On November 2, 1945, 14-year-old Thora Afton Chamberlain was last seen outside her High School in Campbell California. School was over and she was planning to go to the football game afterward. She was also looking forward to her 15th birthday on the 22nd.
Her classmates saw her speaking for several minutes to a man in a vehicle. One of the witnesses said he was dressed like an ex-serviceman and was looking for a babysitter for his sister's children. She got into the vehicle with him presumably to take the babysitting job. She was never seen again.
Thomas Henry McGonigle was immediately a suspect in Thora's disappearance. He had an arrest record dating back to his teens including assault and intent to commit rape. When he found that they suspected him he fled to his father's home in Illinois. On December 6, 1945, he returned to San Fransisco, California by bus. He tried to attempt suicide on the bus by taking sleeping pills. He tried to overdose but recovered after treatment at the hospital.
Several classmates and witnesses Identified him as the man she left with. It was found he was wearing stolen Navy-issue clothes and military medals and was not an ex-serviceman. He said he had found the clothing in a footlocker he'd stolen. The footlocker was later found in his garage.
He claimed responsibility for Thora's abduction and murder. He had various different statements about how Thora was killed. He claimed he had stabbed her, strangled her, fell out of his car, shot her, and that her death was accidental and he that he also didn't kill her.
It's more likely he shot her in his car. He'd claimed he shot her accidentally and because she bled on the padding and upholstery he tore it out. He told the FBI where he had buried it and they found it and it was stained with her blood.
There was also a bullet hole in the door of his car. He'd claimed to have removed it and buried it under a tree in his yard. The FBI found it and determined it had been fired from his .32-caliber Colt Revolver.
Not only did he give different statements on how he killed her he did the same with how he disposed of her. He'd said he had thrown her body off the 350 ft cliff known as the Devil's Slide. It overlooks Half Moon Bay on the San Mateo County coast. two pairs of red and blue socks were found wedged in two different crevices partway down the cliff face that belonged to Thora.
At the time he had been working at a construction site and got permission from his boss to fill a ditch with concrete blocks. Inside the ditch were Thora's shoes, schoolbooks, papers, binder, and cowbell. He told them he buried her clothes in his yard, but they turned up nothing.
More than likely she rejected his sexual advances and she was killed. He tossed her body off Devil's Slide and her body was possibly carried out to sea.
Mcgonigle confessed to another murder as he was on death row for Thora's. He didn't get charged due to begin on death row. At one point he claimed to have killed 11 people, but those murders couldn't be verified. Before his execution from the gas chamber in 1948, he retracted his statement. He claimed to have been innocent of all involvement in Thora's disappearance.
Thora is a white female and was 14-year-old at the time of her disappearance. She was 5'2" and around 120 lbs. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing Garbarand coat, white blouse, red skirt, blue sweater, and two pairs of socks one being red and one being blue, and tan shoes.
SOURCES:
The Charley Project
NamUs
