Two-and-a-half-year-old Tommy Gibson vanished from his mobile home in rural Azalea, Oregon, an unincorporated community of under nine-hundred people, two-hundred-ten miles south of Portland, on March 18, 1991. His thirty-one-year-old father, Larry, insisted his son was abducted by parties unknown, but the Oregon State Police believe the then Douglas County Deputy Sheriff had killed his son.

Although Tommy Gibson’s body was not found, his father was ultimately charged with his murder.

Larry And Tommy Gibson

 

In addition to Tommy, Larry Gibson and his wife Judy had a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Karen. They, along with Larry’s half-brother, Michael, lived at the end of a country road near a mountainous wooded area where an abundance of feral cats had been running rampant. After the local Humane Society had become overloaded with the strays and could no longer house them, the area residents decided to shoot them.

As Larry departed his home to go jogging at approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 18, 1991, he was carrying his .45 automatic handgun in his shoulder holster. Shortly after climbing a fence and entering the woods, he says he fired at a cat; he believed he had hit it until he saw it scamper into the weeds. After failing to find the shell casing, he continued his run.

Jogging for time instead of distance, Larry says he began heading home after twenty-two minutes upon reaching a neighbor’s pond. When he arrived twenty-five minutes later, he found that Tommy was not there.

Larry’s Account

 

Judy and Michael were inside their home watching television while Larry was jogging. They had heard the gunshot and, subsequently, what they presumed was Tommy playing outside, but he was not there when they went to check on him five to ten minutes later. Not finding him, they assumed Larry had returned home and taken Tommy with him. When Larry arrived and told them he had not done so, the police were summoned. Their searches failed to produce any trace of Tommy and tracking dogs failed to pick up his scent.

As the hunt for the missing boy was occurring, investigators believe his father’s actions were suspicious.

Tommy Is Gone

 

As lawmen and volunteers took the time to search for Tommy, Larry took a quick shower. Afterwards, though he was told not to report for work because of the situation, Larry, wearing his deputy uniform, says he drove his patrol car approximately two-and-a-half miles to the Interstate 5 southbound and northbound rest areas to see if Tommy may have wandered there. After spending approximately ten to fifteen minutes at each stop and coming up empty, Larry, now believing his son may have been kidnapped, returned home after, he contends, about twenty-five minutes.

When he was questioned by the FBI Eugene Office several days after Tommy vanished, Larry made no mention of leaving his property while the searches were occurring. He only admitted doing so upon being told of seven (one source says thirteen) unaccounted miles found registered on his patrol car odometer.

Larry had also originally said he was unable to find the shell casing after shooting at the cat, but he later told an investigator that he had retrieved it. An examination of the wooded area where the shot had been fired seemed to contradict his belief that he had missed his target.

Larry’s Discrepancies

 

The finding of a dead cat in the area where Larry said he had fired the shot led investigators to believe he had in fact hit it. The cat was confirmed to have been shot to death and had probably died instantly after being struck through the heart and lungs. The bullet, however, was not found; investigators believe it had exited the cat and struck Tommy as he was playing nearby.

Unaware he had shot his son, investigators surmised, Larry continued jogging for what, he contends, was a total of approximately forty-seven minutes over two-and-a-half miles, but their investigation determined he had tallied just over one mile, which would have taken approximately eighteen-to-twenty minutes. During those unaccounted twenty-seven minutes, they believe Larry arrived home, discovered Tommy had been shot, and, in a panic, cleaned up the site and hid the body, probably in the trunk of his patrol car, and disposed of it while volunteers combed the woods. Authorities believe he drove to the rest stops intending to dump Tommy there, but then had second thoughts, perhaps believing the locales were frequented by too many people.

The patrol car was not searched on the day of Tommy’s disappearance, and nothing was found in relation to the case when it was searched several weeks later after authorities had come to suspect Larry.

Larry Is Suspected

 

Although he had passed a polygraph test, the Oregon State Police’s thirty-one page affidavit determined that, “Larry Gibson is the only person with an opportunity and known motive to have caused the disappearance of Tommy Gibson.”

Authorities theorized Larry had killed Tommy by either accidentally shooting him, or beating him to death in a fit of rage, perhaps because he had tried to follow him on his jog or because he had done something he had told him not to do, such as approaching the cat after it had been shot. They believed he likely intended only to discipline his son, but wound up beating him to death, and, in a panic, then loaded his son’s body into the trunk of his patrol car.

While volunteers searched for Tommy, investigators theorized Larry disposed of him in Swamp Creek, approximately seven miles southwest of the Gibson residence. The area was searched, but Tommy’s body was not found.

Larry denied authorities’ contentions, saying sightings reported by his neighbor and daughter suggest that his son was kidnapped.

 

Roughly two weeks after Tommy’s disappearance, the Gibson’s neighbor, Jeanette Cline, told police she recalled seeing a golden or tan-colored pickup turn onto the road leading to the Gibson home in the late morning of March 18. The license plate was taped onto the upper-left corner of the back window of the old, rundown vehicle. She could make out only the silhouetted figures of two people inside.

As with Larry, however, Jeanette made no mention of seeing this vehicle when she was interviewed by the FBI several days after Tommy disappeared. She says she only recalled coming upon it a couple of weeks thereafter.

No other Gibson neighbors recalled seeing such a truck.

 Jeanette Cline

 

Judy and Michael had told investigators they had heard what sounded like an idling car near their home on the morning Tommy vanished.

Shortly after Jeanette had reported seeing the vehicle, Karen, in her room at the time of Tommy’s abduction, told investigators she had seen, from her window, an “ugly yellow truck” pull into their yard, from which a man and a woman had approached and briefly talked to Tommy as he was playing. They then returned to the truck with the man carrying Tommy and drove away. Karen said she noticed what looked like a license plate taped to the vehicle’s back window.

Karen said the couple who took Tommy were both white. The man had a beard and wore dark, scruffy clothes, while the woman had long-blonde hair, possibly braided or in a ponytail.

In three separate earlier questionings by the Oregon State Police, however, Karen, like neighbor Jeanette Kline, had said nothing of seeing the vehicle at the home or of anyone taking Tommy. In subsequent interviews, she did again mention seeing the truck, but in what the Oregon State Police say appeared to be in a coached manner. They believe Larry Gibson had told his daughter to tell them of the invented couple taking Tommy.

Karen underwent hypnosis and counseling beginning in April 1991, approximately one month after Tommy’s disappearance. Under the former, she recalled nothing about Larry hitting Tommy and placing him in a garbage bag.

Counselor Kathleen Howard said Karen had told her of seeing her brother being taken, but that she had done so only after Larry had called her to tell of his daughter witnessing the abduction. When pressed about what she had seen, Karen said she was joking. Howard believes the response was a classic grief reaction, and that Karen felt responsible for her brother’s disappearance and feared being taken as well.

Karen later again conveyed of seeing Tommy being taken by a man and a woman, but Howard was skeptical because the women’s features as described by Karen were the same as hers.

Karen Tells Of Her Brother Being Kidnapped

 

Larry Gibson’s alleged role in his son’s disappearance led to his resigning from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in January 1992. Shortly after, he and Judy had another child, Lisa, and moved to his native Montana, settling in Avon, thirty miles west of Helena.

Following the couple’s 1993 separation, Judy and the kids returned to Oregon.

The Gibson Family:

Judy, Karen, Larry, And Baby Lisa (Born After Tommy’s Disappearance)

 

Larry stayed in Montana and moved in with his grandmother, Wanda Gau, after filing for bankruptcy. He worked as an insurance agent in Townsend and was later a deputy sheriff in adjacent Meagher County. His return to law enforcement was short-lived.

On April 14, 1994, Larry Gibson was charged with the second-degree murder of his son Tommy, after his daughter had changed her story. Karen’s account led investigators to believe that Tommy’s death had been intentional rather than accidental.

The Lawman Is Charged

 

The now eight-year-old Karen said she saw her dad pin Tommy’s hands behind his back while forcibly striking him four times until he was unconscious. He then stuffed him in a black plastic garbage bag (some sources say it was a white bag) which he placed in the trunk of his patrol car and drove away. When her father returned, Karen claimed he parked the car in the same spot and then repeatedly poked a tree branch in the dirt. Based on what she described, investigators believe he was trying to sweep away the tire marks. He then proceeded to go jogging.

Karen also said her father had noticed her watching from her bedroom window as he beat Tommy, and, as investigators suspected, that he had instructed her to tell them the false story of a couple taking Tommy. If she did not so, he warned that she would go to jail and, Karen claimed, even threatened to kill her, her mother, and her sister. Karen said she only felt safe in telling what she had seen after her she was away from her dad (i.e. after the divorce and she had returned with her mom and sister to Oregon.)

 

Judy Gibson had originally supported Larry’s account, but she now believed her former husband had killed Tommy.

At Larry’s trial, Judy testified that she was afraid of Larry because he had regularly verbally and physically abused her and their children. Larry denied doing so, though he acknowledged his spanking of his children when disciplining them may have at times gone a little too far.

Judy had earlier told of the alleged physical abuse to her largely estranged sister, Laura Wallace, but she testified she had never seen any bruises on her.

Judy Turns Against Larry

 

Additional acquaintances confirmed Larry was hot tempered and frequently angry at being left alone with his children while Judy was attending college classes. Some acquaintances said he had made veiled threats about killing his daughters and his former wife following the divorce.

Additional damaging testimony against Larry came from his half-sister, Debbie Calek, who said he had confessed to killing Tommy during a frantic phone call to her on the evening of the boy’s disappearance. Judy also said she had overheard the admission but had stayed quiet out of fear.

Debbie also testified that when Judy and Karen had stayed with her shortly after Tommy’s disappearance, Karen had told of seeing her father beating Tommy and that she was fearful of him.

Additional Testimony Against Larry

 

The jury found that Larry Gibson had killed his still-missing son but convicted him of only second-degree manslaughter in March 1995. He was sentenced to fifteen to eighteen months in prison and was released after serving one year.

 Convicted, But Of A Lesser Charge

 

Larry Gibson returned to Townsend, Montana, where he still resides, having worked in a restaurant and as a country western singer. He continues to maintain his innocence is Tommy’s disappearance and for a time operated a website appealing for information on his son’s whereabouts.

A New Hoot Gibson

 

Shortly after Tommy disappeared, the Oregon State Police received a letter which was signed “Spot in the Road.” It was determined to have come from a woman who claimed to have had a “vision” about his disappearance that proved bogus. She died in 1993.

Authorities never disclosed the letter’s contents.

A Psychic’s Vision Does Not Pan Out

 

Tommy Gibson was last seen playing in the front yard of his rural Azalea, Oregon, home in the late morning of March 18, 1991. He was wearing a purple sweatshirt, gray pants, and black and white checkered sneakers.

At the time of his disappearance, Tommy was two-years-old, stood two-feet-five-inches tall, and weighed thirty-five pounds. His eyes and hair were brown, and he had a gap between his upper front teeth and a small scar on his right eyebrow.

Tommy Remains Missing

 

Thomas Dean Gibson would today be thirty-seven-years-old. If you have information on his disappearance, please contact the Douglas (Oregon) County Sheriff’s Office at 503-440-4050 or the Oregon State Police at 541-776-6114 or 1-800-442-2068.

   

Computer-Aged Images Of Tommy Gibson

Left: Age 19 Right: Age 24

 

The pictures of several missing children are featured in Soul Asylum’s 1993 music video for their song “Runaway Train.” Tommy Gibson, shown at the 4:19 mark, is the youngest featured child.

 A Tune Features Tommy’s Picture

 

SOURCES: 

• Albany Democrat-Herald (Albany, Oregon)
• The Bulletin
• Charley Project
• Corvallis-Gazette-Times (Corvallis, Oregon)
• Deseret News
• Doe Network
• Independent-Record (Helena, Montana)
• Kalispell Daily (Kalispell, Montana)
• Longview Daily News (Longview, Washington
• The Missoulian (Missoula, Montana)
• Montana Standard
• National Center For Missing & Exploited Children
• Seattle Times
• Spokesmen-Review (Spokane, Washington)
• Statesman Journal (Salem Oregon)
• Tri-City Herald