Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos

Clarissa Ann Culberson












Culberson, date, approximate 1996; Vincent Doan, date, approximate 2001; Culberson's car license plate; A car similar to Culberson's Mazda
Date Missing 08/28/1996
Missing From
Blanchester, Ohio
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 01/31/1974 (48)
Age 22 years old
Height and Weight 5'2 - 5'3, 122 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) Red 1989 Honda CRX with the Ohio license plate number ROL402
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Culberson's ears are pierced. Her nickname is Carrie. She has a tattoo of a sun on her inner right calf and a tattoo of a daisy on her right hip.
Details of Disappearance Culberson dated Vincent "Vince" Doan from 1994 to 1996 in their hometown of Blanchester, Ohio. A photos of Doan is posted with this summary.
Culberson filed a criminal complaint of misdemeanor assault against Doan during the summer of 1996 after he allegedly hit her on the head with a space heater, requiring Culberson to receive five surgical staples to close the wound. Culberson and Doan were scheduled to appear at a court hearing in early September 1996 regarding the complaint.
Culberson's family told authorities that Doan abducted her and held her at gunpoint for five hours in on August 25, three days before she was last seen, before she convinced him to drive her home. They also stated that Doan was obsessed with Culberson and was very controlling.
Culberson was last seen at approximately 11:30 p.m. on August 28, 1996. She was dropped off at her residence after attending a volleyball game with two friends. One of her neighbors say she left the house in her car a few minutes after arriving.
She has never been heard from again and her red 1989 Honda CRX disappeared with her. She was missed at 6:00 a.m. the next morning when her mother noticed that her car was not in the driveway. Photographs of a similar vehicle and Culberson's car license plate, which was numbered ROL402, are posted with this summary.
Doan had appeared at the volleyball game the night Culberson disappeared, angry with her because she would not accompany him to court where he had to appear on a traffic violation. He wanted to drive her home, but she attempted to avoid being alone with him.
She was seen shaking her head "no" to Doan numerous times, and told him she was the designated driver and had to see her friends home. Doan finally left the bar angrily and those inside could hear his tires squealing as he peeled out of the parking lot.
Culberson's loved ones believe that she may have driven to Doan's house during the early morning hours of August 29, after her friends dropped her off at home. Doan at first claimed he hadn't seen her, but later changed his story and said that Culberson arrived at his home at 12:30 a.m. and honked, but he refused to speak to her. He told authorities that she appeared to be intoxicated at the time of the alleged incident, but Culberson's friends say she had only one beer while she was with them and was not drunk.
Doan changed his story a third time and says Culberson went to his house and he came out wrapped in a towel and told her he no longer loved her, and she sped away in her car. He was immediately considered the prime suspect in Culberson's disappearance, in part because of the many conflicting accounts he gave to investigators about the time he last saw her.
Authorities began searching Doan's family's property in Blanchester five days following Culberson's disappearance. The former police chief, Richard Payton, was a friend of Doan's family and allegedly warned them that he was bound to become a prime suspect in Culberson's .
Payton allowed the Doan family's property to be left unattended overnight during the search for evidence. Footprints were discovered on the floor of a drained pond on the property the following morning. It is believed that Doan and possibly several of his relatives removed Culberson's body from the pond during the evening hours when the site was not secured.
Doan was charged and tried for Culberson's kidnapping and murder in 1997. He was originally charged with kidnapping only, but two counts of aggravated murder, reflecting two separate police theories of the killing, were added to the indictment five days before Doan was to go to trial. The trial had to be postponed over one month as a result.
Doan maintained his innocence throughout the trial and attempted to stage an appeal, but his request was denied. He refused to answer prosecutors' questions regarding the whereabouts of Culberson's remains and utilized his Fifth Amendment rights during the proceedings.
The prosecution presented evidence that Doan was a very violent, controlling man whose abuse on Culberson had escalated into murder. One of Doan's neighbors testified that she had seen him assaulting Culberson in his front yard on the morning of her disappearance.
The ex-wife of Doan's half-brother Tracey Baker said he appeared at the house she and Tracey shared at 3:15 a.m. that day, disheveled and appearing distraught. Blood was smeared on his clothing. Doan and Tracey drove away at 4:30 a.m. after Doan showered. They took a gun and some garbage bags. When they returned at approximately 5:00 a.m., both men had blood on them.
A cellmate of Doan's also testified. They had been incarcerated together while Doan was awaiting trial. Doan allegedly told his cellmate that he thought Culberson had been cheating on him and he had to make her pay. He said he lay awake at night thinking of a hundred different ways to kill her.
The defense said that Culberson was probably still alive. They pointed to a lack of physical evidence that would prove she was dead, and dozens of sightings of her and her car after her disappearance. They pointed out that many of the people testifying against Doan had criminal records or were known to be habitual liars.
Doan's father and stepmother both testified that they had visited his house between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. the day of Culberson's disappearance and found him asleep on his living room couch. The defense said this testimony proved he could not have killed Culberson.
During the trial a woman in Cincinnati, Ohio, called 911 claiming to be Culberson and said it was wrong to put an innocent man on trial. Culberson's mother listened to a recording of the call and said the woman was not her daughter.
The jury reached a verdict after four days of deliberation on August 7, 1997. They found Doan guilty of one count of aggravated murder and three counts of kidnapping, determining that Doan kidnapped or tried to kidnap Culberson and she died as a result. They rejected the alternate prosecution theory that Doan killed Culberson to keep her from testifying against him in the assault .
Doan was sentenced to to life without parole for the murder and nine years for the kidnapping. He has always maintained his innocence in Culberson's and stated he was wrongfully accused. The 12th District Court of Appeals upheld the Doan verdicts in February 2000.
Payton was later released from his duty as police chief in Blanchester and was accused of assisting the Doan family cover up the murder scene in 1996. He was charged with obstruction of justice but pled guilty to two counts of dereliction of duty, receiving a year's unsupervised probation, a $750 fine, and a ninety-day suspended jail sentence.
Tracey Baker was found guilty of obstruction of justice in Culberson's murder and sentenced to eight years in prison; Lawrence Baker, Doan's father, was tried but acquitted. Doan is currently incarcerated at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison located in Titusville, Ohio. Tracey was paroled in 2005.
Culberson's family won a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Blanchester in 2001. The city paid the Culberson family $2 million and pledged to establish a memorial to domestic violence victims and make sure law enforcement officers will be trained further in handling domestic violence complaints. They will also continue searching for Culberson's body.
A plaque with her picture on it will hang in Blanchester Police Department's front lobby until her remains are discovered. She has not yet been located and neither has her car.
Investigating Agency
Clinton County Sheriff's Office
937-382-1611
Other
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Cincinnati Post
ABC News
Women's E News
Where Is Carrie Culberson?
Court TV
WHIO-TV
Ohio Attorney General's Office
Parents of Murdered Children

Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos