63 years later, this strange case of an Ohio woman who disappeared on Halloween remains unsolved
It was early evening on October 31st. Eager to park his tractor and wash up before dinner, Lee Roy Briggs returned to the farmhouse he shared with his wife,Lula.
Inside, dinner was cooking on the stove, and everything else seemed to be in place – Lula’s purse, a neatly folded apron, a small amount of money from selling eggs that had been left on the kitchen counter. Everything but Lula.
That was in 1961, along a small, country road east of Woodsfield, Ohio, near the West Virginia border. Official details of the disappearance and subsequent investigation are scant, due to flooding that destroyed records from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.
From 63-year-old newspaper clippings, we know Lula was speaking on the phone with a relative just an hour before Lee Roy returned home. The sheriff’s department quickly organized a search party of about 100 people, who scoured the Briggs farm and every building on it. Authorities brought in bloodhounds from a state prison in West Virginia … and even drained the couple’s pond. But they found no trace.
From the start of the mystery, most everyone in the area suspected foul play. But who would have taken the woman? Some neighbors openly speculated that Lee Roy had fed his second wife to the pigs. Others suggested a kidnapping. One of Lula’s sons was supposed to have earned a little money in the oil business. Maybe that little secret had gotten out. But her bank account remained untouched.
The FBI was called in. Authorities from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation administered polygraph tests to the woman’s close family – including her husband, son, daughter and a son from a previous marriage. And over the coming days, rewards totaling $1,500 (about $17,000 in 2024 dollars) were posted throughout the area.
Eventually, one intriguing clue came to light. Two separate people in the area reported seeing a woman who matched Lula’s description in the backseat of a blue, 1958 or ’59 Chevrolet station wagon with West Virginia tags. The driver had stopped – apparently twice – to ask directions to “the river.” The witnesses said another man was in the backseat with the woman, and that she was slumped over. Both sightings occurred on the afternoon of Lula’s disappearance, within a few miles of her home.
Authorities speculated the woman was kidnapped for ransom, but that before the men could carry out their plan, Lula died of a heart attack … and that she may have been dead when the two witnesses saw her in the back of the stranger’s car. But speculate was the best they could do.
Descendants of the woman posted an open message on Facebook a few months ago, asking once again for any information that might help solve the case of their missing great-great-grandmother. From the responses, it appears there are several people out there who still remember the case.
Perhaps because Lula disappeared on Halloween, the story soon took on a strange aura. One Facebook poster said she recalled people driving by the Briggs property at night and shining their headlights on a particular tree. There, in the shadows, one supposedly could see the outline of the missing woman.
Today, the case remains open. And though no bodywas ever discovered, authorities would still like to know more about the two men who may have taken her. If you know anything about Lula Briggs’ disappearance, you’re asked to call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department at 740-472-1612.
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