Missing from: Blanchester, Ohio
Missing: August 28, 1996
Age at disappearance: 22
Height: 5’2″
Weight: 122
Hair: Brown
Eye: Brown
Distinguishing Characteristics: Scars, Marks, Tattoos: Caucasian female. Carrie’s ears are pierced. She has a tattoo of a sun on her inner right calf and a daisy on her right hip.
Details of Disappearance: Carrie dated Vincent “Vince” Doan from 1994 – 1996 in their hometown of Blanchester, Ohio. Their relationship was extremely volatile and abusive. She informed authorities that Doan smashed her car’s windows while she sat inside the vehicle and also hit her in the lower abdomen, bruising her kidneys, in 1995 and 1996. Carrie filed a criminal complaint of misdemeanor assault against Doan during the summer of 1996 after he allegedly hit her on the head with a space heater, requiring her to receive five surgical staples to close the wound. Carrie and Doan were scheduled to appear at a court hearing in early September 1996 regarding the complaint.
Carrie’s family told authorities that Doan abducted her and held her at gunpoint for five hours in on August 25, three days before she was last seen, before she convinced him to drive her home. They also stated that Doan was obsessed with Carrie and was very controlling.
Carrie was last seen at approximately 11:30 PM on August 28, 1996. She was dropped off at her residence after attending a volleyball game with two friends. One of her neighbors say she left the house in her car a few minutes after arriving. Carrie has never been heard from again and her red 1989 Honda CRX disappeared with her. She was missed at 6:00 a.m. the next morning when her mother noticed that her car was not in the driveway.
Doan was charged and tried for Carrie’s kidnapping and murder in 1997. He was originally charged with kidnapping only, but two counts of aggravated murder, reflecting two separate police theories of the killing, were added to the indictment five days before Doan was to go to trial.
The prosecution presented evidence that Doan was a very violent, controlling man whose abuse on Carrie had escalated into murder. One of Doan’s neighbors testified that she had seen him assaulting Carrie in his front yard on the morning of her disappearance. The ex-wife of Doan’s brother Tracey Baker said he appeared at the house she and Tracey shared at 3:15 a.m. that day, disheveled and appearing distraught. Blood was smeared on his clothing. Doan and Tracey drove away at 4:30 a.m. after Doan showered. They took a gun and some garbage bags. When they returned at approximately 5:00 a.m., both men had blood on them.
A cellmate of Doan’s also testified. They had been incarcerated together while Doan was awaiting trial. Doan allegedly told his cellmate that he thought Carrie had been cheating on him and he had to make her pay. He said he lay awake at night thinking of a hundred different ways to kill her.
Carrie’s family won a $3.75 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city in 2001. They paid the Carrie’s family $2 million and pledged to establish a memorial to domestic violence victims and make sure law enforcement officers will be trained further in handling domestic violence complaints. They will also continue searching for Carrie’s body. A plaque with her picture on it will hang in Blanchester Police Department’s front lobby until her remains are discovered. She has not yet been located and neither has her car.
Investigative Agency: Brown County Sheriff’s Department 937-378-4555
If you have any information on this case, please contact CUE Center for Missing Persons at (910) 343-1131 or call the CUE Center 24-hour tip line at (910) 232-1687. All information submitted to CUE Center for Missing Persons is confidential.