She Said She Was Going To The Movies With A Friend One Night In 1999, Then Disappeared
In 1999, Michelle Crawford was a 21-year-old English major attending Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. She worked part-time at Gibson’s department store and planned to become a teacher one day.
Michelle’s parents, Kathy and John Crawford, described her as a straight-A student who was hardworking, responsible, and generous. She’d even earned a full scholarship for her next semester of schooling.
At the time, Michelle lived with her parents and had two close friends. Yet, after she claimed to be going to the movies with a friend on June 8, 1999, she mysteriously disappeared.
That night, Michelle returned to her parent’s house, located in the 2200 block of Northwest Lincoln Avenue, after work.
Her mother was getting ready to go to bed when, at about 9:00 p.m., Michelle told her dad that she was going to see a movie with a friend.
Then, the following morning, Kathy and John awoke to find that their daughter wasn’t home. Still, they didn’t immediately think anything was wrong since Michelle would sometimes wake up early and go to the gym to exercise.
It wasn’t until the 21-year-old failed to return home that evening and Michelle’s parents received a call from her employer that they realized she was missing.
“Kathy had actually gotten home, and her employer had called to find out if Michelle was there because she hadn’t shown up for work. That’s when we knew there was a problem,” John recalled.
“We found out from my youngest daughter, who still lives with us, that she hadn’t been home all day. That’s when I flagged down a police officer, and we made a report.”
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Days later, on June 13, Michelle’s car was found abandoned by authorities. The gray four-door 1986 Honda Accord had been parked crookedly in the 1100 block of East Gore Boulevard, located between the Best Western Hotel and Montego Bay Apartments.
The vehicle’s doors were all locked except for the driver’s side door. Plus, all of Michelle’s belongings had been left behind in the back seat, leading John to suspect foul play.
“We think that something happened to her arranged, but we don’t know who, what, when, or where,” he said.
“We just know she’s gone, and we’ve never seen her again or heard from her again.”
The investigation reportedly revealed that Michelle’s two close friends had no plans to attend the movies with her the night she vanished.
In the wake of her disappearance, Michelle’s bank account, credit cards, social security number, and IDs have never been used, either.
There’s supposedly a theory that Michelle’s body had been buried on private property located in the Mountain View area of Oklahoma, but it hasn’t been confirmed.
According to Mike Nance, a former homicide investigator and the Regional Programs Specialist for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, all leads have been exhausted in Michelle’s case, and the lack of new information makes solving her disappearance extremely difficult.
“She left home one evening, and no one has seen her since. That’s what makes these types of investigations so difficult: the lack of physical evidence or any information to be able to follow up on,” he stated.
Still, Nance believes that someone knows what happened to Michelle, and her father, John, agrees. In 2019, he claimed that he and his wife, Kathy, may not have many years of life left and want closure in their daughter’s case.
“We know that there’s somebody out there who knows. Not just whoever did it; there are others that know what they know,” he explained.
“We just wish they would step forward someday. We would love to give her, if she’s gone, we would love to give her a Christian burial and have a place to lay flowers. Just love her.”
A Facebook page entitled “Find Michelle Crawford” has been created to continue raising awareness about her case.
Michelle was five foot three, weighed 125 pounds, and had blonde hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information regarding her disappearance is urged to contact the Lawton Police Department at (580) 581-3250.
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