The Baffling Disappearance of Nan Cecile Dixon

July 08, 2008

I receive several e-mails each day, usually from readers desiring to connect with me about one or more of the many true crime books I've written over the years.  Some people write to compliment me with a pat on the back for a job well-done; others write to express their disappointment in the manner that I handled a particular story.  But it's all in a day's work,  and reading and responding to them keeps me comfortably nestled within the confines of my "big boy" reclining office chair that sits in front of my computer which, admittedly, I rarely leave except to go on an errand or to occasionally interview a subject that I'm writing about.  Once in a blue moon, however, I receive an e-mail of another sort, from a person or persons who are hoping that I can help them in some way—usually to aid them in solving the mystery of a long lost loved one, which is what this week's blog article is all about.

The first e-mail came to me late Thursday evening, while I was busy working through the remaining chapters of my book about Robert Pickton, the Canadian pig farmer-turned-serial killer.  The e-mail was from Mona Mansfield-Erhardt, and her motivation for sending it to me was to solicit my help in renewing interest in finding the remains of her grandmother, Nan Cecile Dixon, 72 at the time she disappeared, who Mona and other family members believe was murdered at some point after setting out from her home in Grass Valley, California on September 21, 1978 for a nearly three-hour trip to visit her brother, Harry Leighton, his wife, Lulu, and their adult son, Arthur, also known as "Butch," at Seven Troughs, Nevada, near Lovelock in the northern part of the Silver State in an unincorporated part of Pershing County.  The Leightons were gold miners and ceramicists in the Seven Troughs area, and the purported purpose of Dixon's visit was to collect her original $6,000 investment that she had made in her brother's mining operation in 1961.  She had needed the money, family members said, so that she could make it financially through the rest of 1978.  According to those interviewed by law enforcement and private detectives at the time, as well as newspaper accounts of her disappearance, Dixon never arrived.  It turned out to be a bizarre mystery far stranger than fiction, one that hasn't been solved to this day.

Dixon's family reported the 4'10," 110 pound woman with reddish-grey hair missing to the Pershing County Sheriff's Department a short time later.  She was last seen driving a 1976 Datsun B210 4-door, the color of which was somewhere between lime and yellow.  Even though air and ground searches were conducted throughout much of the desert mining area, the sheriff at the time said that his office didn't have any evidence that Dixon had ever reached his county.  Then, nearly three months later, Dixon's husband, Robert, received a charge card bill for $4.18 from a Texaco gas station in Lovelock.  The new revelation prompted a subsequent round of searches, but there were no results.

Dixon's family then sent psychics that they had hired to advise the Pershing County Sheriff of their purported findings, but their efforts, when all was said and done, yielded nothing that could definitively point to Dixon's whereabouts.  The relatives also hired a private detective and sent him to Nevada.  According to a report that appeared in a Lovelock newspaper more than two years after Dixon's disappearance, the family believed that a Lovelock police officer had tampered with...

Continue Reading The Baffling Disappearance of Nan Cecile Dixon

Photos courtesy: Mona Mansfield-Erhardt

Comments

[SD Mittelsteadt]

I think this article adds a new element to the blog that I really like. Its a sad story, so imagine if this could lead to information that helps solves the mystery? I know that this could lead to the website being nothing but these kinds of requests for help, but then again, that might make for a great blog also!

I check in a couple times a week....so thanks Mr. King and thanks to Investigation Discovery!!!

[karen]

I agree with SD Mittelsteadt. This article reminds me of the type of reporting you and Mr. Lohr did at Crime Library. I hope to see more of it!

[Gary C. King]

Thanks, Karen and Scott, for the kind words! David and I both share a passion for helping people who are attempting to determine what has happened to a lost loved one. I think it's great that the folks here at ID support such important causes, too.

[Mona Mansfield Erhardt]

My inbox has suddenly become quite silent since releasing the info about this case...except for a few lifelong friends and Mr. King, whose caring and interest in my grandmother's disappearance is helping her rest a little bit easier right now, I'm sure. After 30 long years, this case seems to have no beginning and no end, a circle of unanswered questions. I am confident there are at least three other people, besides the primary suspect, who know what happened that autumn day in the Nevada desert...and I would encourage you to gather strength and come forward. This is not a game for cowards. Thank you, Mr. King for answering my plea; and thanks to the unknown person(s) who will soon come forward with dignity and truth. We are my grandmother's last voice.

[Fiona at BetterEdit.com]

I ran across your blog while looking up something I on saw on "Most Evil." I was enjoying your entries and I'd like to read the rest of them, but every time I click on the "Continue reading" link, I end up at a paid advertising site/link and there's no content there. Would you follow up please and make sure your links are working. Thanks.

[Gary C. King]

Thanks, Fiona, for pointing out the difficulty you experienced. I just clicked on several of the blog entries at random, and could not duplicate your difficulty. Perhaps it was a momentary glitch of some kind, or maybe I didn't get to the entries where the problem exists. I will send in a request to have the entries checked by someone more technical than myself.

[SD Mittelsteadt]

I would like to know why there is no mention of the whereabouts or testimony of the Leighton family members Nan was traveling to visit? Or for that matter mention of those who may have saw her last.....family in CA, someone at a gas station, etc. I'd also like to know why the Pershing Sheriff's Department closed the case as a suicide when there were so many glaring inconsistencies with the suicide scenario???!!!

I have heard horror stories (from NV, CA and AZ) about these modern day "miners" and the lengths they will go through to protect their buried treasure. There are also countless instances of people disappearing in the deserts. Its not just a Las Vegas "thing." However, something tells me there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye. What seems obvious may not actually be the case.

I certainly keep my fingers crossed for the family to find some closure after all these long years.