Mouse over to enlarge. The image on the right is of Dixon's Datsun B210 Honey Bee.
Mouse over to enlarge. The image on the right is of Dixon's Datsun B210 Honey Bee.
Name: Nan Cecile Dixon
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: September 22, 1978
Location Last Seen: Lovelock, Pershing County, Nevada
Date of Birth: August 4, 1905
Age: 73 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 4'8"- 4'10"
Weight: 110 - 120 lbs.
Hair Color: Graying red hair.
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Nanny Leighton
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available
Clothing: Usually wore a dress, 50's/60's style.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Dixon was last seen in Grass Valley, California on September 21, 1978. She was leaving for a nearly three-hour trip to visit her brother, Harry Leighton, and his family in Seven Troughs, Nevada, near Lovelock, in an unincorporated part of Pershing County, NV. She planned to have dinner in Boomtown, NV, on the day of her departure.
Dixon was last seen driving her 1976 Datsun B210 4-door, lime green-yellow in color with California license plate #915RHV. Dixon never arrived at her destination and her family reported her missing a short time later. The sheriff of Pershing County at the time, said that his office didn't have any evidence that Dixon had ever reached his county. However, nearly three months later, Dixon's husband received a charge card bill for $4.18 from a Texaco gas station in Lovelock. The new revelation prompted a subsequent round of searches, but there were no results.
Dixon's family hired psychics and private investigators and sent them to Nevada. In November 1982, the car Dixon was driving was found by coyote hunters in a ravine below the main road of the Seven Troughs turnoff. The abandoned vehicle was found in a snow-covered mining area called Eager Pitcher, 27 miles north of Lovelock. The area had been previously searched from the air and by ground and the car had not been concealed with brush or other cover. However, it was in such a position as not to be seen unless viewed directly down from a cliff above.
The car appeared to have been deliberately driven over a rocky road and into the ravine. Tire tracks could be seen where it left the road and traversed down into the gulch. The tires were badly scuffed from having been driven over the rocky road, but otherwise held air and were considered to be in reasonably good condition. The car also contained a half tank of gasoline.
A possible suicide note had been planted inside the car. Family members do not believe Dixon would kill herself because she was "strong and lively". Also, the note had not been signed.
Disturbing evidence found inside the car included four empty cigarette cartons. Although Dixon had been a light smoker who only took part in the habit occasionally, it seemed highly unlikely that she had consumed four cartons of cigarettes within the confines of her vehicle. Besides, the cartons were not of the same brand that Dixon had smoked. Portions of black electrical tape were found inside the car as well, and one roll that was intact contained a single hair and what appeared to be tissue attached to it. What appeared to be bloodstains were found on a mat inside the trunk, as well as on a tire and a rim, suggestive of the possibility that a body had been transported in the car's trunk. A suspect in the case has since passed away. The Pershing County Sheriff's Department closed the case as a "suicide," and in the years since Dixon's disappearance all of the evidence in the case has also disappeared.
Agency Name: Nevada County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Detective Robert Jakobs
Agency Phone Number: (530)-265-7012
Agency E-Mail: sheriff@co.nevada.ca.us
Agency Case Number: 1780-7455
Agency Name: Pershing County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Sergeant Michael Stephens
Agency Phone Number: (775)- 273-2641
Agency E-Mail: mstephens@pershingcounty.net
Agency Case Number: PC-017933
NamUs Case Number: 17992
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs
North American Missing Persons Network
Added: 7/27/2009; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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