Missing Nan Cecile Dixon

Description at Time of Disappearance:

Date Missing: September 21, 1978 from Grass Valley, Nevada County, California.
Date of Birth: August 4, 1905
Age at Disappearance: 73
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 118 lbs.
Hair: Red/Gray
Eyes: Unknown
Race/Sex: White, Female

Details:
Nan left her home in Grass Valley, California on September 21, 1978 for a nearly three-hour trip to visit
her brother, Harry Leighton, his wife, Lulu and their adult son, Arthur, also known as "Butch," in Seven Troughs,
Nevada.
Family members contacted authorities after she hadn't arrived. Ground and air search crews were called out but
they were unable to locate any trace of Nan or her car.

Four years later, in 1982, coyote hunters found her car in a ravine below the main road of the Seven Troughs
drop-off. This area had been covered in previous air and ground searches, and the car hadn't been there then.
Nan's family stated it appeared as if someone had deliberately driven the car into the ravine.

Inside the car, an unsigned note indicating suicide was found. Authorities also found black electrical tape; one
piece had hair and possible human tissue attached. There also appeared to be bloodstains on the trunk mat and
on the tire and rim. In spite of the suspicious nature in which the car was found and the unusual evidence it
contained, Authorities closed her case as a suicide and sold her car at a sheriff's Auction. All other evidence
collected at the time has since been lost.

Nan's family has never believed she took her own life and instead thinks she was the victim of foul play. They
believe that the note found in her vehicle was written by someone else and planted in the car to cover up her
murder.

One theory is that she may have witnessed an alleged air drop of illegal drugs in the Seven Troughs area and
was killed to keep her from revealing this. Authorities finally reopened the investigation into her disappearance in
2007.

Contact Agency:
Nevada County Sheriff's Office
(530)582-7842
Tip Line (530)470-2400
Pershing County Sheriff's Dept.
(775)273-5111
Lovelock Police Dept.
(775)273-2256