Overview

Last Seen: August 18, 1973
Location: San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
Age: 25
Status: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP21755
Investigating Agency: San Antonio Police Department

Janet Hollingsworth, whose maiden name was Burkett, disappeared from San Antonio, Texas, on August 18, 1973. She was last seen at a club in the Churchill Estates area on the city’s North Side. Her truck was subsequently found behind the club, but Janet was nowhere to be found. She has never been located.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Janet Hollingsworth: The 1973 Disappearance From San Antonio, Texas

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: August 18, 1973
Location: San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
Age: 25
Status: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP21755
Investigating Agency: San Antonio Police Department

Janet Hollingsworth, whose maiden name was Burkett, disappeared from San Antonio, Texas, on August 18, 1973. She was last seen at a club in the Churchill Estates area on the city’s North Side. Her truck was subsequently found behind the club, but Janet was nowhere to be found. She has never been located.

The Disappearance of Janet Hollingsworth

Janet Hollingsworth was 25 years old when she vanished on Saturday, August 18, 1973. Records describe her as a white woman with brown hair and blue eyes, approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 105 pounds. She was reportedly wearing a peach-colored shirt when she disappeared. Her date of birth is listed as November 28, 1947.

Janet was reportedly spending the evening at a club in the Churchill Estates area of North San Antonio. In a later television report, the area was described more broadly as around Huebner Road, Bitters Road and Churchill Estates. Her vehicle was recovered at the club after she disappeared. There is no publicly documented indication that Janet returned to the truck or made contact with her family afterward.

The official NamUs record lists her date of last contact as August 18, 1973, in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The case is identified as NamUs MP21755.

A Confession Eight Years Later

The case took a dramatic turn in 1981, approximately eight years after Janet disappeared.

A drifter named Alan Curtis Klise reportedly confessed to killing Janet. According to accounts of his statement, Klise claimed that he met Janet at the nightclub on the evening she disappeared and invited her to go to breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

Klise claimed Janet initially agreed to accompany him but later changed her mind. He then alleged that he strangled her, removed her clothing and left her body in a vacant field near railroad tracks in western Bexar County.

The confession provided investigators with what appeared to be a possible explanation for Janet’s disappearance, but there was a major problem: her body could not be found.

Search for Janet’s Remains

Contemporary information reproduced from the San Antonio Light indicates that investigators took Klise to the area where he claimed he had disposed of Janet’s body.

Authorities searched the location but did not find human remains that could be connected to Janet.

Klise was nevertheless charged with Janet’s murder. The charge was later dismissed in September 1981 after the search failed to produce her remains. Accounts from the time reported that prosecutors did not believe they had the evidence necessary to proceed with a murder prosecution without recovering the victim.

Because the confession did not lead investigators to Janet, significant questions remained unresolved. Publicly available sources do not establish whether Klise’s confession was independently corroborated, and The Charley Project notes that it is unclear whether he continued to be considered a suspect.

Earlier Newspaper Attention

Janet’s disappearance did receive attention before the 1981 confession.

The University of Texas at San Antonio’s archive of the San Antonio Express-News photograph collection contains a February 7, 1975 entry identified as “Janet Hollingsworth: Missing woman.” The archival entry confirms that Janet’s disappearance was being covered locally roughly a year and a half after she vanished.

The existence of the 1975 newspaper material is particularly important because surviving online information about the first years of Janet’s investigation is limited.

Renewed Public Appeal

More than four decades after Janet disappeared, News 4 San Antonio/WOAI revisited the case in December 2019.

San Antonio police said at the time that Janet’s case remained active with the department’s Missing Persons Unit. Police emphasized the importance of people coming forward even after so many years, noting that someone could remember information that once seemed insignificant.

The report again noted that Janet had been at a club in the North Side area and that her truck was recovered there while Janet herself was never found.

The station also used social media to circulate Janet’s case and encourage the public to share information.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of September 2026, Janet continues to have an active publicly accessible missing-person record in NamUs under MP21755. The record continues to identify the San Antonio Police Department and provides (210) 207-7660 as the contact number associated with her case.

The most recent detailed statement from San Antonio investigators located in publicly available news coverage remains the December 2019 News 4 San Antonio report, in which police described the case as active and appealed for additional information. No later public announcement identifying recovered remains, an arrest, a new criminal charge or a resolution of Janet’s disappearance was located.

There has continued to be public discussion of Janet’s disappearance. In May 2025, a Websleuths user identifying Janet as their great-aunt posted that the family still hoped answers would someday be found. That relationship claim has not been independently verified and should be regarded as a family/community statement rather than an official investigative update.

What Remains Unknown

More than five decades after Janet Hollingsworth disappeared, investigators and her family are still missing the most important piece of the case: Janet herself.

Klise’s 1981 confession offered a detailed allegation of what happened, but the inability to find Janet’s remains prevented the allegation from establishing what occurred. The murder charge against Klise was dismissed, and publicly available records do not establish that another person has ever been charged in connection with Janet’s disappearance.

Janet therefore remains officially missing.

Anyone who remembers Janet, the nightclub she visited on August 18, 1973, people she interacted with that evening, activity involving her truck, or anything connected with the alleged disposal location in western Bexar County could potentially possess information relevant to the investigation.

Information concerning Janet Hollingsworth can be provided to the San Antonio Police Department at (210) 207-7660.