Overview

Last Seen: September 6, 1958
Location: Goliad, Texas
Age: 3 years old
Missing With: Her 11-month-old brother, A.J. Campbell Jr.
Circumstances: Their father picked them up during court-ordered visitation and never returned them. A witness later saw the father without the children. The father subsequently made statements indicating he had killed and buried them before dying by suicide.
Bodies Recovered: No
Current Status: Endangered missing; suspected homicide circumstances; unresolved.
Primary Investigating Agency: Goliad County Sheriff’s Office

Detailed Case Breakdown

Myrisha Faye Campbell: The 1958 Disappearance of a 3-Year-Old Texas Girl and Her Baby Brother

Three-year-old Myrisha Faye Campbell disappeared from Goliad, Texas, on September 6, 1958, along with her 11-month-old brother, A.J. Campbell Jr. More than six decades later, neither child has been found.

Their disappearance began during a court-ordered visit with their father, A.J. Campbell Sr. What happened during the hours that followed led to a massive search, their father’s death by suicide, and statements attributed to him indicating that he had killed and buried his children.

Despite those statements, investigators never located Myrisha or A.J. Jr., leaving open a question that has followed the Campbell family for generations: Were the children murdered, or could their father have secretly placed them with someone else?

Myrisha Faye Campbell Disappearance: September 6, 1958

Myrisha was born March 2, 1955. She was three years old when she disappeared and was approximately 2 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 28 pounds. She had dark-blonde hair and blue eyes.

On the day she vanished, Myrisha was reportedly wearing a pink dress with puffed sleeves and a Peter Pan collar, pink socks and white buckle shoes. More detailed descriptions also list pink silk underwear and a gold bracelet on her right arm.

Myrisha and her younger brother lived with their mother, Jewel Bernay Campbell, in Goliad. According to case accounts, Jewel had separated from the children’s father after an abusive marriage and supported her children by working as a teacher. A.J. Campbell Sr. was permitted court-ordered Saturday visitation with them.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on September 6, 1958, Campbell Sr. picked up Myrisha and A.J. Jr. He was supposed to return them by 3:00 that afternoon.

He never did.

The Last Known Journey of Myrisha and A.J. Campbell Jr.

An acquaintance of Campbell Sr., William Randle Jr., provided investigators with one of the most important accounts of the children’s final known movements.

Randle said he and Campbell Sr. picked up Myrisha and A.J. Jr. in Goliad and traveled in Randle’s two-door pink and charcoal-gray 1955 Chevrolet Tudor, Texas license plate MA-9996. During the trip they traveled through Cuero and Gonzales and stopped to obtain two large cans of lard.

Approximately three miles outside Goliad, Campbell Sr. reportedly asked Randle to get out because he wanted to visit someone. Campbell then drove away with both children.

Roughly 30 to 40 minutes later, Campbell Sr. returned.

Myrisha and A.J. Jr. were no longer in the car.

Their Father’s Disturbing Behavior

According to Randle’s account, Campbell Sr. claimed he had gone to see his brother-in-law, gotten into a fight and left the children with another relative.

His behavior reportedly raised immediate concerns.

Campbell appeared nervous and agitated and allegedly asked Randle whether he had any blood on him. He also warned Randle not to tell anyone about the supposed fight. The two men subsequently traveled to San Antonio and separated.

Campbell Sr. was supposed to return Randle’s automobile but failed to do so. Randle eventually returned to Fort Worth and reported the vehicle stolen.

A Phone Call, a Suicide Note and a Father’s Claim

The case took an even darker turn the following day.

Campbell Sr. telephoned a Fort Worth minister and made statements indicating that his children were dead. Contemporary and later accounts report that he said the children were “at rest with the world” and indicated that he intended to kill himself.

Campbell Sr. was subsequently found dead inside Randle’s automobile on a rural road near Austin. His death was ruled a suicide from a shotgun wound.

Investigators also found a note addressed to Jewel.

In that note, Campbell claimed that he had buried both children. However, he provided no location where authorities could find them.

Contemporary reporting indicates Campbell also directly told the minister that he had killed and buried the children.

The Search for Myrisha and A.J.

Authorities launched an extensive search for the children.

The two large lard cans Campbell had obtained during the trip became particularly troubling. Investigators considered the possibility that they could have been connected to disposal of the children’s remains. Contemporary reporting from the following year said the cans were never recovered and that extensive digging failed to reveal what happened to the children.

No remains belonging to Myrisha or A.J. Jr. were found.

No confirmed location where they had been buried was discovered.

And despite their father’s statements, investigators were left without physical evidence establishing exactly what happened to either child.

Could Myrisha and A.J. Have Survived?

Members of Myrisha’s family have not completely abandoned the possibility that Campbell Sr. lied about killing the children.

Jewel later remarried and became Jewel Bernay Campbell Robertson. She had two more children, Regina Meynig and Phil Robertson. Both became involved in efforts to determine what happened to their missing half-siblings. Jewel died in 2013 without learning their fate.

The family has considered the possibility that Campbell Sr. may have given or sold the children to someone and then fabricated the murder story before taking his own life.

One intriguing lead involved an A.J. Campbell reportedly living in Arlington, Texas, during the 1990s. According to reporting on the case, the man’s Texas driver’s license reportedly listed the same birth date as missing A.J. Campbell Jr. The lead was never publicly confirmed as being the missing child.

That possibility is one reason the absence of the children’s remains remains so significant.

Possible Matches to Unidentified Children

Over the years, researchers and members of the public have considered whether unidentified remains could belong to Myrisha.

One highly discussed possibility was the unidentified Arizona child historically known as “Little Miss Nobody,” whose remains were found in 1960. Online discussions documented efforts and hopes that DNA testing could determine whether she was Myrisha.

That mystery was eventually resolved: “Little Miss Nobody” was identified as Sharon Lee Gallegos, eliminating Myrisha as the unidentified child.

Myrisha has also been specifically listed as a rule-out in the Madisonville, Texas unidentified-child case.

These exclusions are important because they demonstrate that Myrisha’s case continues to be considered when unidentified remains are evaluated.

Latest Information on the Myrisha Campbell Case

Myrisha’s disappearance remains unresolved.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues to maintain an active public missing-child poster for her. As of 2026, the poster lists Myrisha’s present age as 71 and identifies the Goliad County Sheriff’s Office as the law-enforcement contact. Her NCMEC case number is 1151642, and her NCIC number is M848735623.

The Doe Network also continues to carry Myrisha under case number 2970DFTX. Its records show her case information was updated on November 11, 2023.

In June 2025, Myrisha and her brother were again included in reporting about Texas children who had remained missing or unidentified for more than 45 years. The report continued to direct information to the Goliad County Sheriff’s Office.

A January 2026 case profile likewise continued to classify Myrisha as missing and the circumstances as a suspected homicide, demonstrating that the mystery remains publicly active nearly 68 years after she disappeared.

There is currently no publicly documented resolution, recovery of Myrisha’s remains, confirmed sighting, or identification showing what ultimately happened to her.

What Happened to Myrisha Faye Campbell?

The strongest evidence pointing toward homicide is Campbell Sr.’s own conduct and statements: the children disappeared while exclusively in his care, they were missing when he returned for Randle, he reportedly behaved strangely and asked about blood, he later told a minister that the children were dead, and his suicide note claimed he had buried them.

But there is one enormous missing piece.

Neither child has ever been found.

Without their remains or other definitive physical evidence, the possibility that Campbell Sr. transferred the children to another person cannot be completely disproven. That uncertainty has kept the case alive for generations.

Myrisha Faye Campbell would be 71 years old in 2026. Her younger brother, A.J. Campbell Jr., would be 68.

Their disappearance remains one of Texas’s longest-running missing-child mysteries.

Very Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: September 6, 1958
Location: Goliad, Texas
Age: 3 years old
Missing With: Her 11-month-old brother, A.J. Campbell Jr.
Circumstances: Their father picked them up during court-ordered visitation and never returned them. A witness later saw the father without the children. The father subsequently made statements indicating he had killed and buried them before dying by suicide.
Bodies Recovered: No
Current Status: Endangered missing; suspected homicide circumstances; unresolved.
Primary Investigating Agency: Goliad County Sheriff’s Office