What Happened to Colleen Simpson?

On the night of October 4, 1975, fourteen-year-old Colleen Simpson vanished from her home in Clearfield, Iowa. She was never seen again.

Her case is officially classified by the state as Endangered/Physical—a category used when authorities believe a missing person’s safety is at risk. Yet from the beginning, the story surrounding Colleen’s disappearance has been clouded by contradictions and a painful lack of answers.

Clearfield in the mid-1970s was a farming town of just over 400 people. Secrets were hard to keep in a place that small. When Colleen was reported missing the following morning, it was to the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office in Bedford, where her father worked as a patrol officer.

She had black hair, hazel eyes, and a moon-shaped scar on her right forearm. Those details, however, weren’t included in the only local article written at the time. The Creston News Advertiser ran a single story on October 30, 1975—almost a month later—that described Colleen as a runaway and suggested no foul play was suspected.

Her family disagreed.

By 1994, the Cedar Rapids Gazette named Colleen as one of three Iowans believed to have been abducted by a stranger, grouping her with two of Iowa’s most famous missing children cases: Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin.

In 2006, her case resurfaced when California authorities discovered photographs of unidentified women belonging to serial killer William Bradford. One image bore a resemblance to Colleen. Her father, by then a retired police chief, studied the photo before confirming, “It’s not her. We are still waiting.” He died in 2010, still carrying that weight.

Over time, family and friends offered different versions of her last night. Some claim Colleen never returned from a family gathering in nearby Grant, Iowa. Others believe she left home in the middle of the night after an argument. On social media, relatives have shared that Colleen may have been pregnant, at odds with her parents, and sent to her room—only never to come out again.

Even her physical description raises questions. Official reports list Colleen at 5’7” and 90 pounds, a severely underweight combination. Yet her photo shows a girl who appeared healthier. Could this have been a clerical error—5’7” instead of 4’9”? If so, her weight would have fallen in the normal range.

Colleen’s disappearance received little attention at the time and remains unsolved nearly fifty years later. A teenage girl vanished from a town of 430 people, and the silence that followed was deafening.

What happened to Colleen Simpson? Was she a runaway, as some first suggested? Was she abducted? Was her disappearance tied to a darker pattern of violence against vulnerable young women in the Midwest?

Her story reminds us how easily children from small towns can be forgotten, and why their names must be spoken again.

Because Colleen mattered. And until the truth comes to light, she deserves to be remembered.