Terry and Alan Westerfield (King of Diamonds, North Carolina)

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full of secrets, surprises, and a final turn that will stay with you. Grab your paperback copy of the missing half now wherever books are sold. Our card this week is Terry and Alan Westerfield, the King of Diamonds from North Carolina. A large part of a parent's week is playing shuttle driver, dropping off and picking up our children. It's so routine that we take for granted that second part, picking them up.

So what would you do if you dropped your child off somewhere, and when you returned to pick them up,

they were just gone. Disappeared never to be seen again for 60 years.

“That's what happened to Terry and Alan Westerfield in September of 1964.”

Since then, the Fayetteville Police Department has tried to unravel the mystery of what happened that day. And at the center of it, there's one big question still left up for debate. We're Terry and Alan ever even dropped off at all, or was the story of their disappearance told by their stepfather, just one big lie. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck. like this.

Fayetteville North Carolina is known for being a military town, through and through.

Back in the 60s, it had Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, now known as Pope Field after the

two bases merged. At the time, the Vietnam War had been raging for years, and that conflict was shaping Fayetteville. It was kind of the jumping off point for the guys that left from the United States and went to Vietnam. The city was bustling at that time and was growing by leaps and bounds. That's Lieutenant Jeff Lockler of the Fayetteville Police Department, giving us a little history lesson. Considering the town's large military presence, you'd assume that crime was rare,

but it's not. Not now and not back in 1964 when Alan and Terry went missing. In their case, all started with a call from their mother, Margie Westerfield, Bach. She phone police in the early morning hours of September 13th after returning home from a night out. She expected her boys to be fast asleep after a night at the movies, but they weren't in their beds. Margie's husband and the boy's stepfather, Carl Bach, had gone to pick them up from the movies,

but when they didn't show up, he assumed that the 11-year-old Terry and seven-year-old Alan might have been with her. He figured the mom had swung by and picked them up, didn't think twice about it, returned home, and then when they started thinking about where the chudon are, he asked her, and she's like, "No, I didn't go pick them up," and then that's really where this whole thing started. Now, if this happened today, we'd bring up the theater's

security cam footage, roll it back and see what we could find. But that was an option in the mid-60s, so officers had to hit the pavement, and they searched up and down the streets around the theater, but with no luck. At some point, officers went to the boys' neighborhood, known as the Bordeaux, looking for anyone who knew them, or who had seen them that night. Maybe they could give insight into why the boys would take off on their own, or where they might

“have gone if that's what happened here. Normally, in a situation like this, you would expect”

the boys' friends to say something like, "Yeah, you know, they didn't like their stepdad, or they were having problems with their mama, or, you know, one of the boys was having problems with a kid at school, bullied him, whatever, but that's not what the file reflects. The file would reflect that the kids are happy. The kids like the stepdad. Life was good."

off of the theater and when they were supposed to be picked up? So we're going to go to the theater

and talk to the people who worked there and see if they saw those kids there. We're going to talk to the person that sells the popcorn, and to move it to the theater, we're going to talk to the person that's tearing the tickets. We're going to talk to the janitorial staff there. Everybody who was there may have seen these kids, we're going to go out and talk to them. It turns out the brothers were regulars at the theater.

And one of the interviews that's conducted the lady said she knew him very well because she knew when they showed up, sometimes they'd like to run up and down the stairs. And though she'd have to kind of call them down a little bit, you know, and slow them down. So they knew him quite well there at the theater. But that one didn't see the boys the night of the 12th. In fact, if you read some of the supplemental reports like Lieutenant Lockvier did,

it appears no one did. Though something might have gotten lost over time. That or old news reports were inaccurate because at least one news report says that some employees did think that they saw the boys that day. But even if that's true, it seems that no one could place them there with a

100% certainty, which made investigators ask a very critical question. The one at the heart of this

case were the boys ever dropped off there to begin with. It turns out September 12th was a slightly unusual day because the child care plan changed suddenly without their mom Margie knowing. That Saturday, Margie had to work so she left the boys at home with their babysitter Barbara Temple. But around 11 a.m., their stepfather Carl showed up. So him showing up was not part of the plan as far as the babysitter was aware, but she was figuring out he's the stepdad and he says he's

here now he's going to take care of him. That wasn't that wouldn't be something to be out of the ordinary. Now the reason this wasn't part of the plan was because at the time Margie and Carl, who had only gotten married the summer before, were already on the outs. Carl had moved out and was now living on base at Fort Bragg where he worked as a military police officer. But he still had

“a key to the house and would occasionally borrow the family car. Even though Carl showed up that”

Saturday, the babysitter was still willing to stay and she stuck around till like 12 30 or 1 p.m. when Carl then told her to leave. After she left Carl says that he fixed the boys some food and let them play for a bit. Then around 4 p.m., he dropped them off at the Broadway theater only a few miles away for a double feature. Carl says that he was back at the house when Margie arrived home from work at around 5 30 p.m. Now she wasn't psyched to find out that he dismissed the babysitter

and dropped the boys at the movies but she didn't have time to argue about it. She had plans that night. So she was out the door by 630. She went to the play pee and the NCO club at Pope Field stayed there until she arrived home at 2 a.m. It's possible Margie had their shared vehicle that night because Carl was getting around in an old school looking red station wagon that he borrowed from

“a friend. That's how he was able to go back to the theater to pick up the boys at 745. He told”

police that he waited outside the theater in his car until 9 30. I would have sat there for until

the 30 seconds before I got out of my vehicle, right? Because my mom always told me when I pull

up, you better be standing there waiting. When almost two hours had passed with no sign of Terry or Allen, Carl said that he assumed maybe Margie had picked them up, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to investigators who have looked at this case. Carl says that he just went home after this and didn't realize anything was wrong until Margie got home. But like what did he think she would have been doing with the boys during that time after he got home and realized they weren't there.

Carl knew that Margie was out on a town night, did he think Terry and Allen were like hanging out the bar all night with their mom? The picture Carl was painting wasn't making a whole lot of sense, but by continuing to talk to people in the boys' neighborhood, investigators were starting to see a different picture come into focus. Hi everyone, Ashley here with some exciting news. The deck will not only land right here in your feed for you to listen to every week, but now we are also

on camera for you to watch on YouTube. Now you can see the cards, the case files, and the people behind the coldest cases as I share these stories with you. So no matter where you get your podcast,

“whether you prefer to listen to watch or maybe both, I will be there with stories you need to hear.”

Join me for the deck on YouTube, subscribe to audio check Investigates on YouTube today. During police's continued canvassing efforts, they discovered that no one appeared to have seen the

but was stopped by Carl. One little boy's in the neighborhood came over as little boy's will, right? And he wanted to play with the boys and the file would reflect that Carl told him one of the

boys watching TV and they came up with an excuse for the other kid, right? But basically,

he kind of showed the little boy off and said, not right now, they can't come out right now. They're tied up doing whatever. Lieutenant Lockler said there's another entry in the police file too. One that says Carl told the neighbor boy that both Terry and Allen were being punished. Why there are two different anecdotes isn't clear, but the timing of the visit does seem to be consistent. Lieutenant Lockler told us that it appears the kid came by at around 330 or 4 PM,

which would have been right around the time or right before Carl says that he's taking the boys to the movies. So this could line up with Carl's story, but if that account is correct,

“and the boys were indeed being punished, why would Carl be taking them to a double feature?”

Then there was another oddity involving the red station wagon that Carl borrowed.

Instead of just parking it in the driveway like a normal person would, he parked it about two blocks away. Although it's possible, it's not plausible to park two blocks away from your house and walk to your house. That doesn't make any sense. Detectives are logical thinkers, and if it doesn't make any logical sense, those are issues that he can't get past. In this case, that picture that's being painted is, all right, well, this doesn't feel right, and I don't like where this is going.

His excuse for this made even less sense. He told police something about wanting to borrow the car Margie had? Lieutenant Lockler thinks that Carl hoped Margie was going to be at the house that day.

He had hoped to have some interaction with her, so yeah, when he arrived,

very thought he would have conversation with her. Keeping the car down the block would avoid tipping her off that he was there, and it would also avoid her seeing anything he might have been keeping in the car, which, if some neighborhood kids were to be believed, might have set off alarm bells

“for Margie. He walked by Carl, he looked in, just to see what's in it, just being knows that, right?”

So he said that there was maybe some newspapers and a blanket and some shovels or something in the back of the car. Lieutenant Lockler said that police did eventually search the car Carl borrowed that day, and they found nothing. No shovels, no blood, no sign of Terry, and Allen. But that just underscores a major problem with this case. It appears that if Carl harmed the boys, he had several hours after the babysitter left before Margie got home,

and even more time after Margie left that night to clean up or dispose of any evidence. And probably even more time after that before police located and searched the vehicle he was using. With more than 60 years having passed since the boys disappeared, we really don't have a clear idea of what Carl did in that time. Carl told police that in the time between when he dropped the boys off with a theater and then went to pick them up, he had gone back to Fort Bragg.

He said he had to check to see if he could keep his friends car another night. Now we don't know if police check that claim out, but they did search Fort Bragg itself, although according to Lieutenant Lockler, it would have been impossible to thoroughly search because of its sheer size. But I know they checked local ponds as well, and woods. Everyone from state investigators to the FBI to army investigators helped with the search,

but still there was zero sign of the boys, not even a single stitch of clothing was found. And therefore there was nothing that connected Carl to their disappearance. Honestly, there wasn't even a super strong motive. So you start learning about any problems that's within a marriage, right? Whatever issues they have going on, that stuff a lot of times will begin to rise to the surface.

“And in this case I think that's what they begin to see is that the boy's mom was at a point”

where she was kind of done with the marriage, which was ready to move on, but he was the picture that was being painted to the detectives as they done these interviews. This is the closest that detectives got to a Y for Carl, if he was involved. But his and Margie's failing relationship may have been a factor. But why she wanted out of the marriage or what preceded this day in September seems to be unknown

all these years later. Carl did have one criminal charge in his history, according to news reports.

He served some time, but was eventually allowed to return to active duty.

“But was he violent to Margie, which he scared of him?”

Would he do something to her son's just to get back at her for leaving him? I don't know. She clearly had no problem with him picking up her boys from the theater that night, which I think says something, but Margie and other family members did appear to suspect Carl, and she eventually followed through with the divorce after the boys were gone.

Carl for his part maintained that he had nothing to do with their disappearance, but he drew a line in the sand when it came to cooperating, turning down the polygraph that police wanted to use to help rule him in or out. So that's really where this case stole. Three weeks into October, police were already convinced that the boys were dead,

but they couldn't even prove that much. And to complicate any case that they were trying to make against Carl, there were tips about possible sightings of Terry and Alan from all over. They got tips in from surrounding towns and stuff. Hey, I thought I might have saw those boys or boys fitting that inscription in the grocery store.

They won't came in for maybe more county and whatever, but none of those, um, paying no. Carl's came in from his far away as Arizona and as close as Mississippi. They went nowhere. So within a year or two, the case essentially went cold, and Carl remained law enforcement's only person of interest in the case.

There was one other person who may have been suspicious of Carl, and that's the boys biological father, Melville. He was actually one of the first people police contacted when the boys came up missing. Early hope was that maybe some how Terry and Alan were with him, but that wasn't the case and he was quickly cleared.

Melville never gave up hope of finding out what happened to his sons,

and he went on to start his own investigation. He followed any leads that he could find and grew desperate enough to speak with multiple mediums hoping that they could help, but no matter what he did or who he turned to, he appeared to end up in the same places as the Fayetteville Police Department with nothing. As I understand it, this thing consumed that man.

It literally used him completely up. I already was heartbroken forever and he never got past that. Perhaps that heartbreak was too much. In 1978, Melville died by suicide. There were rumors that he kept an account of his investigation,

and that it had even been turned over to authorities after his death. But as far as Lieutenant Lockler knows, that's all that is, a rumor.

“After Melville's passing, science and technology advanced in a way I think many in the 60s”

could have never imagined.

So over the following decades, police tried to build their case in that way. At one point they had the boys old homes searched by a forensics team, but nothing was found. At other points, when remains are found, hopes rose that the boys might finally have been discovered, but every time those remains got eliminated. It wasn't them.

Now sometimes time can be an investigator's best friend, a lot can change over the years. Memories, witness accounts, or even someone's conscious, finally catching up with them. That was actually investigators' hope when they went back to Karl Bach in 2000 and sat down with him. For a new interview. Hi everyone, Ashley here with some exciting news.

The deck will not only land right here in your feed-free to listen to every week, but now we are also on camera for you to watch on YouTube. Now you can see the cards, the case files, and the people behind the coldest cases, as I share these stories with you. So no matter where you get your podcast, whether you prefer to listen to watch,

“or maybe both, I will be there with stories you need to hear.”

Join me for the deck on YouTube, subscribe to audio-check Investigates on YouTube today. By the year 2000, Karl was in his late '70s, and he was sticking to the same story he gave a whole lifetime before. No new info, the end. Investigators gave it another 12 years,

and took a second crack at Karl in 2012.

During that whole interview, he's sitting in his recliner, and he's got a table next to his recliner, a little coffee table or whatever, and there's 357 Magnum sitting right there with in-hand reach to him. So he gave the whole interview like that. So he was a pistol, you know, no pun intended. He was just doing, you know, he was interesting to say the least.

They even floated the idea of possible immunity,

I mean, something that they didn't actually have the power to get, only the state AG could make that a reality. Now, whether Karl knew that they didn't have the power to grant immunity is unclear. But I wonder if he knew exactly what they were trying to do. He said, you've reminded me that I was an MP, and near that time we used the same tactics

to get people to tell us what we wanted to know.

“I think one of the things that doesn't get a lot of mention in this case is the fact that he was”

familiar with police techniques in question and that kind of stuff. One paper quoted a detective who said that Karl showed no emotion and wouldn't even refer to Terry and Alan by name, and he left detectives with a chilling statement. According to the Fayetteville Observer, Karl told investigators, quote, "You know, I was the last one to see them alive."

Was he saying that because after so many years without contact, it feels like a pretty safe assumption, or was he saying that because he knew something that we don't yet have confirmation of?

We'll never know, because that would be the last time law enforcement spoke with Karl,

who passed away in 2016 at the age of 93. So whatever information he had, that he did not provide, he took with him to the grave. We don't have that anymore, and it doesn't appear wherever we're going to get it." Karl lived longer than Margie, who died in the early 2000s. I hope somehow, in whatever comes after death, Margie and Melville were given all the answers

that they never got in life. But now, there is no one left in the Westerfield family pushing

“for answers here, which is why I think it's so important we don't forget Terry and Alan Westerfield.”

One of the hopes for doing podcast into an any media is that somebody somewhere is listening to this and has a piece of information no matter how small that they would be willing to give to the family police department. DNA is on file for both boys if remains are ever discovered. Their mother had kept locks of their baby hair, and she also provided a DNA sample for comparison. Their disappearance remains the Fayetteville police department's oldest unsolved case.

But that doesn't mean it's too late for justice, which for Lieutenant Lockler doesn't necessarily mean an arrest. Just as I think in this case, would be us locating their remains and bringing them home. Sadly enough, this case calls a lot of people to die with a broken heart.

“And I think that's the biggest travesty is that that lady left this world and the father did”

as well, not knowing where their kids are. I can't imagine what that would feel like. If you have any information about the disappearance of Terry and Alan Westerfield in September of 1964, please get in touch with Lieutenant Jeff Lockler directly at 910-433. One nine six zero, or if you'd like to remain anonymous, you can call the Fayetteville Cumberland County Crime Stoppers at 910-433 Tips.

The deck is an audio-truck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. I think check what approved. Hi everyone, I'm Dalia Diambra, an investigative journalist, avid park enthusiast and host of park predators. A weekly podcast that explores the dark

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