140: The Empty Seat: The Disappearance of Thora Chamberlain

140: The Empty Seat: The Disappearance of Thora Chamberlain


On November 2, 1945, fourteen-year-old Thora Chamberlain left school in Campbell, California, expecting to attend a football game that evening.

Her friends saved her a seat.

Thora never arrived.

Witnesses later reported seeing her speaking with a man dressed as a serviceman before getting into his vehicle. Within weeks, investigators focused on Thomas McMonigle, a local laborer with a history of violence. Over the course of the investigation, McMonigle gave multiple confessions, led authorities to key pieces of evidence, and was ultimately convicted of Thora's murder.

But investigators never found the one thing that mattered most.

Thora herself.

More than eighty years later, Thora Chamberlain remains one of California's earliest no-body homicide victims. Her body has never been recovered.

In this episode, we examine the disappearance of Thora Chamberlain, the investigation that followed, and the evidence that secured a conviction despite the absence of a body.

This is a story about loss, memory, and the empty seat left behind when a child never comes home.

📍 Campbell, California | November 2, 1945

📖 Featuring an original poem written and read in her honor by Aimee Baker.

➡️ Help bring attention to missing and unidentified women—subscribe and share this episode.

📍 Find us on Instagram & Facebook.

📚 Get Aimee’s book, Doe, now available via University of Akron Press, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.

📰 For more women-centered true crime content, subscribe to Aimee’s newsletter, GIRLHUNT.



Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(148)

148: Hernando County Jane Doe: The Women Who Vanished Before Her, Part 1

148: Hernando County Jane Doe: The Women Who Vanished Before Her, Part 1

In 1980, Pam Sherrell escaped a violent attack by a man who abducted her and tried to kill her. He evaded capture, but her escape would set off a chain of events that revealed a much darker story unfo...

18 Aug 34min

147: The Missing Women of Pinellas County, Pt 2: Margaret Dash, Retha Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson

147: The Missing Women of Pinellas County, Pt 2: Margaret Dash, Retha Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson

He was finally caught. Just not for the women.For years, Cleveland Hill Jr. was connected to the disappearances of Margaret Dash, Retha Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson, three women who vanished from Pinel...

11 Aug 31min

146: The Missing Women of Pinellas County, Pt 1: Margaret Dash, Retha Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson

146: The Missing Women of Pinellas County, Pt 1: Margaret Dash, Retha Hiers, and Donyelle Johnson

Three women disappeared from Pinellas County, Florida over the course of fifteen years.They came from different backgrounds. Their lives followed different paths. But their disappearances would eventu...

4 Aug 40min

145:  San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 3: The Jane Does

145: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 3: The Jane Does

Law enforcement called some of San Diego's missing and murdered women "NHIs," short for No Humans Involved. It was police slang used to describe victims they believed didn't matter.By 1988, the number...

28 Juli 59min

144: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 2: Mary Colette Rawlinson

144: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 2: Mary Colette Rawlinson

In October 1985, 19-year-old Mary Colette Rawlinson walked out of a home in San Diego, California, telling her boyfriend she'd be right back. She was never seen again.As more women disappeared from El...

21 Juli 44min

143: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 1: Cynthia Maine

143: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 1: Cynthia Maine

In the 1980s, dozens of women disappeared from San Diego, California. One of them was 26-year-old Cynthia Maine.Cynthia was a daughter, sister, mother, and woman trying to survive addiction while work...

14 Juli 58min

142: The Only Missing WASP: The Disappearance of Gertrude Tompkins Silver

142: The Only Missing WASP: The Disappearance of Gertrude Tompkins Silver

On October 26, 1944, Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins Silver took off from Mines Field in Los Angeles in a P-51 Mustang on what should have been a routine ferry flight.She never arrived.Gertrude was one of t...

7 Juli 44min

141: The Disappearance of Ilonka Cann: A Coroner’s Jury Speaks

141: The Disappearance of Ilonka Cann: A Coroner’s Jury Speaks

On May 26, 1970, twenty-six-year-old Ilonka Cann vanished from the rural Pennsylvania farmhouse she shared with her husband and fifteen-month-old son.The day before, she had spoken with her parents in...

30 Juni 49min

Populärt inom True Crime

rattegangspodden
podme-dokumentar
aftonbladet-krim
svenska-mordhistorier
podme-crime
fallen-jag-aldrig-glommer
infor-ratta
forhorsrummet
spoktimmen
seriemordarpodden
p3-krim
en-mork-historia
krimrummet
massmordarpodden
mordpodden
svenska-fall
makabra-mord
fangelsepodden
rss-valdet-krim
mordarpodden