Paulette S. Webster

• Missing Since 09/02/1988
• Missing From Chester, Illinois
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 06/06/1969 (54)
• Age 19 years old
• Height and Weight 4'11 - 5'0, 110 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A light-colored sweater, jeans and white sneakers.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Webster has a scar under her chin and scars on her lower abdomen from surgery to remove a growth from her ovaries. Her front teeth were crooked at the time of her September 1988 disappearance, and she has a tattoo of a cross between her thumb and forefinger.

Details of Disappearance

Webster was last seen walking home from a friend's house in Chester, Illinois at 11:00 p.m .on September 2, 1988. She never arrived home and has never been heard from again. She left behind all her personal belongings, including her clothes, purse, driver's license, and pet bird, dog and cat.

Prior to her disappearance, Webster had occasionally lived away from home; she spent some time with an uncle in Wyoming and stayed for awhile with a roommate in Chester, but she couldn't afford to live away from her parents' home long-term. Her mother believes she was anxious because some of her friends were pregnant, and Webster had had a surgery which she believed had made her infertile. However, she generally seemed happy and satisfied with her life. She worked as a housekeeper in elderly people's homes, and seemed to enjoy this.

The suspected serial killer Larry DeWayne Hall is a possible suspect in her case. He is currently serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison for kidnapping 15-year-old Jessica Roach, whose body was found in an Indiana cornfield in 1993. A photo of Hall is posted with this case summary.

In a letter, speaking of Webster's disappearance, Hall wrote, "If I did it, I would have put her in a river or in a field." He has confessed to killing Laurie Depies, who disappeared from Minnesota in 1992, and Tricia Reitler, who disappeared from Indiana in 1993. Police believe he may killed thirty to forty women, but he hasn't been charged in any cases besides Roach's.

Authorities originally thought Webster had left of her own accord, but foul play is now suspected in her case. Her disappearance remains unsolved.