In March of 1987, 29-year-old Jimmy Dale Whitfield disappeared from Seneca, South Carolina. At the time, he was living with his wife Wanda and their two children off Route 3, which is now Whitfield Lane.
Here’s a little more about Jimmy. He was born on March 28, 1957, to Selena and Fred Whitfield. Fred passed away in 1977. Jimmy was a smoker, had no criminal record, and considered himself a man of faith. He married Wanda Gail George in the mid-1970s. According to Jimmy’s family, he had previously dated a sister of Wanda’s. They had two children together—Yolanda Marie, born in 1977, and Brandon, born in 1980.
Jimmy, who worked in the HVAC industry, had gotten a promotion in February of that year and told his mother Selena about it, mentioning he wouldn’t be able to stop by and visit as much because of his new hours. He and his mother were very close and prior to that point in time he visited her almost every day before he went home for the night. On Mother’s Day, he would always take her three yellow roses.
A Work Trip in Asheville
On March 6, he stopped by Selena’s house to let her know he’d be traveling to Asheville for work over the next few weeks. But on March 8, 1987, Jimmy’s wife Wanda filed a missing person’s report on her husband. In it, she stated Jimmy had returned to their home on March 7 around 3 p.m. Wanda stated her husband was intoxicated and belligerent, turning violent towards her and their children, who were 8 and 10 years old at the time. She said he packed one shirt and a pair of pants, took approximately $2,000 in cash, and left their home on foot. For some reason, he left his 1968 Chevy truck behind.
Jimmy’s mother Selena had no idea this had taken place, or that her son’s wife had reported him missing. She began to go by the couple’s trailer home in mid-March, and Wanda would tell her Jimmy was busy, at work, in the shower, etc. Selena even tried to drop off a cake for his birthday on March 29 and was turned away. Frustrated, she contacted Jimmy’s boss, who told her he’d never made it to Asheville for that work project. His boss had filed another missing persons report after Wanda’s, and by the time Selena found all this out her son had been missing for almost four weeks.
The Search for Jimmy Begins
Local police did perform a cursory search of the Whitfield’s property, including the creek behind the home and the sewage system, but found nothing. In the summer of 1987, Selena overheard Wanda speaking to a friend at a store, saying that Jimmy had recently wired her the $2,000 tax refund he took when he left, so that she could buy a new living room set for her and the kids. Selena confronted her daughter-in-law about this, and Wanda told her Jimmy didn’t want to be in Selena’s life anymore.
Serena had no idea what Wanda had claimed in her initial police report, and when friends of the family received a copy of it recently through a records request she took issue with it. Selena said Jimmy’s late father had been an alcoholic, and her son had sworn off drinking after witnessing what it did to their family. Selena also disputed the claim that Jimmy had been violent towards his wife and children. She told friends she had later asked her granddaughter if she remembered what happened that afternoon, and Marie said she and her brother were at their babysitter’s house that day.
According to Jimmy’s family, Wanda was allegedly having an extramarital affair with a younger man when he went missing, and they believe that was related to the argument on March 7 and Jimmy’s subsequent disappearance. They’ve shared with me that the previous sheriff from 1987 gave Wanda a lie detector test, and she failed it. The alleged boyfriend obtained a lawyer and declined to participate in any other interrogations. Rumors abound that Jimmy’s disappearance could have been a crime of passion. But again, Wanda has never publicly spoken out about her husband’s disappearance or been charged in with crimes related to it.
When he disappeared, Jimmy was a white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He stood around five feet seven inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. Jimmy had no known genetic issues, no known broken bones, and wore a shoe size of 10 or 11.
Was an Unidentified Deceased Male Found Jimmy Dale Whitfield?
Ten years after his disappearance, the discovery of a deceased male outside of Fountain Inn, South Carolina have led to speculation that Jimmy may have been found. But again, there are no clear-cut answers regarding the man’s identity.
On November 11, 1997, two men walking on a relative’s property came across a skull, other skeletal remains, and degraded clothing. The property close to the Laurens County Line, near the intersection of Payne Branch Creek and Fairview Church Road.
Authorities were able to retrieve approximately 85 percent of a human skeleton, including two feet, which were still inside boots. The skull lacked a bottom jaw and had no teeth, but investigators could tell the man had been a victim of a homicide, as there were multiple gunshots to the head. They consulted with Katherine Drawdy, who was then a forensic anthropologist and adjunct professor at Greenville Tech. Drawdy had experience with remains such as those of the man, discovered in a floodplain and covered with mold and fungus. She’d trained at the infamous body farm at the University of Tennessee.
Drawdy deduced the man had been Caucasian, about five feet six and five feet eight inches tall, and between 35 to 52 years old. He wore sunglasses with a dark-to-light gradient with no bottom rim, cowboy boots, and blue jeans or jean shorts with underwear or a bathing suit underneath. He also had a small plastic comb on him. At the time he was discovered, she felt he had been deceased between two and six years.
The head of the Greenville County coroner’s office at the time, a man named Parks Evans, declined to perform any DNA testing on the remains because he believed there was nothing to test it against. He also cited that a facial reconstruction would have cost too much money at that time. Dental records could not be cross checked because the skull had no teeth. Without any further information on the John Doe, the case went cold.
When a family advocate for Selena Whitfield placed a call to the Greenville County Coroner’s Office in 2024 to inquire about the remains discovered in 1997, she was told they did not have a record of the John Doe, nor did they know where the remains were located. A FOIA request placed with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office sent in early 2025 related to chain of custody and photos of the belongings found with the skeletal remains produced a heavily redacted 1-page incident report from November of 1997. They said they were unable to share more because it might interfere with “their active investigation.”
So could the Fountain Inn John Doe be Jimmy Dale Whitfield? Jimmy matches the description of the remains, and his mother confirmed he did wear boots every. His DNA is on file, the John Doe’s isn’t because it was never extracted.
Where is Wanda Whitfield Now?
Records indicate that Wanda Whitfield and her rumored boyfriend had ties to the area where the remains were found. The location was approximately 50 miles from Seneca, or about a one-hour drive.
Wanda Whitfield has never petitioned the courts to declare her husband deceased. She still lives in the home she shared with Jimmy when he went missing.
Jimmy’s disappearance has been a dark cloud hanging over both sides of his family ever since his disappearance. In 2010, his 30-year-old son Brandon died at the family home, leaving behind a wife and son. Few details about his death are available, but it appears to have been a suicide.
Jimmy Dale Whitfield is Oconee County’s oldest missing persons case. Jimmy’s mother Selena is now in her 80s and believes that Jimmy is deceased. But she would still like to know what happened to him so she can be at peace when she passes away. In the summer of 2024 she gave an interview about her son to FOX Carolina News, and it’s the only interview she’s ever given.
In February of 2020, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office released a press release reminding residents that they can contact Crimestoppers anonymously through several different platforms. Once a tip is provided, the tipster will receive a person tip number that is not to be shared. The tip will be turned over to the appropriate law enforcement agency and vetted. If the tip leads to an arrest or conviction in the case, the Oconee Crimestoppers can award up to $2,000 for a tip that meets the criteria. You can call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC or leave a tip at www.oconeecrimestoppers.com. You don’t have to give your name when you contact Crimestoppers and all information provided is confidential.
In 2021, Crimestoppers of Oconee County featured six local missing people, including Jimmy, on billboards at various locations in the area to help raise awareness of their cases.
I reached out to the investigator in charge of Jimmy’s case to see if he had any updates but hadn’t heard back from him before this episode was recorded.
Charlotte’s Boxcar Boy
On September 26, 1932, The Charlotte News reported that the body of an unidentified male youth was discovered in the end of a gondola car of a southbound Southern freight train. Coroner Frank Hovis was called to the scene and speculated about what must have happened to the boy. He said the young man was probably sleeping in the end of the car that was loaded with structural steel. The train experienced a sudden jolt, and the cargo fell, with a beam crushing both the boy’s skull and chest. The coroner suspected he would have died instantly. Hovis estimated the boy was between the ages of 14 and 16. He stood five feet seven inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. He had no papers on him indicating who he was, nor any identifying marks. The only clue to where he came from was a label found inside the coat he was wearing—it bore the name of a Norfolk, Virginia tailoring firm and the date 1920.
On October 4, 1932, the local chapter of the Kings Daughter’s announced they would be providing the unidentified young man a Christian burial in Charlotte. King’s Daughters originally developed out of a new Christian service order, the Silent Sister of Service, formed in New York City in the late 1880s. A woman named Emma Williams was in New York when the order was founded, and after she moved home to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1886, she organized a branch at her local Baptist church. Its first project was the purchase of a cemetery plot for what they called “the worthy poor.” By 1902, 26 active groups of Kings Daughters engaged in charitable projects at the local level. The Charlotte chapter was requesting additional help from the community to provide costs for the young man’s burial.
The president of the Charlotte chapter, a Mrs. W. M. Strong, said, “We know nothing about this boy, but we feel that he should have the privilege of a Christian burial and that he should find friends in this city to take care of him after death, even though he knew no one here before he died.”
Unknown Boy Buried in Charlotte
On October 7, the unidentified boy was buried in the Potter’s Field section of Charlotte’s Elmwood cemetery. The Charlotte Boy Scouts served as pallbearers and guard of honor for the boy. A woman named R.E. Polk contributed a suit for the boy to be buried in. It was a suit she had been saving for her own son, who was then serving in the Navy, but she felt the unknown boy needed it more. On October 27, The Charlotte News reported that the Z.A. Hovis and Son Funeral Parlor had received numerous inquiries about the boy from all areas of the United States in the weeks following his death. The letters came from parents, relatives, and friends of boys and young men all over the country who were unaccounted for. Employees at the funeral parlor reported they tried to keep up with responding to the inquires whenever they could.
Almost 100 years later, this boy remains unidentified. He has become known as “Boxcar Boy,” and cold case detectives in Charlotte are still trying to learn his name. Detective Matt Hefner of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cold Case Unit told WBTV all that was in the boy’s case file was a death certificate and local news articles. Detective Hefner is now working to solve this mystery with a team of experts at the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center at Ramapo College in New Jersey. It will cost $12,000 to exhume the boy’s remains, and even then, there are many variables involved, such as how intact the casket was. Ramapo College has started an online fundraiser to help raise the money for the exhumation. So far, it has raised more than $4,000.
Once the money is raised, detectives will need to secure a court order for the exhumation. A team from Western Carolina University will assist with the exhumation process before the boy’s bones are sent to a lab for DNA analysis. I’ll include a link to the fundraiser in the show notes in case you’re interested in checking it out.
Show Sources:
Jimmy Dale Whitfield
https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP9296
https://www.foxcarolina.com/video/2024/06/19/family-missing-man-speak-out-first-time
https://www.oconeelaw.com/unsolvedcases-missingpersons
https://www.sandiferfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Brandon-Dale-Whitfield?obId=2331318
Boxcar Boy:
https://www.wbtv.com/2026/03/16/nearly-100-years-later-detectives-seek-name-charlottes-boxcar-boy
The Charlotte News
September 26, 1932
Unknown Boy Found Dead in Railway Car
https://www.newspapers.com/image/617198674
The Charlotte News
October 4, 1932
Unknown Boy to Be Buried
https://www.newspapers.com/image/617200195
The Charlotte News
October 7, 1932
Unidentified Boy is Buried in Elmwood
https://www.newspapers.com/image/617200618
The Charlotte News
October 27, 1932
Many Inquiries asking about boy killed here
https://www.newspapers.com/image/617204774
