Ruth Baumgardner

In the spring of 1937, Ruth Baumgardner was engaged to be married and on the cusp of graduating from Ohio Wesleyan when she was last seen heading to her dorm room. 

Ruth Baumgardner, Before She Goes Missing
Ruth was 21 years old and a senior in college. She was pursuing her degree in art. On Easter break in 1937, she became engaged to a man she’d been seeing named Harry Moore. Harry worked as a gas station attendant trying to put himself through college in Cleveland and the two had met the summer before at her parents’ summer place. During that break, Ruth was also gifted a bright red Dodge coupe as an early graduation gift.

Ruth had been doing well in college, carrying a B average, and her work as an artist was praised by the art department. Ruth wanted to go on to college at the Cleveland School of Art after she graduated. But Ruth was also telling her fiance and her parents that she was tired. She’d been helping with the decorating committee for a college open house and she had her obligations with her sorority.

Unbeknownst to her family at the time, Ruth had been skipping chapel, a requirement of the university. If students missed too many sessions of chapel or class, they would be required to take a 1 credit course over the summer to make it up. This would have delayed Ruth’s graduation.

The Day Ruth Baumgardner Goes Missing
On Tuesday, May 4th, Ruth spends her evening studying in the smoking room of her dorm building with some of her sorority sisters. She has a test the next day on a novel she says she doesn’t understand. She heads to bed at around 11:15 that night in her single room on the third floor.

The next day, her friend Roberta knocked on the door hoping to go to breakfast with Ruth. Ruth didn’t answer, so Roberta went alone thinking she would see her there. When she didn’t spot Ruth, Roberta returned to the dorm, this time finding Ruth’s keys between the second and third floor. After telling her sorority sisters, they all agree to wait until that evening’s 10:30 pm curfew before reporting Ruth missing just in case she went somewhere.

When authorities were finally notified, they found Ruth’s room in order, an unusual occurrence for the usually messy college student. They also found her oldest suit was also missing, but otherwise everything was as it should be. Her car was even found in the garage she rented nearby. 

The Initial Search for Ruth
Initially, local police handle the case and college students are encouraged to look for Ruth. This is when they learn that several calls came in for Ruth the night before and the night of her disappearance. They said it was a man who called and he had a high pitched voice. It’s not known if Ruth spoke to this caller any of these times.

The local quarry, just ¼ mile away, was also searched after someone reported seeing Ruth there that day. Other reports include a man who saw her on Wednesday and a woman who heard screams in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

Soon, Ruth’s family was hiring a private detective because they felt local police were limited in their search. This spread Ruth’s story nationwide and because of this attention, many reported seeing her including two women in nearby Zanesville. Reportedly, these women described Ruth in enough detail that her mother believed they had actually seen Ruth.

Nothing has ever come of this sighting.

Theories
Early in Ruth’s disappearance there were rumors that her family knew where Ruth was and had committed her to a psychiatric hospital. There is no evidence to back this. But a few months after Ruth disappeared, four men are arrested for the murder of an Ohio State Highway Patrolman. During questioning, one confessed that he and his associates had kidnapped and trafficked Ruth.

This confession was shaky from the start, but was repeated during the trial. Despite not leading to Ruth’s recovery, many came to believe that Ruth was trafficked. Some believe that she was found and then committed to psychiatric care to hide her away from the public. Again, this has not been substantiated. 

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People and Cases Mentioned in this Episode:
Ruth Baumgardner (unsolved missing person case)
Lola Celli (unsolved missing person case)
George Conn (solved murder)