Cathy Cole Sampson was 39 when she disappeared from Paris, Texas, on August 27, 1985. She left home to pick up moving boxes at a nearby convenience store; her 12-year-old daughter waited for her, but Sampson never returned and has not been heard from since.
The case remains open, and authorities fear foul play, KHOU 11 reports. After Sampson failed to come home, her daughter contacted a family friend, who searched for her and found Sampson's purple 1985 Pontiac at a roadside park along U.S. Highway 82 west, according to The Charley Project.
The car contained Sampson's purse and its contents. Valuable equipment issued by her employer was still in the trunk, and there were no signs of a struggle, according to the same account.
A Recent Move and a New Job
Sampson had moved from Dallas to Paris the year before she disappeared and lived there with her daughter. She had worked for Kimberly-Clark Corp. before beginning a job as a service technician with General Electric Medical Services. People who knew her described her as devoted to her daughter, The Charley Project reports.
According to Texas Department of Public Safety records, Sampson was approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 130 pounds at the time she disappeared, with brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears and a full set of dentures. She also had a panda bear tattooed on her left breast and a red rose tattooed on her buttocks, and she may go by the name Cathy Bell Cole Sampson. The same listing classifies her case as involuntary and notes that foul play is feared.
No Answers, Decades Later
The Charley Project reports that Sampson's ex-husband is not considered a suspect. Publicly available accounts have not established what happened after she left home in August 1985. Sampson was born June 11, 1946, and would be 80 years old today.
What Texas' Missing-Person Figures Show
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, its 2025 report lists 40,309 missing-person entries in Texas. That figure counts entries recorded during the year, not people still missing at year's end, so it does not show how many cases remain active or establish how that number has changed in recent years.
The Texas Department of Public Safety says people with information about Sampson's disappearance can contact the Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 512-424-5074 and reference case number M8803012. The Texas Center for the Missing offers resources for families of missing children or endangered adults.
