| Welcome to PorchlightUSA. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| 1986 Pfeifer, Elizabeth April 12, 1986; Katy, TX - age 20 | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 23 2010, 10:35 PM (197 Views) | |
| tatertot | Aug 23 2010, 10:35 PM Post #1 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
http://www.ultimatekaty.com/node/5594 What happened to Elizabeth Pfeifer? August 23, 2010 10:10 am Trish Johnson wrote: Only two major crimes remain unsolved at the Katy Police Department, and they include one “cold case” in which officers can’t prove a crime even took place. Katy Police Department Chief W.M. “Bill” Hastings, said, “We’re just fortunate we don’t have that many major cases that take place. These two cases are particularly frustrating, when you’re 99 percent sure of who did it but can’t prove it.” Hastings also said how the case is treated at the beginning has a lot to do with whether or not it becomes a cold case. “I think our low count of cold cases shows a diligent effort at the time the case occurs,” Hastings said. “Your best chance to solve it is when it first happens.” According to Katy Police Department Capt. Gay Dickerson, the oldest case concerns the disappearance of Elizabeth Ann Pfeifer who was 20 years old on April 12, 1986, when she left home with her parents in Katy to attend a party on the outskirts of town, about 10 miles away. Records show Pfeifer never returned home. Her parents didn’t report her missing for four weeks due to her proclivity for disappearing for short periods of time. Witnesses at the party said Pfeifer became extremely intoxicated at the party and left with a man around midnight. Police identified and questioned the man Pfeifer reportedly left with and he said he had no knowledge of her disappearance. According to the unnamed man, the pair drove to the man’s Houston apartment where they used drugs. On their way back to Katy, the pair stopped at a gasoline station on Mason Road and, while the man was filling the car with gas, Pfeifer reportedly got into a brown pickup truck driven by a person she appeared to know. According to the man, who was interviewed years later while he was in prison, he had no idea where Pfeifer was going. Dickerson said the man passed a polygraph test. Pfeifer did not take her purse, money or identification with her when she left, Dickerson said, and police suspect she is a murder victim. She is listed as “endangered missing.” Pfeifer was 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. A Caucasian, she had brown hair, blue eyes and a tattoo of a red rose with the name “Dave” printed underneath the rose on her left shoulder. She was last seen wearing a white blouse with lavender sleeves and blue jeans. Dickerson said Pfeifer has been listed in the CODIS system, a software program which operates local, state and national data on DNA profiles from convicted offenders or missing persons. The second case is the murder of 25-year-old Katy resident Jerry Lewis on July 19, 1991. Police records show Lewis was found at 11:20 p.m. on Danover Street at Stockdick after having been seen alive at 10:30 p.m. at a small bar in Katy. Lewis had a .25 caliber gunshot wound to the head and a large amount of cocaine in his body when he was found, Dickerson said. “The biggest difficulty with cold cases is locating witnesses,” Dickerson said. “About five years ago we questioned three subjects. But when you initially interview more than 20 people, after a few years people don’t really remember. “The Lewis case was botched from the very beginning,” Hastings said. “His file had a clear photo of a gloved hand pointing to the gunshot wound in his head in the top left side, and we had the .25 caliber shell casing. But when the report came back from the medical examiner’s office in Houston, the report said he died of a cocaine overdose. According to Hastings, the police department requested the cause of death be changed to “gunshot wound” and the medical examiner complied. According to Dickerson, no recent leads have turned up in the case. People who have information about either case are asked to call the Katy Police Department at 281-391-4848. |
![]() |
|
| tatertot | Aug 23 2010, 10:35 PM Post #2 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...&#entry11273458 |
![]() |
|
| PorchlightUSA | Mar 16 2011, 11:09 PM Post #3 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
http://www.ultimatekaty.com/stories/237264...r-disappearance Katy woman's family seeks closure 25 years after disappearance by Scott Gordon, published March 15, 2011 5:26 pm Elizabeth Pfeifer Elizabeth Pfeifer As the 25-year anniversary of Elizabeth Pfeifer's disappearance approaches, her family and a Katy Police Department investigator are asking the people who saw her last to come forward. "We're kind of at a standstill right now," says Katy Police Capt. Gay Dickerson, who has been re-investigating the case in recent years. Both Dickerson and Pfeifer's sister Laura Townshend believe the 20-year-old Katy resident was killed. She was last seen leaving a party on April 11, 1986 on Roland Road. "I only have what I feel happened," Townshend says. "We've got to keep it out there, because there's people who know what happened and they need to talk about it." The man who left the party with Pfeifer told investigators in 1986 that he and Pfeifer later stopped for gas at around 3 in the morning on Mason Road. He claimed she then got into a truck with another person and left. "I was like, wait a minute, Mason Road was not developed [at that time]," Dickerson says. "I had a hard time believing a service station would even be open there. I started working in Katy in 1991, and nothing stayed open past 11 at night." Dickerson says she has interviewed this man repeatedly, and that he is on prison for unrelated crimes. Dickerson declined to discuss his criminal history. She has offered the man a chance to take a polygraph test and he as accepted, she says, but he "refused when it came down to it." Dickerson says the man abruptly ended their last interview, in 2010. Townshend says that in 1986, the original investigating officers told her family that this man had passed a polygraph test. Both she and Dickerson say there is in fact no evidence the man has ever even taken a polygraph. Some of the information the officers initially gave the family, "either they misunderstood, but I don't think so," Dickerson says. "I think it was basically delivered to them wrong." Both Townshend and Dickerson say that they don't want Pfeifer's history of alcohol and drug abuse to obscure the case. "She was just a young girl, could've had a life ahead of her," Dickerson says. At the time, Townshend says, officers even suggested to the family that Pfeifer had simply run away. "After she was gone for 10 to 12 years, I realized she wasn't coming back," she says. "I truly believe she died, either that night or within 24 hours thereafter." Dickerson says she's made progress, including entering Pfeifer's DNA into a database that would help identify her remains if they are ever found. As for other leads that have come up in recent years, "There's a lot of stuff I'd love to be able to say but I can't," because the investigation is still open, she says. Dickerson says she simply needs more information to make any more progress in the case. She says she'd especially like to hear from anyone who was at the party where Pfeifer was last seen. She asks anyone with information about the case to call Katy Police Department at 281-391-4848. Townshend is currently building a site, elizabethslegacy.com, to draw attention to Pfeifer's case and that of other people who've gone missing. "The point is that I want to bury my sister," Townshend says. "I want to put this to rest. I don't care anymore how she died, but I want her remains. She deserves a proper burial." |
![]() |
|
| PorchlightUSA | Mar 16 2011, 11:12 PM Post #4 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/pfeifer_elizabeth.html Elizabeth Ann Pfeifer Above: Pfeifer, circa 1986 Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: April 12, 1986 from Katy, Texas Classification: Endangered Missing Date Of Birth: December 10, 1965 Age: 20 years old Height and Weight: 5'2, 110 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Pfeifer has a tattoo of a red rose with the name "Dave" printed underneath the flower on her left shoulder. Clothing/Jewelry Description: A white blouse with lavender-colored sleeves and jeans. Details of Disappearance Pfeifer was last seen in Katy, Texas on April 12, 1986. She has not been seen again and her whereabouts are unknown. Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Texas Department Of Public Safety 800-346-3243 Source Information Texas Department Of Public Safety Charley Project Home |
![]() |
|
| PorchlightUSA | Mar 16 2011, 11:14 PM Post #5 |
|
Administrator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Elizabeth Ann Pfeifer’s troubling start in life Vidocq on March 12th, 2011 Elizabeth’s life has been troubled from the start. Shortly after she was born on December 10, 1965, she was given up for adoption. The Pfeifer family had already adopted Laura, also from birth. As you can immediately tell, we have a DNA problem here. If we ever find items that may hold biological materials that could be tested for DNA, even human remains, we need to find Elizabeth’s birth family. Nobody in the Pfeifer family is blood related to either Elizabeth or Laura. Capt. Gay Dickerson of the Katy Police Department, Texas, managed to unseal Elizabeth’s original birth records in Harris County. She is trying to find Elizabeth’s birth mother. Dickerson managed to track her down until her divorce but after that the trail seems to grow cold. Laura recalls that her parents told her that they had adopted Elizabeth to prevent Laura from becoming a spoiled only child. Laura’s mother apparently could conceive but not carry a child to full term hence the adoptions. According to Laura’s notes on the web, Mrs. Pfeifer liked to blame Elizabeth’s birth mother for Elizabeth’s physical and mental problems. This is what Laura says she remembers her mother saying about the birth mother: ”She was a 14-16 year old, unmarried girl in the wards of Houston. We think she was Italian. She evidently was an alcoholic and from a bad family.” According to Laura, Elizabeth was a high school dropout and she estimates that Elizabeth might only have a 10th grade education. She had learning disabilities but Laura does not specify them. Confusingly, she mentions on one website that Elizabeth won “so many trophies and awards.” She does indicate that her mother did not pay attention to Elizabeth’s needs and struggles. Elizabeth attended Katy Elementary School and apparently that school had suggested medication for Elizabeth combined with special education tutoring. According to Laura on various websites, her mother refused. She remembers that her parents were far more concerned with their social status and image than their child’s emotional and physical needs. Online, Laura gives examples of this behaviour: “My parents and Elizabeth had a volatile relationship because Elizabeth was a pain. This attitude was prevalent when my parents were building their retirement home – what to do with Elizabeth? They had asked if she could just come live with me…they had left her in jail when she got a DUI so they could go on a vacation and Elizabeth not get into more trouble. They had been told, when Elizabeth was 18, by a psychiatrist, that Elizabeth needed to be committed to an institution but my parents would not do that because “the family would find out” and what would they say then? So, they did not know what to do with her. She was spending more time in jail (for DWI’s and DUI’s in Harris County); she had mental problems and basically had to be watched, constantly. She was unemployable and yes, a pain. She would stay up all night, drinking and sleep all day. She had an eating disorder. She would easily fight you or become unhinged if the alcohol was taken away. She was probably in the end stages of her disease…how much longer could she have lasted like that? She was very hard to live with and I know she caused my parents MUCH distress because they were always worried about her. The central theme was, “What will we do with Elizabeth when we move?” What is not clear here is whether Laura suspects that aside from mental disabilities Elizabeth suffered from another disease. At the same time, Laura writes that “My parents and Elizabeth were totally at odds, but yet my parents did nothing to help Elizabeth get out on her own. It’s rather like they needed her to be there, dependent and helpless.” But that would have been contrary to what was pictured before. If Elizabeth was needy and dependant, society would know and according to Laura that was something that her parents tried to avoid at all costs. To summarize, before she went missing Elizabeth was addicted to alcohol and drugs, had mental disabilities, had very little education, had according to Laura an eating disorder and/or another disease, could not hold a job due to the addictions and was in general unable to take care of herself. http://www.defrostingcoldcases.com/forensi...g-start-in-life |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Missing Persons 1980 to 1989 · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



pfeifer.jpg (1.29 MB)
9:19 AM Jul 11