Leila Lewis Bryan, 36, and her 4-year-old daughter Mary Rachel vanished from Carolina Beach, North Carolina, on the evening of May 10, 1941. Around 9:00 p.m. Leila told her husband, E.C. Eddie Bryan, she was taking their 1935 Ford coupe on a short errand a few blocks away; accounts differ on whether she intended to buy groceries or a brassiere. Mary Rachel reportedly asked to go along. Several of Leila’s favorite rings were left at home. Neither the women nor the black Ford were seen again.

Searches that night and afterward included divers in the Cape Fear River, Snow’s Cut and the Intracoastal Waterway, aerial searches by private plane, and later ground-penetrating radar and excavation under the Bryan house; only a fragment of windshield glass (later lost) and animal bones were recovered. Investigators explored theories including runaway, accidental or intentional driving into the water, and foul play. Leila’s husband became the prime suspect but was never charged; Leila and Mary Rachel were declared dead in 1948.

Does anyone remember family stories, local lore, or documents that might shed light on where the Ford or the women might have gone?