Carlene Sessions Tengelsen was 16 years old when she disappeared from Macon, Georgia, on June 21, 1972. She was a rising junior at Southwest High School and was known as a talented teenager who enjoyed drawing, dancing, and playing the clarinet and violin.

On the afternoon she disappeared, Carlene left her family’s home on East Street driving their white 1963 Pontiac station wagon. She had only recently received her driver’s license, and this was reportedly the first time she had driven somewhere alone. Her plan was to stop at the Westgate Shopping Center and then pick up her younger sister from summer day camp. 

While at the shopping center, Carlene reportedly spoke with people she knew. She also stopped at her boyfriend’s workplace, which was located behind the shopping center, and left a note on his vehicle telling him she would see him later that evening. She never returned home.

Carlene’s disappearance was discovered when she failed to pick up her younger sister from camp. Her family contacted police, but the initial response was delayed. Her mother reported her missing, but investigators did not immediately begin searching because of the belief that they had to wait 24 hours.

In the early morning hours of June 22, 1972, the family’s Pontiac was found abandoned in the Westgate Shopping Center parking lot, parked near a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. The vehicle was unlocked, the windows were rolled down, and there was no sign of Carlene. Her family stated that they did not believe she would have left the car in that condition. 

Investigators found no evidence explaining what happened after Carlene’s car was located. She was never seen again, and no confirmed sightings or information have led to answers in the case. 

Carlene’s family continued searching for answers for decades. After the family moved away from Macon, they reportedly left behind a telephone connected to a missing person hotline so that Carlene could call if she ever returned or reached out. The phone remained active for years, but no call from Carlene ever came. 

Carlene was described as a white female, approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing about 115 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a man’s blue dress shirt, blue jeans, a Mickey Mouse watch on her right wrist, a silver bracelet engraved with the name of a Vietnam prisoner of war, and her boyfriend’s white gold class ring with engraved initials.

Her case remains unsolved.

Anyone with information about Carlene Tengelsen’s disappearance is asked to contact the Macon Police Department
(478) 751-9134.