Unlikely Victims: The 1965 University of Texas Sorority Sister Murders (Austin)

Go to Unlikely Victims Plus+  for more pictures from the story.

Shirley Ann Stark and Susan Rigsby (both age 21) were Chi Omega sorority sisters who had attended the University of Texas. They came from good, hardworking families, and neither of them smoked, drank, or lived recklessly.

Shirley Ann Stark, age 21, from Dallas. She had one more class to take before she would receive her teaching certificate.

Susan Jean Rigsby, age 21, from Dallas, was embarking on her last year of college.

They were beautiful, young women inside and out. Both were close to earning their degrees, after which they planned to be English teachers. Susan had at least one more semester, but Shirley lacked only one more class.

On Sunday, July 18, 1965, they left Dallas and drove to Austin with big plans. Susan was to meet up with her sorority sister, Martha Blount.  They were moving into an apartment Martha and Susan would share during the late 1965 summer semester. Susan would also be enrolling the next morning to take summer classes.

Shirley was there to visit friends and check on her transcript.

However, when they arrived at the apartment complex and asked for the key, they were told it would not be ready until after four o’clock that afternoon.

Hungry and tired, the girls went to the Holiday House Restaurant for lunch. By accident, they ran into Martha Blount and her parents. They, too, had just learned about the apartment delay, so the group ate together.

Afterward, Susan and Shirley planned to visit a friend of Shirley’s, a student named Jim Cross. Susan and Shirley assured the Blounts they would meet them at the new apartment at four o’clock.

This is somewhat like a 1964 Corvair Monza.

The girls left in Shirley’s yellow Corvair Monza, going north on Guadalupe. About ten minutes later, the Blounts saw them on Red River Drive, turning east toward I-35. Susan and Shirley waved to them.

It was the last time friends or family would see Susan and Shirley alive.

The nearly naked bodies of Susan Rigsby and Shirley Ann Stark were found by surveyors in a vacant, treeless field of wild sunflowers on July 30, 1965. The site was near the corner of North Lamar Blvd. and Rundberg Lane in Austin.

The surveyors found the girls 12 days after they had gone missing.

For pictures, graphics, and maps, visit Unlikely Victims Plus+.

If you need to reach the author / owner of this website and the book Unlikely Victims, please send an email to VintageTexasCrimes@gmail.com.

[LC-BEES]