THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LINDA CARROLL
Crestview, Florida — September 25, 1984
On the night of September 25, 1984, Linda Carroll was at her home on Kingston Road in Crestview, Florida.
It would be the last confirmed sighting of her.
Linda was in the process of seeking a divorce from her estranged husband, Dennis Carroll, who was working in Tennessee at the time. According to members of Linda’s family, the relationship had been troubled, and they described Dennis as controlling and abusive.
Then Linda disappeared.
There was no explanation for where she had gone, and no confirmed sighting of her has ever been established since that night.
SOMETHING WAS WRONG INSIDE THE HOUSE
When Linda was reported missing, investigators began examining her home for clues.
Two details immediately stood out.
The bedsheets had disappeared from her bed.
Investigators also discovered human hair caught on the striker plate of a doorjamb.
Those findings raised questions about what might have happened inside the house before Linda vanished.
Was there a struggle?
Had someone entered the home?
And most importantly, had Linda been taken from her own house?
The answers were never found.
DENNIS CARROLL’S ACCOUNT
Investigators with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office soon learned that Dennis Carroll was staying at his mother’s home in Meridian, Mississippi.
They traveled there to speak with him.
Dennis acknowledged that he had gone to Linda’s house on September 25, the same night she disappeared.
He told investigators that he let himself inside but could not find Linda. According to his account, he then left the residence and traveled to Meridian.
That explanation did little to resolve the mystery surrounding Linda’s disappearance.
Investigators continued looking into Dennis and his activities around the time Linda vanished.
Then another detail emerged.
THE QUESTIONS ABOUT ETHER AND CHLOROFORM
A co-worker of Dennis Carroll in Tennessee told deputies that Dennis had previously asked him about using ether or chloroform to put someone to sleep.
The statement became another troubling detail in the investigation.
There were also claims from Linda’s family that Dennis never appeared to make efforts to locate his missing wife.
And years later, another unsettling memory surfaced.
Linda and Dennis’s son reportedly recalled finding a woman’s purse underneath the family’s trailer when he was very young.
He also said that his father made statements over the years about ways someone could dispose of a person without being caught.
Those accounts could not, by themselves, establish what happened to Linda.
But they added to the suspicions that had surrounded Dennis for years.
A CASE WITHOUT A BODY
Dennis Carroll remained the primary suspect in Linda’s disappearance.
But investigators never recovered Linda’s body.
No definitive evidence has publicly established exactly what happened to her after September 25, 1984.
And without finding Linda, the case remained unresolved.
More than three decades passed.
Then, in 2014, Dennis Carroll died of cancer.
He took whatever knowledge he may have had about Linda’s disappearance with him.
But that does not necessarily mean the story ends there.
SOMEONE MAY STILL KNOW
Linda Carroll has now been missing for more than four decades.
Her family has spent all those years without knowing where she is or what happened to her.
There may still be someone who remembers something Dennis said.
A co-worker.
A friend.
A relative.
Someone who heard a conversation that seemed insignificant at the time but could now provide the missing piece of Linda’s story.
Even a small detail could matter.
Because after all these years, Linda Carroll is still missing.
And her family is still waiting for the answer to one question:
Where is Linda?
Anyone with information about Linda Carroll’s disappearance is urged to come forward and share what they know with investigators.
This story is based on publicly available information and reported facts. It has been independently written and presented for informational purposes. Images, if any, belong to their respective owners.
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