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

Gertrude Vreeland Tompkins Silver







Gertrude, date, approximate 1944; P-51 Mustang fighter plane (not Gertrude's)
Date Missing 10/26/1944
Missing From
Inglewood, California
Missing Classification Lost/Injured Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/16/1912 (109)
Age 32 years old
Height and Weight Unknown
Associated Vehicle(s) P-51 Mustang fighter plane
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Gertrude did not use her married name, Silver, at the time of her disappearance, and her nickname is Tommy. Some agencies refer to her as Gertrude Tompkins or Gertrude Tompkins Silver.
Details of Disappearance Gertrude's father, Vreeland Tompkins, founded Smooth-On Inc. in New Jersey. She was raised as the youngest child in their family and had a stuttering problem when she was young.
Her family sent her to live with a family on a farm in West Virginia during her adolescence. Her parents hoped that the new surroundings would help her overcome her social withdrawal and poor school performance.
She attended horticultural school afterwards and raised goats for a period of time. She returned to work at Smooth-On Inc. with her father and lived in the New York City, New York area in the 1930s.
Gertrude fell in love with an American aviator who was killed during World War II in the early 1940s. Her loved ones believed that she developed an interest in flying after his death. Gertrude took private flying lessons, then joined the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) shortly thereafter.
She reported to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, where famed female aviator Jacqueline Cochran began training women for flight with the United States' military's approval. The WASPs were trained to ferry aircrafts, test planes, instruct male pilots and tow targets for anti-aircraft artillery practices. They were employed from 1942 through 1944 during the war and referred to as "fly girls."
Gertrude married Army Technical Sergeant Henry Mann Silver in September 1944.Henry's sister died after giving birth out of wedlock and he was preparing to adopt her child in 1944. He had known Gertrude for several years prior to their wedding and some believed that she was still mourning for the her lost aviator at the time of their marriage. Her father adored Henry and thought of him as a son.
Gertrude returned to WASP duty two days after the wedding; she and Henry never saw each other again. She was not wearing her engagement or wedding rings when she departed for Texas, nor did she use her married name. Marriage by WASPs was frowned upon and she may have been afraid she would lose her job.
Gertrude was scheduled to fly a P-51 Mustang fighter plane from Mines Field in Inglewood, California (now the Los Angeles International Airport, or "LA X") to Palm Springs, California on October 26, 1944. A photo of a similar aircraft is posted with this summary. She planned to fly the plane to New Jersey during the following days, but WASPs were required to make stopovers at night to avoid flying during those hours.
Gertrude taxied to one side of the runway prior to her departure to have her cockpit hatch repaired. She apparently departed from Mines Field at approximately 4:00 p.m. that day, but her flight records were lost and there is no recorded time for her takeoff.
The tower and air traffic controllers had no copies of her flight plans for the day. She was not reported as missing until October 30, four days after her presumed disappearance.
The military initiated an extensive search for Gertrude and her plane, but no evidence of a suspected crash was ever discovered. She was classified as "missing and presumed dead" in November 1944. Henry mourned his wife's assumed death until his own passing in 1965. There has never been any evidence uncovered to suggest that Gertrude survived after 1944.
The WASPs were disbanded shortly after Gertrude's disappearance. It wasn't until the 1970s thats they were recognized as active-duty armed members of the U.S. Army Air Force and permitted to receive veterans' benefits. In 2010, all the WASPS, including Gertrude, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Marianne Verges' 1991 book concerning WASPs, On Silver Wings, claimed that Gertrude's remains were located inside her crashed aircraft years after her disappearance. The story was untrue, as there is no record of any pilot fitting Gertrude's description who was discovered in the years after 1944. Expedition Unknown, a show on the Discovery Channel, aired an episode in about Gertrude's disappearance in May 2019.
Gertrude's family members met airplane archaeologist G. Patric Macha in the 1990s. Macha believes that her aircraft crashed in the shallow water of Santa Monica Bay and is buried underneath layers of sand. Sonar imagery showed an object buried in the general vicinity in 2001. Searches of the area have not produced any evidence, however.
Others believed that Gertrude may have crashed in the mountains near Palm Springs, a theory that Macha has never discounted. Gertrude's remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
G. Patric Macha
Airplane Archaeologist
714-846-9213
Ken Whittall-Scherfee
Gertrude's Family Representative
916-446-0955
Other
Aircraft Wreck Finders Home Page
The Los Angeles New Times
The Los Angeles Times
Women Airforce Service Pilots: Remembered By Those Who Knew Them
Find a Grave
The Bergen Record
This Day in Aviation

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