Josephine Yvette Cogburn, age 16, and Joyce Irene Cogburn, age 15, disappeared together from Norman, Oklahoma on October 2, 1983.
The two sisters were staying with a male family friend, in an apartment at 333 E. Brooks Street at the time of their disappearance. Their father had been killed in a car accident, and their mother was struggling as a single parent attending nursing school and working. She signed over custody after the friend offered to take the two girls.
The girls mother had met this friend, who has been referred to in media only by the initials B.J.S., while working as a bartender at Steele’s Tavern Corner, but claimed to have known him for thirteen years when her children were introduced to him.
Their older sister was asked by this man to come live with him as well, but she declined.
The friend was the one who reported the girls missing, saying that they went to the library and never returned. He told police they had run away.
Police initially did treat the case as a runaway, although they had not taken any belongings with them and no friends or classmates had heard from them.
Joyce and Josephine’s older sister believes the girls met with foul play and that their guardian, B.J.S. is responsible. She recalled an occasion where Josephine confided that Joyce was in a relationship with this man, but had a new boyfriend and didn’t want anything to do with him anymore.
Since the disappearance, the man, who has officially been called a person of interest, has refused to talk to the Cogburn family and has been unwilling to take a polygraph or to return the girls’ belongings to her family. He relocated to a property eleven miles from Broken Bow, and is now deceased. The girls had lived in Broken Bow with their mother prior to moving in with the family friend.
The apartment complex where the girls were staying has since been demolished.
There have been several reported sightings of them over the years, one as far as Arizona, but none have been substantiated, and their sister continues to seek answers.
Anyone who regularly reads my site probably knows how I feel about the person of interest being vaguely referred to as B.J.S. I’ve expressed frustration with this type of thing before. I know it is usually law enforcement, not the victim’s families, that are behind it, but this case is a prime example of how much can be lost by being secretive.
I first want to say that I do understand the reluctance to publicly implicate a potentially innocent person. However, announcing that they were last seen in the company of so-and-so would be a true statement and could have been helpful.
See, these two girls were from Broken Bow. They were only in Norman a short time, staying with this man at his apartment. They probably wouldn’t have known many people in Norman, so people may not have recognized their names and faces in media accounts, or on posters.
The person of interest, however, was established there. If anyone saw or heard anything suspicious around the time of the girls disappearances, they wouldn’t have been likely to make the connection if they didn’t know he was the last to be seen with them.
Did anyone see him carrying things out of his apartment late at night? Did anyone notice him washing his car, looking disheveled, having scratches on him, etc? Would they have thought anything of it if they had no clue he was associated with two missing girls?
I know the person of interest is gone now, but I hope someone saw or heard something and will provide that missing piece of the puzzle that will bring these two sisters home.
