It began with a rusted barrel. On a hot June day in 1979, a teenager discovered something chilling beneath the sand and silt of White Lick Creek in Indiana: the remains of a woman who had been missing for a year—and no one had ever reported her missing.
That woman was Mary Ann Higginbotham.
She was 21. Quiet. Kind. She worked at a cafeteria and shared a trailer with her boyfriend, Timothy Willoughby. But in June 1978, both vanished. At the time, people assumed they’d run off together. What actually happened is far more disturbing.
This week’s episode dives deep into the story of Mary and Tim—two lives entangled with a criminal ring, silenced by secrets, and overlooked by a justice system that never brought their killers to account.
We explore:
- Why no one reported Mary missing
- The car theft operation that may have cost both Mary and Tim their lives
- The grand jury indictments—and why no one served time
- Why this case still matters today
We bring listeners into the world of 1970s Indiana and ask a haunting question: how does a person disappear… and no one notices?
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
If you have information related to this case, contact the Indiana State Police.
