Pensacola, FL: Where Six Women Have Been Missing Without A Trace Since 1979....
Slimpickins
PUBLISHED SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2001
In Escambia County, six women have disappeared, dating as far back as 1979.
Detectives and families are puzzled in these cases of people who ...
Vanished without a trace
Read also: Cold case investigator wants to form network
By Alan Gomez
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
No body.
No motive.
No clue.
That's the status of the case of Chandra Levy, the missing Washington intern
romantically linked with California Congressman Gary Condit.
Her disappearance has captivated the nation.
But Levy is only one of the thousands nationwide who have vanished without a
trace, leaving behind grieving families and the suspicion of foul play.
In Escambia County, there are six cases of women who disappeared and were
neither seen nor heard from again: Barbara Bockwith, Carla Roberson, Lucetta
"Lucie" Starkie, Tabbetha Worford, Melissa "Missy" Eck and Joanna Otto.
Their stories were in the local newspaper. Their faces were on posters and
local television broadcasts. But when initial investigations turned up
nothing, they moved out of the spotlight.
Sgt. Kent Vancil, of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office cold case squad,
said that although his forgotten cases don't get the kind of publicity and
manpower that Levy's has, there is still room for hope.
"All these families can relate to the Levys," Vancil said. "It's obviously a
high-profile case, and one I don't want. But when it comes down to it, it's
the same: No body, no crime scene, almost nothing to work with."
A high profile draws more attention, said David Rivers, a retired Miami-Dade
Police sergeant who teaches police classes and seminars nationwide.
"We'd like to say that all victims are the same, but they're not," Rivers
said. "Is every similar case getting the same kind of work? Of course not.
Is that fair to every other victim's family? No. But let's be realistic.
"With the high-profile people we're dealing with and the pressure cooker
that is Washington, you're going to get more attention."
Waiting for word
The first thing you see when you walk into Neva Bockwith's Navy Point home
is a portrait of a young girl hanging over an old, broken grandfather clock.
The picture hasn't moved in 21 years. It's her daughter, Barbara, an
accounting major who went to class at the University of West Florida on a
December morning in 1979 and never came home.
The 20-year-old collegian had breakfast with a friend that morning who said
she was acting normal. Another friend spotted her driving through the
intersection at Creighton Road and Ninth Avenue later in the day.
A week later, her car was found at Pensacola Regional Airport, her books
inside, the driver's seat pushed all the way back.
"When it first happened, I couldn't understand what was going on because she
always called when she wasn't coming home," Bockwith said.
Bockwith and her late husband, John, hired a private investigator. They
offered a $10,000 reward. They invited psychics to Pensacola to try to find
their daughter.
The last tip came in 1997, when Vancil got word of someone dumping something
into Bayou Grande around the time of Barbara's disappearance. Divers dredged
the bayou for several days but found nothing.
Investigators questioned Barbara's boyfriend at the time. Family members
tried to talk to him, but five days after her disappearance, they found him
dead from a self-inflicted shotgun wound.
Lately, Neva Bockwith has taken to sleeping in her daughter's old room.
Bockwith's mattress is worn out. Her daughter's mattress is still firm.
She hasn't changed much in the small, dusty room. Barbara's pictures of
birds and boats still hang on the walls. The old, cracking furniture is the
same, as is the fading paint on the walls.
"When people die, you have to go on," Bockwith said. "Somebody, I believe,
still knows about what happened. I'll still give them the $10,000, if I just
knew. But at this point, I don't think I'll find out what happened in my
lifetime."
Glimmer of hope
Kathy Gaut has boxes filled with keepsakes of her daughter Joanna Otto.
The last time anyone heard from the 19-year-old was when a friend dropped
her off at her Maison DeVille apartment on Ninth Avenue. That was Nov. 20,
1992.
Gaut now works for the Escambia County Utilities Authority. Occasionally,
she still picks up the yellow, long-sleeved shirt with a squirrel on it that
was Joanna's favorite as a baby. She still leafs through the book her
daughter made for her for a long-ago Mother's Day.
"For the first few years, I just shut down," she said. "But I came to
realize that I'm powerless over death and powerless of the past. Now, I wish
there were 100 hours in the day because of all the things I want to do."
Gaut has tried to use her situation to help others. She pushed for creation
of the National Missing Children's Memorial in the Hawkshaw Lagoon area. She
is working with UWF to create an institute to help families deal with
missing children.
There are still doubts. And there is still pain.
"Sometimes, I feel as bad as I ever did," Gaut said. "I'll hear a song or
something and it will all come back."
The man who last saw her daughter, James Gibson, is now serving a 35-year
sentence at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford for kidnapping and
sexual battery in an unrelated case. He was questioned regarding Otto's
disappearance, but Vancil said nothing came of it.
"I'm pretty sure at this point that Joanna is dead," she said. "But not
knowing absolutely, and not having a body, there is always a little hope."
In the spotlight
Neither Gaut nor Bockwith resent the attention Chandra Levy's disappearance
has garnered. Neither thinks the added attention could have brought an
answer or produced a body.
"If anything, I think all that added pressure would just make it even harder
to deal with," Gaut said. "When I see what's been happening with that girl,
all I think about is how badly I feel for that family. I just hope they find
a way to get through it."
Frank Fillingim, a Sheriff's Office investigator, has kept tabs on Otto and
Eck. He refers to them as "my girls." Their pictures hang in his office.
While the media's aid in getting Levy's picture into circulation may help,
he said. In the long run, such exposure could prove detrimental.
"Those guys are having a tough time now, because no matter what happens,
they're going to get the finger pointed at them," Fillingim said of law
enforcement officials searching for Levy. "People are working hard to find
that girl. But that becomes hard when you have someone sitting on you,
second-guessing you every day. I know I wouldn't want that case."
It's been since early May that Chandra Levy was last heard from. As the
media circus continues in Washington, the case is simple at heart.
One missing woman. One grieving family.
"I know what that family is going through, and it's hard," Bockwith said.
"In this kind of situation, the only thing you hope for is closure, whether
it's finding her or finding her body.
"That closure, when you can find the body and have a proper funeral, is
better than the continuation of not knowing what happened."
BARBARA BOCKWITH
Age: 20
Home: Navy Point
Last seen: Dec. 5, 1979.
The college accounting major left her house to go to class at the University
of West Florida. A friend saw her driving later in the day, but her car was
found at Pensacola Regional Airport.
CARLA ROBERSON
Age: 19
Home: Montgomery, Ala.
Last seen: May 8, 1984.
Roberson left her aunt's house in Pensacola to spend a day on the beach at
Fort Pickens. Officers found her car in a parking lot and only her towel and
some personal effects on the beach.
LUCETTA "LUCIE" STARKIE
Age: 51
Home: Bay Springs
Last seen: July 1985.
A worried sister called authorities after she didn't hear from Starkie in
more than a month. Starkie resided with her husband at the time, but he
never was a suspect in the case.
TABBETHA WORFORD
Age: 19
Home: Pensacola
Last seen: May 5, 1990.
After talking to her sister the night before, Worford disappeared from her
Pensacola apartment the next day. Her baby was found on a woman's doorstep
nearby.
MELISSA "MISSY" ECK
Age: 15
Home: West Pensacola
Last seen: June 25, 1992.
Eck disappeared while walking to a friend's house on Patricia Drive. She was
walking with her boyfriend. He told investigators he went in another
direction, and she disappeared.
JOANNA OTTO
Age: 19
Home: Pensacola
Last seen: Nov. 20, 1992.
Otto was taken to her apartment at Mason DeVille by a friend after a party.
He said he dropped her off. No one has seen her since.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/081101/Local/ST002.shtml