Missing Or Murdered, Part Three

Most of us have lost someone important to us. Death is a natural part of life. We go through the process of mourning and we try to continue to live life without our loved one. For many though, the opportunity to mourn or to make sense of what is happening in their life will never materialize. The object of their desiderium is missing. Vanished without a trace.

In excess of six hundred thousand people are reported missing every year, with most of those people found alive and well fairly quickly. Over four thousand unidentified bodies are recovered every year and of those, one thousand will go unidentified forever.

In the state of Oregon, at this very moment, there are four hundred seventy missing, one hundred sixty-three unidentified, and fifty-six unclaimed persons with open cases. What happened to those people? How does a human being simply vanish?

Thomas Dean Gibson was the infant son of then Douglas County Sheriff Larry Gibson. March 18, 1991, was the last time anyone saw little Tommy as he was playing in his Azalea, Oregon, front yard while his father patrolled the area, looking for stray cats to shoot. Larry says he shot at a cat that day, but missed and thought little of it, and he continued to jog around his property for about forty-five minutes. Larry claims when he got back to the house from his stray cat patrol, he found his son missing. He claims he spoke with his daughter, Karen, and that she claimed her little brother was kidnapped by an unknown couple who pulled into the driveway and took little Tommy Gibson. Larry Gibson called dispatch and reported that his son was missing. While on the phone to report that he hadn't seen his son in forty-five minutes, he was told by his superiors to stay home and help search for his son. He did exactly that. He stayed in his home while a search party looked desperately for the missing little boy.

Tommy's father only grew stranger as the investigation moved forward. Although he was told by the Douglas County Sheriff's Department that he should stay home and help find his son, he promptly took a shower, donned his uniform and disappeared from the property for around twenty-five minutes. When questioned about the bizarre behavior, Larry Gibson told officers that he had only left to check at a local rest area for signs of Tommy or the couple that may have abducted him. Soon after Larry returned home, he told everyone searching for his son to give up the search and go home because it was beginning to snow.

His behavior throughout the investigation into the disappearance of his son was increasingly bizarre, and culminated in Larry resigning from the Douglas County Sheriff's Department and moving his family to his home state of Montana. It wasn't long before the pressure of a missing child, and suspicion that her husband killed her son, Larry saw his wife pack up herself and her children and return to Oregon.

The case garnered national attention, and Thomas Dean Gibson's picture was featured in the music video of the 1993 release of Runaway Train by Soul Asylum.

In 1994, Judith, mother of Tommy, told investigators that in the presence of a Department of Family and Children Services social worker, Karen had changed her story. She said she witnessed her father beat Tommy until he fell limp, or as she told investigators, "Daddy broke my brother." She would go on to say that she saw him put Tommy's body in a black trash bag, which he later placed in the trunk of his patrol car. She claimed that she did not tell police this initially because he had told her that he would kill her if she told anyone the real truth. She and Judith testified against Larry at his trial. Judith claimed that he was physically abusive towards Tommy, Karen, and their third child (born after Tommy disappeared.) Lisa.

In April of 1994, Larry Gibson was arrested for the murder of his son. Throughout the trial, Larry maintained his innocence, but was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter in March, 1995. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released 1996. Upon release, Larry moved back to Montana, where he currently resides. He still claims he is innocent, and whomever kidnapped Tommy is still out there. He did pass a polygraph and there were originally not one, but two eye witnesses to the reported abduction of his son. A neighbor claimed that a gold or tan truck with a man and a woman in it passed her, turning soon after into the driveway of the home where Tommy Gibson was playing in the yard. Karen, the daughter that originally reported the couple said the white male driver of the truck has black hair and a beard and was wearing scruffy clothes. She went on to describe the woman as white with long blonde hair. It is worthy to note that the same descriptions were given by the neighbor, though she didn't make the claim until she spoke with investigators the second time.

Tommy's body remains undiscovered, which begs the question, did Larry Gibson accidentally shoot his son and then get rid of the body to save his job? Was Tommy kidnapped by an unknown couple from his own front yard?

If you know anything about the disappearance of Thomas Dean Gibson, contact the Douglas County Sheriff's Department Tip Line at (541) 957-2099 or Phoenixx Fyre Dean at [email protected].