Overview

Last Seen: November 15, 1971, at approximately 11:00 a.m.
Location: Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida
Status: Endangered Missing
Investigating Agency: Tampa Police Department
NamUs: MP58406
Tampa Police Case: 71-33618

Main circumstances: Neighbors reported seeing Marie in her vehicle while her boyfriend was driving. Marie reportedly appeared to be slumped over. Her vehicle was subsequently found abandoned behind the Western Auto Store at Northgate Shopping Center, but Marie was gone. No verified public account explains what happened between the neighborhood sighting and the discovery of the vehicle.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Marie Deloris Giles: The 1971 Disappearance From Tampa, Florida

Marie Deloris Giles vanished from Tampa, Florida, on November 15, 1971, after neighbors reportedly saw her inside her own vehicle with her boyfriend behind the wheel. The detail that has made her disappearance particularly troubling for more than five decades is what witnesses said they observed: Marie appeared to be slumped over in the vehicle.

Her vehicle was later discovered abandoned behind the Western Auto Store at Northgate Shopping Center in Tampa. Marie was not with the car, and she has never been located. Her disappearance remains an endangered missing-person case investigated by the Tampa Police Department.

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: November 15, 1971, at approximately 11:00 a.m.
Location: Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida
Status: Endangered Missing
Investigating Agency: Tampa Police Department
NamUs: MP58406
Tampa Police Case: 71-33618

Main circumstances: Neighbors reported seeing Marie in her vehicle while her boyfriend was driving. Marie reportedly appeared to be slumped over. Her vehicle was subsequently found abandoned behind the Western Auto Store at Northgate Shopping Center, but Marie was gone. No verified public account explains what happened between the neighborhood sighting and the discovery of the vehicle.

What Happened to Marie Deloris Giles?

On November 15, 1971, neighbors in Tampa reportedly saw Marie Deloris Giles in her vehicle at approximately 11:00 a.m. According to information preserved in NamUs-derived records, Marie’s boyfriend was driving the vehicle while Marie was inside. Witnesses described her as appearing to be slumped over.

That observation would become the last publicly documented sighting of Marie.

There is an important distinction in the surviving information: witnesses apparently described Marie’s position but there is no public evidence establishing why she was slumped over. The available records do not establish that she was injured, unconscious, deceased, asleep, ill, or otherwise incapacitated at the time.

For that reason, conclusions about what witnesses saw should not be presented as established fact beyond their reported observation.

Marie’s Car Was Found Abandoned

At some point after the November 15 sighting, Marie’s vehicle was discovered behind the Western Auto Store at the Northgate Shopping Center in Tampa.

Marie was not inside or around the vehicle.

Publicly available case summaries do not provide an exact date or time when the automobile was located, who discovered it, how long authorities believed it had been there, or what forensic evidence may have been recovered from it. Those missing details have left a major gap in reconstructing the final known movements of Marie and her vehicle.

The surviving public summaries also do not identify Marie’s boyfriend by name. No reliable publicly accessible law-enforcement source reviewed for this article names him as a suspect or states that criminal charges were filed against anyone in connection with Marie’s disappearance.

Who Was Marie Deloris Giles?

Public records about Marie are unusually sparse.

She was a Black woman with black hair and brown eyes who was approximately 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed between approximately 120 and 130 pounds.

There is also a notable discrepancy concerning her age and date of birth.

The Charley Project lists Marie’s date of birth as January 8, 1940, while simultaneously listing her as 39 years old when she disappeared in November 1971. Those two details cannot both be correct; a January 1940 birth would have made her 31.

The Doe Network material instead lists Marie’s birth year as 1932, which is consistent with an age of approximately 39 in 1971.

Until an authoritative record resolves the discrepancy, Marie’s exact date of birth should therefore be considered uncertain.

A Case That Reached National Missing-Person Databases Decades Later

Although Marie disappeared in 1971, her current NamUs record was created decades afterward. Archived information from her NamUs listing shows that the case was created on June 28, 2019, under NamUs number MP58406.

Her case later received another significant increase in online visibility when the Doe Network added Marie as case 5025DFFL on January 29, 2025. The Doe Network subsequently featured her case through its community outreach in December 2025.

Those developments did not represent a public announcement that the case had been solved or that a suspect had been identified. Instead, they expanded the number of databases and communities through which Marie’s information could reach investigators, researchers and members of the public.

Recent Interest and Possible Jane Doe Comparisons

Marie has continued to attract attention from people researching unidentified-person cases.

In March 2026, a Websleuths participant stated that they had submitted several unidentified-person cases for possible comparison with Marie. That statement is important to distinguish from an official investigative announcement: it represents a community member’s reported submission, not confirmation from Tampa Police, NamUs or another law-enforcement agency that the unidentified persons are viable matches.

Earlier Websleuths discussion had also raised a possible comparison involving unidentified remains recovered near Thonotosassa, Florida. Again, the discussion itself does not establish a forensic connection to Marie.

Online discussions can generate leads and draw renewed attention to long-unsolved cases, but proposed matches should not be treated as identifications unless confirmed by the responsible authorities.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of September 2026, Marie Deloris Giles remains publicly listed as missing, and no credible public announcement located for this article reports that she has been found, that remains have been identified as hers, or that anyone has been charged in connection with her disappearance.

The most significant recent documented developments concern renewed case visibility rather than a publicly announced investigative breakthrough. The Doe Network added Marie to its database in January 2025 and featured the case in December 2025, while missing-person communities continued discussing possible unidentified-person comparisons into 2026.

Tampa Police continues to maintain dedicated contact numbers for adult missing-person and homicide investigations. The department’s current contact directory lists Homicide/Missing Persons–Adults at 813-276-3582 and Missing Persons/Runaways at 813-276-3536.

The Unanswered Questions

More than five decades later, several fundamental questions remain unanswered publicly.

It is unknown why Marie appeared to be slumped over when neighbors saw her. The public record does not disclose what investigators found when her vehicle was recovered, whether potentially useful physical evidence was preserved, when Marie was officially reported missing, or what investigators learned from the man described as her boyfriend.

Even the exact timeline between the approximately 11:00 a.m. sighting and the discovery of her abandoned vehicle remains unclear in publicly available summaries.

Those gaps are particularly important because the car represents the principal publicly known physical link between Marie’s last sighting and her disappearance.

Marie Deloris Giles Remains Missing

Marie Deloris Giles disappeared in Tampa in November 1971, but the passage of time has not provided an answer to the central question: What happened to Marie after neighbors saw her in that vehicle?

Her case remains identifiable through NamUs MP58406 and Tampa Police case 71-33618. Anyone with firsthand information concerning Marie’s disappearance, the circumstances surrounding her vehicle, people who were with her in November 1971, or information that could help identify her whereabouts should contact the Tampa Police Department.

Information that may have seemed insignificant decades ago could still provide investigators with context unavailable in the surviving public record.