential matches from NamUs.

Daniel Weaver: Missing From Waco, Texas Since 1983

Category	Field	Details
Case Information	Case Status	Missing
	Date of Last Contact	January 18th, 1983 (Tuesday). One source said he left his apartment at 3:30pm. Another said 11:30am. I did read that he had eaten cereal, a food more common in the morning for most people.
	Last Known Location	Waco, Texas 76708, wife saw him leave his apartment. The 7-11 address and the address of his father are in the article above.
	County	McLennan County
Demographics	Full Name	Daniel Andrew Weaver
	Biological Sex	Male
	Missing Age	20 Years
	Current Age	Would be 62 years old if alive
	Race / Ethnicity	White / Caucasian
Physical Description	Height	5' 8" (68 Inches)
	Weight	140 lbs
	Hair Color	Brown
	Left Eye Color	Brown
	Right Eye Color	Brown
Circumstances	Circumstances of Disappearance	Daniel had left his home in Waco to go to work at the 7-11 gas station on 1/18/1983. He was supposed to work a shift reported as 4am to 12 midnight at NamUs, but this is likely an error, as it suggests a 20-hour shift. It was likely meant to be from 4pm to midnight. He never showed up for work, and this was the last time anyone saw him.

Potential Unidentified Matches for Daniel Weaver

I looked through seventeen John Doe cases where some of the case information above aligned. Some of them were easy to rule out. However, the cases below were ones where I had some confidence that a John Doe might be Daniel Weaver. In particular, UP1811 and UP4575 are cases that are worth looking at closely. I think I will return to this blog post another time, but anyone who wants to build on the table below, feel free to with a citation.

UP Case	Details	Subject Match Probability
UP1811	Irving (Dallas Co.), found 12/12/2002, Male, White/Caucasian, 20-39 years, 5'6", 130 lbs, body parts in plastic bags, hands missing	Moderate confidence (demographics, height, and weight align closely, and location is plausible at 95 miles from Waco, but the 19-year gap and lack of PMI make it uncertain; comparisons were limited due to minimal information on the John Doe, such as no PMI, hair/eye color, or clothing; I think the missing hands might have been an attempt to hide the John Doe's identity by eliminating fingerprints, a key identifier in the pre-DNA forensic era)
UP14785	Denton, found 12/27/1984, Male, White/Caucasian, 20-22 years, light brown hair, partial skeletal remains with mummified skin, hands missing	Mild confidence (demographics, age, and hair color align closely, and location is plausible at 130 miles from Waco, but PMI of 1 year suggests death around December 1983, 11 months after Daniel's disappearance, making a match less likely unless the PMI is inaccurate; comparisons were limited due to minimal information on the John Doe, such as no height, unreliable weight due to partial remains, and no clothing; I think the missing hands might have been an attempt to hide the John Doe's identity by eliminating fingerprints, a key identifier in the pre-DNA forensic era)
UP4075	Houston, found 4/11/1988, Male, White/Caucasian or Hispanic/Latino, 20-30 years, 5'4", 145 lbs, black hair, short mustache, wearing Levi jeans (29x30), red/blue T-shirt, brown/orange boots, ProTime wristwatch	Low confidence (demographics, age, weight, and mustache align, and location is plausible at 170 miles from Waco, but black hair differs from Daniel's brown hair, height is off by 4 inches, and the 5-year gap with a decomposing state suggests a more recent death; comparisons were limited due to minimal information on the John Doe, such as no PMI or eye color, and lack of Daniel's clothing details from 1983)
UP4518	Freestone, found 10/2/1984, Male, White/Caucasian, 20-25 years, 5'5", 127 lbs, black hair, black mustache, brown eyes, scars on back, leg, ankle, foot, and abdomen, wearing gray sweatshirt (L, "Sportman"), gray warm-up suit (M, "DJ Smash"), white T-shirt (38-40), "Oscar De Laurente" blue jeans, gray velcro athletic shoes (6.5), gray briefs with maroon trim, black "General Quartz" watch in pocket	Low confidence (demographics, age, eye color, and mustache align, and location is very close at 60 miles from Waco along I-45, but black hair differs from Daniel's brown hair, height is off by 3 inches, shoe size 6.5 seems small, multiple scars not noted in Daniel's profile, and 1984 estimated year of death is 1-2 years after disappearance; comparisons were limited due to minimal information on the John Doe, such as no PMI, and lack of Daniel's clothing details from 1983)
UP4575	San Jacinto, found 12/11/1983, Male, White/Caucasian, 20-40 years, partial remains with soft tissues, hands missing, found in wooded national forest hunting area	Moderate confidence (demographics and age align, location is plausible at 150 miles from Waco in a remote wooded area, and PMI of 1 year is a near match, suggesting death around late 1982 to early 1983, aligning closely with Daniel's disappearance; comparisons were severely limited due to minimal information on the John Doe, such as no height, weight, hair, eye color, or clothing; I think the missing hands might have been an attempt to hide the John Doe's identity by eliminating fingerprints, a key identifier in the pre-DNA forensic era)

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Louise N. Zunker - Missing in Wisconsin Since 1976

Paraphrased details from government source**: The missing person, Louise N. Zunker, had a scheduled dentist appointment for August 17th, 1976 in Portage, Wisconsin. Louise's sister, Hilda Zunker, took her to the dentist appointment (ie. disputed: I think they were just planning to go there). They were in the parking lot (possibly of a shopping center) when her sister turned around and Louise was gone. There were reported sightings of Louise walking east on Albert Street in the Mud Lake vicinity several hours after becoming separated from her sister. There has been no known contact with Louise since this time.

Missing Person: Louise Zunker
Last-contact date: August 17th, 1976 (Tuesday)
The area where the MP was last seen: Portage, Wisconsin, possibly walking east on Albert Street in the Mud Lake district of town. 
Link to government source: NamUs MP84012

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 56 years old
Birthdate: Louise Zunker was born between August 18th, 1919, and August 17th, 1920 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Scar: None
Height/weight: 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5 and 125 to 135 pounds
BMI*: Louise Zunker was in the normal range for BMI.
Tattoos: Louise Zunker did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles.
Find-a-grave: There is a Louise N. Zunker on find-a-grave.com for the Columbia County area of Wisconsin. This person has an unknown date of death. It may reference the same person, however, it's likely a cenotaph memorial and not a final resting place.

Louise Zunker was last heard from on August 17th, 1976 when she was 56 years of age. This individual has now been missing for about 45 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.

The NamUs description of Louise's circumstances isn't great. It's hard to tell from that source if she disappeared before or after the dentist appointment. According to some journalism I read from 1976, she and her sister Hilda appeared to be on their way to the appointment, presumptively from their shared residence or from a shopping center. One source gave her address as 619 W. Franklin Street while another newspaper article gave her address as 56 Franklin Street. The individual that reported her missing was her brother Albert on August 18th, 1976.

21 Aug 1976, Sat Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

The article below mentions that Louise was despondent at the time of her disappearance. In my view, that increases the chances of a voluntary disappearance or even suicide and decreases the chances of something clandestine happening to her. However, everything appears to be in play. One thing that stood out with this case is the way Louise seemingly just went "poof" into thin air. In picturing the disappearance, I imagined Louise and Hilda walking in stride and then Louise disappearing when Hilda wasn't paying attention to her.

07 Sep 1976, Tue Waukesha Daily Freeman (Waukesha, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

20 Aug 1976, Fri Portage Daily Register (Portage, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

Given the missing person's footwear (ie. low heels), it's hard to picture her planning on walking all that far. I considered the Albert Street sighting and examined the bridges in the area as prospective suicide points. However, none appeared to be of sufficient height. However, Google Maps in the area only went back to 2008. 

The marshy area to the east of Mud Lake could be the focal point. However, if she was planning to kill herself, the method is the question. It would be interesting to learn about her purchases on the shopping trip that she was reportedly on. That they searched the marshy area to the west of the town and did not find her does not mean that she could not still be there. Police searches fail quite often.

This was an individual who was in Ancestry's files with simple searches (ie. first and last name) as she appeared in a few censuses with her original family. She had at least two sisters by my research, one of which is likely the one referenced in the NamUs description as being the last person that knew Louise to see her alive.

Louise's whereabouts were sought for legal matters that developed following the death of her mother in 1977. She was referred to as "deceased" in a 1983 classified ad, which isn't unusual given the circumstances.

25 Jun 1977, Sat Portage Daily Register (Portage, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

17 Dec 1977, Sat Portage Daily Register (Portage, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

12 Nov 1983, Sat Portage Daily Register (Portage, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

Louise Zunker may have had the following articles when she disappeared: a blue and white square patterned sleeveless dress; a blue/black raincoat, dark-rimmed and tinted glasses, and beige low-heeled shoes.

Furthermore, she was thought to only have 15 cents in her purse. These are items that can be cross-referenced against Jane Does or reports associated with unidentified remains in hopes of finding a reason for further comparison between Zunker and the Jane Doe.

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Author: Shane Lambert (Edmonton, Canada)

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert (Edmonton, Canada) is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of April 2021.

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Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Might not be the exact meaning that NamUs or Canada's Missing conveys. I improve upon their descriptions with my research.
Disclaimer: Whenever possible, government sources are preferred for getting the details of a missing persons case. However, any source that the article writer deems reputable may be used.

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