On the evening of May 10, 1941, four-year-old Mary Rachel Bryan and her mother, Lelia, left their Carolina Beach home for a brief errand. They drove off in the family’s black 1935 Ford Model A coupe at about 9:00 p.m. and were never seen again. Accounts differ on the errand’s purpose; some say a grocery run two blocks away, another says Lelia intended to take two dollars to a dime store to buy a new brassiere. Evidence left at home, including several rings Lelia usually wore, suggested she did not plan a long absence.

Family members raised the alarm the same night after an hour of searching; police and state authorities searched the island and dragged the Cape Fear River without finding the women or the car. Over time theories have included runaway, accidental death, and murder-suicide, though friends and family said Lelia showed no signs of wanting to harm herself. Suspicion later focused on Mary Rachel’s father, Edis E C Bryan, who was considered the prime suspect but never charged and denied involvement until his death in 1976. A 2009 excavation of the cottage foundation turned up nothing.

If anyone in Carolina Beach or the surrounding area remembers the Bryans or the 1935 Ford in May 1941, please share what is known.