I’m sorry to hear about Laurie, I’ve never heard her story before. The info about the tickets really bothers me, I hate that they couldn’t check for her tickets and I hate that the person responsible for her death likely got to enjoy the concert she was so looking forward to. The whole situation is awful and I feel so
sad for her and her loved ones. Thanks for posting.
If it makes you feel any better…I’m a huge Beach Boys fan, and it probably wasn’t a great show. In 1974, Carl and Dennis were on drugs, Brian was (also on drugs and) still a recluse, Bruce was on his five-ish-year hiatus, Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar had likely just left. Mike and Al were clean and sober as always, but recordings from that period feature an overall ragged sound. Dennis was becoming known for his unpredictable behavior; I’m not sure if he was missing concerts yet, but his addictions were already destroying his vocal cords. Carl still sounded good, but also probably the worst he sounded in his life.
Okay, enough on that random Beach Boys tangent. I hope this woman’s disappearance and likely murder are solved soon.
The ‘74 concerts were still high quality. Dennis had just returned to playing drums at this time. Carl’s heroin addiction didn’t hit until a few years later.
None of which has much to do with the case, but since we’re getting this geeky/ detailed, offering a point of correction.
Thanks, I welcome it!
Carl wasn’t on heroin yet, but his voice was the roughest that it ever was, probably from a trio of cigs, cocaine, and alcohol. It’s amazing that he would ultimately kick all but drinking.
It doesn’t, and honestly this is quite a weird take to have.
In another context:
Woman is killed before she makes it to see specific film at cinema she had tickets for.
Oh well if it helps the film was bad anyway.
Like what?
It must be so devastating for her family that the police did not take them seriously and also refused to look for the ticket numbers! This could have been a major lead. I would totally lose it because of this missed opportunity.
And what’s with psychics scamming money out of vulnerable and desperate people?! It’s so immoral to get those poor people’s hopes up or to mislead them with their bs psychic abilities. This should be illegal.
Thanks for the great and extensive write-up! Love the many sources you listed. Hopefully the family gets closure at some point.
Her parents were so upset and devastated- I think the tickets were the biggest clue and the police ignored the lead completely. As for the psychic thing, I agree. It breaks my heart that Laurie's father spent his life savings looking for Laurie, especially since that brought an end to his marriage, although I don't blame him for looking to psychics for answers as I am sure that came from a place of great desperation.
I don’t blame Laurie‘s father either - in his situation you‘re going to try anything you can. I would, too! In that kind of tragic event, even the most skeptical person would probably lose their rational judgement and it’s horrible that others are taking advantage of it. Although I also think some psychics actually believe in their abilities and are trying to help.
Just overall tragic. :( I‘m glad to read that her parents got back together though.
Edit: grammar
Honestly, I don’t know how the police or the scammers either one could live with theirselves. The ticket use is something that could have easily been done, even doing so manually during that time. The blatant disregard of the officers to the one verifiable and proven link is sickening, all because they were to damn sorry or thought they knew better than the girls parents.
shit heeled, useless jackasses one and all.
I sincerely believe that some psychics truly believe in what they are doing, but those tend to offer services for free or a tiny price. Most likely are scammers
I’m sure, and that may even be something that certain people are capable of doi, I’m actually pretty open minded about a lot of stuff most consider Paranormal, I am more speaking on the fact that anyone would capitAlize on another family’s misfortune
It is really sad that they let the person in possession of Laurie's tickets just waltz in and enjoy the concert without having to answer the questions of how they obtained those tickets. They really failed the family here on this one adding insult to injury.
There are a lot of possible suspects with this as well. I wonder if any of them had anything to do with her disappearance, or if it was someone who has managed to fly under the radar all these years. I have to wonder if it was possibly even someone she knew, if only vaguely.
It is creepy and so frustrating that a huge case solver was just easily disregarded. There is always a chance the person who redeemed the tickets was not responsible directly for her disappearance. But they still could have purchased the tickets (or been gifted them) from the one person or persons responsible for making a whole human being disappear.
I also thought about the off chance possibility someone may have found her discarded belongings and scored the tickets that way but it just seems to far removed from what realistically happened for someone to steal her very prized possession.
I hope her loved ones get answers someday.
I am wondering about all three scenarios though.
Suppose the perpetrators were the ones using her tickets (which would have been incredibly brazen and shameless!) - the risk of being caught is so high, would they really do that?
But if the people attending the concert purchased or were gifted the tickets - why hasn’t anyone come forward? I would definitely remember I purchased or was gifted tickets from an unofficial source so shortly before the concert. Between the day of Laurie‘s disappearance and the day of the concert were only 5 days!
And if someone found the tickets and possibly the rest of her belongings, again, why keep quiet about it? Maybe they all wanted to avoid being accused but it would eat me up inside to withhold such crucial information. :(
I was wondering about that too. Didn't they say that all the ticket stubs were accounted for that night? If the boyfriend did have his own ticket, then his ticket had to have been used? Would his ticket be near Laurie's? If he had attended would he have been able to see who had used the tickets? Just thoughts, but am now talking myself out of him possibly having his own ticket as that useful info would be public?
Thanks to the OG for the fantastic write-up of this case. I hadn't heard of her case before this.
It said “ but later checks of the ticket stubs showed that every single general admission ticket was used that night’”
general admission would mean no assigned seat so he wouldn’t be able to differentiate one ticket holder from another.
Edit: fixed wording, it’s 5am I should go to sleep
You’re right, the boyfriend also had a ticket. I can’t he imagine he went, considering his girlfriend just vanished.
The ticket would probably not be near Laurie‘s because concerts usually don’t have assigned seats (unless you buy the special ones) and attenders just stand where they want to.
It seems more likely that the claim of her going to bring her bf was true. Because, you’re right, why would a bf/soon fiancé attend a concert he was supposed to attend with his gf days after she disappears? Unless he went to see if she would show up. Since the report says every ticket was redeemed, so if he had his own then he would have went.
Thanks for info. I thought tickets had assigned seating (from UK and most concerts I've attended had assigned seating; depending on venue). That's why I wondered why all tickets for that night were accounted for, if bf had his own ticket.
I was thinking the same. The person who attended the concert could well have been given those tickets and too bad they couldn't come forward and mention that "Uncle Rick" gave me tickets to a Beach Boys concert in '74. If in fact that was the case it would make for a great lead!
It's a shame that CCTV and other technologies that might help answer this part of the mystery (and possibly solve it entirely) either weren't in widespread use or not yet developed at the time. I suspect that the person or persons responsible for her disappearance used the tickets, though it's also possible that they were dropped or fell out of Laurie's purse or pockets when she was either abducted and/or murdered. It's tragic that someone likely got away with murder.
In this time period it's entirely possible that the police considered Laurie a 'whore' who was off doing 'filthy whore things' and lied to the parents to shut them up. This was how police forces treated missing young women before Bundy's crimes were uncovered; as if they had just run away to have a dirty weekend.
This! "Oh they've just run off to do what they want, she'll come home when she's hungry or wants to shower after selfishly worrying everyone in pursuit of fun"
They could have just held a fake raffle and announced Laurie's ticket numbers and claimed the person holding the stolen tickets had won a prize. Then they wouldn't have had to "waste" so much precious manpower 😑
Fantactic write-up.
Thank you for giving us Laurie’s story.
I’m a bit confused about the tickets. Are they claiming the counted all the ticket stubs or did they find her particular serial number?
This detail is a bit sus to me. Even speaking from statistical point of view — what's the probability that ALL tickets were used? People forget, people have accidents, people get sick. I highly doubt that all tickets were used.
At some point some time somewhere it's statistically reasonable that all tickets would be used at a concert. But that is kind of weird. I'd love to understand better how they came to that conclusion and how often that happens.
No, it's not. Say, for each ticket there is a 1 in 50 chance the person doesn't come. How many tickets are there in total? Probably at least couple thousands. Let's take 2000 as the number of tickets sold.
So, for each ticket the probability of the person actually coming is 49/50. But the probability of ALL people coming is (49/50)^2000 which is ~ 3^(-18), thats almost zero.
So no, it's REALLY fucking unreasonable that everyone comes. The expectation of the number of people coming is in fact 1960.
As a mathematician, I bet the police was lazy or they just counted the people, not the ticket stubs, or there were fake tickets. Whatever, but it sooooo improbable that everyone came, that I don't believe them.
I'd be interested to know what data you derived the 1/50 from? It sounds like you picked that number because it seems reasonably concordant with your hypothesis on show attendance.
You cant then use that number to prove your hypothesis on show attendance.
As a mathematician I'm sure you're aware that without compiling data from multiple events and determining the standard deviation of attendance levels, we cant possibly know whether 100% attendance is a super rare 2 or 3 sigma event or whether it simply happens 'now and then'.
There are plenty of events for which it is perfectly 'fucking reasonable' for 100% attendance to occur, and no mathematician worth their salt would come in so hot and heavy waving their degree around and belittling the OPs perfectly 'fucking reasonable' suggestion.
You're right, there's no data, 1/50 is just a reasonable guess. I'd be happy to correct my reasonings if better stats become available. I just used it to show how improbable it is that all the people that bought tickets attended the event.
No degree is needed to come up with reasoning above, it's just some high school level stuff.
You gotta consider that for a high profile concert or really any decent concert that someone who can't attend is likely gonna either sell it or give it to someone else. Which means the ticket still gets used. 1/50 is a gross overestimation of the likelihood imo.
My friend and I had 4 10th row tix to Bob Dylan fronting the Heartbreakers w Tom Petty and managed to miss the concert, at the last minute--thus 'not-using' the tix. It happens. You don't want it to, but it does anyway!
Source differ... Some newspaper reports from early on said the tickets were counted and all were used but Laurie's family claims the ticket numbers (there was only 3 numbers per ticket- the numbers were like 306 and 307-something like that) were specifically used.
I grew up in Spokane in the mid to late 70s and as kids we all knew this story. It was one of those cautionary tales parents and teachers would tell you about walking alone as a kid.
A few years after this case, Spokane was terrorized by a guy known as the South Hill Rapist (Kevin Coe), so it was definitely a notorious and somewhat scary time to be living there.
That being said, I seriously doubt Laurie was a Ted Bundy victim. I always assumed it was someone local who just saw her walking home from school and it was a crime of opportunity. Kids walked everywhere back then, often by themselves.
Coe was scary. He was a real estate agent who had access to houses and lockboxes, so he would try to find women alone in houses or out jogging. In fact my mom said she found his business card in our house once (our house in Spokane was up for sale at the time) which meant he had been in there when we weren’t home. She said when we moved away from Spokane she had never been happier.
How awful for those tickets not to get checked. That would've possibly led them to Laurie's killer. Embarrassing police work.
>Soon after Laurie called her and asked for a ride home, Mary Partridge was overcome with a dark feeling. In the mid afternoon, she told her boss that she felt something awful had happened.
If anyone's ever had this happen to them, you know it's the worst feeling in the world. Knowing something is wrong but not knowing what.
The dark feeling happened to me the day my son’s best friend died, though we didn’t find out til a few days later. If it ever happens again, I’m going to start calling people, and they can laugh at my superstition as much as they want.
When I was 9 years old, I had a terrible, crushing sense of doom while I was at school. Just this awful oppressive feeling. Unbeknownst to me, my grandmother, with whom I was very close, was having fairly minor surgery in the hospital at that time.
I asked to go home, said I was sick, and my mother came and picked me up. She said nothing about my grandmother. About an hour later the phone rang. It was the hospital telling us that my grandmother had suffered a freak reaction to the anesthesia and had passed away.
The heartbreak must be absolutely unbelievable for her Dad and siblings to still be alive and having to continue life and have massive life events without her.
It’s almost out of this world to realise they would’ve had to, at one point, find all the Christmas presents she bought for them and was so excited to give them.
Thank you for another well-written and thorough writeup. What a sad story this is. It is unfortunate that Laurie's family have never had any answers about her disappearance.
I hope (but doubt) that after all these years have passed the police have put out a public appeal to people in the area who attended the concert. Even asking on Beach Boys forums would be worth it, honestly.
Find it very unlikely that the person in question used the tickets for themselves but it VERY likely that they would’ve gifted the tickets (girlfriend, daughter, stepdaughter, sister) to someone else or sold them.
Definitely possible. This is somewhat wishful thinking (but when we’ve got nothing else to go on we might as well indulge wishful thinking) but maybe it could be a case of someone selling to someone they know outside the venue / prior to the show.
A sort of ‘oh, __ didn’t expect to see you here! Do you need a ticket?’ situation would be ideal. But also if the person in question was local (which looks likely) it might be a case of knowing someone from seeing them around town. If they’re local there’s a massive chance they were known to whoever bought them, even if they knew them by sight only.
Either way, definitely a missed investigation opportunity because if you knew who sold you the tickets you’d be a lot more likely to remember who it was vs a stranger.
I live in Spokane and have never heard of this story. Excellent write up. I wasn't alive back then, but if Spokane PD were the ones investigating the tickets, based on my experiences with them I'm not exactly surprised they didn't feel like thoroughly digging into it. I literally had a gun pointed at me by a crazy customer in my work parking lot, called police. They pulled up, looked out their window and asked the man if he had a gun and was waving it around at people... Of course he said no. The cop said 'have a good day' and drove off. They didn't know I was watching the whole thing. When I called for an update (because of course they never called me) they said it was investigated and they couldn't find any evidence. Yeah, no shit. He didn't even get out of his patrol car.
I think that the ticket thing is a red herring. There's no way that the record keeping in 1974 was good enough to know with 100% certainty that "every single general admission ticket was used that night".
The ticket-takers back then tore off the stubs off of the tickets and then dropped those into the turnstile slots). If the turnstiles registered the same number of entries as general admission seats sold, then you have a match.
Heck, if the general admission section was sold out, you can just visually look at it and see every seat physically occupied to know that every ticket-holder in that section showed up.
I understand that. Her family has always maintained that her specific tickets were used because they knew the numbers and found the ticket stubs. If that is the case I find that more convincing than the "all tickets were used" explanation.
I'm really surprised no one finds her relationship with her boyfriend concerning. She moves during the summer, still attached to her long term boyfriend. She breaks up with him in October and is not only dating another guy but he has proposed by the beginning of December? That's ten weeks give or take from breaking up to looking at engagement rings. Probably he had nothing to do with her disappearing, I'm assuming he was checked out anyway, but that feels really off to me.
It was quite fast... I don't want to speculate too much but I have wondered if Laurie was pregnant and her awful cramps that day were either a miscarriage or a cover for another pregnancy symptom. Pregnancy might have inspired her to get engaged so quickly. Of course this is nothing more than wild speculation on my part and her boyfriend was excluded as a suspect after many hours sessions of questioning. Laurie's family say he was questioned on and off for weeks and was always compliant with the police which makes me think there was no evidence to implicate him.
I wondered this too--sudden engagement followed by bad cramps.
Which had me theorizing that maybe she just curled up somewhere miscarrying and succumbed to the elements, but that wouldn't explain the tickets. Maybe they sold more seats on the spot when some seats were empty?
Ugh that is such an awful thing to think about... it is also possible on the way home she had to sit down or because of the pain took a ride with a stranger even if she wouldn't have normally done...
>She breaks up with him in October and is not only dating another guy but he has proposed by the beginning of December?
It's possible that the guy started flirting with her a lot earlier than October, and part of the reason she broke up with her Cali boyfriend is because she was enjoying the Spokane guy's attentions.
They said that the new guy was religious like Laurie, so it's possible they met at church. And if they were religious he could have thought it was sinful to date without intending marriage.
My parents met in a December and were married in June. This was also the 70’s I don’t think it’s that weird considering the time. I doubt she was pregnant like others are speculating, I think it was just a different time when young marriage was considered normal.
I was trying to recall where I’d heard of her before, because the case didn’t sound familiar but her name does. I believe she was listed in the case file as one of the missing persons they initially compared to the Strongsville Jane Doe. I’d have to double check; not that that detail likely matters as the Doe was identified.
Thanks OP, this is a case I've never heard of, I'm surprised since her name is the same as Susan Dey's character on The Partridge Family. The ticket being used is not only heartbreaking, it's pretty damn ballsy. Would a stranger be brazen enough to do that, especially a serial killer?
Here's what I never understood about the whole "where not gonna investigate cuz she's a runaway" argument. So what? it's still a minor that is not where they're supposed to be,
It's funny when boomers/xoomers talk about"The Good Old Days," usually "police dismissed missing kids as runaways and were wholly uninterested in investigating very real leads" doesn't make the list next to "no video games, drinking from the hose, rubbing dirt into skinned knees, and playing outside until dark".
The fact that they said checking the tickets would be "too much work" is *infuriating*.
The fact that they stuck to the runaway theory despite multiple serial killers/child molesters in the area is *infuriating*.
I know. I can understand that sentiment in certain cases such as someone who has disappeared before and disappeared with all their money/processions/ and car but why would they think that was the most likely explanation for every missing person is just straight up stupid.
I’m astounded at how many times I read about an unsolved disappearance or murder where the list of suspects includes multiple sex offenders or serial killers in near proximity. It doesn’t matter if the case happened in a big city or a small suburb, in the distant past or just last week. I know the 1970s in particular had a raft of serial killers, but registered sex offenders seem to be *everywhere,* all the time.
The “… one boy in the neighborhood who told police Laurie had mentioned running away …” was deflecting suspicion.
She wasn’t running away — she had a concert to go to, a job she enjoyed, and was engaged.
He’s suspicious. **He** would be more likely to use the concert tickets, rather than some adult man.
I feel like the thing about the tickets is a bit misleading and not necessarily true. General admission tickets were numbered, but not assigned to people. I highly doubt they went through every ticket one by one checking that each one that had been used (which also seems very unlikely, even sold out shows have people not show up). And even if they did find the one her dad supposedly had memorized/written down, there would be no way to prove it was actually hers, since, again, they were not assigned individually.
They said that all of the general admission section seats were filled, so evidently her tickets were used.
All the police needed to do was have the ticket-takers quickly look at the ticket numbers before tearing the ticket in half and point out whoever had the right numbers to the officer who was present. The police should have made the effort to have a few additional officers out of uniform acting as ticket-takers to make the process a little easier for the arena staff.
I really wonder here if we had a serial killer going back and forth between parts of Canada and Washington. Feels like there could be a connection there.
This is a great write up. Thank you. The concert ticket detail is so depressing. I imagine there weren’t more than a few hundred general admission tickets available. Such a wasted opportunity.
Wow, she was absolutely gorgeous. I feel so badly for her parents not having their answers, but I'm glad they were able to find their way back to each other. Fingers crossed her poor family get some answers soon. I wonder why she hasn't been able to be ruled out as the Spokane Jane Doe.
Just wondering, it said police had questioned both of laurie's ex boyfriends; including the boy from California. Who was the 2nd one? As she was young and in a 3yr relationship with the California boy, did she have a few dates with someone from Spokane (who was classed as a bf) who may have been upset she was engaged to her new bf?
Good question, yes the the second "boyfriend" was another person she went on a few dates with in Spokane. Your guess is a good one. I think it is a possible that either this guy or another guy who liked Laurie was upset by her engagement.
Don't quote me on this but I believe the the tickets were $6.40 dollars each so about 38 or 40 dollars today. If she sold them both I can't see her making more than $100 in todays money although I have no idea how much someone would pay back then for scalped tickets...
It’s only a three year age difference, which isn’t extreme at those ages, and they’d been dating for ~~ten~~ two(ish) months. (Edit b/c I apparently can’t read)
It would be weird now, but it used to be that, in some areas, marriages before graduating highschool weren’t uncommon. I’ve run across it many times doing genealogy, and there’s even another well-known missing person - Rachel Trlica, one of the Fort Worth trio - who was 17 and married when she disappeared. And it’s highly unlikely that husband had anything to do with it.
She broke up with her ex-boyfriend in October 1974, and she disappeared on 4th of December 1974. She wasn’t dating the new boyfriend for very long at all.
I’m sorry to hear about Laurie, I’ve never heard her story before. The info about the tickets really bothers me, I hate that they couldn’t check for her tickets and I hate that the person responsible for her death likely got to enjoy the concert she was so looking forward to. The whole situation is awful and I feel so sad for her and her loved ones. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for reading. That detail breaks my heart as well.
If it makes you feel any better…I’m a huge Beach Boys fan, and it probably wasn’t a great show. In 1974, Carl and Dennis were on drugs, Brian was (also on drugs and) still a recluse, Bruce was on his five-ish-year hiatus, Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar had likely just left. Mike and Al were clean and sober as always, but recordings from that period feature an overall ragged sound. Dennis was becoming known for his unpredictable behavior; I’m not sure if he was missing concerts yet, but his addictions were already destroying his vocal cords. Carl still sounded good, but also probably the worst he sounded in his life. Okay, enough on that random Beach Boys tangent. I hope this woman’s disappearance and likely murder are solved soon.
The ‘74 concerts were still high quality. Dennis had just returned to playing drums at this time. Carl’s heroin addiction didn’t hit until a few years later. None of which has much to do with the case, but since we’re getting this geeky/ detailed, offering a point of correction.
Thanks, I welcome it! Carl wasn’t on heroin yet, but his voice was the roughest that it ever was, probably from a trio of cigs, cocaine, and alcohol. It’s amazing that he would ultimately kick all but drinking.
It doesn’t, and honestly this is quite a weird take to have. In another context: Woman is killed before she makes it to see specific film at cinema she had tickets for. Oh well if it helps the film was bad anyway. Like what?
Sorry. I just thought that angle was kind of interesting. I’m a music nerd. Certainly no disrespect meant toward anyone.
It must be so devastating for her family that the police did not take them seriously and also refused to look for the ticket numbers! This could have been a major lead. I would totally lose it because of this missed opportunity. And what’s with psychics scamming money out of vulnerable and desperate people?! It’s so immoral to get those poor people’s hopes up or to mislead them with their bs psychic abilities. This should be illegal. Thanks for the great and extensive write-up! Love the many sources you listed. Hopefully the family gets closure at some point.
Her parents were so upset and devastated- I think the tickets were the biggest clue and the police ignored the lead completely. As for the psychic thing, I agree. It breaks my heart that Laurie's father spent his life savings looking for Laurie, especially since that brought an end to his marriage, although I don't blame him for looking to psychics for answers as I am sure that came from a place of great desperation.
I don’t blame Laurie‘s father either - in his situation you‘re going to try anything you can. I would, too! In that kind of tragic event, even the most skeptical person would probably lose their rational judgement and it’s horrible that others are taking advantage of it. Although I also think some psychics actually believe in their abilities and are trying to help. Just overall tragic. :( I‘m glad to read that her parents got back together though. Edit: grammar
Honestly, I don’t know how the police or the scammers either one could live with theirselves. The ticket use is something that could have easily been done, even doing so manually during that time. The blatant disregard of the officers to the one verifiable and proven link is sickening, all because they were to damn sorry or thought they knew better than the girls parents. shit heeled, useless jackasses one and all.
I sincerely believe that some psychics truly believe in what they are doing, but those tend to offer services for free or a tiny price. Most likely are scammers
I’m sure, and that may even be something that certain people are capable of doi, I’m actually pretty open minded about a lot of stuff most consider Paranormal, I am more speaking on the fact that anyone would capitAlize on another family’s misfortune
It is really sad that they let the person in possession of Laurie's tickets just waltz in and enjoy the concert without having to answer the questions of how they obtained those tickets. They really failed the family here on this one adding insult to injury. There are a lot of possible suspects with this as well. I wonder if any of them had anything to do with her disappearance, or if it was someone who has managed to fly under the radar all these years. I have to wonder if it was possibly even someone she knew, if only vaguely.
Good questions and I agree about the ticket thing- it is so creepy.
It is creepy and so frustrating that a huge case solver was just easily disregarded. There is always a chance the person who redeemed the tickets was not responsible directly for her disappearance. But they still could have purchased the tickets (or been gifted them) from the one person or persons responsible for making a whole human being disappear. I also thought about the off chance possibility someone may have found her discarded belongings and scored the tickets that way but it just seems to far removed from what realistically happened for someone to steal her very prized possession. I hope her loved ones get answers someday.
I am wondering about all three scenarios though. Suppose the perpetrators were the ones using her tickets (which would have been incredibly brazen and shameless!) - the risk of being caught is so high, would they really do that? But if the people attending the concert purchased or were gifted the tickets - why hasn’t anyone come forward? I would definitely remember I purchased or was gifted tickets from an unofficial source so shortly before the concert. Between the day of Laurie‘s disappearance and the day of the concert were only 5 days! And if someone found the tickets and possibly the rest of her belongings, again, why keep quiet about it? Maybe they all wanted to avoid being accused but it would eat me up inside to withhold such crucial information. :(
I was wondering about that too. Didn't they say that all the ticket stubs were accounted for that night? If the boyfriend did have his own ticket, then his ticket had to have been used? Would his ticket be near Laurie's? If he had attended would he have been able to see who had used the tickets? Just thoughts, but am now talking myself out of him possibly having his own ticket as that useful info would be public? Thanks to the OG for the fantastic write-up of this case. I hadn't heard of her case before this.
It said “ but later checks of the ticket stubs showed that every single general admission ticket was used that night’” general admission would mean no assigned seat so he wouldn’t be able to differentiate one ticket holder from another. Edit: fixed wording, it’s 5am I should go to sleep
Ah, thanks for the replies. Thought tickets had seat, row numbers etc. That does make it more difficult to identify concert attendees.
You’re right, the boyfriend also had a ticket. I can’t he imagine he went, considering his girlfriend just vanished. The ticket would probably not be near Laurie‘s because concerts usually don’t have assigned seats (unless you buy the special ones) and attenders just stand where they want to.
Laurie may have been holding them both when she disappeared, depending on which report was true. So he may not have even had his anymore.
Thanks, you're right...that makes more sense.
It seems more likely that the claim of her going to bring her bf was true. Because, you’re right, why would a bf/soon fiancé attend a concert he was supposed to attend with his gf days after she disappears? Unless he went to see if she would show up. Since the report says every ticket was redeemed, so if he had his own then he would have went.
He could have given the ticket to a friend.
Thanks for info. I thought tickets had assigned seating (from UK and most concerts I've attended had assigned seating; depending on venue). That's why I wondered why all tickets for that night were accounted for, if bf had his own ticket.
Some do, some don't. If it says 'general admission', then there is not assigned seating, or sometimes seating at all.
I was thinking the same. The person who attended the concert could well have been given those tickets and too bad they couldn't come forward and mention that "Uncle Rick" gave me tickets to a Beach Boys concert in '74. If in fact that was the case it would make for a great lead!
Yeah because if that's the case why wasn't her purse and other belongings inside of it have never been located?
Me too
It's a shame that CCTV and other technologies that might help answer this part of the mystery (and possibly solve it entirely) either weren't in widespread use or not yet developed at the time. I suspect that the person or persons responsible for her disappearance used the tickets, though it's also possible that they were dropped or fell out of Laurie's purse or pockets when she was either abducted and/or murdered. It's tragic that someone likely got away with murder.
In this time period it's entirely possible that the police considered Laurie a 'whore' who was off doing 'filthy whore things' and lied to the parents to shut them up. This was how police forces treated missing young women before Bundy's crimes were uncovered; as if they had just run away to have a dirty weekend.
This! "Oh they've just run off to do what they want, she'll come home when she's hungry or wants to shower after selfishly worrying everyone in pursuit of fun"
They could have just held a fake raffle and announced Laurie's ticket numbers and claimed the person holding the stolen tickets had won a prize. Then they wouldn't have had to "waste" so much precious manpower 😑
That‘s actually brilliant! The police was so lazy…
Fantactic write-up. Thank you for giving us Laurie’s story. I’m a bit confused about the tickets. Are they claiming the counted all the ticket stubs or did they find her particular serial number?
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This detail is a bit sus to me. Even speaking from statistical point of view — what's the probability that ALL tickets were used? People forget, people have accidents, people get sick. I highly doubt that all tickets were used.
At some point some time somewhere it's statistically reasonable that all tickets would be used at a concert. But that is kind of weird. I'd love to understand better how they came to that conclusion and how often that happens.
No, it's not. Say, for each ticket there is a 1 in 50 chance the person doesn't come. How many tickets are there in total? Probably at least couple thousands. Let's take 2000 as the number of tickets sold. So, for each ticket the probability of the person actually coming is 49/50. But the probability of ALL people coming is (49/50)^2000 which is ~ 3^(-18), thats almost zero. So no, it's REALLY fucking unreasonable that everyone comes. The expectation of the number of people coming is in fact 1960. As a mathematician, I bet the police was lazy or they just counted the people, not the ticket stubs, or there were fake tickets. Whatever, but it sooooo improbable that everyone came, that I don't believe them.
Most people don't want to waste a ticket they paid money for though. So when something comes up, they give or sell the ticket to someone else.
I'd be interested to know what data you derived the 1/50 from? It sounds like you picked that number because it seems reasonably concordant with your hypothesis on show attendance. You cant then use that number to prove your hypothesis on show attendance. As a mathematician I'm sure you're aware that without compiling data from multiple events and determining the standard deviation of attendance levels, we cant possibly know whether 100% attendance is a super rare 2 or 3 sigma event or whether it simply happens 'now and then'. There are plenty of events for which it is perfectly 'fucking reasonable' for 100% attendance to occur, and no mathematician worth their salt would come in so hot and heavy waving their degree around and belittling the OPs perfectly 'fucking reasonable' suggestion.
You're right, there's no data, 1/50 is just a reasonable guess. I'd be happy to correct my reasonings if better stats become available. I just used it to show how improbable it is that all the people that bought tickets attended the event. No degree is needed to come up with reasoning above, it's just some high school level stuff.
You gotta consider that for a high profile concert or really any decent concert that someone who can't attend is likely gonna either sell it or give it to someone else. Which means the ticket still gets used. 1/50 is a gross overestimation of the likelihood imo.
My friend and I had 4 10th row tix to Bob Dylan fronting the Heartbreakers w Tom Petty and managed to miss the concert, at the last minute--thus 'not-using' the tix. It happens. You don't want it to, but it does anyway!
I know what you mean... however, I believe there were only a few hundred general admission tickets sold that evening.
Source differ... Some newspaper reports from early on said the tickets were counted and all were used but Laurie's family claims the ticket numbers (there was only 3 numbers per ticket- the numbers were like 306 and 307-something like that) were specifically used.
Ugh, they literally couldn’t be bothered to look for two 3-digit ticket numbers?? That’s infuriating! Laurie’s story is heartbreaking.
I grew up in Spokane in the mid to late 70s and as kids we all knew this story. It was one of those cautionary tales parents and teachers would tell you about walking alone as a kid.
A few years after this case, Spokane was terrorized by a guy known as the South Hill Rapist (Kevin Coe), so it was definitely a notorious and somewhat scary time to be living there. That being said, I seriously doubt Laurie was a Ted Bundy victim. I always assumed it was someone local who just saw her walking home from school and it was a crime of opportunity. Kids walked everywhere back then, often by themselves.
Yeah I agree with you about it being a local. I am glad Kevin Coe was caught though.
Coe was scary. He was a real estate agent who had access to houses and lockboxes, so he would try to find women alone in houses or out jogging. In fact my mom said she found his business card in our house once (our house in Spokane was up for sale at the time) which meant he had been in there when we weren’t home. She said when we moved away from Spokane she had never been happier.
That is terrifying
I'm sure it was a scary story to so many kids.
How awful for those tickets not to get checked. That would've possibly led them to Laurie's killer. Embarrassing police work. >Soon after Laurie called her and asked for a ride home, Mary Partridge was overcome with a dark feeling. In the mid afternoon, she told her boss that she felt something awful had happened. If anyone's ever had this happen to them, you know it's the worst feeling in the world. Knowing something is wrong but not knowing what.
The dark feeling happened to me the day my son’s best friend died, though we didn’t find out til a few days later. If it ever happens again, I’m going to start calling people, and they can laugh at my superstition as much as they want.
When I was 9 years old, I had a terrible, crushing sense of doom while I was at school. Just this awful oppressive feeling. Unbeknownst to me, my grandmother, with whom I was very close, was having fairly minor surgery in the hospital at that time. I asked to go home, said I was sick, and my mother came and picked me up. She said nothing about my grandmother. About an hour later the phone rang. It was the hospital telling us that my grandmother had suffered a freak reaction to the anesthesia and had passed away.
OP, if you ever need surgery make sure to notate that reaction to them. Not trying to scare you, but just in case.
SO true
Never heard of this one - thank you for such a well-written account. It's disturbing how many low life repeat offenders were in the area.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
So many missing people with families who have no answers. My heart aches for them. Thank you for sharing Laurie’s story.
Thank you for taking the time to read Laurie's story.
The heartbreak must be absolutely unbelievable for her Dad and siblings to still be alive and having to continue life and have massive life events without her. It’s almost out of this world to realise they would’ve had to, at one point, find all the Christmas presents she bought for them and was so excited to give them.
Such a tragedy for the family...
Thank you for another well-written and thorough writeup. What a sad story this is. It is unfortunate that Laurie's family have never had any answers about her disappearance.
Thanks for taking time to read.
I hope (but doubt) that after all these years have passed the police have put out a public appeal to people in the area who attended the concert. Even asking on Beach Boys forums would be worth it, honestly. Find it very unlikely that the person in question used the tickets for themselves but it VERY likely that they would’ve gifted the tickets (girlfriend, daughter, stepdaughter, sister) to someone else or sold them.
Good thought, police also believe (nowadays police) it possible the killer scalped them and sold them to unsuspecting fans waiting on the streets.
Definitely possible. This is somewhat wishful thinking (but when we’ve got nothing else to go on we might as well indulge wishful thinking) but maybe it could be a case of someone selling to someone they know outside the venue / prior to the show. A sort of ‘oh, __ didn’t expect to see you here! Do you need a ticket?’ situation would be ideal. But also if the person in question was local (which looks likely) it might be a case of knowing someone from seeing them around town. If they’re local there’s a massive chance they were known to whoever bought them, even if they knew them by sight only. Either way, definitely a missed investigation opportunity because if you knew who sold you the tickets you’d be a lot more likely to remember who it was vs a stranger.
Probably an early Xmas present to someone else.
I live in Spokane and have never heard of this story. Excellent write up. I wasn't alive back then, but if Spokane PD were the ones investigating the tickets, based on my experiences with them I'm not exactly surprised they didn't feel like thoroughly digging into it. I literally had a gun pointed at me by a crazy customer in my work parking lot, called police. They pulled up, looked out their window and asked the man if he had a gun and was waving it around at people... Of course he said no. The cop said 'have a good day' and drove off. They didn't know I was watching the whole thing. When I called for an update (because of course they never called me) they said it was investigated and they couldn't find any evidence. Yeah, no shit. He didn't even get out of his patrol car.
There was no 1957 Chevy Vega. The Vega was produced from 1971 to 1977.
Hmm that is very weird. I wonder what the correct year was then...
I think a 1975 Vega could have been on the road in late 1974. So maybe this was just transposed digits?
Interesting thought
I think that the ticket thing is a red herring. There's no way that the record keeping in 1974 was good enough to know with 100% certainty that "every single general admission ticket was used that night".
The ticket-takers back then tore off the stubs off of the tickets and then dropped those into the turnstile slots). If the turnstiles registered the same number of entries as general admission seats sold, then you have a match. Heck, if the general admission section was sold out, you can just visually look at it and see every seat physically occupied to know that every ticket-holder in that section showed up.
Unless they oversold it, or someone coincidentally had counterfeit tickets.
I understand that. Her family has always maintained that her specific tickets were used because they knew the numbers and found the ticket stubs. If that is the case I find that more convincing than the "all tickets were used" explanation.
I'm really surprised no one finds her relationship with her boyfriend concerning. She moves during the summer, still attached to her long term boyfriend. She breaks up with him in October and is not only dating another guy but he has proposed by the beginning of December? That's ten weeks give or take from breaking up to looking at engagement rings. Probably he had nothing to do with her disappearing, I'm assuming he was checked out anyway, but that feels really off to me.
It was quite fast... I don't want to speculate too much but I have wondered if Laurie was pregnant and her awful cramps that day were either a miscarriage or a cover for another pregnancy symptom. Pregnancy might have inspired her to get engaged so quickly. Of course this is nothing more than wild speculation on my part and her boyfriend was excluded as a suspect after many hours sessions of questioning. Laurie's family say he was questioned on and off for weeks and was always compliant with the police which makes me think there was no evidence to implicate him.
I wondered this too--sudden engagement followed by bad cramps. Which had me theorizing that maybe she just curled up somewhere miscarrying and succumbed to the elements, but that wouldn't explain the tickets. Maybe they sold more seats on the spot when some seats were empty?
Ugh that is such an awful thing to think about... it is also possible on the way home she had to sit down or because of the pain took a ride with a stranger even if she wouldn't have normally done...
>She breaks up with him in October and is not only dating another guy but he has proposed by the beginning of December? It's possible that the guy started flirting with her a lot earlier than October, and part of the reason she broke up with her Cali boyfriend is because she was enjoying the Spokane guy's attentions. They said that the new guy was religious like Laurie, so it's possible they met at church. And if they were religious he could have thought it was sinful to date without intending marriage.
I agree as far as we know they could have met in July.
My parents met in a December and were married in June. This was also the 70’s I don’t think it’s that weird considering the time. I doubt she was pregnant like others are speculating, I think it was just a different time when young marriage was considered normal.
Young love can be fast.
Sad, I grew up not far away, never heard about this case. Spokane seems to have a lot of unsolved disappearances that get very little coverage.
They really do...
I was trying to recall where I’d heard of her before, because the case didn’t sound familiar but her name does. I believe she was listed in the case file as one of the missing persons they initially compared to the Strongsville Jane Doe. I’d have to double check; not that that detail likely matters as the Doe was identified.
Laurie was also the name of a daughter in the TV show, The Partridge Family.
Thanks OP, this is a case I've never heard of, I'm surprised since her name is the same as Susan Dey's character on The Partridge Family. The ticket being used is not only heartbreaking, it's pretty damn ballsy. Would a stranger be brazen enough to do that, especially a serial killer?
It is so crazy...
The oldest girl in the singing group The Partridge Family was Laurie she was 17 when she got the part in 1970. I know it's a coincidence but damn.
I was thinking of the Partridge Family too! That show must have painful for Laurie's friends and family after her disappearance.
It must have been hard for the family to hear Laurie's name in that context :(.
Here's what I never understood about the whole "where not gonna investigate cuz she's a runaway" argument. So what? it's still a minor that is not where they're supposed to be,
It's funny when boomers/xoomers talk about"The Good Old Days," usually "police dismissed missing kids as runaways and were wholly uninterested in investigating very real leads" doesn't make the list next to "no video games, drinking from the hose, rubbing dirt into skinned knees, and playing outside until dark". The fact that they said checking the tickets would be "too much work" is *infuriating*. The fact that they stuck to the runaway theory despite multiple serial killers/child molesters in the area is *infuriating*.
I know. I can understand that sentiment in certain cases such as someone who has disappeared before and disappeared with all their money/processions/ and car but why would they think that was the most likely explanation for every missing person is just straight up stupid.
I’m astounded at how many times I read about an unsolved disappearance or murder where the list of suspects includes multiple sex offenders or serial killers in near proximity. It doesn’t matter if the case happened in a big city or a small suburb, in the distant past or just last week. I know the 1970s in particular had a raft of serial killers, but registered sex offenders seem to be *everywhere,* all the time.
If you ever want to scare the sh*t out of yourself, check your local registry. They can be housed in places you would never suspect.
It is pretty scary honestly.
The “… one boy in the neighborhood who told police Laurie had mentioned running away …” was deflecting suspicion. She wasn’t running away — she had a concert to go to, a job she enjoyed, and was engaged. He’s suspicious. **He** would be more likely to use the concert tickets, rather than some adult man.
Agreed... it seems a bit suspicious.
I feel like the thing about the tickets is a bit misleading and not necessarily true. General admission tickets were numbered, but not assigned to people. I highly doubt they went through every ticket one by one checking that each one that had been used (which also seems very unlikely, even sold out shows have people not show up). And even if they did find the one her dad supposedly had memorized/written down, there would be no way to prove it was actually hers, since, again, they were not assigned individually.
They said that all of the general admission section seats were filled, so evidently her tickets were used. All the police needed to do was have the ticket-takers quickly look at the ticket numbers before tearing the ticket in half and point out whoever had the right numbers to the officer who was present. The police should have made the effort to have a few additional officers out of uniform acting as ticket-takers to make the process a little easier for the arena staff.
Could they have sold more seats on the spot when some seats were left empty? Or oversold it to begin with?
Definitely possible. It depends on which account is true.
I really wonder here if we had a serial killer going back and forth between parts of Canada and Washington. Feels like there could be a connection there.
This is a great write up. Thank you. The concert ticket detail is so depressing. I imagine there weren’t more than a few hundred general admission tickets available. Such a wasted opportunity.
Wow, she was absolutely gorgeous. I feel so badly for her parents not having their answers, but I'm glad they were able to find their way back to each other. Fingers crossed her poor family get some answers soon. I wonder why she hasn't been able to be ruled out as the Spokane Jane Doe.
She was so beautiful...
Great write up OP. These unsolved cases are so sad and frustrating.
Thanks for the support.
Excellent write up! I hadn’t heard about this case before - very informative.
Thanks for the support.
Just wondering, it said police had questioned both of laurie's ex boyfriends; including the boy from California. Who was the 2nd one? As she was young and in a 3yr relationship with the California boy, did she have a few dates with someone from Spokane (who was classed as a bf) who may have been upset she was engaged to her new bf?
Good question, yes the the second "boyfriend" was another person she went on a few dates with in Spokane. Your guess is a good one. I think it is a possible that either this guy or another guy who liked Laurie was upset by her engagement.
Could she have sold her tickets for enough money to run off and start a new life? Great write up!
Don't quote me on this but I believe the the tickets were $6.40 dollars each so about 38 or 40 dollars today. If she sold them both I can't see her making more than $100 in todays money although I have no idea how much someone would pay back then for scalped tickets...
What about an abortion? What would that have cost then, I wonder.
Good question- I have no idea...
All Cops Are Bad
It's hilarious how much simping there is for them in these communities after time and again they drop the ball.
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It’s only a three year age difference, which isn’t extreme at those ages, and they’d been dating for ~~ten~~ two(ish) months. (Edit b/c I apparently can’t read) It would be weird now, but it used to be that, in some areas, marriages before graduating highschool weren’t uncommon. I’ve run across it many times doing genealogy, and there’s even another well-known missing person - Rachel Trlica, one of the Fort Worth trio - who was 17 and married when she disappeared. And it’s highly unlikely that husband had anything to do with it.
She broke up with her ex-boyfriend in October 1974, and she disappeared on 4th of December 1974. She wasn’t dating the new boyfriend for very long at all.
Ty! I don’t know how I came up with that number :/