Name: Joanne Gladys Garr
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: November 24, 1971
Location Last Seen: Dearborn Heights, Wayne County, Michigan
Date of Birth: December 1, 1940
Age: 31 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'1" - 5'4"
Weight: 110 - 130 lbs
Hair Color: Auburn, medium in length
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Joan; Joanne Ross
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Freckles on face, arms, and legs
Dentals: Available; MtDNA
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Joanne contacted her first husband by phone on the evening of November 24, 1971, the night before Thanksgiving Day, and arranged to meet him early the following morning to take her two children, who were living with him, to see the J.L. Hudson Parade in downtown Detroit. Joanne never showed up. She also never arrived at a friend's house who had invited her for Thanksgiving dinner. Her car was later found abandoned. She has never been seen again.
At the time of her disappearance, Joanne was employed as a secretary at the Hygrade Food Products Corporation in Southfield and was last seen there the day she disappeared. She gave no indications that she was quitting her job and left personal items behind at her desk. She had gotten the job six weeks earlier, and when the company failed to hear from her, she was terminated from her job.
By late December, when her mother realized that neither she, nor her children had heard from her since before Thanksgiving, she contacted Joanne’s second husband, Philip Garr, whom she had been married to for less than a year, to ask where she was. Philip first told her that Joanne was visiting a friend in Ohio, then changed his story to say that she had gone to Illinois. Then he changed his story again to say that she had come home, packed her bags, told Garr she was leaving for good, and drove away with another man in a car with Ohio license plates. Joanne was reported missing to the Detroit Police Department’s 12th Street Precinct by her mother on December 31, 1971.
Several people, including Joanne's mother, had reported that Joanne had black eyes and bruises on her body at various times during her second marriage. She told her mother she got her injuries by falling down a flight of stairs.
Agency Name: Michigan State Police
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 248-584-5740
Agency E-Mail: MSP-MissingPersons@michigan.gov
Agency Case Number: 21-4659-10
NamUs Case Number: 7708
Added: 10/7/10 Last Updated: 3/24/22 - By: Doe-NamUs-App
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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