The one lead that said she was living with a woman. Couldn't have been she ran away to be with her lover? It could just be a case of she realized she was gay and knew her family wouldn't support her through this. So she felt it better to just get away from everyone and live her life with her partner.
that’s what i’ve been thinking. i think maybe bobby wilson posed as a man when they got a marriage license and beverly used a different name. because it was a time when people wouldn’t have expected her to actually to be gay, i don’t think they would have searched for a bobby wilson in the marriage records
I think she got herself involved with a married man and got pregnant. He could have told her that they would run away together and get married. I think it's possible that he picked her up from the train station, took her somewhere, killed her, dumped her body, then returned to town as if nothing happened. It would explain why they never heard from her again.
Yup! I feel like that is the most likely with the few facts we are left. An abortion is plausible, but I can’t help thinking that, even at the last minute, you tell your best girlfriend, especially when there were complications and whatever at the time partly because a doctor would not be connected to a hospital with that procedure. My hesitation with a secret relationship is her friends/family would have noticed her missing for big blocks of time.what a frustrating story!
I've got two theories: 1). She was pregnant and ran away to avoid being forced giving her baby up for adoption. This could explain why she ran off and supposedly got married. 2). Beverly was secretly lesbian and ran off to "marry" her female lover. This could explain why there was no records saying she got married, because back during the time she disappeared, gay marriage and being gay was illegal. This could also explain why she was living with a female named Bobby Wilson.
I wonder if she died of a botched abortion. This goes along with the pregnancy theory and wanting to tell her mother something. It's possible that she needed the money to pay for the abortion, maybe that she was taking a train and an overnight bag. Maybe, when it went wrong whoever was performing the abortion sent the telegram to her parents so explain away her absence.
I would look at extended family DNA. If she was still out there and possibly had children there is a possibility to cross reference DNA with all family. Looking for different ancestry sites.
Every time a story like this comes across my various social media sites, I can't help but watch. My Great-Grandma Hazel had no birth certificate, and she also didn't have an SSN. It caused quite a lot of stress for my grandfather (her son) and my grandmother when she passed away. I'm still not sure how they were able to convince the court house to give them a death certificate. I don't believe that my great-grandmother is Beverly, but I will always wonder if Hazel had people missing her too. I've never seen any articles about a missing woman named Hazel either.
It sounds like she did leave voluntarily but that doesn't mean she was safe. I have a few theories 1. She was seeing a guy, maybe an older guy she thought no one would approve of. Maybe he convinced her to leave with him. 2. She just wanted to get away. I did this. I hated living in a small town and just wanted out. Maybe she wanted change. Some people have secrets and dreams even their closest friends don't know 3. She was in trouble. Maybe pregnant. Maybe avoiding a stalker. One girl I heard about ran away because a neighbor was abusing her. She told no one and her mom had no idea, until 20 years later. She left at a time you really could disappear forever. I hope she ended up okay. The not knowing would be awful
I can't imagine being her mother, wondering all these years what happened if I insisted on knowing what Beverly wanted to tell me that evening.. Possibly blaming myself. So sad she lived with that until she died
I wonder if there were any underlying 'problems' with her family. Maybe she did not see eye to eye on some things with her family. The idea of an unplanned pregnancy seems likely though. It seems to fit for the times.
Being a mother--this one made me tear up just hearing the family pleading with her through the newspaper and then to anxiously wait, never to hear anything back. So sad. To have no closure. Such a nightmare for any loving parent to endure.
"Her family recived a postcard from Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania--" HOLY SHIT THAT'S MY HOMETOWN. A town of like 800 people gets a mention on one of my fav RUclips's vids
My mom graduated high school in 1948. I know from what she's talked about that girls generally did not leave home until they got married, although leaving school to work or marry was not at all uncommon. Girls of that era who ran away and did not contact their family did so for only two reasons. Shame. Or insanity. Beverly had a secret. One she wanted to tell, but couldn't. The fact she planned her disapperance carefully, was not exhibiting odd behavior, and covered her tracks says she didn't have a breakdown and run off. Pregnancy is the first possibility that springs to mind, but the fact she had no male suitors or close friends makes me wonder if she was raped. This would make her feel irredeemable in the eyes of society because in this era the victim was to blame. I wonder if anyone thought to check birth records and see if anyone named Beverly Sharpman or Lee Smith or some variation gave birth in the weeks or months following her disappearance, or placed a child for adoption. South Carolina would be a good place to start. It's also possible she was involved in something criminal, something she was forced to do, and left to escape whoever was behind it. This would be hard to determine, since we don't know what kind of crime it might be.
I come from a family full of people leaving voluntarily, pregnancies out of wedlock, changing names and records, multiple non recognized weddings, etc. some of which during this exact time period. I wouldn't be surprised if she became pregnant and left, left with a lover (likely someone that wouldn't be approved of) or just wanted to get away and not be found. My grandmother was missing for over 40 years and it was discovered after her death, that she had been living in a suburb of the city she originally left, so that's certainly possible. I feel so sorry for her family! I just hope Beverly lived a happy life.
Also, I'm still lobbying for you to cover the three missing Springfield, MO women who disappeared without a trace in 1992. Sheryl Levitt, her daughter, Suzie Streeter and Suzie's friend, Stacy McCall. I'd love to get your take on it.
And it is well know today that pregnant women are at increased risk of being killed if they are pregnant, and a pregnancy might have been unacceptable to the father, so she was essentially tricked into leaving home, but was actually killed by the father of her child.
My first thought was she's being abused by a family member,hence the secret, as not wanting to either upset her or, possibly not be believed (sadly very common). It also fits with being too ashamed to tell her best friend. That's one thing that's still incredibly taboo & would have been even more so then.
My first thought as well, and the only reason I could think of why she wouldn't have told her best friend anything was that it had to be someone that was too scandalous even for her to admit to her friend... which is why I think it was someone older and married, who promised her he'd leave his wife for her, and lured her away and killed her to keep her from revealing the pregnancy and their affair.
Maybe she was pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers and possibly died in child birth and never gave her true name. Therefore, no one would have had a clue who she was or that family was searching for her.
Okay hear me out... So the abortion theory at the end made me think about how she just had a suitcase and not much of her belongings at all. Maybe she went out of the state/to a diff part of the state to get an abortion and it went wrong? The fact there has being no sightings or even communication with the family/relatives is a little off especially with her personality type and there being no trigger for her not to talk to them or leave subtle hints. So she'd be a Jane doe or she hasn't being found yet. The hint of the girl 40 miles away from her parents home could have being the surgeon who accidentally killed her That's my theory anyway I really hope she actually did run off to get married n lived a good life but it's still such a sad thing to happen
All I can think of is maybe so there's this young girl walking down the street with a suitcase, and some weirdo spots her and decides to engage her in conversation. Who knows where she ended up.
Obviously this is just speculation, but I wonder if maybe if Beverly was gay or even transgender. From what I know about LGBT history, for a long time the concept of transitioning wasn't even a thing to most people, and instead they'd often settle for a more gender-neutral or androgynous style of gender presentation since they didn't know there was any other way to be. The fact that a tip came in that Beverly was living with a 'girl named Bobby' in SC, and that the letter later suspected to be from her was by a 'Lee', which could easily be a derivative of 'Beverly', both make me consider this. It's possible she left to symbolically 'marry' a girl that she was in love with, they shortened their names, and left the state together. To an outsider in the 40s, two girls traveling and even living together wouldn't be that strange. Most peoples' minds wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that they were a couple, rather friends or even sisters. But to let *anything* slip to their immediate family about the nature of their relationship, they'd almost certainly face intense backlash. It makes me wonder if there were any other missing girls from nearby states that might fit in with Beverly's timeline.
also because people’s minds didn’t immediately go to they might’ve been gay when they found out about the existence of a girl she lived with they probably wouldn’t have looked up bobby’s name in the marriage records, and it is entirely possible bobby posed as a man and beverly used the name lee davis on their license
Hi Gabby! You should look into the Erik Stirling Cross case, it happened in my hometown. He was only 16 when he was killed in what the police first thought was a hit and run, they now believe he was killed before he was struck by a car. It's one of those cases where there just isn't enough evidence to charge the people the police believe are responsible for this poor boy's death. There has been a few breaks in the case recently, but there's still not quite enough to put these people behind bars.
The very first thing I thought, when she started to talk to her mother, was that she had been raped and/or was pregnant. The fact that she never came back makes me wonder if it was someone close to, or a member of, the family
I know some vital records from that time are... easily ’faked’ and hard to find. I’m still searching for how my great grandmother’s first marriage ended in the 20’s, to trying to find any trace of her or her family before or since. I just found my great grandfather’s obituary and headstone, my dad had been told their wasn’t one and that no one knew where he was buried. My great grandmother and grandmother were both listed on both.
I wonder if maybe she ran away because she was pregnant... she wanted to tell her mom something but then didn't... I don't know. I feel so sad for her parents, not ever knowing what happened to their baby girl... what a sad outcome. EDITED TO ADD: I thought of the pregnancy thing before you mentioned it as a main theory. Seems to me that, for the time, it makes the most sense when you're talking about a girl from a nice family like that just deciding to leave. But then something must have happened to her to prevent her from returning.
I'm wondering if she was gay???I live here..(a few minutes from FairlessHills PA).things were/ARE strange here...I'm thinking about the Carolina's story....African Americans were paid to not move into the area back then.(I'm not from here)/I'm from NJ/ but my guess ...is she left because of something she would be discriminated for.
@@jessicastraub1132 that is possible. Pregnancy seemed most likely and then she either died giving birth or someone bad found her? But definitely, homosexuality would be something she might hide, too. It was a rough time to be either gay or pregnant out of wedlock as a teen (or ANY age, really, then).
My reasoning is living here...Ex: in NJ where I'm from you might have seen people prejudiced against different races....BUT here(where she mentioned Fairless Hills) they literally narr6it down to countries that your family came to America from...(Philly was like that then, Polish, German ,Italian, Irish...etc) I'm definitely thinking there was a fear of threat at that time because not a lot has changed here....
Beverly could've bought a ticket abroad with her cash. Maybe she used an alias to do it? Australia was a popular place to move at the time. Maybe they could've checked the docks or airports?
I know it’s just a theory but my mind went to mail order brides. They were less frequent in that time but were still going on. If she wasn’t happy at home or wanted a new life she could have easily done this.
Hi Gabby! I'm glad to see you again! I've missed your sleuthing & story telling! This one is a whopper, huh? I'm curious, what happened to Beverly's brother? He died young! I've never heard about Beverly before, I'm thankful that you did all this research, for November. It's theorized that she might have been pregnant & she left because of that. I feel horrible for the family she left behind. Thank you for all your hard work!😍😘💋❤ from Texas!
Could she have been groomed? The amount of money Beverly had might not have been "a lot" but to someone who has nothing... People have been done away with for less.
Back in those days, they had newspaper personal ads that would have a man looking for a wife etc. Perhaps she thought she was in love with some mystery man and he lured her somewhere and killed her. I just can't imagine that if she had been alive, that she would not have contacted her Mother! I think the telegram was from the killer.
I wonder if she wanted to tell her mother she was pregnant, but then was too ashamed, married the baby's father, and ran off with him, not wanting to face her family. Poor Beverly. I hope she has had a beautiful life and that the man she married was very good to her. ❤️
Gabby you are so beautiful,and your content is always so interesting. Thank you so much for all the work you put into bringing your viewers great videos.
From everything stated in this video and the situation in general, I'd say personally that Beverly left of her own accord and very likely with a lover (I say lover because there's no info on Beverly's sexual orientation, which could also be a reason for slipping away, much like the pregnancy theory). We do get blindsided when we're in love, nothing feels more important especially in those early years, when it seems like the only important thing in the whole world is that you be with them. I'd say that's a point when someone might make a rash decision without much considering the consequences of their actions on others, even those they love. Hence leaving without explanation, without a goodbye, etc. As for why she never got in touch even years later, that's a little more difficult to determine. That could be down to anything from shame at living circumstances or at the reason for leaving in the first place, anxiety that people would be angry at her for leaving in the first place, etc. Who knows? But I would say for sure that she left because she wanted to and likely stayed away because she wanted to as well. Great video Gabi! Much enjoyed! xx
i think she got pregnant and changed her name,moved somewhere she wasnt known,changed her appearance,maybe told people her "husband" died. my grans sister did the same in the 1950's.
Maybe she was gay...? It would explain why none of her friends knew about any relationships, why she wanted to talk to her mother but ultimately chose not to and why she never came back.
Exactly everyone keeps saying she was pregnant... No..... she didn't want to shame her family and she surely didn't want rejection so she walked away I totally believe she was gay
Perhaps she stayed so close to home because she figured with her telling her coworkers she was going to Chicago and her dreams of moving to LA people wouldn't look near by. And the letter from "Lee" after she was officially listed as a missing person makes me think she was trying to get people to look internationally for her instead by telling them they maybe need the help of foreign police. Unfortunately though, this feels to me more like she ran away with somebody, possibly got pregnant and eloped, and then that person killed her because nothing about the beginning of this story makes me think she was planning on never contacting her family again, more just getting out town until things calmed down or something.
Reading comments makes me lean heavily towards the theory that she may have been gay. It makes tons of sense and would explain why she was possibly seen living with a woman despite supposedly being married and why there were no marriage certificates in her name since it wouldn't have been a legal marriage.
@@samanthagreen576 i think the key to finding her isn’t in Jane does of the murdered but those who committed suicide especially elderly does sense I could see her choosing to end it when she was elderly and wanting to die as who she became not the person who she was who ran away
Hey Gabulosis, Is there any background information you can gather regarding the "Beautiful Suicide (?)" of 1947? Here's the cursory story: Evelyn Francis McHale was an American bookkeeper who took her own life by jumping from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. A photograph taken four minutes after her death by photography student Robert Wiles subsequently gained iconic status, being referred to as "the most beautiful suicide". How do we know she jumped? Thanks if you can shine a light of insight on her story.
Several of these cases end up, with the person leaving unexpectedly, passing away for one reason or another and they end up being a Jane Doe. Since they had made it a considerable distance, it makes it difficult to identify a dead body.
My first thought was that maybe she was feeling like she was not heterosexual. A alternate sexuality at that time would be VERY unacceptable. She wanted to leave her hometown to make a new life in another place where she could live her life the way she wanted to. Even saying she got 'married' could mean she met another woman who felt the same as she did.
Yes, definitely. Or maybe even an African American man. Sadly, multi racial relationships weren't accepted back then, just as same sex relationships weren't.
@@d.subramaniam1147 I would imagine if she did mention something about her orientation to her family in the past, they may have said something hurtful (like they’d disown or harm her), so she decided to cut them off completely. Returning would cause a lot of attention and questions, and it would be very hard for her to reunite with her family and then go back to stay with her lover without prying eyes.
Hello, Gabby. I hear that you're not in good condition. I hope that you're doing well and stay healthy ❤️ I have a mental illness, so I was worried about you. You must be got a hard time, but still let's be strong. I know you can do it
Hello Gabby and Theta, who is such a little cutie, and I hope that things on the home front are settling down for you. It does make other parts of your life difficult when things are rough at home. As for Beverly here's my 10 cents worth. I believe that she was pregnant and had somebody at her workplace, possibly married, who she was in a relationship of sorts with. I believe that person was older, at least by 6 or 7 years, whom she got pregnant to and that person, as well as Beverly, did not want the child and so she left the area to get an abortion. I believe that he told her not to say anything to anyone and she was a kid and very trusting of this man so she kept their affair a secret. The money she had withdrawn from her account wasn't the only money she had as her lover gave her some too. I think that part of the proceedings were arranged beforehand and when she left her lover was expected to follow her at a later date or at least TOLD HER he would, but neither one wanted the child. So Bev goes on ahead, fully expecting to get rid of the baby and get settled into her new home when either of 2 things occurred. Firstly she could have died due to the abortion and been buried somewhere by the abortionist and her body wasn't found or secondly after the procedure he, her lover, comes and kills her anyway to hide their relationship and her body is never found. I believe that the night before she left she was about to tell her mother about leaving but chickened out because she didn't want her plans affected and her lover had told her not to or she didn't want to hurt her mother. Either way I think she died or was killed around the time she left the area. I feel enormously sad for her parents, especially her mother who would have wondered every day for the rest of her life just what happened to her only daughter. So very sad that there was never any resolution and everyone from her former life is dead. I hadn't heard this story before and you did it justice. Take care of yourself!
If she really had a good relationship with her family, I cannot understand how she would leave and never contact them again. Or her friends for that matter. She could have left on her own free will but that didn't mean she didn't come to harm's way
😢 Where did you go, Beverly? Thanks for your video Gabby. So sad and mysterious. Lot of fake news in letters deceiving family members. Personally I think Beverly may have originally ran off but maybe someone harmed her soon after Thanks again Gabby. Look forward to your next video 🎄🎄🎄🎄💜🌟 Black Kitty is gorgeous 😍
True story. When we were in high school one of the girls from our class came to school, then ran away leaving behind a note. Her friends actually knew the reason and spilled the beans pretty soon. Turns out she ran away with a man and they managed to get married (I don't know how that worked considering she was underage at the time). This was the 2000s so they were found rather quickly. I don't know if that would have been the case more than 70 years ago.
Were there any men, married or single, who also left town in that time frame? Not on the day necessarily but around it? Maybe pregnant, man who left met up with here and took permanent care of the problem.. My heart goes out to her family never knowing what became of her
Hi Gabby this was a very sad story and 73 year old cold case. Not sure if she was pregnant, maybe she had a friend help her. However, it's strange that someone spotted Beverly Sharpman in SC. with a Bobbi Wilson friend? Hope she lived her life somewhere and just wanted to be on her own. This is still a baffling mystery. Not sure just guessing. Well stay well and safe!
May be she was gay, and the man who reported seeing her with an other woman was her wife. May be they didn't marry in a legal way, but in their own way. May be she disappeared because it wasn't accepted at that time.
Okay this is weird... I took care of a lady who went by "Babe" in a nursing home in Ohio. The weirdest thing is that she was originally from Pennsylvania and was born the same exact year!!! I loved her so much she was the sweetest lady but passed away at the age of 87 in 2018.
Wow...what a coincidence! Have you reported it to the police? Even if the woman passed away two years ago, the nursing home would have records of her and likely contact information for relatives and friends. It may seem like a long-shot but you never know what could happen. The tiniest tidbit of information could break the case wide open.
@@christinacole7019 I looked into her obituary in and it listed the town she grew up in, in PA, name for her parents, her real name was Marjorie (But went by Babe) so I don't think it's the same person! But it's a coincidence for sure.
@@Starfisshh44 Yes, it is a coincidence! It's good that you looked into it. The only possibility may be that the information in her obituary was made up; if Marjorie was a name Beverly started using after she disappeared, then that would also explain why there were no records of her marriage. That's probably far-fetched, but still an interesting thought.
I think she was pregnant as well, maybe she got the money out to get herself checked into a mother's home to give birth and put baby up for adoption. She may have died from the birthing process. Bless her☘
She could have gone into a mother's home under an alias (making herself untraceable since then) and begun another life under that name. It would not have been very difficult to have done that in the 1940s in the USA.
My first thought it that maybe she was pregnant. And if she were pregnant, it was either by someone she had only known for a little while or ny someone she felt her parents wouldn't approve of, which is why they didn't know of any boys she was seeing. Maybe someone who didn't have the best reputation, or maybe someone older. Or maybe it was a one night stand and she was ashamed of telling her parents she had slept with someone she didn't know. Maybe she ran off, and gave herself a new identity, pretending she was older and had been recently widowed to get away from the stigma of being an unwed mother. Or she really did get married under a different name so she couldn't be found. It's possible she died later in childbirth, but because she had changed her name, her parents weren't notified by the doctor or police, and her husband chose not to tell them because they would be angry with him for getting her pregnant and taking her away. Or maybe she died in an accident after she left. Or she was suffering from some sort of mental illness and she thought someone was after her, so she moved around changing her name and appearance frequently, never reaching out because she thought it wasn't safe. Or maybe she was gay and thought her family wouldn't be able to accept it, so she said she left to get married instead.
I think she might've gotten pregnant and then went to get a illegal abortion. Something probably went wrong and she died. Her body was probably dumped somewhere. I think if she wanted to just disappear and get married she would've withdrawn all of her money and waited the few weeks you normally would but if she wanted to get a abortion she probably wanted to get it as soon as possible and only withdrew a certain amount to pay for the abortion and try to get the money as fast as possible. She probably said she got married because she knew she needed some sort of explanation and that was the most socially acceptable?
Two things popped into my mind as soon as you started explaining the circumstances: maybe Beverly was pregnant or she was in a lesbian relationship. Those were two things in those years that would lead somebody to disappear.
I wonder if she made her way up to the Ideal Maternity Home in Canada. Many women and babies died at their hands. I'm sure there were other "maternity" homes around at that time too.
With the postcard saying that she was living with a lady named Bobby Wilson, I wonder if she went off with another woman? That would explain why there was no marriage record. Or maybe with an African American partner of either sex? Multi racial relationships were very frowned upon in those days.
The one lead that said she was living with a woman. Couldn't have been she ran away to be with her lover? It could just be a case of she realized she was gay and knew her family wouldn't support her through this. So she felt it better to just get away from everyone and live her life with her partner.
I was thinking the same thing.
I was thinking the same :)
@@kaceyreed1284 mee too...
That's a possibility that crossed my mind, too.
that’s what i’ve been thinking. i think maybe bobby wilson posed as a man when they got a marriage license and beverly used a different name. because it was a time when people wouldn’t have expected her to actually to be gay, i don’t think they would have searched for a bobby wilson in the marriage records
I think she got herself involved with a married man and got pregnant. He could have told her that they would run away together and get married. I think it's possible that he picked her up from the train station, took her somewhere, killed her, dumped her body, then returned to town as if nothing happened. It would explain why they never heard from her again.
@Leigh Jarley That was my exact thought
I thought she might have gone for an illegal abortion, and ended up dying.
@@edbond7863 That's plausible too
That's another good possibility
Yup! I feel like that is the most likely with the few facts we are left. An abortion is plausible, but I can’t help thinking that, even at the last minute, you tell your best girlfriend, especially when there were complications and whatever at the time partly because a doctor would not be connected to a hospital with that procedure. My hesitation with a secret relationship is her friends/family would have noticed her missing for big blocks of time.what a frustrating story!
I've got two theories:
1). She was pregnant and ran away to avoid being forced giving her baby up for adoption. This could explain why she ran off and supposedly got married.
2). Beverly was secretly lesbian and ran off to "marry" her female lover. This could explain why there was no records saying she got married, because back during the time she disappeared, gay marriage and being gay was illegal. This could also explain why she was living with a female named Bobby Wilson.
Those were my two theories as well. Tho at first I thought batched abortion.
A woman named Bobby… she was def gay
I wonder if she died of a botched abortion. This goes along with the pregnancy theory and wanting to tell her mother something. It's possible that she needed the money to pay for the abortion, maybe that she was taking a train and an overnight bag. Maybe, when it went wrong whoever was performing the abortion sent the telegram to her parents so explain away her absence.
I was thinking that too.
I think that as well.
My great grandfather changed his name a lot
Good Theory.
That's a good possibility
preganncy or being gay would be two secrets that a young woman would want to keep from her family
I would look at extended family DNA. If she was still out there and possibly had children there is a possibility to cross reference DNA with all family. Looking for different ancestry sites.
@@mistiroberts1576 any DNA matches to those kids ?
Misti Roberts hi
I was thinking the extract same thing
Every time a story like this comes across my various social media sites, I can't help but watch. My Great-Grandma Hazel had no birth certificate, and she also didn't have an SSN. It caused quite a lot of stress for my grandfather (her son) and my grandmother when she passed away. I'm still not sure how they were able to convince the court house to give them a death certificate.
I don't believe that my great-grandmother is Beverly, but I will always wonder if Hazel had people missing her too. I've never seen any articles about a missing woman named Hazel either.
You should do a DNA test and see where genealogy points!
It sounds like she did leave voluntarily but that doesn't mean she was safe. I have a few theories
1. She was seeing a guy, maybe an older guy she thought no one would approve of. Maybe he convinced her to leave with him.
2. She just wanted to get away. I did this. I hated living in a small town and just wanted out. Maybe she wanted change. Some people have secrets and dreams even their closest friends don't know
3. She was in trouble. Maybe pregnant. Maybe avoiding a stalker. One girl I heard about ran away because a neighbor was abusing her. She told no one and her mom had no idea, until 20 years later.
She left at a time you really could disappear forever. I hope she ended up okay. The not knowing would be awful
@10:30 - that guy in South Carolina reported her living with a woman.. maybe she was a lesbian and didn't want anyone to find out?
@@merncat75 I thought the same thing
@@bboops23 I'm kind of surprised nobody else mentioned that theory 🤷
@@merncat75 that's what I was thinking. that or she was pregnant
#3 She said the mom knew but her mother said she didn't know at all
I can't imagine being her mother, wondering all these years what happened if I insisted on knowing what Beverly wanted to tell me that evening.. Possibly blaming myself. So sad she lived with that until she died
Oh, I love that! No Trace November! YES!! This is a treat!
I really feel for her family, especially her mother. It must have been horrible to go all those years and never know the truth.
I wonder if there were any underlying 'problems' with her family. Maybe she did not see eye to eye on some things with her family.
The idea of an unplanned pregnancy seems likely though. It seems to fit for the times.
I think her beings closeted lesbian is way more likely
My gut honestly says that she left voluntarily, but with whom and did she end up safe... is another issue.
Being a mother--this one made me tear up just hearing the family pleading with her through the newspaper and then to anxiously wait, never to hear anything back. So sad. To have no closure. Such a nightmare for any loving parent to endure.
"Her family recived a postcard from Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania--"
HOLY SHIT THAT'S MY HOMETOWN. A town of like 800 people gets a mention on one of my fav RUclips's vids
My mom graduated high school in 1948. I know from what she's talked about that girls generally did not leave home until they got married, although leaving school to work or marry was not at all uncommon. Girls of that era who ran away and did not contact their family did so for only two reasons. Shame. Or insanity. Beverly had a secret. One she wanted to tell, but couldn't. The fact she planned her disapperance carefully, was not exhibiting odd behavior, and covered her tracks says she didn't have a breakdown and run off. Pregnancy is the first possibility that springs to mind, but the fact she had no male suitors or close friends makes me wonder if she was raped. This would make her feel irredeemable in the eyes of society because in this era the victim was to blame. I wonder if anyone thought to check birth records and see if anyone named Beverly Sharpman or Lee Smith or some variation gave birth in the weeks or months following her disappearance, or placed a child for adoption. South Carolina would be a good place to start. It's also possible she was involved in something criminal, something she was forced to do, and left to escape whoever was behind it. This would be hard to determine, since we don't know what kind of crime it might be.
I come from a family full of people leaving voluntarily, pregnancies out of wedlock, changing names and records, multiple non recognized weddings, etc. some of which during this exact time period. I wouldn't be surprised if she became pregnant and left, left with a lover (likely someone that wouldn't be approved of) or just wanted to get away and not be found. My grandmother was missing for over 40 years and it was discovered after her death, that she had been living in a suburb of the city she originally left, so that's certainly possible. I feel so sorry for her family! I just hope Beverly lived a happy life.
Also, I'm still lobbying for you to cover the three missing Springfield, MO women who disappeared without a trace in 1992. Sheryl Levitt, her daughter, Suzie Streeter and Suzie's friend, Stacy McCall. I'd love to get your take on it.
@@julier.1902 no, nothing.
Can't believe the cops actually searched. They usually ignored cases like this.
My very first thought what she wanted to tell her Mom, is that she was pregnant. ♦
And it is well know today that pregnant women are at increased risk of being killed if they are pregnant, and a pregnancy might have been unacceptable to the father, so she was essentially tricked into leaving home, but was actually killed by the father of her child.
Yeah. I think she probably went to get a illegal abortion and died. Having a child out of wedlock wasn't really socially acceptable back then
My first thought was she's being abused by a family member,hence the secret, as not wanting to either upset her or, possibly not be believed (sadly very common). It also fits with being too ashamed to tell her best friend. That's one thing that's still incredibly taboo & would have been even more so then.
My first thought as well, and the only reason I could think of why she wouldn't have told her best friend anything was that it had to be someone that was too scandalous even for her to admit to her friend... which is why I think it was someone older and married, who promised her he'd leave his wife for her, and lured her away and killed her to keep her from revealing the pregnancy and their affair.
Maybe she was pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers and possibly died in child birth and never gave her true name. Therefore, no one would have had a clue who she was or that family was searching for her.
Okay hear me out...
So the abortion theory at the end made me think about how she just had a suitcase and not much of her belongings at all. Maybe she went out of the state/to a diff part of the state to get an abortion and it went wrong? The fact there has being no sightings or even communication with the family/relatives is a little off especially with her personality type and there being no trigger for her not to talk to them or leave subtle hints.
So she'd be a Jane doe or she hasn't being found yet. The hint of the girl 40 miles away from her parents home could have being the surgeon who accidentally killed her
That's my theory anyway I really hope she actually did run off to get married n lived a good life but it's still such a sad thing to happen
She didn't say she had an abortion.She said she had a child.
I actually remember that I emailed you her case and that's good we finally got a video on a case I emailed you once
All I can think of is maybe so there's this young girl walking down the street with a suitcase, and some weirdo spots her and decides to engage her in conversation. Who knows where she ended up.
Obviously this is just speculation, but I wonder if maybe if Beverly was gay or even transgender. From what I know about LGBT history, for a long time the concept of transitioning wasn't even a thing to most people, and instead they'd often settle for a more gender-neutral or androgynous style of gender presentation since they didn't know there was any other way to be. The fact that a tip came in that Beverly was living with a 'girl named Bobby' in SC, and that the letter later suspected to be from her was by a 'Lee', which could easily be a derivative of 'Beverly', both make me consider this. It's possible she left to symbolically 'marry' a girl that she was in love with, they shortened their names, and left the state together. To an outsider in the 40s, two girls traveling and even living together wouldn't be that strange. Most peoples' minds wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that they were a couple, rather friends or even sisters. But to let *anything* slip to their immediate family about the nature of their relationship, they'd almost certainly face intense backlash. It makes me wonder if there were any other missing girls from nearby states that might fit in with Beverly's timeline.
That was also my first thought
also because people’s minds didn’t immediately go to they might’ve been gay when they found out about the existence of a girl she lived with they probably wouldn’t have looked up bobby’s name in the marriage records, and it is entirely possible bobby posed as a man and beverly used the name lee davis on their license
Good point. The fact that she started to tell her mother something but decided not to at the last minute makes your theory plausible.
That’s my theory
That could be it.
Considering how society treats LGBTQ PLUS badly now.
Back then she could have been put in a psych ward
Hi Gabby! You should look into the Erik Stirling Cross case, it happened in my hometown. He was only 16 when he was killed in what the police first thought was a hit and run, they now believe he was killed before he was struck by a car. It's one of those cases where there just isn't enough evidence to charge the people the police believe are responsible for this poor boy's death. There has been a few breaks in the case recently, but there's still not quite enough to put these people behind bars.
Did they check Marriage Certificate again for Lee Davis?
The very first thing I thought, when she started to talk to her mother, was that she had been raped and/or was pregnant. The fact that she never came back makes me wonder if it was someone close to, or a member of, the family
I know some vital records from that time are... easily ’faked’ and hard to find. I’m still searching for how my great grandmother’s first marriage ended in the 20’s, to trying to find any trace of her or her family before or since. I just found my great grandfather’s obituary and headstone, my dad had been told their wasn’t one and that no one knew where he was buried. My great grandmother and grandmother were both listed on both.
You come up with the most unique names for these monthly series!
I love your dedication to vintage cases.
I wonder if maybe she ran away because she was pregnant... she wanted to tell her mom something but then didn't... I don't know. I feel so sad for her parents, not ever knowing what happened to their baby girl... what a sad outcome. EDITED TO ADD: I thought of the pregnancy thing before you mentioned it as a main theory. Seems to me that, for the time, it makes the most sense when you're talking about a girl from a nice family like that just deciding to leave. But then something must have happened to her to prevent her from returning.
I'm wondering if she was gay???I live here..(a few minutes from FairlessHills PA).things were/ARE strange here...I'm thinking about the Carolina's story....African Americans were paid to not move into the area back then.(I'm not from here)/I'm from NJ/ but my guess ...is she left because of something she would be discriminated for.
@@jessicastraub1132 that is possible. Pregnancy seemed most likely and then she either died giving birth or someone bad found her? But definitely, homosexuality would be something she might hide, too. It was a rough time to be either gay or pregnant out of wedlock as a teen (or ANY age, really, then).
My reasoning is living here...Ex: in NJ where I'm from you might have seen people prejudiced against different races....BUT here(where she mentioned Fairless Hills) they literally narr6it down to countries that your family came to America from...(Philly was like that then, Polish, German ,Italian, Irish...etc) I'm definitely thinking there was a fear of threat at that time because not a lot has changed here....
Beverly could've bought a ticket abroad with her cash. Maybe she used an alias to do it? Australia was a popular place to move at the time. Maybe they could've checked the docks or airports?
Yay love a Friday upload! Can't wait to learn more about this case.
I feel like I follow you around lololol I see you around a lot 😅 👀 obviously we have amazing taste 🙃🙂
@@sheilameador2755 lol that's awesome!! We make true crime videos too and watch a TON of other creators. Can't get enough!! 😂
Gonna have to check you out!!!
@@sheilameador2755 Thank you so much! We're still newbies but we're slowing getting in a groove lol 😂
@Carol Bogdanowitz appreciate that so much!! Gabby is amazing - she has such a calming energy I love it.
This is one of my..... favorite, for lack of a better word, cases. It has stuck with me for so long.
I know it’s just a theory but my mind went to mail order brides. They were less frequent in that time but were still going on. If she wasn’t happy at home or wanted a new life she could have easily done this.
Thanks for keeping me going through the day. I love to put your videos on in the BG while I work.
Hi Gabby! I'm glad to see you again! I've missed your sleuthing & story telling! This one is a whopper, huh? I'm curious, what happened to Beverly's brother? He died young!
I've never heard about Beverly before, I'm thankful that you did all this research, for November. It's theorized that she might have been pregnant & she left because of that. I feel horrible for the family she left behind. Thank you for all your hard work!😍😘💋❤ from Texas!
Im a true crime lover and this is absolutely my favourite channel!
Could she have been groomed? The amount of money Beverly had might not have been "a lot" but to someone who has nothing... People have been done away with for less.
You are my favorite true crime RUclipsr!
I'd say she agreed to run away with someone and after leaving, she was murdered, location unknown
Back in those days, they had newspaper personal ads that would have a man looking for a wife etc. Perhaps she thought she was in love with some mystery man and he lured her somewhere and killed her. I just can't imagine that if she had been alive, that she would not have contacted her Mother! I think the telegram was from the killer.
Yesssss! I'm super excited to watch this! Have a great weekend!💖💕🤗
I wonder if she wanted to tell her mother she was pregnant, but then was too ashamed, married the baby's father, and ran off with him, not wanting to face her family. Poor Beverly. I hope she has had a beautiful life and that the man she married was very good to her. ❤️
Gonna like now and watch after I serve dinner, cuz it’s Gabby! And I know I’m gonna love it!❤️
My Friday night is madeeee!!! Thanks gabby 😘 💓 💗 💛 💖
Gabby you are so beautiful,and your content is always so interesting. Thank you so much for all the work you put into bringing your viewers great videos.
Off topic but your hair looks so amazing!
Love your vintage videos. Hope you are well.
found your channel about 7/8 hours ago and im watching all your videos nonstop and i LOVE it , you are sooooo good at it sm love to ya👌🏼🤍
My birthday is April 8, 1971, and I'm from Charleston, SC! 😳
From everything stated in this video and the situation in general, I'd say personally that Beverly left of her own accord and very likely with a lover (I say lover because there's no info on Beverly's sexual orientation, which could also be a reason for slipping away, much like the pregnancy theory). We do get blindsided when we're in love, nothing feels more important especially in those early years, when it seems like the only important thing in the whole world is that you be with them. I'd say that's a point when someone might make a rash decision without much considering the consequences of their actions on others, even those they love. Hence leaving without explanation, without a goodbye, etc.
As for why she never got in touch even years later, that's a little more difficult to determine. That could be down to anything from shame at living circumstances or at the reason for leaving in the first place, anxiety that people would be angry at her for leaving in the first place, etc. Who knows? But I would say for sure that she left because she wanted to and likely stayed away because she wanted to as well.
Great video Gabi! Much enjoyed! xx
It seems over time she would have contacted her mother. I hope she didn’t meet up with foul play.
Another great case. Love your channel :)
i think she got pregnant and changed her name,moved somewhere she wasnt known,changed her appearance,maybe told people her "husband" died. my grans sister did the same in the 1950's.
Excellent video content. Very fascinating case.
Maybe she was gay...? It would explain why none of her friends knew about any relationships, why she wanted to talk to her mother but ultimately chose not to and why she never came back.
Exactly everyone keeps saying she was pregnant... No..... she didn't want to shame her family and she surely didn't want rejection so she walked away I totally believe she was gay
plus the witness said that she was living with a girl
that's what I thought of when I heard she was living with another woman...
Great.... I just watched another video of a lesbian couple that eloped and vanished..... Now this again !
@@TinaSomaS what was the video called I want to watch it
Perhaps she stayed so close to home because she figured with her telling her coworkers she was going to Chicago and her dreams of moving to LA people wouldn't look near by. And the letter from "Lee" after she was officially listed as a missing person makes me think she was trying to get people to look internationally for her instead by telling them they maybe need the help of foreign police.
Unfortunately though, this feels to me more like she ran away with somebody, possibly got pregnant and eloped, and then that person killed her because nothing about the beginning of this story makes me think she was planning on never contacting her family again, more just getting out town until things calmed down or something.
Reading comments makes me lean heavily towards the theory that she may have been gay. It makes tons of sense and would explain why she was possibly seen living with a woman despite supposedly being married and why there were no marriage certificates in her name since it wouldn't have been a legal marriage.
@@samanthagreen576 i think the key to finding her isn’t in Jane does of the murdered but those who committed suicide especially elderly does sense I could see her choosing to end it when she was elderly and wanting to die as who she became not the person who she was who ran away
Hey Gabulosis,
Is there any background information you can gather regarding the "Beautiful Suicide (?)" of 1947?
Here's the cursory story:
Evelyn Francis McHale was an American bookkeeper who took her own life by jumping from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. A photograph taken four minutes after her death by photography student Robert Wiles subsequently gained iconic status, being referred to as "the most beautiful suicide".
How do we know she jumped?
Thanks if you can shine a light of insight on her story.
Hello Gabby! Super excited about No Trace November 💞
Having two black cats myself, I might just have to grab something from the new design.
@Native Nfree I'm sorry for your loss. Cats are like family. Sometimes they are even better than family.
Several of these cases end up, with the person leaving unexpectedly, passing away for one reason or another and they end up being a Jane Doe. Since they had made it a considerable distance, it makes it difficult to identify a dead body.
My first thought was that maybe she was feeling like she was not heterosexual. A alternate sexuality at that time would be VERY unacceptable. She wanted to leave her hometown to make a new life in another place where she could live her life the way she wanted to. Even saying she got 'married' could mean she met another woman who felt the same as she did.
I thought the same!
My thoughts exactly! Especially when gabby talked about the post card saying she was living with a woman named Bobby Wilson!
Yes, definitely. Or maybe even an African American man. Sadly, multi racial relationships weren't accepted back then, just as same sex relationships weren't.
I considered this but she would have eventually reconnected with her family
@@d.subramaniam1147 I would imagine if she did mention something about her orientation to her family in the past, they may have said something hurtful (like they’d disown or harm her), so she decided to cut them off completely. Returning would cause a lot of attention and questions, and it would be very hard for her to reunite with her family and then go back to stay with her lover without prying eyes.
Hello, Gabby. I hear that you're not in good condition. I hope that you're doing well and stay healthy ❤️
I have a mental illness, so I was worried about you. You must be got a hard time, but still let's be strong. I know you can do it
Early! Looking forward to watching this!
Another good presentation 😊
Hello Gabby and Theta, who is such a little cutie, and I hope that things on the home front are settling down for you. It does make other parts of your life difficult when things are rough at home. As for Beverly here's my 10 cents worth. I believe that she was pregnant and had somebody at her workplace, possibly married, who she was in a relationship of sorts with. I believe that person was older, at least by 6 or 7 years, whom she got pregnant to and that person, as well as Beverly, did not want the child and so she left the area to get an abortion. I believe that he told her not to say anything to anyone and she was a kid and very trusting of this man so she kept their affair a secret. The money she had withdrawn from her account wasn't the only money she had as her lover gave her some too. I think that part of the proceedings were arranged beforehand and when she left her lover was expected to follow her at a later date or at least TOLD HER he would, but neither one wanted the child. So Bev goes on ahead, fully expecting to get rid of the baby and get settled into her new home when either of 2 things occurred. Firstly she could have died due to the abortion and been buried somewhere by the abortionist and her body wasn't found or secondly after the procedure he, her lover, comes and kills her anyway to hide their relationship and her body is never found. I believe that the night before she left she was about to tell her mother about leaving but chickened out because she didn't want her plans affected and her lover had told her not to or she didn't want to hurt her mother. Either way I think she died or was killed around the time she left the area. I feel enormously sad for her parents, especially her mother who would have wondered every day for the rest of her life just what happened to her only daughter. So very sad that there was never any resolution and everyone from her former life is dead. I hadn't heard this story before and you did it justice. Take care of yourself!
If she really had a good relationship with her family, I cannot understand how she would leave and never contact them again. Or her friends for that matter. She could have left on her own free will but that didn't mean she didn't come to harm's way
😢 Where did you go, Beverly? Thanks for your video Gabby. So sad and mysterious. Lot of fake news in letters deceiving family members. Personally I think Beverly may have originally ran off but maybe someone harmed her soon after
Thanks again Gabby. Look forward to your next video 🎄🎄🎄🎄💜🌟
Black Kitty is gorgeous 😍
True story. When we were in high school one of the girls from our class came to school, then ran away leaving behind a note. Her friends actually knew the reason and spilled the beans pretty soon. Turns out she ran away with a man and they managed to get married (I don't know how that worked considering she was underage at the time). This was the 2000s so they were found rather quickly. I don't know if that would have been the case more than 70 years ago.
This is so perplexing- a total mystery.
So many different things could have happened.....
Maybe the letter from when she was reported missing was her response to her mother’s “contact me in your own way” message. 🤷🏻♀️
Were there any men, married or single, who also left town in that time frame? Not on the day necessarily but around it? Maybe pregnant, man who left met up with here and took permanent care of the problem..
My heart goes out to her family never knowing what became of her
Hi Gabby this was a very sad story and 73 year old cold case. Not sure if she was pregnant, maybe she had a friend help her. However, it's strange that someone spotted Beverly Sharpman in SC. with a Bobbi Wilson friend? Hope she lived her life somewhere and just wanted to be on her own. This is still a baffling mystery. Not sure just guessing. Well stay well and safe!
May be she was gay, and the man who reported seeing her with an other woman was her wife. May be they didn't marry in a legal way, but in their own way. May be she disappeared because it wasn't accepted at that time.
Wow I live in Philadelphia PA in Roxborough and omg I've lived in Fairless Hills and I'm shocked I've never heard of this case
Okay this is weird... I took care of a lady who went by "Babe" in a nursing home in Ohio. The weirdest thing is that she was originally from Pennsylvania and was born the same exact year!!! I loved her so much she was the sweetest lady but passed away at the age of 87 in 2018.
Wow
Wow...what a coincidence! Have you reported it to the police? Even if the woman passed away two years ago, the nursing home would have records of her and likely contact information for relatives and friends. It may seem like a long-shot but you never know what could happen. The tiniest tidbit of information could break the case wide open.
@@christinacole7019 I looked into her obituary in and it listed the town she grew up in, in PA, name for her parents, her real name was Marjorie (But went by Babe) so I don't think it's the same person! But it's a coincidence for sure.
@@Starfisshh44 Yes, it is a coincidence! It's good that you looked into it. The only possibility may be that the information in her obituary was made up; if Marjorie was a name Beverly started using after she disappeared, then that would also explain why there were no records of her marriage. That's probably far-fetched, but still an interesting thought.
Lordy my heart broke when you said today she would be 89 years old and that they tried to lure her back home with the promise of an inheritance
Your kitty is so sweet! awwwww
I live right between Philadelphia and Fairless Hills(Philly 15 min Fairless Hills 5 minutes) I'm SO curious now
love you and your cases
You did a great job explaining. Too bad we don't know the answers. Maybe this will give answers. Peace.
Yesss im early on a Friday 🙌🏽
wait... so nobody has yelled "FIRST" yet?
I think she was pregnant as well, maybe she got the money out to get herself checked into a mother's home to give birth and put baby up for adoption. She may have died from the birthing process. Bless her☘
She could have gone into a mother's home under an alias (making herself untraceable since then) and begun another life under that name. It would not have been very difficult to have done that in the 1940s in the USA.
I live your merchandise!!
She said “jacket off” and my dirty ass went somewhere else with that 😅🤣
Love your channel. How do I suggest a case for you to look at?
Not all hero’s wear capes 💖
New video from Gab yay!
I love your channel🖤
My first thought it that maybe she was pregnant. And if she were pregnant, it was either by someone she had only known for a little while or ny someone she felt her parents wouldn't approve of, which is why they didn't know of any boys she was seeing. Maybe someone who didn't have the best reputation, or maybe someone older. Or maybe it was a one night stand and she was ashamed of telling her parents she had slept with someone she didn't know. Maybe she ran off, and gave herself a new identity, pretending she was older and had been recently widowed to get away from the stigma of being an unwed mother. Or she really did get married under a different name so she couldn't be found. It's possible she died later in childbirth, but because she had changed her name, her parents weren't notified by the doctor or police, and her husband chose not to tell them because they would be angry with him for getting her pregnant and taking her away. Or maybe she died in an accident after she left. Or she was suffering from some sort of mental illness and she thought someone was after her, so she moved around changing her name and appearance frequently, never reaching out because she thought it wasn't safe. Or maybe she was gay and thought her family wouldn't be able to accept it, so she said she left to get married instead.
I know I'm way behind..but did anyone search for a wedding certificate for a Lee Davis around the day Beverly went missing?
I think she might've gotten pregnant and then went to get a illegal abortion. Something probably went wrong and she died. Her body was probably dumped somewhere. I think if she wanted to just disappear and get married she would've withdrawn all of her money and waited the few weeks you normally would but if she wanted to get a abortion she probably wanted to get it as soon as possible and only withdrew a certain amount to pay for the abortion and try to get the money as fast as possible. She probably said she got married because she knew she needed some sort of explanation and that was the most socially acceptable?
I hope she had a happy life
Ur audio is on point
Two things popped into my mind as soon as you started explaining the circumstances: maybe Beverly was pregnant or she was in a lesbian relationship. Those were two things in those years that would lead somebody to disappear.
Maybe she was pregnant.? So upset she didn’t atleast contact them to tell them she was alive and ok with all the pleading her family did. Sad
Love love love without a trace
I wonder if she made her way up to the Ideal Maternity Home in Canada. Many women and babies died at their hands. I'm sure there were other "maternity" homes around at that time too.
With the postcard saying that she was living with a lady named Bobby Wilson, I wonder if she went off with another woman? That would explain why there was no marriage record. Or maybe with an African American partner of either sex? Multi racial relationships were very frowned upon in those days.