Joan Gay Croft was four years old when she disappeared from a hospital basement in Woodward, Oklahoma, after the devastating tornado of April 9, 1947. Her mother, Cleta, was killed in the storm; her father, Olin, was badly injured. Joan and her sister Geri were treated at an overwhelmed hospital, where the girls were placed on a cot in the basement. Joan had a splinter the size of a pencil in her left leg.

On the night of April 10, two men in khaki, military-style clothing were seen taking Joan from the basement. Staff later said the men claimed they were transporting her to an Oklahoma City hospital where relatives waited and told protesting Joan they would return for Geri. Hospital personnel, believing the men were rescue workers amid the chaos, allowed the child to go. By morning Joan was gone and has never been located.

Olin Croft searched for his daughter for years. Tips from national publicity, including an Unsolved Mysteries segment, produced leads and several women who thought they might be Joan, but DNA testing ruled them out. The two men’s identities and motives remain unknown. Did anyone in the Woodward area or descendants of people working in relief efforts that night hear family stories about taking a child to Oklahoma City?