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Disappearance of Thomas Gibson

Missing person case

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ95694600 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Dean Gibson (July 5, 1988 – disappeared March 18, 1991) is an American child who vanished from his front yard in Azalea, Oregon, under mysterious circumstances. On the morning of his disappearance, his father, Larry Gibson, a deputy sheriff of Douglas County, left the family's home to go on a jog. Before departing, he claimed to have shot at a feral cat on the property. He left Thomas in the family's front yard, where Thomas's elder sister, Karen (then aged 4), was to watch him. Upon returning from his jog, Larry and his wife, Judith, realized Thomas was missing.

Karen initially told law enforcement she had witnessed a man and woman pull into the family's driveway in a truck and abduct Thomas, though the couple could not be identified. Initial search efforts for Thomas proved fruitless, and Larry formally resigned from his position in the sheriff's department before relocating with his family to Montana in 1992.

Larry was the Boyscout master for the local Mormon Boyscout troop. The family was active in the local Mormon church. The troop and community actively helped in the search.

Editorial summary

“Disappearance of Thomas Gibson” enters the record as missing person case. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Disappearance, Thomas and Gibson can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1988, 1991, 1992—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Disappearance, Thomas and Gibson.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Disappearance of Thomas Gibson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Disappearance, Thomas and Gibson provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q95694600. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1991 and 1992.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Disappearance of Thomas Gibson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Disappearance of Thomas Gibson primary sources, Disappearance of Thomas Gibson archive and Disappearance research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Disappearance of Thomas Gibson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.