After 44 years and a dig through concrete, Judie Munguia is still missing

Yahoo

20-05-2025

ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- On a warm spring night in 1981, 32-year-old Judie Kay Lowery Munguia told her husband she was driving to Oklahoma City. She was going, he said, to visit the widower of a friend who had recently passed away. Judie packed lightly, made last-minute arrangements, and left their home on Knight Drive in Odessa.
She was never seen again.
For more than 44 years, Judie's disappearance has remained one of West Texas's most notorious unsolved mysteries, marked by unanswered questions, circulating rumors, and a community's quiet frustration that justice never came.
Her gray Lincoln Continental was discovered five and a half months later, abandoned at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Investigators confirmed the car had been parked there since early June, only days after Judie was last seen. There was no sign of struggle. Her small bags were missing. None of her credit cards had been used since.
No trace of Judie Munguia has ever been found.
From the Texas Department of Public Safety:
Name: Judie Lowery MunguiaCase Number: M0104001Case Type: Endangered – Foul Play Possible
Height: 5'3″Eye Color: HazelRace: WhiteWeight: 150 lbs.Age Missing: 32
'Ms. Munguia has a scar on her left leg between her knee and ankle. Ms. Munguia was last seen around 1 a.m. when she left her home to visit a friend in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ms. Munguia's vehicle was found abandoned at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on November 14, 1981. It was determined that her vehicle had been in the parking lot for a minimum of eighty days.'
According to early news reports, Judie's husband filed a missing persons report with the Ector County Sheriff's Office on June 6, about a week after she disappeared. Her car, which had personalized 'MUNGUIA' license plates, was spotted in the Oklahoma City airport's long-term parking lot on November 14.
'She never made it to her destination, and we've never been able to confirm she even left town,' Ector County District Attorney Investigator Linda Primera told reporters at the time.
For her family, the silence that followed was unbearable. In the months after Judie's disappearance, her loved ones offered a $20,000 reward, consulted a psychic from Dallas, and pleaded with local authorities for any updates. Still, no solid leads emerged.
'It really wasn't like Judie to leave without contacting her family,' her sister Jackie Kemp told The Odessa American in December 1981. 'Especially me. We were very, very close. It's the saddest Christmas we all have had.'
While investigators followed up on leads in multiple states, one theory gained a life of its own: that Judie had never left Odessa at all.
According to Susan Rogers, CEO of Odessa Crime Stoppers, the organization received repeated anonymous tips over the years suggesting Judie's body may have been buried in concrete on a property once owned by her husband.
'From the time she went missing, within a year, that rumor started, and it's never really stopped,' Rogers told ABC Big 2 News in an interview this May. 'Every time we feature her case, we get tips saying the same thing: that she's buried out there…we call it an urban legend because it really is an urban legend.'
But turning tips into action takes more than rumor. The property could not be searched without probable cause and, crucially, permission.
It wasn't until last fall, more than 40 years after Judie's disappearance and years after her husband's death, that Judie's family gave law enforcement the go-ahead to finally investigate the site.
Cadaver dogs were brought in. Concrete was broken apart. Every inch of the property, including its outbuildings and surrounding land, was carefully combed through.
They found nothing.
'Cadaver dogs went through the entire property, all the shops, the buildings, everything over there, concrete, the whole nine yards,' Rogers said. 'She is not buried at that house…in the concrete or anywhere else…We were all hopeful that we were going to have a conclusion tothis and that we would be able to find her, but that was not the result.'
Perhaps the strangest element of the case remains the discovery of Judie's car, untouched, sitting in an Oklahoma airport parking lot for months.
In the early '80s, airport security worked differently. There were no surveillance cameras, no digital gate records, no license plate scanners. But there was one routine: security staff drove around on golf carts and manually logged plate numbers.
'They were able to confirm that Judie's car had been there for quite a while, possibly just weeks after she disappeared,' Rogers said. 'It sat there, unnoticed, for months.'
There were no fingerprints, no blood, no obvious signs of foul play inside the vehicle. The keys weren't found. Neither were the bags she was believed to have taken with her.
For years, family members reported unconfirmed sightings of Judie in Odessa and Monahans. But none could be substantiated, and authorities say there's no credible evidence that Judie ever resurfaced.
Now, more than four decades later, the pain remains raw for Judie's family. Her son, now an adult with children of his own, still lives in Odessa. Her sister, Jackie Kemp, has remained involved in the case for years, pressing for updates, retelling Judie's story, and keeping her name in public view.
'Her family never stopped searching,' Rogers said. 'Even after 40 years, when I speak to families, they always tell me: it feels like it happened yesterday.'
Judie's disappearance is still considered an open investigation by the Ector County Sheriff's Office. Crime Stoppers continues to feature her case and is asking anyone with information, no matter how small, to come forward.
'There are people in Odessa who still remember that time,' Rogers said. 'People who might've seen something, or know someone who did. It only takes one person to speak up.'
If you have information about the disappearance of Judie Munguia, call Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS. You can remain anonymous.
A reward may be available for information that leads to an arrest or resolution in the case.
Gabriella Meza is a Journalist/Digital Reporter with ABC Big 2 News. This story is part of her monthly Cold Case Spotlight series in partnership with Odessa Crime Stoppers. If you or a loved one knows something regarding this case or others and would like to add something to an article, contact her at [e-mail]. (Contact Odessa Crime Stoppers regarding case information.)
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