The Austin Chronicle

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1998-11-20/520647/

Just the Facts

November 20, 1998, News

  • There is no evidence of foul play.
  • There is no evidence of any criminal activity.
  • At the time of her disappearance, Madalyn O'Hair, then 77, was suffering from diabetes and heart disease.
  • Shortly before the three vanished on Sept. 29, 1995, Jon bought $600,000 worth of gold coins in San Antonio from a jeweler named Cory Ticknor, with money that was transferred from a bank in New Zealand. Jon only collected $500,000 worth of the coins. The remaining $100,000 worth of coins was later seized by the Internal Revenue Service.
  • Jon's Mercedes was sold in San Antonio on Sept. 5, 1995, by a man who claimed to be Jon but didn't fit his description. The selling price was $5,000 below book value.
  • When the trio disappeared, the IRS was seeking $1.5 million in back taxes from Jon and Robin.
  • In the last few weeks before they disappeared, Jon and Robin's credit cards were used for a number of cash withdrawals in amounts of $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000. According to Spike Tyson, who moved into the Murray O'Hairs' home after they disappeared, all of the cards were "maxed out."
  • The trio had a bank account, registered in all three of their names at Frost Bank in San Antonio, that contained $23,765, and was never claimed.
  • Jon and Robin's dogs, cocker spaniels named Gannon and Shannon, disappeared from a locked, fenced enclosure behind the Atheist General HQ three months after the disappearance.
  • In 1996, Robin's 1985 Porsche 944 was found abandoned at the Austin airport.
  • Since the disappearance, five New Zealand bank accounts, all in Jon's name, containing a total of $150,000, have not been touched.

-- R.B.

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