Going West: True Crime - Mary Shotwell Little // 77

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

In October 1965, a woman in Atlanta met her friend for dinner- but once the two parted ways, she vanished. Between seemingly staged evidence, strange sightings in a different states, and frightening phone calls before her disappearance, this case proves to be incredibly bizarre. This is the disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little. BONUS EPISODES: https://www.patreon.com/goingwestpodcast SOURCES CITED: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenvilleonline/obituary.aspx?n=margaret-proctor-shotwell&pid=149016736&fhid=11631 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110062177/nathan-randolph-shotwell https://www.myerspark1962.com/married-classmates.html https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article9204080.html https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1102670/posts https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ga-mary-shotwell-little-25-atlanta-14-oct-1965.31907/page-19 https://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/gone-cold/5-roses/5-roses-2-women-investigation-heats-up/85-7ac3a05d-57b4-494c-b551-faa3ea8999ed https://lostnfoundblogs.com/f/the-last-bouquet http://charleyproject.org/case/mary-shotwell-little http://www.buckhead.net/history/mystery/msl_a.html https://www.facebook.com/MissingPleaseFindUs/posts/mary-shotwell-little-missing-from-georgia-since-1965by-joe-depriest-jdepriestcha/1728003437448522/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host Tee and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Howdy folks, we're about to do a giveaway over on Instagram. So go ahead and post a screenshot or a picture of you or where you are listening to going west and tag at going west podcast. Up until July 20th, so over the next week, we're gonna pick two winners and each of those winners will get to choose a piece of merch from our merch store. And then we're going to send it to you guys. Go ahead and, if you're listening to this episode, go ahead and post a picture of yourself listening

to this episode or a screenshot and just make sure that you tag going West Podcast. And then, hey, you might win some cool merch. We also wanted to let you guys know that if you're digging the show, if you really like going West Podcast, head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review we to let you guys know that if you're digging the show, if you really like going West Podcast, head over to Apple Podcast and leave us a review we love giving you guys shoutouts, but make sure you leave your name and your location so that we can give you that shoutout. If that's not something you're interested in doing, then maybe just share the show with a friend. Yeah, we really appreciate you guys helping spread the good word on going West.

And hey, if you're all caught up on episodes and you need more head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. The link is in the description below and you basically just get extra perks and bonus episodes every single month. All right guys we have a wild rabbit hole of a case for you today, so get ready. This is episode 77 of Going West, so let's get into it. In October 1965, a woman in Atlanta met her friend for dinner while her husband was out of town. But once they parted ways, she vanished. Between seemingly staged evidence in her car, strange sightings in different states, and frightening phone calls from an unwanted admirer, this case proves to be incredibly

bizarre. This is the disappearance of Mary Chawel-Little. Mary Shotwell was born on January 14, 1940 in Charlotte, North Carolina to parents Margaret and Nathan Shotwell. And a few years later, she got a baby sister named Judy. Mary grew up in a faithful household and attended Myers Park Presbyterian Church growing up. She attended Myers Park High School and from there she went on to the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Mary was incredibly motivated to make something out of herself, and she knew she

wanted to move to a big city and have a career. So she set her sights on Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated college in 1962 when she was 22 years old, and this was the same year that her sister graduated high school, so she was about four years older. Mary loved dancing, watching films, and reading books. She was a stunning brunette with hazel eyes who stood at 5'6 and sported a page boy haircut. At the age of 22, she made the move to Atlanta to start her first job as a secretary at a bank called Citizens and Southern National Bank, making around $385 each month, which today would be just over $3,000 a month, so she was doing pretty well for herself. At this time, she was living in a four-bedroom house with two of her female co-workers

and a teacher in Druid Hills, which is an affluent neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. Mary was only about a four-hour drive from her hometown, and since she was very close to her family, this meant that she could see them pretty often. After living in Atlanta for nearly two years, Mary decided to volunteer at the American Red Cross in De Cobb County, which is in Atlanta, and she became what's known as a Grey Lady, which is someone who helps care for patients in a non-medical way. So since she didn't have any medical experience, this was a way for her to help with other things that patients could need. She volunteered a number of times,

but eventually she stopped altogether after about two months. She had reportedly been receiving strange and obscene phone calls to the hospital that she volunteered at, which made her feel very uncomfortable. And it wasn't determined who these calls were from, but they were for her. And you can probably guess that it was maybe from a previous patient who had developed a liking for her, like maybe a Florence Nightingale effect type situation, but clearly whatever this person was saying was upsetting her. About a month before she quit volunteering, Mary shot well met a man named Roy Little Junior. Roy had graduated from the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, which is a military

college, and had just been discharged from the army. Weirdly enough, Mary's ex-boyfriend William had set her up with Roy, thinking that they'd be a good match. Just before Thanksgiving in 1964, Roy decided to invite Mary to a Georgia Tech Alabama football game. They really hit it off and became an official couple within a few weeks of this date. Within a month, they were already talking about marriage, and around Christmas time was when Mary stopped volunteering. And then just after her 25th birthday in the beginning of the new year, Roy Little proposed with a beautiful diamond ring from Tiffany's.

At this time, Mary was still living with her roommates and drew at hills throughout the year until Mary and Roy's wedding, which was on September 4, 1965. And they actually traveled back to Mary's hometown for the wedding ceremony at Mary's family's local church, Myers Park Presbyterian Church. But a lot of Mary's friends weren't happy about this marriage and didn't even attend the wedding because they did not like Roy. But Mary seemed to be head over heels and love with him. When they returned to Atlanta a few days after the wedding, Roy began his job as a bank examiner with the state

of Georgia Department of Banks, so both Mary and Roy worked in the banking business. And they were living in their new apartment in Decatur, Georgia, which is a city and suburb just northeast of Atlanta. About a month after their wedding, Mary and Roy Little went back to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit with Mary's family for the weekend and get their wedding photos. After the weekend was over, they headed back to Atlanta. The morning after they returned, which was Monday, October 11, 1965, Roy left their apartment

for a business trip, which was basically a training program for him to become an auditor. So he made the 2-hour trip to Lagrange, Georgia and checked into a motel, where he planned to stay for a few days and return home on Friday, October 15. So just about 4 days later. He and Mary spoke a couple times on the phone to kind of check in, but Mary kept herself busy with her own job and got to spend some quality time with her friends. Although they were only about six weeks into their marriage, things seemed to be going really well between them, and Mary even had a party plan for his return. Which seems somewhat strange since he was only gone for about four days, right?

Yeah, I don't know why she was doing that maybe maybe she just really loved him and just couldn't wait till he got home. On Thursday October 14th 1965 the day before Roy was set to return to Atlanta Mary went to work as usual. Even though fall was in full swing it was a nice warm day and Mary got out of work just before 5pm. Before she left for the day, she cashed a check for $25, which would be around $200 today, and headed to the Colonial Grocery store in the Lennox Square Shopping Center to pick up some food for the next day's party. She chose that Grocer because it was very close to where she was supposed to meet

her friend slash coworker, named Ila for dinner at Piccadilly Cafeteria, which is a casual buffet-style restaurant. We know that she went to the grocery store before she went to dinner because a store clerk remembers helping her out to her car with the grocery bags. She and her friend reportedly had a lovely dinner, and according to Ila, Mary was in a great mood and spoke positively about her new marriage. After they ate, the two went to the Rich's department store and the same shopping plaza, which has since been turned into and taken over by Macy's, and they finished shopping at about 8 pm.

And that was the last time that anyone would see Mary when she was walking to her car in the lower lot of the shopping plaza. The following morning she didn't show up for work and she didn't call in sick either. When Ila learned about this, she spoke with their boss about how they had gone out to dinner last night and everything with Mary seemed fine, so she had no idea why she wouldn't have shown up to work. When they called Mary's home phone, there was no answer, so they decided to call her landlady, only to learn that Mary hadn't picked up her morning paper that day.

So Mary's boss decided to drive around town at noon and ended up at the Lennox shopping plaza. And that's when they found her car, which was a Pearl 1965 Mercury comet. With Ilas' help, they were able to determine that her car moved about 22 spaces in the parking lot. Her boss looked inside the car to find a very strange scene, but Mary wasn't inside. On the exterior of the car, they noticed a bunch of reddish brown dust, like how a car would look if it drove on a dirt road. There was four grocery bags inside the car, meaning that Mary had never returned home to put them away in her kitchen.

There was also a bottle of Coca-Cola and a box of Kent cigarettes, which was the brand that Mary always smoked. But the strangest thing of all was that there was clothes that were folded neatly on the front seat, including underwear, a slip, and a girdle. These items appeared to have been worn, and on the floor was a bra and a single stalking that had a cut in the side as if a knife had cut it open. Strangely, all that was found were undergarments. The outfit that Mary actually wore that evening, which was an olive green dress, a belt, black flats, a beige raincoat, and a brown leather purse purse were missing from the car.

To make things even more confusing, some of the discovered garments had spots of blood on them. There was also a blood smear on the steering wheel, the front seat, and the driver's side door. Police became involved immediately. They questioned the shopping plaza security guards about the car, and the security guards were very adamant that the car was not parked there overnight, nor even at 6am. They knew this because they had patrolled the lot the evening before closing,

and then again early that morning, and neither times were there any cars sitting in the lot. But when police got to the car, the engine was cold. As they reviewed the scene, they initially believed that it was staged, because it didn't make sense to them why there was such a small amount of blood. It was about as much blood as a nose bleed. At this time, they couldn't test the blood for DNA, but they believed it to be Mary's.

There was a single partial fingerprint in blood on the steering wheel which did not match Mary's print. At this time, police were incredibly confused at where Mary was. Because the undergarments being left with blood, pointed them to a potential rape or torture or a murder. Yet where would Mary be if her car was still at the Lennox shopping plaza? And why did it look like her car had driven on a dirt road if she had only likely driven in the city recently? And why was there only

small traces of blood found in the car to the point where it possibly looks staged? None of it made any sense. Since Roy was still out of town and didn't know what was going on, police phoned him and explained to him that his wife was missing and he needed to return to Atlanta immediately, which he did. At this point, they didn't suspect previous evening, he explained that he was eating supper in his motel room and he finished around 7pm, which by the way was about the same time that Mary was finishing dinner in Atlanta. He then drank three beers and watched TV until it was time for bed, at about 11pm and then he fell asleep.

There was no one that could confirm this though, but his co-workers did see him that day and the following day for the training. By the end of the day, October 15th, 1965, Mary shot well little's face was all over the local news. In the following day, she was on the front page of the Atlanta newspaper, but this publicity was actually bringing a lot more confusion to the case, because cruel people began playing jokes. Someone had called the Atlanta police department and stated that Mary's captor was on a bus to Chicago. Police were able to pull them over, but that turned out to be a hoax. Someone thought that they found her wedding ring in a local river. Also, this was not true.

And then, a dollar bill was found that had these words written on it. Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese cookie factory. Mary shot well little. And by the way, the type of people who do things like this are just screwed up people in my mind. Well, there's another little thing like this, another prank that was pulled during this investigation

that was so messed up. So when Mary was originally reported missing, her parents went straight to Atlanta from Charlotte in hopes of helping with the search and being there for their daughter. While they were staying at Mary and Roy's apartment, the apartment got phone calls from someone whispering, it's Mary, help me. And the police were able to track the phone calls to a person who was playing a

prank. It was like a young person who just thought they were being funny. I think that's absolutely disgusting. Well yeah, especially because these are her parents and all they want is to find their daughter. And then someone's doing this to them like taunting them is so messed up. So since so many pranks were being made by people who had heard about this story in the paper or on the radio, investigators could really only go off the contents of Mary's car at this point in the story. Luckily, Mary and Roy kept a mileage log for the Mercury Comet. So police were able to determine that the car had gone 41 miles since the log was last updated the day that Mary disappeared. Meaning that Mary's potential captor had taken her, likely 20 miles out, done something

to her, and then returned the car to the shopping plaza. That's what police were thinking. And I'm assuming that the reason why they kept this mileage log is so that they could know when they needed to get an oil change or when they needed to service their car. And I feel like a lot of people probably did that back in the day and maybe not so much these days. Yeah, I don't do that, but I mean it helped in this case a little bit kind of give an idea of what potentially happened. And the police kind of felt that maybe the assailant returned the car in an effort to hide evidence from where the crime actually took place, so that police wouldn't have any clues as to where they had taken Mary if that's in fact what happened.

But this also led them to believe that multiple people had to have been involved. Or else how would the car have gotten back without Mary, and how would the assailant have gotten out of the area after dropping off her car back at the plaza? But still, this was a very risky job considering the car would have been returned in broad daylight. Yeah, and that also brings up some questions in my mind. If that person did take Mary and her car Out somewhere did something to her left her body out there drove back to the plaza and dropped it off We have to consider the fact that maybe it's possible that that person lived nearby the plaza or Had had somebody pick them up or could have used a payphone and had somebody pick them up from the plaza and Taking them home without that person knowing

What the intentions of the capture were beforehand. Does that make any sense? Yeah, I totally know what you mean and there's a lot more coming up in the story regarding witnesses That just really just make this a lot more WTFE and complicated, right? Yes. So going back to Roy's questioning, police had a very difficult time interviewing him. He apparently didn't willingly offer up any help or answers to their questions. According to One Detective, you had to drag everything out of him.

But they wondered what his motive would have been since he and Mary were pretty well off financially, and he was only going to be awarded a small sum of money from Mary's life insurance. It also seemed like too much of a coincidence that he was out of town that week, and after speaking to some of Mary's friends, please learn that many of them had a pretty strong distaste for him because they felt like he was incredibly arrogant and somewhat cold. And please felt this same way about Ruey. And although people process emotions differently, investigators also noticed that he seemed completely unconcerned about his wife's disappearance. Even after seeing photos of their car. He seemed more bothered by the fact that they were holding the car because he and Mary

shared it and he said he needed it back so that he could get himself places. Even though they couldn't find a motive for him being responsible, they just felt that something wasn't right about Roy. And apparently, whenever they brought Roy in for questioning, he would never ask about the progress of Mary's case unless they brought it up. He would only ask about other cases, and he also refused to take a polygraph on multiple occasions. Yeah, I got to agree with police.

Something about him just doesn't sit right, and I did read other things about how when they had originally told him that Mary was missing, like he just never really seemed to be that, oh my God, where's my wife type of husband? And yeah, I mean, they'd only been dating for a year and they just got married, but you should care about where she is and at least show some concern one would assume. Right. If you love a person enough to marry them and they go missing, I would assume that you would want to know what the heck happened. Yeah, and so for him to not ask about it or really inquire about it or show concern and go searching everywhere for her, is just kind of weird to me.

There was one witness sighting for the evening Mary went missing, But police questioned how credible this witness sighting was. A woman named Margaret Fargassin had been shopping at the Lennox shopping plaza that Thursday evening, just like Mary, and she was also reportedly in the parking lot at around 8 p.m. at the same time that Mary would have been walking to her car. Apparently, Margaret saw a silver mercury comet around 8 p.m. and said that a woman fitting

Mary's description was at the wheel of the car, driving all by herself. After hearing about Mary's disappearance, Margaret told her husband about it and he reported it to police, and for whatever reason, investigators never questioned her about what she saw. Margaret said she had only noticed the car because she drove the same make-in model. So this makes you question if her abduction was staged, if she was abducted somewhere else, or if someone was hiding in her backseat and making her drive to an unknown location. And you know, that's definitely a possibility that somebody is in the backseat of her car. She gets into the car.

He says, don't turn around, he's got a gun to the back of her head, and tells her to drive. It's very, very possible. Exactly. And I kind of don't know why this woman would lie. I know there was a lot of hoaxes at this time, but it's, I mean, I think all of us kind of do that with the cars that we have. Like, he has a Jeep and it's yellow, so whenever we see a yellow Jeep, it's like, oh, there's another yellow Jeep, you know, you kind of do that. You kind of notice your own car. So I feel like this is really plausible. Yeah, definitely. And it's also possible that he wasn't even in the backseat. This this captor wasn't even in the backseat. He could have been in the passenger seat and pointing his head down by the center console telling her to drive. I mean, there's a

whole bunch of different scenarios that could have happened. Right. But that's that's what makes this witness sighting or potential witness sighting difficult is because there's still so many scenarios of what could have happened, even if she was driving out with seemingly by herself. Yeah, and we also have to consider the fact that people usually, unless they're really looking for a specific situation, sometimes certain details can slip their mind later if that information becomes relevant at a later date. Like like for example, if she sees that car driving out, she may not think anything of it at first and then try to recount all the details later and get some of those details wrong.

So that's also a possibility. That's actually a really good point because at that time all she's thinking is, oh, it's a car just like mine. And oh, there's a woman, but she's not looking at the car because she has no reason to be suspicious or really pay attention to what the whole situation looks like. Right she's not looking for a perpetrator in the car she's just saying oh there's a car just like mine. Cool. Exactly. A few days after Mary disappeared another woman named Carolyn Smitherman called the Atlanta police headquarters to report an incident

that occurred the night of Mary's disappearance. On that Thursday evening, before 8 p.m., so before Mary walked her car to go home, Carolyn was walking to her own car in the Lennox shopping plaza when she felt as though someone was following her. She hurried into her car and locked the doors, and as soon as she did, a man stood at her window. She described him as being thin with a brown crew cut. He grabbed the handle of the driver's side door, and she said, if you think you're going to get in my car, you're crazy. And then the man said, your back tire is low. Instead of getting out of the car to look at it, she drove out of the parking lot

and into a service station that was on her way home. There she got out and checked her tires and none of them were low. So this tells us that there was likely a man at the Linux shopping plaza that night, right before Mary disappeared, who was likely trying to abduct women. Because if this man followed Caroline to her car and then told her that her back tire

was low, that just doesn't really make sense that he would notice that so quickly while trailing behind her. Because as soon as she got into the car, there he was at her window. And if her tire wasn't actually low, he probably was just wanting her to get out of her car to check it so he could maybe then abduct her. And I think people have a pretty good insight or intuitive nature when somebody is following them, you get that creepy sense like, uh, that person's following really close behind me, you know, and in that right there alone can make you feel uncomfortable but then knowing the details afterwards, that's just way too damn suspicious for me. You know, and in that right there alone can make you feel uncomfortable, but then knowing the details afterwards, that's just way too damn suspicious for me. Carolyn was really smart because especially as a woman, you know, in those kind of situations,

you feel, I mean, I would assume even more scared than men do, and she was smart for not just thinking, oh, my tiresloist should probably go look at it because maybe this guy was being nice and he really meant it. But for her to be thinking, this guy is probably trying to do something to me. She obviously had that feeling that there was something off about the situation since he had also been following her. So for her to drive away was really, really smart,

especially since her tire wasn't actually low. Yeah, and this is really reminiscent of one abduction in particular in the zodiac case where he had been driving behind this woman, I think, and he had been trying to get her to pull over saying that her tire was loose and that he would tighten her tire for her with his tire iron, and then, you know, this whole situation went down where he abducted her tire for her with his tire iron and then you know this whole situation went down where he abducted her. So that's one of those things. It's like Carolyn probably was thinking very similar like, I don't know about that, but but you know predators will use something like that in those type of scenarios. Oh hey, your tires low. Let me check it for you or whatever. Yeah, and I totally remember the

zodiac killing that you're talking about where she had a baby, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so in those kind of situations, it's like they're kind of playing the good Samaritan. Oh, let me help you with your tire to kind of catch you off guard. So you're like, oh, this person's trying to help me. And that's how they get you. Yeah, it's just a way of luring a victim in. But it's good to know that this happened around that time because maybe Carolyn drove away and then this man instead saw Mary and played the same trick on her and she fell for it.

Right, and this gives us a good description of a possible abductor in the area around that time. Exactly. So a few weeks into the investigation, detective discovered that Mary's gasoline credit card had been used since she was last seen. And this only furthered the confusion. It was discovered that about five hours after Mary was last seen, her and her husband's gas credit card was used to get gas in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then, 12 hours later, at around noon on Friday, October 15th, which was the day that she

was reported missing, it was used again. But this time, in Raleigh, North Carolina, when investigators found this out, they went to both gas stations and questioned the attendanceants to see if they had seen anything, and both attendants at the separate gas stations had almost identical stories. They each described a situation where one or two unshaven, middle-aged men pulled up in a car to get gas. Both attendants also noticed a woman in the front seat who seemed to be hiding her face with a road map and seemingly attending to an injury on her head. She didn't get out of the vehicle, but she did need to sign the credit card receipt

for each transaction. And the unshaven men or man she was with commanded her to sign. But again, she didn't leave the car. Both credit card receipts were signed Mrs. Roy H. Little Jr. So I think that this can positively confirm that she was abducted and that she was at one point in North Carolina. The, I mean, this part of the story really just gives me the chills because it's so strange. And the biggest issue is this was discovered a few weeks, like three or four weeks after she went missing.

So the attendance didn't really remember what she looked like, and even after seeing photos of Mary, they couldn't confirm whether or not it was her because, again, she was kind of hiding her face. So then it's kind of like, was kind of hiding her face. So then it's kind of like why is she hiding her face and she didn't you know ask for help or anything which a lot of abducted people don't do because they're too scared but it's just weird. And I honestly think the reason why she was probably hiding her face is because her abductors or captors probably told her you're a missing person now, don't show your face or will hurt you, cover your face so that nobody knows that it's actually you in the car.

That makes a lot of sense, and you know, it would make sense too if she had an injury on her head, it's just so strange. And wasn't she from North Carolina? Yes, she was from Charlotte, which makes that even weirder that they happen to be in Charlotte, North Carolina, of all places. The odd thing here is that there's only about a two and a half hour driving distance between Charlotte and Raleigh. Yet they got to Raleigh about 12 hours after they left Charlotte. And the distance between the two cities wouldn't have required another gas fill-up, meaning that they must have gone somewhere else throughout that period of time that morning.

And we have a photo of their seats and we'll post them on our social medias so at going West Podcast for Instagram and Twitter at going West Pod. They both appear to have charged $5.50 or so on the card, which would be around $45 today. So it seems like both stops were to fill up the car. This would make sense driving from Atlanta, Georgia to Charlotte, North Carolina, which is about a 250 mile drive or 400 kilometers. But Charlotte, to Raleigh, is just 170 miles or 400 kilometers. But Charlotte to Raleigh is just 170 miles or 270 kilometers.

Which is so weird because that means that they would have had to have gone somewhere else in North Carolina to use up all those extra miles that weren't accounted for. Right, so where did they go in North Carolina between Charlotte and Raleigh? And the weird thing is that she was spotted at both gas stations. So it's not like there was these guys and then they dumped her somewhere near Charlotte and then they went to Raleigh.

It's like she was there and then her card was never used again. So it's like, why did they need to fill up and where were they going from Raleigh and why were they even in North Carolina? And there's a lot more confusion surrounding this whole car scenario for both things. So first of all, let's go back to her car being found because she disappeared around dinner time in a shopping plaza parking lot.

So there were people around, it's not like her car was hidden or anything. So I don't understand how if something did happen there, someone else would have witnessed it, which is why again, I believe Margaret's witness statement where she saw her driving out where she saw Mary driving out of the shopping plaza. Yeah, and if that's the case, maybe Mary did drive out of the shopping plaza. These two guys see her. One of them tells her to get in the other car, the other guy drives back to the

the plaza drops off her car, picks the guy up and then they take off from there. Well, especially since her car was believed to have not been there overnight, because again, they did two checks, so I don't know how they would have missed her car twice. And that would have, that would mean that multiple people were involved, because by the time that the car was returned to the shopping plaza, the other people, including potentially Mary, were already in North Carolina. So is it possible that the security guards maybe were wrong about not seeing her car? Maybe it was there and they just missed it? It's definitely possible, but then again, if something happened to her in that car in the parking lot, more people would have seen it. And then it just goes again against Margaret's witness statement that she saw someone who looked exactly like Mary driving a silver comet and driving away. So that's why I personally believe the security

guards because I don't know how they would have missed it twice, and I don't know how a crime would have been committed in her car in a parking lot during a popular time to be there. And then there's the whole thing about her car being moved 22 spaces, so her car had to have moved. Right, and also why would those undergarments be on the passenger seat of her car? Like, where, where, when, and where did that happen? Exactly that. And how did she then get out of the area if the car never left? Then they, what, they abducted her in, or they assaulted her in her own car and then took her away in a different car. It's like, that doesn't make sense to me either. So I feel like they would have had to have left in her car. I think one scenario that makes sense to me kind of is that she was abducted in her car,

taken out to a specific location where another car was waiting with another guy in it. She was probably sexually assaulted. The guys took those undergarments, put them on her car. One of the guys drove her car back to the plaza, dropped it off at some point, and then walked to another location to be picked up in order to drive up to North Carolina. That's the only thing that makes real sense to me. But you know what's weird about that?

Is then why leave the undergarments? Why put blood in the car or keep blood in the car? If you're already away from the scene, why not clean it up to make it look like a crime wasn't committed? That makes no sense. I think maybe the abductors were thinking, like maybe she was hitting the head when the first abduction was going down, like in the plaza, and some blood had gotten on the car and either the abductor didn't notice the blood on the car

or just didn't care because they knew that they were going to take her out of that area. But also there was blood on her undergarments. So again, why keep those in the car? Why not just get rid of them with her or whatever? Sure, yeah definitely. I mean, that doesn't make any sense to me. There's a lot more that makes this more confusing. So let's get back to the story. And I think a big question here too is, was the woman in the car in North Carolina, Mary? And to that, I say that they compared the signature on the receipts to Mary's handwriting, and it appeared to be an exact match.

But again, neither of the gas station attendants could confidently say whether or not this woman was Mary because she was covering her face. The attendant in Charlotte, North Carolina did, however, write down the car's license plate number, and after police ran the plates, they discovered that shortly before Mary disappeared, those plates had been stolen, meaning that whoever that man in the car was, had stolen the plates, and put them in the car was had stolen the plates and put them on whichever car he had been driving.

And this isn't the only stolen license plate in the story, by the way. Police discovered that the license plates on Mary's car were in hers either. They were plates from a car in Charlotte, North Carolina that had been stolen days prior as well. This guy is smart. He's switching license plates. He really doesn't, he really wants to throw off investigators and he's doing it in a smart way actually. Exactly, but that's so weird to put different license plates on her car and return it.

Like you may as well park her car in the middle of nowhere or something. Like why park it back at the Lennox shopping center? If it's going to have different plates, just assuming that no one's going to know that that was her car, like eventually they're going to be like, what car is this? Why has it been sitting here forever? Well, maybe that was an attempt to buy some time thinking that police would discover the car and say, Oh, well, those license plates don't match to marries. So that can't be her car. And then at some point they're obviously going to find out it's her car. But at least that buys him time to get out of the area and drive up to North Carolina.

Well, that's what happened at first because they did call the Lennox Square Shopping Center and ask if a car with her description and plates were in the lot, and the security guard said no, and an hour's later, her boss ended up just going over there to check the scene out himself, and that's when he saw her car, and even though they weren't her plates, he looked inside and was like, wait, I think this is Mary's car. Yes, so he was able to positively identify the car. Yes, and then that's how they then discovered after looking inside that it was indeed her in Roy's car and then going back to the car that was seen in North Carolina at the two gas stations it makes sense that they put stolen plates on those because again if they had used their normal plates

then we would probably know who did this since that one gas station attendant wrote down the license plate number. Right. And so they knew that that would probably happen. And so by switching that license plate, they basically just threw off investigators once again. And that's probably one of the key things in this case that had they have not switched those license plate. We wouldn't know who abducted Mary, but since he did, that's probably why he got away with this. So obviously, we know that whoever we're dealing with knows what they're doing. Police wondered if stopping to get gas in North Carolina was the kidnappers way of getting police to stop looking for her in Atlanta, so they continued to look for her in the city as search parties banded together to cover greater land.

Investigators believed that there had to have been multiple people involved. They know that there were either one or two men in North Carolina using her gas card, and that someone else in Atlanta had put her car back earlier that day that she was abducted. And since there would have more than likely been a witness if the attack occurred in the shopping-plaza parking lot, investigators also believed that someone abducted her and forced her to drive out of the area, possibly somewhere out of the city on a dirt road, where she was assaulted, and possibly put in a different car and taken to North Carolina. Which, like we said,

is exactly what we think happened. But they didn't understand why the attacker would return her card to the shopping plaza and why blood was left along with just her undergarments. Again, just like we question. So it's kind of like the police are on the exact same page as us, but it's good because they're like, maybe they're trying to lead us out of Atlanta. So let's keep looking in Atlanta as well as North Carolina and just cover all our bases.

When Mary's parents found out about the charges made to Mary's card a few weeks prior, they went on the news and pleaded for whoever took their daughter to please return her unharmed and they would do anything. Just after this public plea, a call came in to Roy and Mary's apartment from someone demanding $20,000, which is equivalent to over $150,000 today in Ransom and instructed Roy to, at midnight, meet them alone at the overpass in the Pizga National Forest in North Carolina. So again, a whole state away. There, Roy would find a piece of paper with more instructions of where to go.

So this is what the guy is telling him on the phone. An FBI agent on this case was there to hear all of this and originally felt that it was a hoax, but they also wanted to explore the possibility. They didn't want to send Roy out there for his own safety, so they had an FBI agent who slightly resembled Roy go in his place. When the agent arrived to the location, he did find a piece of paper, but it was blank. And the caller never reached out to them again. So the FBI believes that this was yet another prank. And how messed up if it is a prank to make someone go to a whole different state to meet you, and then you're not even there?

Assles. Investigators continued to question those close to Mary to see if they could pick up any clues that way, and they discovered a lot of unusual information. Apparently, a few days before Mary disappeared, she had vaguely confided in an old friend about her fear. She told her that she was scared of being home alone and being alone in her car. And this was new. Mary had lived in Atlanta without a husband for three years prior to this and had never expressed any kind of fears

about being alone. Then some of Mary's co-workers told police about the obscure calls Mary received at the hospital she volunteered at the year prior, the ones that caused her to quit volunteering at the hospital. But, she was also getting calls at her bank job. A few co-workers reported to police that Mary had received some unsettling calls at work, and although she didn't tell anyone at work what the calls were about, many noticed Mary getting flustered or fearful after each call. Some even overheard some of the conversations. In one incident, Mary seemed irritated with someone who called, and she told whoever that was that she was a married woman now. She then went on to tell them, you can come over to my house anytime

you like, but I can't come over there. And the co-workers who heard this call had assumed that it was likely someone who either wanted to date her or had previously dated her, but they all thought it was really weird that she mentioned that they could come to her house, but she couldn't go to theirs. After impatiently explaining to them that she was married, you know that didn't really make sense to them, and it doesn't make sense to me either. The only thing I can think of is, you know how in the beginning of this episode we talked about a guy named William McIntosh Fambro introducing Roy and Mary, and that William was Mary's ex-boyfriend. So I'm thinking it's possible that William and Roy

were friends, and maybe that's why Mary said, you can come over, but I can't come to you. Because if Williams, their mutual friend, it wouldn't be weird if he came over. And maybe after setting them up, William kind of realized how much of a mistake he made and he wanted Mary back. And I'm not sure how close William and Roy were. I do know that they went to Citadel College together, but unfortunately, I couldn't find

any info regarding whether or not the police ever questioned him. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely possible that William has something to do with this. I'm not sure what the dynamic is there, and like you said, how well Roy and Will knew each other, but it's always a possibility that he did want her back. These weird calls had obviously been recent since she stated that she was a married woman now, and as of the day she disappeared, she had only been married for about six weeks. Another unusual detail is that, before she disappeared, Mary received a bouquet of flowers at her work, and there wasn't a card or any indicator of who they were from, but they weren't from her husband Roy.

So it appeared that Mary had some sort of secret admirer, and she apparently frustratingly threw these into the garbage, so she was not happy about receiving these roses at all. Investigators then found out that the flowers were purchased from a florist near Mary's home. When they got there, they explained to the store clerk that they needed to know who sent the flowers, but the store clerk wasn't sure and wasn't able to obtain any of the details regarding who purchased these flowers. And if she was getting weird calls and then a bouquet of flowers, it makes sense that this

could be from the same person. You know, someone she knew, someone who wasn't so secret to her, but a secret to everyone else, and obviously they knew where she worked, so if this person did have something to do with her disappearance, they could have easily followed her to the shopping center from work, park their car near hers in the lot, and attack her when she returned. But it feels like there absolutely has to be more than one person involved, so it being a single admirer doesn't make that much sense to me, even though that theory seems so obvious.

And this seems more like a stalker scenario to me. Investigators continued to work on this case, but as the weeks and months rolled on, they had virtually nothing to go off of. The evidence that they had was just too strange and confusing, but then another local woman fell victim to something horrible, and she just happened to be connected to Mary's shot well little. After Mary disappeared, a 22-year-old woman named Diane Shields, who was a beautiful blonde woman, became

the new secretary at CNS National Bank in downtown Atlanta. Diane even took over Mary's old desk and became friends with the same co-workers that Mary was close to. Weirdly enough, Diane also began living with a couple of women from Mary's first apartment in Atlanta before she married Roy. But the following year, Diane Shields moved in with her sister and took a different job as a receptionist for a different company. On Friday, May 19, 1967, so just over a year and a half after Mary disappeared, Diane left

her new job downtown in her Chevy Impala and headed home. But hours passed and Diane never showed up at her apartment. As the evening rolled on, police patrolling the East Point neighborhood of Atlanta came across a Chevy Impala parked a skew at a laundromat. It was close to the drive-in window, and the reason police really noticed the vehicle was because there appeared to be blood coming out of the closed trunk. They immediately investigated the scene to find that no one was inside the car, yet the keys were sitting in its ignition. When they weirdly opened the trunk, they found the fully-clothed body of a young blonde

woman shoved inside. Something that stood out to police right away was the fact that she had her diamond engagement ring on, so this wasn't a robbery gone wrong. And they soon discovered that she was also not sexually assaulted, so that wasn't the mode of either. She had a blunt force injury to the back of her head and a piece of paper and a scarf stuffed down her throat as if the assailant was trying to keep her quiet. It was 22-year-old Diane Shields.

And this is probably the weirdest part about this entire story to me because this makes me feel like it's possible that this stalker or a a doctor, or a captor, if you will, was somebody who frequented that bank or had noticed the women who worked at the bank. That's actually definitely possible. I had not thought of that scenario. So as investigators looked into Diane's murder, they started to see the parallels to Mary Shotwell Little's case and they even discovered that Diane had previously received roses when she worked at the bank just like Mary had. But they also quickly found that

those roses were sent to Diane as a thank you from a babysitting client. So it wasn't from a secret admirer, meaning that there was no connection in that way, and we also don't know that she received any kind of strange calls like Mary had. So this might have just been an odd coincidence, but still, investigators felt that there was no doubt that Diane's case was connected to Mary's. Some of Diane's friends remember Diane being incredibly secretive in the months leading up to her murder, which made them wonder what she was hiding. Soon after her death, one of Diane's friends named Gail came forward and explained that Diane had told her that she was working undercover with police to help solve the murder of an Atlanta woman by the name of Mary. This was never officially confirmed because none of the investigators came forward and said that Diane had been helping out.

So many people speculate that one of the detectives possibly told Diane to keep an eye out since she had been working at the bank and living with the same women that Mary did. So maybe she wasn't officially an informant, but she wanted to help. And this only makes you feel like maybe Mary knew something about her job that she shouldn't have. Something that Diane found out too, because it's odd to me that Diane seemingly stopped working at the bank and living with those co-workers that Mary used to, very suddenly. And that's the only real connection I could think of, and they were both scared leading up to the end. So I think it's definitely possible that it was a new too much situation for both of them

somehow potentially involving work. Like there was a possibility of corruption within that company. And obviously we don't know what what kind of details that would have entailed, but I just think it's weird that they both seemed really off before their disappearance flash death. In 1967, after Diane Shields was found murdered, Mary's mother Margaret called the Atlanta detective that she knew had been working on Mary's case, and she told him that she didn't want them investigating Mary's case anymore.

And not because they hadn't been doing anything and she was fed up, she just simply called to say that she wanted the investigation to end. And this was very strange to the detective because why would she not want them to find her daughter? Especially since it had only been about a year and a half. So he began thinking that maybe Mary did stage her own disappearance and that Margaret knew that Mary was still alive. And maybe she felt guilty about investigators continuing to work on Mary's case in trying

to find her, or she was worried that maybe they would discover that Mary actually didn't disappear at all, but that she was trying to get out of a bad situation in Atlanta. Both Mary's shot well little and Diane Shield's cases are still unsolved to this day. It's not been confirmed whether or not they're connected, but many theorize that they are. Roy eventually quit his job because of the suspicion that surrounded him and all the negative publicity that affected the company. He didn't like that police knew exactly where to find him and always pestered him while

he was at work. About three years after Mary disappeared, he officially got a divorce from her so he could marry someone else. But that relationship didn't work out so he divorced again and relocated to Florida. He's declined every interview request regarding Mary's disappearance since she disappeared. I just find this whole thing regarding Roy incredibly odd. Because again, I know that everyone reacts differently to bad news, but to not show any concern for your new wife's disappearance after potentially her blood and her undergarments

were found in the car is pretty unbelievable to me. Yeah, he just doesn't really seem like the best husband in my opinion, but I guess to each their own. That's true. Maybe he was just a shitty guy. Maybe he's not a killer or a hire to kill or he's just not a good dude. Yeah, I mean, that's very possible. I can't say that Diane and Mary's cases are connected because we just don't know. We really don't know. I mean,

yeah, they work the same job, they knew the same people. Is it possible that they are connected? Sure, but where's the evidence that they are connected? That's where my question comes in. Many believe that these cases are linked to a potential sex scandal at the CNS National Bank. Because around the time that Mary disappeared, there was talk of lesbian sexual harassment and possible prostitution within the company. An FBI agent was even sent to the office to investigate this, but they didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Apparently, Mary was aware of the scandal

and had told a friend about it, so some believe that Diane told a friend about it, so some believe that Diane then found out about it and this is possibly what they knew too much about. Their boss has since said that he barely remembers that scandal because it wasn't a very big deal and it involved lower level workers. He doesn't believe at all that it was a big deal to have killed women over it by any means. In this case, the only real DNA that they had was that partial fingerprint. And I'm sure some of you are wondering if they ever were able to test that fingerprint or the blood found in Mary's car with modern technology.

But strangely enough, all of the Atlanta police files on Mary's case, including all of the evidence, inexplicably disappeared just like Mary did. The FBI still has their files on Mary's case, but the documents were never completed and they didn't have any of the evidence in their possession. No one can explain where these files went, but it only adds to the massive confusion surrounding this case. Mary's father Nathan died of a heart attack in 1979, and her mother Margaret lived until

2011. Her sister, Judy, is still alive, and we're sure she wants justice for her big sister, yet this case remains very much unsolved. Even though Mary vanished almost 55 years ago, it's possible that the answer to her case is still out there. If you know anything about the disappearance of Mary's shot well little, or the murder of Diane Shields, please call the Atlanta Police Department at 404-546-6900. 6, 6, 9, 0, 0. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody for listening, and next week we'll have an all-new case for

you guys to dive into. It's about that time for the shout-outs. Thank you so much to everybody who left us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts this week. Big thanks to Rosie and Angleton Texas, Livy and the Bay Area, California, and thank you so much to JB and Pensacola, Florida. And then we have a big thanks going to Astrid, the Ghost, and Connecticut. One of our listeners from Rolly North Carolina, you didn't leave your name, but it was a really nice review, and Kristen and Salem Oregon.

Thank you so much to Gary and Yerika Yuta, Opal and Tusting California, and big thanks to Michael Riverdog Rankin and Ohio. And then we have a big thanks going out to Jacob and Missoula Montana, Michelle and Colorado Springs, Colorado, Liz and Phoenix, Arizona, and last but not least, Naomi in England. Thank you guys so much for leaving us a review. If you guys dig the show, please tell a friend, please leave us a review. We really, really appreciate it.

But don't forget to leave your name and your location so we can give you a shout out. And now it's time to give things to our new patrons for those who don't know. Patreon is a place where you can get bonus episodes and it really, really helps out this show. So thank you so much to our new patrons, Stephanie, Dawn, Alex, Andy, Candice, and Ashley. And a big thanks to Taylor, Patricia, Melissa, Natalie, and Lindsay. Thank you so much to Brittany, Bri, Kristen, Lara, and Pauline. And a big thanks to Hene, Emily, Nikaia, and Nive. And last but not least, thank you so much to Makayla, Britt, Sarah, Scott, and Lisa. Again, you guys are the heart and soul of going west. Thank you so

much. And the link for our Patreon is in the description below if you guys want to join. We love you guys so much, so thank you. All right, so for our Patreon is in the description below if you guys want to join. We love you guys so much so thank you. Alright, so for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger. Thank you. you