The Disappearance of Lisa Jane Borden, October 1979

Warning: this write-up mentions the use of a homophobic slur that was originally used in a purposefully derogatory way. While it is not immediately relevant to the mystery at hand, I believe it is important to include any information I am able to find on such under-reported cases.

Lisa Jane Borden was born on January 15, 1960 in Cooke, Texas to parents Jack Fred Borden and Joyce Mildred Borden (nee Hester). She grew up alongside her five siblings, one brother and four sisters. From what little I could find, it seems that Lisa was the baby of her family: her mother was 38 when she was born, and Lisa's older sister Shirley Arlene was already 18 at the time, and gave birth to her own daughter in 1961. The only other sibling of Lisa’s that I could find, her sister Jackie, was born in 1952, making her 7-8 years older than Lisa.

Lisa Borden. Photo from the Charley Project.

Lisa attended Gainesville High School during the 1975, 1976, and 1977 school years; in the 1975 yearbook that is available on Ancestry, someone circled her photo in marker and wrote "queer" with an arrow pointing to her. Lisa attended Abilene High School in 1978. In that yearbook there are mistakenly two school portraits of her, one captioned "Lesa Borden" and the other "Lisa Borden." By 1979, 19-year-old Lisa lived with her parents at their home in Big Spring, Howard County, Texas. She had at least two nieces by then through her older sisters, though as stated above, one of the nieces was only one year younger than Lisa.

Lisa was last seen by her family on Wednesday, October 10, 1979 in Big Spring. Shortly afterward, she traveled to California. Later that month, she called her family, and she was last known to be in Lodi, San Joaquin County. Lisa's boyfriend — whose name is not provided in any of the sources — sent her a plane ticket for a return flight back to Texas, but she never retrieved it. She has not been heard from again.

At some point, an unknown friend of Lisa's told the Borden family that Lisa was living in Amarillo, Potter County, TX, and working as a waitress there. The friend did not provide further information, and this account has not been confirmed.

Lisa was known to hitchhike. According to Charley Project, authorities believe Lisa may have been taken against her will. Big Spring PD is investigating her case. I could not find any newspapers mentioning Lisa in California or Texas. She is listed on both the TX Department of Public Safety's Missing Persons Clearinghouse database as well as the CA Department of Justice website. According to the former, her Case Type is Involuntary. She is classified as Endangered Missing on both Charley Project and Doe Network.

Lisa is listed as missing from Lodi, CA on Charley Project, while all other databases list her as missing from Big Spring, TX. Her picture was last updated on the TX MP Clearinghouse site on October 16, 2001. She was reported missing by her sister, though it is not stated when this was; however, it is known from the previous statement that she must have been reported missing sometime before or around Oct. 2001.

Lisa Borden. Photo from the Charley Project.

Lisa was a nineteen-year-old white female who was 5'8 and 140 lbs at the time of her disappearance, though NamUs broadly states that she was 5'8 to 5'11 and 140 to 150 lbs. She has brown hair, brown eyes, and a scar on her left hand. She has metals and screws implanted in her left hand after an injury sustained in an automobile accident. It is not known what she was wearing when she disappeared.

Lisa's fingerprints and DNA are available for comparison, while her dentals are not. She has seventeen exclusions on NamUs, including one that has since been identified as Gwenn Marie Story.

Lisa is also on the NamUs exclusion list of Corona Jane Doe 1981, though the reverse is not true. They are likely still exclusions, as, according to a personal email from Mary Bell of the Doe Network, "Unfortunately, listing NamUs exclusions is not a high priority. We get exclusions all the time that never show up on the NamUs exclusion list." This would mean that, in total, Lisa has at least 18 UID rule-outs. 

Anyone with information regarding Lisa's disappearance is urged to please call the Big Spring PD at (432) 264-2550. The agency case number is 98-C-3365. Informants may also contact the Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse at (800) 346-3243, agency case number M9808001. 

Considering the fact that the first two digits of both aforementioned agency case numbers — which usually indicate the year of reporting — are "98", it seems that Lisa may not have been reported missing until 1998, and/or that the original report was lost/destroyed at some point and then refiled in 1998.

According to NamUs, another investigating agency is the Gainesville PD, which can be contacted at (940) 668-7777 or dorr@gvps.org; a case number is not provided. Lisa's NamUs page, #MP8811, was created on December 14, 2010 and last updated August 15, 2023.

Furthermore, according to the CA DOJ's missing persons database, "If you think you know the whereabouts of any person, BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION, please contact the law enforcement agency listed in the record, or the California Department of Justice at 1-800-222-FIND (24 hour nationwide toll-free Hotline) or (916) 210-3119, or email us [CA DOJ] at missing.persons@doj.ca.gov." According to the same site, individuals seeking to contact CA DOJ regarding a missing person can use the email form here. 

Lisa's father passed away in 2010, and her mother died in 2016, both with no answers regarding Lisa's whereabouts. Lisa is not mentioned in her mother's obituary; I could not find one for her father. Two of Lisa's sisters have also passed away in the years since her disappearance, though her two other sisters, as well as her brother, are still alive with families of their own, and seem to still be looking for her, as one of the sisters was the one to report her missing.

Note: Lisa was last seen by her family two days after Columbus Day. See the Holiday & Events Reference Page for an explanation as to why this is being mentioned.

Further Sources 

NamUs

NCMEC

CA DOJ 

WebSleuths

Doe Network

Charley Project

TX Missing Persons Clearinghouse

International Missing Persons wiki 

List of CA cases, ZK Ciphers forum 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on June 20, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, hyperlink new posts, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on October 26, 2025.