Name: Loy Gillespie Evitts
Age: 29 years old
Last seen: February 28, 1977
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Status: Still missing
Case Information
29 year old Loy Evitts was last seen in Kansas City, Missouri on February 28, 1977. She disappeared during her lunch break, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Background
Loy Gillespie Evitts was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on December 12, 1947 to parents William H. and Jewell Palmer Gillespie.
Loy studied nursing in Tulsa, Oklahoma before transferring to Kansas State University where she majored in fashion merchandising.
She married Donald Evitts on November 4, 1972, and the couple moved into a home in Overland Park, Kansas.
At the time of her disappearance, Loy worked as a legal secretary at a law firm where she’d been employed for about a month.
Disappearance
Loy Evitts disappeared between 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm on February 28, 1977.
During her lunch break, Loy drove to get her watch adjusted, browsed several stores on the Country Club Plaza, then drove to a drugstore on Main Street and Westport Road where she had a cup of coffee and purchased an umbrella.
Around 6:00 pm Loy’s supervisor called her husband Donald, asking why she never returned after her lunch break.
After calling several of her friends and being unable to locate her, Donald called the police to report his wife missing.
Investigation
On the afternoon Loy went missing her vehicle, a yellow 1970 MG sports car with the license plate number JOE 4869, was found parked back in it’s normal space in the Plaza Center Building parking garage at 800 West 47th Street.
The car was unlocked, and the umbrella she had purchased from the drug store was found on the front seat.
Investigators interviewed more than 200 people in the weeks following her disappearance, and searched bodies of water in Johnson and Jackson counties for any sign of Loy. Nothing was found.
Twelve days after she went missing, children searching for a lost dog found Loy’s purse under a bridge in southeast Kansas City, near Unity Village. A search of the area turned up no new clues.
Three weeks after her disappearance, a 34 year old man from Grandview, Missouri was arrested for her kidnapping. However, the charges were later dropped for lack of evidence.
In 2016, Loy’s husband Donald gave investigators hair from one of his wife’s brushes that allowed them to collect DNA samples. They have been entered into a national database in case her remains are ever located.
Whereabouts
The location of Joy Evitts, as well as the circumstances regarding her disappearance, remains unknown.
Her disappearance is considered suspicious. Police believe she was abducted, but no suspects have been publicly identified in her case. There have been no new leads, and her case has been suspended pending new information.
Seven years after she disappeared her husband had her declared legally dead. He never remarried and still lives in the Overland Park home they purchased together. He continues to hope for answers in her disappearance.
Appearance
Caucasian female born on December 12, 1947. Loy has blonde hair, hazel eyes, stands 5’5, and weighs 125 pounds. She has a scar on her abdomen.
Clothing & Accessories:
At the time of her disappearance Loy was wearing a 3/4 length blue sweater with vertical maroon lines, a maroon turtleneck blouse, maroon pants, wooden wedge shoes with a brown leather strap, a leather shoulder bag, and her black and white pocketbook.
She was wearing a plaid gold bracelet with a knot in the center, a gold wedding band, an engagement ring with a single solitaire diamond from Helzberg, and a white gold square faced woman’s watch.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Joy Gillespie Evitts please contact the Kansas City Police Department at (816) 234-5136.
Resources & Further Information
Loy Evitts – Doe Network
Missing: Loy Evitts – Defrosing Cold Cases
Loy C. Evitts – NamUS
Loy Gillespie Evitts – The Charley Project
News & Media Links
Disappearance of Overland Park Woman Remains a Heart Wrenching Mystery – Kansas City Star
Kansas Man Hopes Wife’s 40 Year Disappearance Gets Solved – AP News
Email Inquiry: Joy Evitt’s Case – Kansas City
Videos & Flyers
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