- established normalcy before disappearance

The ordinary can be the last thing you see: three women vanished from fairgrounds parking lots, each leaving behind a locked car and a routine life, and each was found later strangled - so who was moving through county fairs in the summers of 1994-1997 and never in the same town twice? What link did a dry green canvas tote, a carnival company, and a pattern of Friday-night disappearances create that only a task force could begin to unravel?

In this episode, we lay out the timeline and connections that tied Denise Price, Sharon Dent, and Beverly Sims to the same traveling carnival circuit and the same cause of death. We trace the specific evidence that shifted investigators from missing-persons cases to a multi-county murder inquiry, and ask whether the patterns in dates, locations, and the carnival operator point to a single killer.

Person: Denise Price
Date: July 8-19, 1994
Location: Pelham County Fairgrounds; body recovered off Tanner Mill Road
Case: Strangulation; bag found dry at Sallow Creek culvert mouth on July 12

Person: Sharon Dent
Date: July, 1996
Location: Coleville County Agricultural Exposition; body found behind a salvage yard
Case: Strangulation; same carnival company (Starlight Midways)

Person: Beverly Sims
Date: July, 1997
Location: Waxler Tri-County Exposition; body found in a retention pond behind fairgrounds
Case: Strangulation; same carnival company (Starlight Midways)

- Denise’s green canvas tote contained wallet, house keys, lipstick, and a grocery receipt dated July 8.
- Gordon McCarthy found the upright, dry tote at a culvert mouth on July 12, 1994, 48 hours after a six-foot flood.
- Medical examiner determined Denise’s time of death fell within 12 hours of her disappearance on the night of July 8, 1994.
- Sharon Dent disappeared from a Friday night fair in 1996 and her body was found 10 days later; cause of death strangulation.
- Beverly Sims disappeared Thursday night in July 1997; her body was found 8 days later in a retention pond; cause of death strangulation.

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