MISSING PERSON
CASE #: 1965-3
Mary Shotwell Little
Status:
Open
Date of Last Contact:
Date of Last Contact:
Jurisdiction:
Missing From:
Atlanta, Georgia
Summary:
Mary Shotwell Little vanished under suspicious circumstances in Georgia in 1965. She was last seen in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 14, 1965, when she left at 8:00 p.m. to go out to her car, a Metallic pearl-gray 1965 Mercury Comet with Georgia license plate number 2829. Her vehicle had blood specks on the interior and exterior, some kind of red dust and women's undergarments covered in blood. Mary's case remains active and unsolved.
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Disappearance:
At the time of Mary's disappearance, her husband, Roy Little, had been out of town for work, but he was due to return the next day, so she had been planning a welcome party for him. She also went to work, bought groceries and met a colleague for dinner at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in the Lenox Square Shopping Centre in the Buckhead neighbourhood, a well-off area of Atlanta. The colleague said Mary was in a good mood and spoke positively about her marriage. She was last seen when she left at 8:00 p.m. to go out to her car, a Metallic pearl-gray 1965 Mercury Comet with Georgia license plate number 2829. The following day, Mary was absent from work and had not called in sick. When her boss mentioned it to the co-worker she had been with the night before, they became concerned and called security. Officers found her car still in the Lexnox Square parking lot. The vehicle had blood specks on the interior and exterior, some kind of red dust and women's undergarments covered in blood. There was a coating of red dust on the car's exterior, as if it had been driven on a dirt road. Four bags of groceries were found inside the vehicle, along with Coke bottles and a package of Kent cigarettes which were Mary's preferred brand.
Additional Details:
In the weeks before she vanished, Mary received distressing phone calls at work. She explained to this person, whose identity was still unknown, that she could no longer visit them now that she was married, although she did say it would be fine for them to visit her. She had also received flowers from a secret admirer. The flowers were traced back to a florist near Mary's home, but the exact buyer is unknown. About a month after she went missing, Little's credit card was used at gas stations in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina. Attendants at both gas stations told investigators they had seen a woman who appeared to have a head injury with blood on her head and legs with two unidentified men, but she kept her face hidden. After the information regarding the credit slips was made public, a ransom demand of $20,000 was made to Roy over the phone. The caller demanded that he go to an overpass in the Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina, where he would find a sign with instructions for what to do next. An FBI agent went to the area, finding a blank sheet of paper stuck to the sign. Neither Roy nor the police were ever contacted by the alleged abductor again. The police file concerning Mary's case vanished sometime in the years following her 1965 disappearance. Some police officers who investigated Mary's case do not believe foul play was involved; they think Mary staged her disappearance for unknown reasons. Other investigators believe Mary was abducted. A woman reported being accosted by a man in the Lenox Square Shopping Center parking lot shortly before Mary would have been walking to her car; some authorities believe the man had something to do with Mary's disappearance. Eighteen months after Mary's disappearance, Diane Shields was found murdered. Diane allegedly had taken over Mary's job at C&S Bank. Her case also remains unsolved. A decade-long investigation by civilian researchers has uncovered previously unseen FBI files and identified new leads in Mary's cold case. The new documentary THE VANISHING: The 60-Year Unsolved Disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little reveals their discoveries and explores fresh theories about what happened to the Atlanta bank secretary.
Case Last Updated:
Timeline of Events
An anonymous caller tells Cartersville Police that Mary is in a rock quarry in Whites, Ga. Sheriff Gunn notifies Barnes with the APD.
A cook for the Royal Castle Restaurant, located at Buford Highway and Carol Avenue, believes that he sees Mary come to the restaurant with a tall, chunky, medium-build white man, about 30 years old. She and the man she was arguing with stay in the restaurant for approximately 30 minutes.
By the time Mary's bank supervisor arrived at Lenox Square, the car was in plain sight in the Yellow 32 section, where it was supposed to be. Mary's gasoline credit card was used twice in North Carolina. Once in an Esso station in Mary's hometown of Charlotte, the second time approximately 12 hours later at another Esso in Raleigh.
Little had bought groceries at the Colonial grocery store at Lenox Square, and she then shared dinner at the S&S Cafeteria with another woman who worked at the bank. Her parting words to the older woman before heading toward her car at 8 p.m. were "See you."
Associated Persons
Nathan S. (Father) - Deceased
Roy L. (Spouse) - Living
Margaret S. (Mother) - Living
Family Tree
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Missing Person
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