On the morning of Friday, October 17, 1980, a man was on his way to work, driving his truck down Highway 16 that runs between Siloam Springs, Arkansas near the Oklahoma border through the Ozark National Forest near Searcy when he saw something out of the corner of his eye down a small dirt road.

It looked like a person lying in the road. The driver doubled back and saw to his horror that it was the body of a young woman, lying rolled over on her right side with her head and shoulders face down. She was very tall and had a flannel shirt on and a blue Michelin jacket that had been pulled over her face, her legs were slightly open, and she was naked from the waist down except for a pair of torn and filthy white socks.  

She started out being a Jane Doe. But soon, police ID’d the victim as 21-year-old Gail Vaught.    

Was she sexually assaulted? Could that crime scene have been staged? Could her death have connections to drug dealing or domestic violence or something else?

If you have a case you’d like Catherine Townsend to look into, you can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.