Ruby Lowery Stapleton (Murder of)

On the evening of October 8, 1963, fifty-nine-year-old Ruby Lowery Stapleton, an associate professor of English at Harding College (now Harding University) in Searcy (White County), drove to a local laundromat and then disappeared. Her body was discovered eleven days later in Bull Creek, near Beebe (White County). The incident received extensive newspaper coverage throughout the central United States, including a front-page photograph of Stapleton and an accompanying article in the Chicago Tribune. From 1963 to 2014, investigators followed up on approximately twenty-eight individuals noted as possible suspects, but no one was ever arrested for the crime.

Frances Ruby Lowery was born on February 27, 1904, in Davenport, Nebraska. Ruby, as she was called, was the third of six children. A family member described her as serious-minded and as one who enjoyed being in charge. She eventually attended Harding College—a school associated with the Churches of Christ that was located in Morrilton (Conway County) at the time—and was named “Best All-round Girl” in both 1925 and 1926. In the fall of 1932, she returned to teach at Harding, having completed a master’s degree in English at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1935, Ruby Lowery married another Harding faculty member, Dr. Emmett Ray Stapleton. For the next two decades, Ruby and Ray (or E. R., as he was sometimes called) mostly taught at Harding and raised a son and daughter. In 1955, the couple separated, with Ray accepting a position at Northeast Louisiana State College in Monroe (present-day University of Louisiana at Monroe).

On the evening of Tuesday, October 8, 1963, Ruby Stapleton drove to the Norge Launderama on the southern edge of Searcy. As midnight approached, her daughter Mary Claire, a student at Harding College, grew concerned about her mother. She asked the Searcy Police to check the Launderama. When officers arrived at the scene, they found an empty laundromat with Stapleton’s station wagon parked in front. Two dryers inside contained damp clothing. As officers began an inspection of businesses near the Launderama, they discovered evidence of two break-ins from earlier in the evening. The officers assumed that the burglars and the missing woman were somehow linked.

On October 10, morning classes at Harding College were canceled to allow male students, faculty, and staff to participate in a mass search for Ruby Stapleton. Over 500 volunteers came together for the search, but no evidence was found regarding Stapleton’s whereabouts. In the afternoon, a man phoned Ray Stapleton (who had returned to Searcy) and demanded money. Investigators traced the call to a phone booth in Lubbock, Texas, resulting in the arrest of two men there. Each man was held under a $2,500 bond. In a subsequent interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Ray admitted that he knew both of the men and that they had previously asked him for money. The following day, October 11, the suspects were released after police confirmed that both men had been in Texas on the night of Ruby Stapleton’s disappearance.

Investigators from the FBI, the Arkansas State Police, and the White County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Ray Stapleton on three separate occasions, focusing mainly on his associations with homosexual men. Ray shared the names of a half dozen individuals who investigators considered, at the time, to be possible suspects in the apparent abduction of his estranged wife.

On October 15, George S. Benson, president of Harding College, announced that the school was offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the finding of Ruby Stapleton and to the successful prosecution of individuals responsible for her disappearance.

On October 19, a squirrel hunter spotted a naked human body in Bull Creek (about fifteen miles southwest of Searcy). Police were called to the scene of what was assumed to be Stapleton’s remains. Investigators observed cuts on the torso, which they speculated were made to remove Stapleton’s clothing.

The body from Bull Creek was transported to the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock (Pulaski County) for autopsy. The examination revealed a large wad of cotton (the size of a “clenched fist”) in the mouth cavity. The examining doctors concluded that the woman had likely died from suffocation. Investigators later located Ruby Stapleton’s dentist, who successfully matched his patient’s records to the details found in the medical examiner’s report.

Ruby Stapleton’s funeral took place on the morning of October 23 in the Harding College auditorium. Classes were condensed that morning to allow the entire college community to attend. Dr. Benson led the proceedings, and the Harding A Capella Chorus sang a selection of hymns. Stapleton was laid to rest in White County Memorial Gardens.

At the end of October, a truck driver came forward to say that as he drove by the Norge Launderama on the evening of October 8, he’d witnessed a man holding a woman by the arm and leading her toward a dark car. There was another man following close behind. The driver told police, “I didn’t think anything of it at the time, other than they might be drunk.”

In December, Lloyd Henry, the White County prosecuting attorney, filed charges against a group of young men (all about the age of twenty) for a string of burglaries committed in Searcy and the surrounding area. The charging documents included information about the two burglaries committed near the Launderama on the night of Ruby Stapleton’s abduction. When asked about a possible connection to the Stapleton case, Henry said the thefts on October 8 likely took place about two hours before the Harding teacher disappeared and that he did not believe any of the men were involved in the abduction.

Very little investigative activity took place the following year. Publicly, the case drew scant additional attention, until the publication of the March 1965 edition of True Detective magazine—a popular crime periodical in the United States. Inside the magazine, an article titled “ARKANSAS’ NO. 1 MURDER MYSTERY” highlighted the case and included photos of Ruby Stapleton, Dr. Benson, and the Stapleton residence. The magazine renewed public interest in the crime but spurred no viable leads.

After some time, Dr. E. R. Stapleton went on to become the head of the Department of Business Administration at the College of Emporia in Kansas. On March 30, 1968, he died of an apparent heart attack at his home there.

In 2013, just over fifty years after the death of Ruby Stapleton, Heather Bates (daughter of Mary Claire Stapleton Heffington) submitted a request for a copy of the investigative file on her grandmother’s murder. The Arkansas State Police denied the request, saying the case was still open and therefore exempt from a file release under the Freedom of Information Act.

The next year, the Arkansas State Police reviewed materials relating to a final person of interest in the crime—Roger Burns, an inmate in Illinois. Burns had been convicted of killing a woman in 1965 after abducting her from a laundromat in Belleville, Illinois. After the review, a special agent with the State Police was unable to establish any link between Burns and the crime against Stapleton.

On April 20, 2017, the Arkansas Supreme Court weighed in on Bates’s request for the police file on her grandmother, noting that there had been sparse activity by the State Police since 1965. The court concluded that the investigation was not open and ongoing and that Bates could have a copy of the file.

A portrait of Ruby Stapleton hangs in the Harding University library.

For additional information:
“7 Youths Charged for Burglaries.” Hope Star, December 12, 1963, p. 7.

“500 Harding Students Search for Clues to Missing Teacher.” Searcy Daily Citizen, October 10, 1963.

“$1,000 Reward Is Offered in Case of Missing Teacher.” Searcy Daily Citizen, October 15, 1963.

“Burns Pleads Guilty to Miss Curran’s Murder.” Belleville News-Democrat, January 24, 1966, pp. 1–2.

Byrd, Malley J. “ARKANSAS’ NO. 1 MURDER MYSTERY.” True Detective, February 1965.

Dep’t of Ark. State Police v. Keech Law Firm P.A. Arkansas Courts. https://opinions.arcourts.gov/ark/supremecourt/en/item/300075/index.do?q=Arkansas%2BSta (accessed August 12, 2026).

“Harding English Professor Murdered.” Christian Chronicle, November 8, 1963.

“Man Arrested for Fraud in Disappearance.” Tyler Morning Telegraph, October 11, 1963, Section 4, p. 3.

Nall, Deana Hamby, and Mike S. Allen. The Abduction of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton. N.p.: 2026.

“Tribute Given Mrs. E. R. Stapleton at Services Here.” Searcy Daily Citizen, October 24, 1963.

“Woman Prof’s Killer Hunted.” Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1963, pp. 1–2.

Mike S. Allen
Fairfax, Virginia