12/28/2005
Denton County Mother Missing For 1 Year
by Brooke Richie
DENTON COUNTY (CBS 11 News) ?
December 29th will mark a sad anniversary for the family of a Denton County mother. It has been exactly a year since 43-year-old Kathy Stobaugh vanished.
Police suspected foul play from the start, but a year later there are still no arrests and no answers.
Kathy's mother Jeanne Munday said, "It doesn't seem possible that it's been a year, but then in other ways it seems like it's been forever."
It's been a year punctuated by grief and frustration. Kathy Stobaugh spent Christmas 2004 with her family...then disappeared four days later.
Her family believes Kathy's estranged husband Charles was responsible. "We have a level of grieving, but it's not the final grieving because we don't know where she is. And I think that's the hardest part, not knowing," Jeanne said.
They blame investigators for the lack of answers. Kathy's brother, Chris Munday, is a Fort Worth police officer. "I know everything that can be done hasn't been done."
He believes the Denton County Sheriff's Office should have conducted more interviews and dug deeper. But Kathy wasn't reported missing until January 3rd. By then, precious time and clues were lost.
Tom Reedy with the Denton County Sheriff's Office believes that time made all the difference. "If we had been called in on the case December 30th, we probably would know what happened by now."
There is one new sign of hope: early next year, Denton County will ask the Sheriff's Association of Texas, Cold Case Unit to look at the case.
"Maybe they can find something that we missed. We hope so. We'd like to bring this case to a conclusion," Reedy said.
That's a New Year's goal that investigators and Kathy's family have in common.
"I think the only thing that really keeps us going is that glimmer that possibly for some unknown reason she might still be out there," Jeanne said.
Kathy Stobaugh has a teenaged son and daughter.
Both are still living with their father, Charles Stobaugh, who police say has not cooperated with the investigation.
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Denton Record-Chronicle
One year since woman vanished
10:33 AM CST on Thursday, December 29, 2005
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
Her image still smiles down on passers-by from a billboard north of Denton. The mention of her name brings nods and puzzled frowns. Most everyone by now knows about Kathy Stobaugh.
They just don’t know where she is today.
One year ago today, the 43-year-old kindergarten teacher left her home in Sanger for a visit with her estranged husband, Charles Stobaugh. The next morning her car was still parked in his long driveway off Metz Road west of Sanger. He said she stayed only half an hour, but he couldn’t explain why her car was there. No one admits to having seen her since.
Charles Stobaugh’s listed phone number is no longer working. His attorney, Gainesville lawyer Mack Barnhart, did not return a telephone message asking for comment on Wednesday.
The couple’s teenage daughter and son, who lived with their mother after she left Charles Stobaugh in May 2004 and filed for divorce, now live with their father, termed by law enforcement and Kathy Stobaugh’s relatives as “the only suspect” in her disappearance.
They cling to their father’s story that she “went on a trip and she’ll be back any day,” said Kathy Stobaugh’s brother Chris Munday. That puts a barrier between the teens and their mother’s relatives, Munday said. But the family tries hard to stay in touch with them, and spent time with Kathy Stobaugh’s daughter at Christmas.
“They don’t want to believe their father did this,” Munday said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We’ve searched all over Texas and southern Oklahoma, and the leads all come back to Charles. In my opinion, he’s the only suspect.”
The family has offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to finding her, and Denton County Crime Stoppers has added a $1,000 reward.
Though Charles Stobaugh has never been charged with any crime in connection with his wife’s disappearance, law enforcement officers agree with Munday. The Denton County Sheriff’s Office is working the case, and officials there find too many discrepancies in Charles Stobaugh’s story to believe it, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tom Reedy. Charles Stobaugh has declined to take a polygraph test.
Police were not notified that Kathy Stobaugh was gone until Jan. 3, 2005. Charles Stobaugh said he didn’t notify authorities after his estranged wife disappeared because she’d done it before and had reappeared after a couple of days. Family and co-workers dispute that, Reedy said.
“He also told us he left several messages on her cellphone after she disappeared. But we got phone records that indicated that was not true. There was no instance at all where he had called her cellphone,” Reedy said.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened that night, but given the circumstances of her disappearance and the response of her husband, we suspect foul play,” Reedy said. “We suspected it then and we suspect it now. Whether it was him or another party, we don’t know.”
Reedy said Charles Stobaugh’s initial response to questions was inconsistent at best.
“For that reason he is still the No. 1 suspect,” Reedy said. “He got a lawyer and he hasn’t talked to us in almost a year.”
Kathy Stobaugh got a phone call the night she disappeared and told her son that her husband wanted to talk about property settlement, according to police. They had not been able to agree on how to divide their community property in the divorce settlement. Her daughter found the car in the driveway the next morning and asked her father where her mother was. He convinced her that everything was all right and that she should not call police, Reedy said.
Five days later, one of Kathy Stobaugh’s co-workers at the Nocona school where she taught persuaded the girl to report her mother missing.
Charles Stobaugh talked to the Denton Record-Chronicle Jan. 4. He said in a telephone interview that Kathy Stobaugh came to the house they formerly shared to talk about dividing the property. She wanted a larger portion than he was willing to give up, Charles Stobaugh said, and they argued.
He said she told him, “I may leave and you may never find me again.”
He said she remained at her former home on 104 acres on Metz Road only half an hour. He saw her pulling out of the driveway, Charles Stobaugh said. But when he awoke the next morning, the car was parked in the driveway and she was nowhere to be found. He denied harming his wife.
After that interview, Charles Stobaugh stopped talking to the media and law enforcement and denied access to the property. Sheriff’s investigators, the Texas Rangers and the FBI searched the property twice more after obtaining search warrants, and later searched property across the road after a witness said he saw a man crossing the road from that land to the Stobaugh property the night Kathy Stobaugh disappeared.
In the last year, officers have searched a number of other places, acting on information obtained from investigation or from tips. No sign of Kathy Stobaugh dead or alive has surfaced.
Early in 2006, the Sheriff’s Office plans to present the case to a “cold-case committee” with the Texas Association of Sheriffs in Austin, Reedy said. If that committee agrees to work on the case, fresh eyes might find more leads.
“We are still just about the same place we were a year ago,” Reedy said. “We have not found her. We have made no arrests. And the person we would like most to talk to is not talking to us — that person being Charles Stobaugh.”
Munday said the plan to seek help from the statewide organization gives him hope that his sister’s fate might still be discovered.
“I’m open to anything. I hope they can find more,” he said.
Munday is a Fort Worth police officer. He asked his chief if that agency might help, and the chief agreed. He assigned an experienced officer, who is assisting with the investigation, Munday said.
There is no evidence his sister is alive, Munday said. She has not used her credit cards, touched her bank account or used her cellphone since she disappeared.
“Time doesn’t stand still. We have to go on with our lives for the rest of our family,” Munday said. “We need closure. It was hard losing my sister, but it’s harder for our parents. I lost a sister but they lost their only daughter.”
DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com.
Denton County Crime Stoppers will pay a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in this or other crimes. Callers will remain anonymous. Call 1-800-388-TIPS (8477).
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Gainesville Daily Register
Published May 2, 2007
Stobaugh story makes 'Dateline'
By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer
Dateline NBC is scheduled to air a segment on the Kathy Stobaugh case Sunday night.
Most residents remember the missing-person billboards for Stobaugh on U.S. Highway 82 and Interstate 35. Stobaugh, a 43-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two went missing just after December 29, 2004.
The poignant signs featuring her photo and the circumstances of her disappearance showed a sweet-looking woman with a touch of sadness in her eyes.
According to Stobaugh’s brother, Tarrant County police officer Chris Munday, Stobaugh’s sadness had just begun to lift as she started a new life as a teacher and a soon-to-be single parent.
“She was getting her life back on track. She just graduated college, something she’s been trying to do for many years. She had just started teaching kindergarten class (at Nocona Elementary school),” Munday said during a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon.
Munday was contacted by a Register reporter for comments about a segment scheduled to air Sunday evening on Dateline NBC.
Stobaugh’s brother had a lot to say about his missing sister and the investigation surrounding her December 29, 2004 disappearance.
“One of my big questions is ‘who’s in charge?’,” Munday said.
So far, the investigation has been an ongoing effort between the Denton County sheriff’s department and the Texas Rangers. But Munday said he believes both agencies are “passing the buck” — demurring when asked questions about the case, overlooking possible leads and letting time pass without making any real progress.
He said he thinks the Rangers are actually in charge of the investigation, and he is far from pleased with the diligence they have shown. “One statement I made to Dateline, they (the Rangers) are living on their reputation,” he said.
He said one thing that bothers him is what he considers lost opportunities.
For example, she said after his sister’s disappearance, he went to Fort Worth Police Chief Ralph Mendoza and asked for help with the case. Mendoza responded by assigning a detective to assist Texas Ranger investigator Tracey Murphree.
“This detective was just (offering) a helping hand, but the Ranger blew him off,” Munday said.
He likens dealing with the Texas Rangers to pushing against a brick wall and said other members of Kathy Stobaugh’s family have similar feelings. He isn’t asking for anything besides competent investigative work, he said. He just wants to know what became of his sister.
“In Fort Worth, from the top to the bottom, we’re held accountable for what we do and don’t do, how come the Rangers aren’t? If they had done their job, 100 percent, and there was still nothing out there, I couldn’t blame them for anything. Their job would’ve been done, but there’s still unanswered questions.”
Questions surrounding the investigation trouble the Munday family, but Munday is not critical of Denton County investigator Mike Hendricks whom he said is doing good work on the case.
The union between Charles and Kathy Stobaugh was, apparently, often uneasy.
Kathy and Charles Stobaugh had been married since 1984. For the first few years of her marriage, Munday said Charles Stobaugh abused Kathy Stobaugh physically. Later, the abuse became mental.
At last, Kathy Stobaugh broke free of her husband and was making a happier life for herself and her children, Munday said, noting that the changes in Kathy were obvious.
“The last months — from the time she left until she disappeared — she was so happy. She always had a smile on her face and was a totally different person...He (Charles Stobaugh) didn’t want her to have any part of us. We always protected each other, but he drew a wedge a between us. We were finally getting back in touch with her, finally doing things together as a family. From about a month before she left him until she disappeared, she and I had gotten close again. She was getting on with her life,” he said.
Munday believes Stobaugh had a strong motive for wanting rid of his wife — money.
The couple owned almost a million dollars worth of Denton County property including pasture land and farm and ranch equipment, he said. Munday said Stobaugh still lives on the couple’s farm.
The Stobaughs were scheduled for a court appearance the day after she disappeared, he said.
Kathy Stobaugh wanted Charles to keep the property as part of their impending divorce settlement. “She didn’t want half of everything. All she wanted was a home,” he said, adding that Kathy had found a moderately priced house for herself and the children.
Munday talked to his sister the day she disappeared. He said she told him she went to Stobaugh’s farm to clear up a few details about the divorce settlement. He said Kathy also told him her estranged husband gave her a hug before she left, a gesture that Munday thought was odd and out of character for Stobaugh whom he describes as “selfish.”
He said he talked to her about two hours after she left Stobaugh’s home.
He said he believes Charles Stobaugh may have called her back late that night.
“That was the last time anybody saw her,” he said.
Charles Stobaugh’s version of events has changed several times, Munday noted.
He said in one version, Stobaugh said he awakened the next day and found his estranged wife’s car in his driveway. Her keys were still with the car.
Munday said in the beginning he wanted to believe Charles Stobaugh had nothing to do with his sister’s disappearance.
“His family tried to believe him, even I did, but all roads led back to him,” he said.
Denton County Sheriff’s Department Public Information officer Tom Reedy said Stobaugh remains the main suspect in the case.
“Mr. Stobaugh is still a suspect,” Reedy said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We think he knows what happened that night, but he refuses to talk to us. And the fact that he waited for five days and delayed his children from calling the authorities is one of the reasons why he is a primary suspect.”
Like Munday, Reedy said he hopes the telecast will jog someone’s memory — or conscience.
Not much progress has been made, and the case is “pretty much where it was at,” he said.
According to Reedy, Kathy Stobaugh’s family got in contact with Dateline producers who then called law enforcement agencies for interviews. Denton County officials were glad to talk about the case, he said.
“We hope that this jogs someone’s memory and conscience and might turn up some leads,” Reedy commented.
Another man who said he would like to see a resolution to Stobaugh’s disappearance is Charles Stobaugh’s uncle, Louis Hames.
Hames said no one in his family contacted Dateline, but he did speak with the program.
Hames — a Cooke County resident — said by the time he found out Kathy Stobaugh was missing, she had been gone a week.
“Everybody seemed kind of dumbfounded,” he recalled. “We didn’t know what to do.”
He said he took part in search parties, but no one found anything connected to Kathy.
“We found a lot of things — animal bones, old clothes — but nothing that belonged to her,” he said.
Hames said he talked with Dateline in January and has grown accustomed to speaking with the media.
“I did a lot of interviews with different TV stations,” he remarked, but said he is “kind of apprehensive about watching” the Dateline interview.
Hames said it’s been a few years since he spoke with his nephew. He also said he hopes some good comes from the national broadcast.
According to Reedy the Stobaugh story is tentatively set to air Sunday at 6 p.m. on NBC.
But Hames’ wife, Betty, pointed out that Dateline is a news program, and its broadcast schedule is subject to change.
“Obviously, if something like Virginia Tech comes up, it wouldn’t be on,” she said.
Hames said she spoke with a Dateline producer Tuesday night who told her the segment will probably air Sunday as planned.
The story will be told in either a 21-22 minute segment, Hames noted.
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Kathy Stobaugh Investigation
Reported by: Darrell Franklin
Monday, Nov 26, 2007 @09:40pm CST
Next month marks three years since a Nocona Elementary School teacher disappeared after meeting with her estranged husband in Denton county. Since then, Charles Stobaugh has refused lie- detector tests, and several searches of his property have produced no reported evidence. It's something extremely frustrating for both investigators and Kathy's Stobaugh's family. ---- Three years after 43- year old Kathy Stobaugh vanished, she's contacted no one, and her estranged husband remains the number one suspect in her disappearance. But, Charles Stobaugh refuses to cooperate, even after reports like this one on Dateline NBC, containing video secretly recorded by Kathy. Kathy: "I don't want to come in this house anymore with you in here. Either you're leaving, or I'm leaving." Charles: "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going through all that again. I promise you that. I promise you that. I'm not going through that again. I'm too old for it, and I'm too smart for it. And, you get your head on your shoulders, and you think back over the years and you quit picking on these little nit picking things, and get down to business." Tom Reedy, Denton County Sheriff's Office: "We would love for him to come in and answer some questions, but he has a constitutional right to not talk to us, and he has exercised that right." And, Tom Reedy says unless new information surfaces, there are no plans for additional searches of Charles Stobaugh's property. "We do not know it's a homicide yet. We suspect it is." "But, if it was not a homicide, what other scenario have you all come up with, where her car would be in his drive-way with the keys still in it?" "We don't have any other scenario, other than a homicide. We suspect foul play, whether by him, or him and someone else, we don't know. We think he knows, but he won't talk to us." "Really and truly the worst thing about this is the psychological damage done to the children. That's something nobody ever talks about. Here you have these kids who are living with their father who are going to have to make psychological adjustments that are just gut- wrenching." Kathy's family and friends desperately want answers, which is why there's still a $61,000 reward. If you have information that could lead investigators to KathNext month marks three years since a Nocona Elementary School teacher disappeared after meeting with her estranged husband in Denton county. Since then, Charles Stobaugh has refused lie- detector tests, and several searches of his property have produced no reported evidence. It's something extremely frustrating for both investigators and Kathy's Stobaugh's family. ---- Three years after 43- year old Kathy Stobaugh vanished, she's contacted no one, and her estranged husband remains the number one suspect in her disappearance. But, Charles Stobaugh refuses to cooperate, even after reports like this one on Dateline NBC, containing video secretly recorded by Kathy. Kathy: "I don't want to come in this house anymore with you in here. Either you're leaving, or I'm leaving." Charles: "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going through all that again. I promise you that. I promise you that. I'm not going through that again. I'm too old for it, and I'm too smart for it. And, you get your head on your shoulders, and you think back over the years and you quit picking on these little nit picking things, and get down to business." Tom Reedy, Denton County Sheriff's Office: "We would love for him to come in and answer some questions, but he has a constitutional right to not talk to us, and he has exercised that right." And, Tom Reedy says unless new information surfaces, there are no plans for additional searches of Charles Stobaugh's property. "We do not know it's a homicide yet. We suspect it is." "But, if it was not a homicide, what other scenario have you all come up with, where her car would be in his drive-way with the keys still in it?" "We don't have any other scenario, other than a homicide. We suspect foul play, whether by him, or him and someone else, we don't know. We think he knows, but he won't talk to us." "Really and truly the worst thing about this is the psychological damage done to the children. That's something nobody ever talks about. Here you have these kids who are living with their father who are going to have to make psychological adjustments that are just gut- wrenching." Kathy's family and friends desperately want answers, which is why there's still a $61,000 reward. If you have information that could lead investigators to Kathy, just call the law- enforcement agency in your areay, just call the law- enforcement agency in your area.
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Jeannie Munday Laid to Rest Not Knowing What Happened to Her Daughter
Reporter: Paul J. Gately
(November 23, 2008) – Jeannie Munday, 68, of Gatesville, was laid to rest on Saturday, but her only daughter was not at the funeral.
Her husband James and her son Chris were there, but the chair that would have been occupied by daughter Kathy was left vacant and Kathy was listed in the obituary as missing.
A month shy of four years ago, Kathy Stobaugh left her Sanger home to visit her estranged husband, Charles Stobaugh.
On Dec. 30, 2004, Kathy Stobaugh’s car was found in her husband’s driveway, but she has not been seen since.
Authorities did not learn of the disappearance for four days.
Charles Stobaugh told police he did not inform them earlier because Kathy Stobaugh had disappeared before and had returned after a few days.
Charles Stobaugh told police his wife had been there the night of Dec. 29, 2004, but she had stayed only half an hour and he was at a loss to explain what had happened to her.
The couple’s daughter and son, who lived with their mother after she left Charles Stobaugh in May 2004 and filed for divorce, now live with their father.
Investigators have long referred to him as “the only suspect” in her disappearance.
Charles Stobaugh told his children at the time their mother had gone “on a trip and she’ll be back any day,” according to Chris Munday, Kathy Stobaugh’s brother.
Munday has told reporters the children “don’t want to believe their father did this.”
Munday, a Fort Worth police officer, said, “We’ve searched all over Texas and southern Oklahoma, and the leads all come back to Charles. In my opinion, he’s the only suspect.”
The family has offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to finding her, and Denton County Crime Stoppers has added a $1,000 reward.
Denton County law enforcement officers agree with Munday, but Charles Stobaugh has never been charged with any crime in connection with the disappearance.
The Denton County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the case, and investigators say they have found significant discrepancies in Charles Stobaugh’s story.
Charles Stobaugh twice has refused to submit to polygraph examination.