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Mary Carver kept asking what had happened to her missing daughter, Annette Craver Vail. Her persistence eventually connected journalist Jerry Mitchell with information about Annette and another disappearance, and Carver testified at William Felix Vail’s murder trial. The jury convicted Vail of murdering his first wife, Mary Horton Vail—not Annette, who remains missing.
What happened to Annette Craver Vail?
Annette Carver-Vail, also identified as Annette Craver, was Felix Vail’s second wife. Tulsa Police says her mother reported her missing in 1984 and identifies Vail as the last person known to have seen or spoken with her. Annette remains missing; the available court record does not establish what happened to her.
Annette’s disappearance later became part of the evidence prosecutors sought to present in the case involving the 1962 drowning of Vail’s first wife, Mary Horton Vail. That connection matters, but it does not make Annette the victim of the murder conviction.
How Mary Carver kept the disappearance in view
At trial, Annette’s mother—identified in the record as Mary Carver and elsewhere as Mary Rose—described years of seeking information about her daughter. She testified that she had not heard from Annette in 32 years and believed she was dead. While looking for answers, Carver learned that Sharon Hensley, another woman connected to Vail, had also disappeared.
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Carver heard journalist Jerry Mitchell discuss a different cold case in a radio interview and contacted him. Mitchell later investigated the disappearances. Carver’s actions helped bring renewed attention and information to the story; the record does not say that her efforts alone produced Vail’s conviction.
How the disappearances figured in the murder case
Prosecutors charged Vail with the second-degree murder of Mary Horton Vail, who drowned in 1962. They also sought to introduce evidence concerning the later disappearances of Sharon Hensley in 1973 and Annette in 1984. The Louisiana Third Circuit denied Vail’s 2014 challenge to the trial court’s decision to admit that evidence. The ruling addressed admissibility, not whether Vail had killed either missing woman.
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In 2016, a jury found Vail guilty of Mary Vail’s murder, and he received a life sentence. In 2017, the Louisiana Third Circuit affirmed the conviction after recounting trial evidence. The court record describes evidence considered in the prosecution and trial; it does not convert the unresolved disappearances into separate murder findings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Keep the three cases distinct
- Mary Horton Vail: Vail’s first wife, whose 1962 drowning was the subject of his murder conviction.
- Sharon Hensley: Disappeared in 1973; evidence concerning her disappearance was admitted in the murder case.
- Annette Craver Vail: Vail’s second wife, reported missing in Tulsa in 1984 and still missing. Vail was not convicted in her disappearance.
Mary Carver’s persistence, contact with Mitchell, and trial testimony are important parts of how the story resurfaced. The legal outcome, however, was a jury’s conviction of Vail for Mary Horton Vail’s murder.
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Sources and case record
- Louisiana Third Circuit, 2014 evidentiary ruling.
- Louisiana Third Circuit, 2017 opinion affirming the conviction.
- Tulsa Police missing-person listing for Annette Craver Vail.
- Party filing on the Supreme Court docket recounting the case history; it is not a Supreme Court ruling.
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