The Twisted Disappearance of Joan Gay Croft
An Oklahoma child abducted in plain sight following one of the deadliest tornados in US history
A Perfect Storm
On April 9, 1947, an F5 tornado swept across the North American plains. The twister killed hundreds, injured hundreds more, and leveled the small town of Woodward, Oklahoma. 185 lives were lost in the storm. In the ensuing pandemonium, surviving members of the Croft family would be left to wonder what happened to their youngest member, 4-year-old Joan Gaye Croft.
The twister stretched nearly two miles across and touched down at 8:43 PM. Windspeeds inside the tornado fluctuated an incredible 220 to 440 miles per hour. It took only five minutes to destroy everything in its way, including the Croft family home.
Joan Gay Croft was at home with her parents and her sister, Geri, when the twister obliterated their house. Her mother, 26-year-old Cleta Mae Croft, typically worked as a telephone operator in the evening. However, the National Federation of Telephone Workers was on the third day of a strike that effectively disconnected telephone access to the entire town. For this reason, city officials didn’t receive advance warning of the disaster about to happen; they couldn’t warn residents to take shelter.
