On July 20th, 1978, in Magnolia, Arkansas, Mary Shinn met up with a man about selling a home, but she never returned. Her blue 1976 Buick would later be found in a grocery store parking lot with her belongings still inside. However, there were signs of damage suggesting it may have been run off the road.
Strangely, one thing was missing from her stuff: an address book. It seemed obvious that whoever had abducted her may have had their name and information listed in the book. It’s been almost 48 years since Shinn’s disappearance, and it’s still unsolved.
The Arkansas native owned an art studio in Magnolia and regularly taught classes there. However, when she was abducted, she was showing a house she owned on McNeil Street.
According to authorities, Shinn had already shown the house to a man on July 19th, before showing it to him again the following day.
They were meant to meet at EZ Mart, across from Shinn’s art studio, and she had told a friend she’d return by 1:30, but never did. There were a few reports from passersby about a man seen at EZ Mart around 11 am. Both onlookers described the potential suspect as in his mid- to late 20s, with dark hair.
One shopper at EZ Mart claims to have seen a man ask for a quarter and then make a phone call on a payphone at 11 am the day of Shinn’s disappearance. Investigators believe this could be the man who was meeting with Shinn about purchasing the home.
Police obtained Shinn’s car from the Smitty’s Grocery parking lot at around 5 or 6 pm on July 20th. Employees claim they saw it there at 1 pm. Among her belongings that were left behind were her purse, sneakers, sunglasses, wallet, and a book.
Some of the obvious damage to the car included paint scratches and grass inside the car, suggesting it had been driven into a field. While Shinn’s abductor was never found, there were a lot of suspicious details given by those who had seen her that day.
When Shinn agreed to meet the buyer that day, he explained he needed her to drive him to the house because his car was being repaired at Jordan Brothers Pontiac.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
However, several witnesses claimed to have seen Shinn with a man driving a green Pontiac. It turns out, no cars were being serviced on the day of Shinn’s disappearance, meaning the man had lied or there had been a change of plans.
One of the more frightening stories came from a man baling hay near Highway 32. He claims to have seen a blue car swerving on the road and, as it approached, realized a struggle was underway between a man and a woman.
The closest anyone came to identifying who was responsible for Shinn’s disappearance was when her family hired a private investigator.
The investigator believed a man named Michael Morse could be responsible for Shinn’s disappearance. Morse matched the description onlookers had given, and according to Morse’s boss, he had taken off from work on July 20th.
Morse was said to have had schizophrenia, leading to him taking his own life on October 15th, 1978. Law enforcement wasn’t convinced that Morse was the abductor.
There was a major update in 2025, the first in decades, in which authorities were told to search land near Bussey, Arkansas. Unfortunately, it’s unknown if anything was found, as no information was disclosed.
The case remains open to this day. Mary Shinn’s disappearance was never solved, and the man she had met with the day she went missing was never identified.
