Ira Shaw Missing Person Case

Jul 21, 2023

Jan 08, 2024

Ira

Shaw

63

15

60 inches

120 lbs

Black / African American

Female

On a summer evening in Austin, Texas, 15-year-old Ira Elizabeth Shaw vanished, leaving behind a mystery that has endured for decades. The date was June 19, 1978, and Ira, a teenager with a summer job at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, was last seen at approximately 5:00 p.m. leaving her workplace on Red River Street. Known to her loved ones as "Liz" or "Ira-Liz," she was supposed to walk to her aunt's home to meet her mother. That walk, however, was a journey she seemingly never completed. She never arrived at her aunt's house and has not been seen or heard from since. At the time she went missing, Ira was described as being 5'0" tall and weighing 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. A significant identifying feature was a large, light-colored birthmark on the front of her right leg, which extended from her pelvis down her thigh. Despite the passage of years, very few details about her case have been made public, and the investigation has yielded little information. Decades after she disappeared, her case was added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) in July 2023, a move aimed at bringing new attention to her long-unsolved disappearance. The disappearance of Ira Shaw is a cold case that has left her family waiting for answers for more than forty years. There were no known witnesses to what happened after she left the library that evening. Her case is sometimes viewed within the broader context of several other young Black women who went missing in Austin during the late 1970s, though no official connection has ever been established. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain unclear; whether she accepted a ride from someone or encountered foul play along her route is unknown. With no significant leads, her case remains an open and haunting question for law enforcement and a deep, unanswered loss for her family.

Jun 19, 1978

Austin

Texas

Travis County

78705

No

126706

Austin Police Department

Austin

Texas

Travis County

78748

Zachary Baldridge

Detective

715 East 8th Street, Texas

5129745250

Local

Law Enforcement

http://www.austintexas.gov/department/police

23-2020277

1978-06-19

Austin Police Department

3836

Black

Brown

Brown

09/15/2026