The Strange Disappearance and Death of David Glenn Lewis
An attorney mysteriously vanishes from his Texas home and then dies in an apparent hit-and-run accident 1,600 miles away
Attorney’s Bizarre Disappearance and Death
On January 31st, 1993, Texas attorney David Glenn Lewis, 39, planned to watch the Super Bowl at home. His wife and daughter had been away shopping, but when they returned, they found sandwiches in the refrigerator, laundry in the washing machine, and David’s watch and wedding ring on the counter. But David himself was missing.
The following night, a man was killed in Moxee, Washington, in an apparent hit-and-run accident. The man’s identity? David Glenn Lewis.
But how — and why — did he end up 1,600 miles away? And why had he been walking down the middle of the road?
David Glenn Lewis
David Glenn Lewis was born on December 11th, 1953, in Borger, Texas, to parents William and Esther. He graduated magna cum laude from Texas Tech University in 1975 with a political science degree and went on to obtain a Juris Doctor degree from the same university in 1979.
David married a woman named Karen Garret in 1982 and the couple had their only child together — a daughter named Lauren — a year later.
In 1986, he was elected judge of the Moore County Court at Law, a job he would leave just four years later to run for District Court Judge of the 69th district. David’s election bid was unsuccessful, and he soon went back to working at a private law practice.
Described by friends and family as being a kind person who enjoyed helping others, David was active in several charitable organizations as well as his local church.
Additionally, he taught a government class at a nearby college in Amarillo, Texas.
Odd Behavior Before Disappearance
On Thursday, January 28th, 1993, David left work at the Buckner, Lara & Swindell law practice, stating that he wasn’t feeling well. However, his credit card revealed a charge made at a gas station later that afternoon. David also reportedly taught his class that night, which ended at 10 p.m.
The following day, Karen and Lauren left to spend the weekend shopping in Dallas. Although they didn’t see David before leaving, they didn’t find that especially concerning.
They already knew he wanted to stay home that weekend, because his favorite football team — the Dallas Cowboys — would be playing in the Super Bowl and David was eager to watch the game.
It was during this weekend that David’s behavior took a turn for the strange. First, he was spotted by a friend from church frantically rushing through a Southwest Airlines terminal. David didn’t appear to have any luggage with him.
On Sunday, David’s red Ford Explorer was seen parked outside of the Potter County courthouse and a deputy sheriff witnessed a man matching David’s description photographing the vehicle.
David returned home at some point, evidently, because the neighbors reported seeing his vehicle parked in the driveway that weekend.
However, when Karen and Lauren arrived home on Sunday, they found David’s wedding ring and watch on the counter and a load of laundry in the dryer.
The lights and television were on and the VCR was still recording the football game. There were also two turkey sandwiches in the refrigerator, presumably prepared by David.
The thing that was notably absent from the home, however, was David himself.
Nevertheless, Karen assumed that he had simply gone to watch the game at a friend’s house and that he’d be back soon. But when she learned the following day that David had missed two appointments — very out of character for him — she became worried and notified the police that he was missing.
The Investigation
Early in the investigation into David Glenn Lewis’s disappearance, police learned that someone using his name had purchased two plane tickets before he went missing. The first ticket was bought on January 31st and was from Dallas to Amarillo. The second ticket was purchased the next day and this one would take him from Los Angeles to Dallas.
No one could explain what might have compelled David to buy these tickets, and since U.S. airports didn’t require a person to show their ID before boarding a plane in 1993, it couldn’t be verified that he was really the person who purchased the tickets.
Another unexplained detail that came out during the investigation was that $5,000 had been deposited into the Lewis family’s bank account on January 30th. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be determined who made the deposit.
David’s Ford Explorer was soon discovered parked by the courthouse. His keys were under the floor mat and his driver’s license, credit cards, and checkbook were all found inside as well.
The only item Karen thought was missing from their house was a pair of green sweatpants that belonged to her husband.
Later, a cab driver came forward to say that he had picked up a man strongly resembling David on February 1st and drove him to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The man in question appeared nervous and paid in cash from a wad of hundred-dollar bills he had with him.
There were no further sightings of David reported in the Amarillo area after this.
David’s Mental State
David’s family didn’t believe that he had left voluntarily; they believed he was abducted. Karen said that he had received death threats in the past while working as a judge and that he’d begun to receive death threats once again just before he vanished.
She also said that he was looking forward to future events, like their daughter’s upcoming birthday, and would have wanted to be there.
David’s friends echoed this sentiment, stating that he was talking about future career possibilities and seemed content with his life in general. He was also still actively involved in his community and various charitable organizations.
However, it’s possible that he was going through something that he hadn’t shared with those around him.
At the time he went missing, David had been a defendant in a conflict-of-interest lawsuit that had been brought against him and several other attorneys, as well as a former client.
He was the last person who was going to be deposed before he vanished. All of his paperwork relating to the case disappeared along with him and has never been found. It’s unclear if this is relevant to his disappearance.
Karen Lewis refused to take a polygraph test, creating tension between herself and the investigators.
Ultimately, the authorities believed that David left Amarillo of his own free will and couldn’t find any evidence of foul play. They eventually closed his case in 2002.
Moxee John Doe
On the night of February 1st, 1993, motorists witnessed a man walking down the middle of State Route 24 in Moxee, Washington, east of Yakima. The man was wearing military fatigues and boots. He didn’t appear to have anything else with him.
A concerned driver turned around and attempted to warn the other motorists that someone was walking on the road. Sadly, they were too late to help this man, because, by the time they got back, he was lying dead by the side of the road, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run accident.
A Chevy Camaro was seen driving away, but the driver has never been identified and it’s unknown if the Camaro was responsible for hitting this man.
The autopsy report concluded that he had died of injuries consistent with having been struck by a vehicle. Additionally, there were no drugs or alcohol in his system.
The deceased, who had no ID, would be classified as a “John Doe” and remained unidentified for 11 years.
In 2003, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an investigative series titled “Without a Trace,” which pointed out a number of problems with how adult missing person cases were being handled, specifically noting how many investigations “slip through the cracks” of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
Washington State Patrol detective in Yakima, Washington, Pat Ditter, read the series of reports and started to look into a number of local missing persons cases, as well as John and Jane Doe cases, hoping to solve at least some of them.
When he began researching Moxee John Doe’s case, he searched online for any missing men matching the description of his John Doe, which brought him to David Glenn Lewis’s case.
He noted that David looked very much like the John Doe in question, but a notable difference was that David wore glasses and the John Doe hadn’t been wearing any when he was found.
However, they still had the clothing he’d been wearing at the time of the accident and Ditter discovered a pair of glasses in one of the pockets.
These glasses looked identical to the distinctive pair that David himself wore. Ditter was now convinced that they were the same person. A DNA test in 2004 would confirm that he was correct: the Moxee John Doe was in fact, David Glenn Lewis.
But how and why did he end up over 1,600 miles away from his home in Amarillo, Texas? Why was David, said to have very poor eyesight, not wearing his glasses that night? Why was he walking down the middle of a road at all? Many aspects of this case remain a mystery.
It’s also unclear why he was wearing military fatigues, as Karen was adamant that he didn’t own anything like that.
What Happened to David?
David’s family and friends continue to believe that he was abducted and that he would never have chosen to leave them behind. They don’t believe that he was suicidal either.
The authorities, however, do believe he could have been suicidal. According to one investigator on the topic of his case: “It has a lot of earmarkings of suicide. People don’t always do what you expect.”
Some have theorized that he may have been involved in something he shouldn’t have been; fearing exposure, he felt the walls closing in on him.
Others have speculated that David could have been in a dissociative fugue state, a subtype of dissociative amnesia. Symptoms of this include confusion about one’s own identity and/or personal history and sudden and unplanned travel away from home. The condition is considered extremely rare but it has resulted in cases of people disappearing.
However, no theory seems to make complete sense of the mysterious chain of events leading up to David’s death and his case continues to defy explanation.
His obituary read, in part:
“Your love and devotion have been missed so very much. You touched so many lives while you were here. How sad that many of your dreams were left unfulfilled. We know that God is using you for his almighty work.”
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