Key facts
- Name: Carlene Brown
- Age at disappearance: 19
- Last seen: July 4, 1974
- Location: Little Britches Rodeo, Carbon County Fairgrounds, Rawlins, Wyoming
- Height / build: 5’0″, ~100 lbs
- Status: Still missing — foul play suspected; one of four young females who vanished around Rawlins in seven weeks
- Investigating agency: Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, (307) 324-2776
The Fourth of July
On July 4, 1974, nineteen-year-old Carlene Brown and her nineteen-year-old friend Christine Ann “Christy” Gross went to the Little Britches Rodeo at the Carbon County Fairgrounds in Rawlins, Wyoming. It was Independence Day in a boom town — Rawlins was swelling with transient workers, and, as one later account put it, the community had grown to the point where “sometimes we lost our feeling of who our neighbors were.”
The two young women never came home. Their vehicle was found abandoned — though even that basic fact is disputed. One report says it was at the fairgrounds; another says one or two cars turned up in Worland, more than 200 miles to the north. “Back in 1974, the record keeping system was very different,” a Carbon County investigator said in 2026, “and then the record retention system from ’74 to 2026 — a lot happens in that period of time.”
Authorities initially believed Carlene and Christy had left on their own — two nineteen-year-olds, a holiday, a car. As the weeks passed with no word from either of them, that theory died. Something else had happened at the fairgrounds.
Nine years later, in October 1983, Christy Gross’s skeletal remains were found three miles south of Sinclair. She had been killed by two heavy blows to the skull. There was no sign of Carlene at the scene. There has been no sign of Carlene anywhere, ever, in the fifty-two years since.
The summer Rawlins lost four girls
Carlene and Christy were the first. Within seven weeks, three more young females vanished in and around Rawlins:
- Deborah Rae Meyer, 15, disappeared August 4, 1974, while walking to a movie theater. Never found.
- Jayleen Dawn Banker, 10, vanished August 23, 1974, from the Rawlins fairgrounds after being separated from a friend. Her partially clothed body was found in a field on April 24, 1975 — killed, like Christy, by a blow to the head.
Two found murdered in shallow graves. Two never found at all. Jayleen’s and Christy’s homicides remain unsolved.
The man investigators have long circled is Royal Russell Long — the truck driver and carnival worker who, a decade later, would kidnap twelve-year-old Sharon Bald Eagle near Casper. Long lived in the Rawlins area in the summer of 1974 and worked the fairs and carnivals. He is considered a possible suspect in the disappearances of Carlene and Deborah and the murders of Christy and Jayleen. He was never charged in any of them; he died in prison in 1993, serving life for the Bald Eagle kidnapping, taking whatever he knew with him.
In July 2026, more than fifty years on, Wyoming journalists and retired investigators convened a panel on the Rawlins cases — still trying, in 2026, to establish even basic facts like where Carlene and Christy’s car was found.
The adoption that complicated everything
There is one more cruelty in Carlene Brown’s case, and it is bureaucratic. Carlene was adopted. Her entire adopted family has since died. When investigators thought they’d caught a break with the discovery of a birth certificate, it turned out to be one created after her adoption — useless for the DNA comparisons that might connect unidentified remains to her. As the 2026 panel put it: while it is possible her remains have been found somewhere in the decades since, there may be no way to prove it.
Brion Domman — who was also adopted — connected with Carlene’s brother over that shared fact: two people who understand what it means to search for someone the paperwork forgot.
Theories: what might have happened
Royal Russell Long killed her. He was there, in Rawlins, working the carnival circuit, in the summer four girls vanished. A decade later he proved exactly what he was capable of with Sharon Bald Eagle. The pattern — young females, fairgrounds, transient corridors — fits the man. What undercuts a conclusion: he was never charged, never convicted in connection with Carlene, and died without confessing. The case against him is circumstantial and will never be tested in court.
Her remains are among the unidentified. Given that Christy was found murdered nine years later, the likelihood is that Carlene met the same fate on the same day. If her remains were ever recovered as an unidentified Jane Doe, the adoption paperwork gap may have made identification impossible. This is less a theory than a grief: she may have been found and still be lost.
She left voluntarily. The original theory, abandoned within weeks. Two nineteen-year-olds don’t stay silent for fifty-two years, and Christy’s murdered body ended the debate about what kind of case this was.
Fifty-two years after the Little Britches Rodeo, Carlene Brown is still legally, officially missing. Her friend came home in 1983, in pieces, from a field near Sinclair. Carlene never came home at all.
Have information?
Contact the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office at (307) 324-2776. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- July 4, 1974 — Carlene Brown, 19, and Christine “Christy” Gross, 19, attend the Little Britches Rodeo in Rawlins and vanish. Their vehicle is found abandoned (location disputed).
- August 4, 1974 — Deborah Rae Meyer, 15, disappears walking to a movie theater in Rawlins. Never found.
- August 23, 1974 — Jayleen Dawn Banker, 10, vanishes from the Rawlins fairgrounds.
- April 24, 1975 — Jayleen’s body is found in a field; killed by a blow to the head.
- October 27, 1983 — Christy Gross’s skeletal remains are found three miles south of Sinclair; killed by two blows to the skull. No sign of Carlene.
- 1984–1985 — Royal Russell Long kidnaps Sharon Bald Eagle; later sentenced to life. Considered a possible suspect in the Rawlins cases; never charged.
- 1993 — Long dies in prison.
- July 2026 — Wyoming panel revisits the cases 50+ years later; Brown still officially missing.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Carlene Brown still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Carlene Brown has been missing for 52 years. As a 2026 panel of investigators confirmed, she is still considered missing.
Was Carlene Brown ever found?
No. Unlike her friend Christy Gross — whose remains were found near Sinclair in 1983 — no trace of Carlene has ever been found.
What happened at the Little Britches Rodeo in 1974?
Carlene Brown and Christine Gross, both 19, attended the rodeo at the Carbon County Fairgrounds in Rawlins on July 4, 1974, and disappeared. Their abandoned vehicle was later found, though reports conflict on whether it was at the fairgrounds or 200+ miles away in Worland.
Who was Royal Russell Long?
A truck driver and carnival worker who lived in the Rawlins area in 1974. He later kidnapped 12-year-old Sharon Bald Eagle (1984) and was serving life in prison when he died in 1993. He is considered a possible suspect in the Rawlins disappearances and murders but was never charged in them.
Why is Carlene Brown hard to identify if remains are found?
Carlene was adopted, her entire adopted family has died, and a discovered birth certificate turned out to have been created after her adoption — making DNA comparison against unidentified remains extremely difficult.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information, contact the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office at (307) 324-2776.
Sources
- News: Wyoming Tribune Eagle / wyomingnews.com, “More than 50 years later, two of four girls abducted from Rawlins in 1974 have yet to be found” (July 2026); Native Sun News Today, “The girls Wyoming lost” (2026, two-part Cowboy State Daily investigation).
- Reference: The Charley Project, “Carlene Brown”; NamUs.
- Media: Unsolved Wyoming: Cold Cases & Haunted Places podcast.
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.
Correction (October 2026): Deborah Rae Meyer’s age corrected from 14 to 15 (NamUs missing-person listing and 2026 news coverage both give 15).