18: Episode 18: Beverly Sharpman with guest reader Susan Bennett

“Got married. Leaving town. Will not be back. Don’t worry. Babe.” That’s what the telegram read that Beverly Sharpman’s parents received the night of September 11, 1947. But, according to her mother, there was one problem: Beverly wasn’t seeing anyone at the time. This, and the unanswered questions surrounding her disappearance send one mother on a decades long quest to find her daughter.

This week, we’re joined by American voice actress Susan Bennett. Susan, a former backup singer for Roy Oribson, is best known as the female American voice Apple’s Siri personal assistant since the service was introduced on the iPhone 4S and remained the voice of Siri until the iOS 7 update. You can find Susan on Instagram and Facebook.

Join us on Patreon! Your support helps us continue to shine light on America’s missing and unidentified women. Flashlight level members also get access to additional content like Behind the Poem, a weekly conversation about the episode’s featured poem, and our monthly true crime/mystery book club. Our January ‘24 selection is the true crime book The Hunt for Brianna Maitland by Gregory Overacker.

You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

To buy Aimee’s book, Doe, it’s available now with University of Akron Press, at Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

To see Vanessa’s latest film projects, check out Birdy & Bean Films.

Show Notes“Got married. Leaving town. Will not be back. Don’t worry. Babe.” That’s what the telegram read that Beverly Sharpman’s parents received the night of September 11, 1947.

Just the evening before, on September 10, seventeen-year-old Beverly had told her mother that she wanted to confide something to her. By the time her mother returned with cups of tea for them both, Beverly had evidently reconsidered and went to bed without revealing her secret.

The next day, Beverly Sharpman went to her high school to register for classes and, once back home, snuck out of the house with just a small suitcase in tow. The telegram she sent her parents was dispatched from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station not far from her home in Philadelphia.

Her mother believed that the telegram had to be sent by someone else because, as far as her parents and friends knew, Beverly wasn’t dating anyone. And, Beverly’s message contained one clue, it said that she “got married,” but investigators were unable to find a marriage certificate in her name.

Soon, though, evidence began to stack up that Beverly actually had chosen to leave her family. She had withdrawn money from her account in advance and quit her job, telling co-workers that she planned to go to Chicago. It’s also believed that she bought a train ticket to Chicago on the day she disappeared.

Still, her mother spent the rest of her life looking for Beverly and so, like many missing person’s cases, Beverly’s story is as much a family’s story and how this disappearance fundamentally changed all of their lives.

People and Cases Mentioned in this Episode:

Beverly Sharpman (unsolved missing person case)