Katharina Buczek
They created a Facebook group dedicated to raising awareness about Joan’s disappearance.
Facebook; pictured above is another photo of Joan
Plus, Joan’s case still weighs heavy on the hearts of community members in the Warrenton community, who are still fighting for answers.
In fact, in May of 2021, three penned and published an open letter to the Clatsop County District Attorney Ron Brown and the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office as a whole in the Cannon Beach Gazette.
Within that letter, the community members– Dena Mattox Rush, Jason Futch, and Gwen Barringer– detailed their frustrations about the lack of transparency in Joan’s case and pushed for the release of investigative records.
“We are a small but dedicated group of civilians who are seeking resolution in the case of Joanie Hall, for the sake of the general public and to ease the heartbreak that her family has dealt with for all of these years,” the letter began.
“With that being said, we can state without any hesitation that this case has been egregiously mishandled from the very beginning.”
The letter goes on to describe how CCSO Deputy Gerald M. Basch was allowed to interview his own son, as well as two of his son’s friends.
These were the three teens who claimed to have seen Joanie in Mike’s car two hours after she had visited the Mini-Mart, but later changed their story and claimed they had spotted another girl who bore no resemblance to Joan.
“And when we attempted to submit a request via the Freedom of Information Act for any public records regarding Joanie’s disappearance, we were surprised to learn that on 12/10/2018, Judge Paula Brownfield signed a protective order keeping the investigative files on Joanie’s case sealed from the public eye for the next 75 years, until 2093, without notifying the victim’s family,” the letter continued.
