Joan “Joanie” Hall: Teen missing from Oregon since 1983

Joanie Hall missing Oregon

Joan Leigh Hall, 17, from Warrenton, Oregon went missing on Sept. 30, 1983.

The day after Joanie Hall won the position of president of the Sheriff’s Office Explorers Post, Joanie left school and grabbed a ride with teen, Mike Moore to the Warrenton Mini-Mart in downtown.  She told him she was going to buy a coke and then walk the rest of the way to Warrenton Grade School to help her aunt Ruth, who was a third-grade teacher at the school.  She never made it to the school and has not been seen since.

The police did extensive searchers for Joan, but she has never been found.  Hall’s disappearance hurt many people including the police officer’s that tried to find her.  One was so affected by her disappearance he kept her photograph at his job until he retired.  Hall’s parents died in 1994.  She has six siblings, two have since died.

In 2007, police went back over the case in hoping that something would be found using new techniques and re-interviewing people, and by getting Joan’s story out to the public.  But that proved to be of no help.

The Daily Astorian ran a story on Joanie Hall.  Ernie Brown who knew Joanie told the Daily Astorian he was at the Mini-Mart and saw Joanie come walking out and asked her if she needed a ride home.  He saw a man get out of a black Dodge Polara that Brown had noticed earlier because of the sound of the engine.  Joanie said, “No, that’s my boyfriend.”  She got into the car and left with him.

He also stated that there was two Mike Moore’s in town and the police only talked to one.

Dennis Warrant one of the teacher’s who last saw Joanie, also talked to the Daily Astorian about what he knew about the case..  He  said that both Mike Moore’s were nice guys, but another teen Tiac Eastman “was odd.”  And he also brings up a serial killer he suspects was in the area at the time.

And then there is the son of Deputy Basch, Michael who said he saw Moore drive up and park at Jim Sears house with Joanie in his car, but then later changed his  story and said it was Teresa Woods, not Joanie in the police report.  Michael and Joanie were both members of the Explorers program.  The deputy’s son moved to California a few days after Joanie disappeared.

Many more accounts from teens were told of seeing Joanie that day and all changed days later, making it hard to ascertain who really saw Joanie at all that day.

“Send an anonymous letter, send a post card, call from a payphone,” Joanie’s brother Alexander said. “Just tell us, so we can bring her home. So she can be buried where she is supposed to be. We want justice, but we’ll let the law deal with that. What we want is peace.”

Family finds mysterious photo

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