Vanished on the Open Road: The Disappearance of Cara Marie Cox

On the evening of May 15, 2022, 41-year-old Cara Marie Cox vanished.

The last confirmed sighting of Cara was in Seminole, Oklahoma, around 8:44 p.m. She was driving her green 2000 Honda Civic Del Sol — Oklahoma license plate LEQ736 — when she disappeared.

Five days later, on May 20, Cara’s car was discovered abandoned at the Love’s Travel Stop off Interstate 40 at the Seminole exit. It was towed away, but Cara was nowhere to be found.

A proud member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Cara was known for her vibrant personality, her sense of humor, and her love for her family. She stood between 5’3” and 5’5”, weighed 120 to 160 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. She wore eyeglasses, had multiple ear piercings, and two distinctive tattoos: a green Care Bear on her right shoulder, and a scorpion with her name “Cara” woven into the tail on the back of her neck.

In the days following her disappearance, investigators learned that Cara may have been traveling with a long-haul truck driver. According to him, he dropped her off at a rest stop — but his story shifted each time he told it. At one point, he said the stop was in Arizona. Another time, he said California.

There was one possible sighting of Cara on June 3, 2022, on foot in Joseph City, Arizona. But that lead was never confirmed — and after that, the trail went cold.

Nearly three years later, her loved ones are still searching, still waiting, still hoping.

Cara’s disappearance raises the same painful questions that echo across too many Native families: how can a woman vanish so completely? Why are the answers so few, and the urgency so faint?

Cara’s family continues to fight for her story to be heard — for her face to be seen, and for her name to be remembered.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Cara Marie Cox, please contact law enforcement in Seminole, Oklahoma.

Every share matters. Every voice counts. Someone, somewhere, knows what happened to Cara.