Missing
Theresa Elizabeth Baxter
Baxter, approximately 1977; Age at the time of disappearance: -progression to an unknown Age at the time of disappearance:
Date and time person was reported missing : 08/01/1977
Missing location (approx) :
Huntington Beach, California
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
White
DOB : 10/23/1938 (82)
Age at the time of disappearance: 38 years old
Height / Weight : 5'2, 125 pounds
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Baxter may use the alias Geraldine Tootle.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Baxter was last seen in Huntington Beach, California sometime in the month of August 1977. Her two daughters went to the beach that day and when they returned, their father told them Baxter had run away with another man. She has never been heard from again.
According to Baxter's daughter Marie Plata, who was twelve years old in 1977, her parents' marriAge at the time of disappearance: was troubled, they fought often, and her father was prone to angry, violent outbursts. Baxter had once taken the children and left her husband, but they eventually returned home.
Plata stated that prior to her disappearance, Baxter had been a loving mother who cooked for the family, helped her children with their homework and was involved in the Girl Scouts. She looked through the house herself after her mother's disappearance and found Baxter's purse and driver's license hidden in the attic. Plata was unhappy at home and suspicious of her father, and she eventually ran away and was placed in foster care.
Baxter's husband never reported her mother missing; Plata did, in 1988. Police had her Social Security number and fingerprints on file, but could find no record of her anywhere in the country after the summer of 1977.
Plata believes her father either killed her or arranged for someone else to do it, but Baxter's husband is now deceased and was never charged in her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved and she is considered missing under suspicious circumstances.
Many Age at the time of disappearance: ncies list the date of Baxter's disappearance as June 1, 1977.
Other information and links : ncy
Huntington Beach Police Department
714-536-5951
September 2021 updates and sources
California Attorney General's Office
Orange Coast Magazine
October 12, 2004. June 16, 2017; date of disappearance corrected, Age at the time of disappearance: -progression added, Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated.
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
