Michelle Doherty Thomas

Michelle, circa 1985

  • Missing Since 10/05/1985
  • Missing From Santa Fe, Texas
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 11/16/1967 (56)
  • Age 17 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'3, 85 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A black Harley Davidson tank top, blue jeans and sneakers. Carrying a beige purse.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, gray eyes. Michelle has very prominent facial freckles. She has a scar on her neck.

Details of Disappearance

Michelle was last seen leaving her family's home in Santa Fe, Texas on October 5, 1985. She had come home after work at a Galveston, Texas gas station and then left with two male acquaintances, Carlos Garcia Jr. and Warren Lyn Richardson.

She was planning to meet friends at a nightclub located on Galveston Island later in the evening, but she never arrived. The men she was with said they stopped at a convenience store on the way to the nightclub and Michelle got into a vehicle with two other men.

Michelle has not been heard from again. Her family reported her as a missing person on October 7, 1985, two days after her disappearance. She left behind a husband and a baby son; she disappeared the day before her child's first birthday. She and her husband were separated at the time of her disappearance.

Garcia and Richardson were indicted for aggravated kidnapping in December 1985. They changed their stories and said Michelle was abducted forcibly from her vehicle when it was stopped at an intersection. The case against them never went to trial.

Michelle's case may be related to a string of young women's disappearances and/or murders in the Galveston County, Texas area since the 1970s. Other missing women include Sondra Ramber, who went missing in 1983, and Suzanne Rene Richerson, who disappeared in 1988. Law enforcement has not determined if these cases are connected.

Michelle and her husband served as police informants during a drug bust in March 1985; she was facing burglary charges and agreed to become an informant so the court case would be dropped. By the time she disappeared, she had been hearing rumors that her life was in danger as a result of her involvement with the police.

Authorities believe that she may have been abducted and murdered, but little evidence is available in her case.

Some agencies state that Michelle disappeared from Alta Loma, Texas.

Investigating Agency

  • Galveston County Sheriff's Department 409-766-2300

Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004. Last updated February 17, 2015; details of disappearance updated.