MovieChat Forums > Unsolved Mysteries (1987) Discussion > Wanda Jean Mays case

Wanda Jean Mays case

posted 8 years ago by Mr_Ectoplasma
5 replies | jump to latest

Anyone remember this case? She was the woman who disappeared in the middle of the night while staying at her aunt and uncle's house in 1986. They found the bedroom window had been broken from the inside as if she'd been trying to escape. They also found her bloody, shredded nightgown on the dock by the lake behind the house, and police later discovered an empty canoe floating in the lake with blood all over it.

They identified her remains in 2008 apparently; a hunter had found a skeleton in 2003 at the foot of a cliff and the local PD determined she had died from an accidental fall. It was said in the episode that she had had a "chemical imbalance" and was prone to panic attacks, and the police concluded she fled in the night and accidentally fell off the cliff to her death.

I saw this case for the first time last year on a VHS rip by chance, and was completely absorbed/terrified by it. Such weird circumstances all around. I'm wondering what exactly would have led her to do such a thing. To smash a window in the middle of the night, climb out (presumably cutting yourself in the process), literally tear your nightgown off of your body, get into a canoe for an indeterminate amount of time, get out of said canoe, and then run through the woods for two miles before accidentally falling off of a cliff? It's just bizarre. Unless she was suffering from serious paranoia and thought someone was after her, I just can't imagine the possibility that someone wasn't actually after her.

Maybe one of the weirdest cases of the entire series, though it doesn't seem to be as well-known as it aired in one of the first several episodes when Karl Malden was hosting (pre-Robert Stack).

[–] hilaryjrp 8 years ago

I never saw the episode with this story, but the circumstances are very similar to stories that have appeared on other missing-person shows. Recently, for a reason I don't understand, the Investigation Discovery Channel's "Disappeared" made a series of "specials" following the exact format used for "Disappeared's" regular episodes. The first special was about a young man from Georgia with the same story you summarized.

How could the family not be awakened by glass shattering in the middle of the night and a disoriented woman falling out? You're right saying it's just bizarre.

[–] Dorothyweems 8 years ago

Very many questions about that one, definitely. No answers. I met some of the family and was in the home for filming that episode. I had no clue what to think, but several people thought someone might have taken off with her. Recently I saw a post by someone who purported to have background information and who said there was an older man who had been obsessed with her since her teenage years and who it had been said had controlled her a lot since her young years. I have no idea who the poster meant, but it sounded like someone outside the family, and perhaps unknown by the family. In the show it was said that the night before at the catfish restaurant she started to tell her father something, but stopped and didn't. One could imagine that if she had a person bothering her that she wanted to tell her family but was perhaps afraid to do so. I've seen posts by other community members that it was an accident and to stop speculating because it upsets family. It will possibly remain a mystery, but I hope someone pursues the post about the man. Perhaps it is / was on this message board.

[–] hilaryjrp 8 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7PX6KDuVik&index=17&list=WL&t=1802s (starts at the end, @1:05") The message boards you refer to all make this young woman out to be crazy, and that's so unfair. Anyone who read what you write here, and then watches the Karl Malden segment, might infer something different. Or they may believe that diet pills taken once or twice led to this young woman shattering a casement window that would almost certainly have made her bleed to death directly outside and not get five feet away.

Amazing how victims get blamed for the darnedest things.

[–] Mr_Ectoplasma 8 years ago

Were you a cast/crew member on the show? That's amazing!

Yeah, I understand out of respect for the family that it's probably a faux pas to to discuss it, but I still find the ruling of her death as a mere accident at least mildly suspicious. From what I read, her skeleton was found strewn around at the bottom of the cliff, which is expected given the fact that it sat there for nearly twenty years—but I just don't know how they were able to definitely say "she fell off the cliff by accident, end of story." There are just too many loose threads and weird details, and even aside from that, I wonder how they were able to determine the fall "accidental" given that all they were working with were mere bones (probably not complete either).

I recall in the episode that it was mentioned that she had wanted to tell her father something at dinner that night, but stopped herself. It sounded like her family had chalked her odd behavior up to "diet pills" which I still don't really understand. I'm not saying she wasn't mentally ill—she very well could have been—but it just seems extremely presumptuous of the police to declare her death an accident. That is, unless of course they know something the public doesn't. I don't know. This case has haunted me for a long time. Too many red flags.

[–] Stratego (30576) 7 years ago

I just can't imagine the possibility that someone WAS actually after her.

"—but I just don't know how they were able to definitely say "she fell off the cliff by accident, end of story."

Because her body was found at the foot of a cliff, she was known to have a chemical imbalance, everything indicated she left the house on her own accord, there was no evidence there or where her body was found of any foul play and her parents were content with the ruling that her death was the result of an accidental fall. What else could they have concluded?