Lisa Karen Addington-Missing 30 Years

Image Credit: CharleyProject.org

MAY 16, 1984 was supposed to be a big, fun night for 22 year-old Lisa Karen Addington. At the time, she was a resident of Dallas, Texas, but she was in Tulsa, Oklahoma to prepare for her wedding that was scheduled for May 19. That night, Lisa attended a bachelorette party a group of her friends threw for her during the evening of May 15 at The Great Escape Club, which was a night club,  on 21st Street and Garnett Road in Tulsa. At exactly midnight, her friends departed from the club, but Lisa chose to stay behind to find another ride home. Lisa never made it home and has never been seen again.
Lisa's birthday is January 14, 1962, and she has brown hair with green eyes. She is 5'8" tall and weighed 125 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen wearing a black, blue and red plaid shirt along with black pants and white knee-high socks.
Lisa's friends reported they last saw her speaking with an unidentified Caucasian male inside the club. He was in his mid-twenties with collar-length brown hair parted in the middle. He looked to be 6'0", weighing about 160 pounds with a medium build. He was also wearing a green shirt. Investigators want to identify him because he was one of the last people to be with Lisa, and may have valuable information for the investigation. Investigators have classified her disappearance as a suspected homicide investigation.
Lisa's disappearance is one where more information about relationships in her life would answer many questions. How was her relationship with her fiance? Has he already been ruled out as a suspect? Did she have any exes that may have been upset with Lisa getting married? Did Lisa or her fiance have anyone who objected to the two of them getting married? And why would her friends leave her alone with a stranger instead of insisting she get a ride home with one of them? Why did Lisa want to stay longer when she could have gotten a ride home? Could the unidentified man had something to do with that decision? Did she want to have one more night of fun before walking down the aisle? Was Lisa intoxicated by midnight, which would lead to her making decisions she normally wouldn't while sober? How popular was the use of the "date rape" drug back in the 1980's? Were her purse, wallet, money or any other belongings ever found, if she had them with that night? Was the car of the unknown man seen by anyone at the club that night? I am sure authorities has answers to some of these questions, but as someone looking from the outside in, these are some things that crossed my mind as I was reading her case file.
Although Lisa's disappearance was difficult to write about because of lack of information, there were a lot of developments in her case. First was the confession of Charles Timothy Krauss after his arrest in Pearl, Mississippi. He claimed to be a serial killer and to have killed 11 women combined in the areas of Mississippi, Tennessee and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Victims he claimed to have killed in Mississippi and Tennessee have been found alive and well, and authorities are working on confirmation for the Tulsa, Oklahoma victims. Krauss has ties to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, and claimed to have killed a woman there in August of 2011. Authorities are still looking into him as a person of interest in the case of other missing women in the area, including Lisa Addington.
Now, investigators are leaning towards the scenario that Lisa was abducted by someone she just met that night at the club, or someone who she did not know prior to that evening. It is most likely after her friends left, that this person offered her a ride. With this being the possible scenario, it seems this person has experience with committing these types of crimes. This person knew going to a club late at night and finding a tipsy girl with no friends by her would be a good bet. So, I started looking through other cases of missing women, starting from Tulsa, Oklahoma and working out towards other states by Oklahoma.

Francine Frost vanished from a Tulsa grocery store in 1981. Image Credit: CharleyProject.org

The first person I came across was 43 year-old Francine Frost, who vanished from Skaggs Alpha Beta grocery store in Tulsa, Oklahoma on February 16, 1981. Francine and her husband of 26 years went out for dinner. Her husband went to bed around 8:00 PM, and Francine apparently decided to go grocery shopping that night. Her husband discovered her missing at 5:00 AM the next day. Now, I immediately suspected the husband in this case, just because he was the last to see her. I thought the story of her going to the grocery store would be just a story. I changed my mind after reading her two tone gray two-door 1980 Buick Skylark was found in the parking lot of the grocery story. There was a grocery bag with cheese in it within her vehicle, and the receipt said she purchased it at another grocery store at 10:20 PM. Her keys were in the driver's door lock. She hasn't been seen since. I wanted to write about Francine's disappearance in Lisa's case entry because she went missing in the 1980's, during the evening hours in Tulsa.

In 1984, Donna drove to Tulsa to meet an unknown man who promised her a way to make good money. She was never seen again. Image Credit: CharleyProject.org

On May 11, 1984, 18 year-old Donna Kingston from Tahlequah, Oklahoma drove her grandmother's red four-door 1980 Mercury Monarch to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The reason for her journey there was she met a man from Tulsa who claimed she could make a lot of money by going there. Donna told her family about it, and informed them when she was leaving. She had no history of staying out of touch or running away. She promised to contact her family when she got there. She never called and has not been seen since. The license plate number of her grandmother's car was given out, CZ4818, so I am assuming the car is still missing as well. Like Lisa, Donna vanished during the 1980's in Tulsa. I question if Lisa was offered more then a ride that night, if she was offered a job within the area with this man as well. I guess the question to ask is, did Lisa have any intention to move to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area?

In 1986, Pamela Tinsley was last seen on the back of a motorcycle with an unknown man. She has not been seen since. Image Credit: CharleyProject.org

On April 13, 1986, 19 year-old Pamela Tinsley was last seen at Lake Overhosler in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She was there with her friends at 2:00 PM, and she told them she was going to take a ride the lake on a motorcycle with a man she just met. She left her belongings with her friends because she expected to be right back. She never return and has not been seen since. The man she was last seen with is described as Caucasian, 6'0" and 180-200 pounds with brown hair and a mustache. He was between 19 and 20 years old in 1986 and wore jeans, a T-shirt and sunglasses. His motorcycle was a blue 650 cc or 750 cc Kawasaki model and he remains unknown to this day. I wonder if the man Lisa was last seen with drove a motorcycle? May is certainly the month to be driving one in Oklahoma. Although authorities wonder if Pamela really did know they guy or if her disappearance was drug-related in any way, I also wonder if you compared sketches of the unknown man Lisa was seen with to the unknown man Pamela was last seen with, how would they match up? It sounds like both men have similarities. Oklahoma City is only an hour and a half away from Tulsa, which also has a history of motorcycle gangs, if this guy was in one.
I searched missing women profiles in Oklahoma and the surrounding states, and these cases are ones that stuck out to me the most. Other cases I read about are unsolved murders near the area.

Christine Miller was thought to have left of her own accord, but months later her remains would be found on the Arkansas River bank. Image Credit: MissingIn.org

In 1989 of January, 19 year-old Christine Marie Miller was reported missing from Tulsa, Oklahoma. At first, no one knew what to make of it because Christine had a history of dropping out of sight. As a result, she wasn't reported missing for several months, so she was actually missing since at least October 1988. On January 2, 1989, remains were found on the Arkansas River bank in Tulsa. It was estimated the young woman was murdered 3-4 months before she was found, and died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. For decades, Christine remained missing and the young woman found on the river bank did not have a name. Finally, in 2011, the young women who was found on the Arkansas River bank was identified as 19 year-old Christine Miller. Her murder remains unsolved. Although the circumstances of her disappearance remain unclear, it would be interesting to compare those details to Lisa's disappearance. Christine went missing four years after Lisa, from the same area. Tulsa is a city, but is it a coincidence that young, pretty girls were vanishing left and right from Tulsa in the 1980's? 

Dana vanished in 1989, and her remains were found months later. Her murder remains unsolved. Image Credit: FindaGrave,org

On July 25, 1989, 18 year-old Dana Stidham left to run an errand at a nearby grocery store in Bella Vista and never returned. At 9:30 AM the next day, her brother sensed something was wrong and reported her missing. Early that morning, Dana's car was found northbound on Highway 71 N. The rear tire was low, and her key was still in the ignition. Months later, in September 17, a squirrel hunter found the remains of a woman in a shallow grave that was scraped out of a dry creek bed. The remains turned out to be Dana Lenell Stidham, and her cause of death was never able to be determined because of the state of decomposition. Her murder remains unsolved. Dana vanished in Arkansas, but it was only two hours away from Tulsa. I have a feeling if they find answers in any of these cases featured in this entry, answers to other cases may also arise.
Lisa Addington has been compared to numerous Jane Does, including one found in Cherokee County of Oklahoma on May 7, 1988. Lisa's case remains unsolved, but her family is still pursuing  the search of what may have happened to her. Volunteers pour through the NAMUS database and DoeNetwork websites everyday just to find matches to those unidentified and the missing as well. That is how Christine Miller was identified, and hopefully, Lisa will also have closure that her family so desperately needs to move on. So I am asking my readers, to share not only Lisa's story, but all these girls' as well. Whether they have any connection or not, the fact that young women vanished and right from the area, more heavily in the 1980's then any other decade, shows someone terrible was at work here. Not all these cases may be connected, but I believe some of them may be.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Lisa Karen Addington, Francine Frost or Donna Kingston or the unsolved murder of Christine Miller, please contact:

 Lisa Addington (L) and Francine Frost (R)

 Donna Kingston (L) and Christine Miller (R)

Tulsa Police Department

918-569-9222

If you have any information about the unsolved disappearance of Pamela Tinsley, please contact:

Pamela Tinsley.  Image Credit: CharleyProject.org

Oklahoma City Police Department

405-297-1000

Dana Stidham.  Image Credit: FindaGrave,org
If you have any information about the unsolved murder of Dana Stidham, please contact:

Benton County Arkansas Sheriff's Office

1-479-271-1008

Sources:
Charley Project
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/addington_lisa.html
NAMUS
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/show/8282
Websleuths
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-146872.html
News Articles
http://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/a-self-proclaimed-serial-killer-changes-his-story-while-in-custoday-
http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/man-claims-be-serial-killer/nDGxr/ 
Dana Stidham
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=21510385&PIpi=8336678
Francine Frost
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/frost_francine.html
Donna Kingston
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kingston_donna.html
Pamela Tinsley
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/t/tinsley_pamela.html
Jane Doe
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/6658