Mystery woman who ended life behind North Texas truck stop identified after 26 years

An unidentified woman found dead behind a Texas truck stop has been identified more than 26 years after her death. 

The 61-year-old woman now known to be Nellie Gillespie, was found by a group of campers in a field on October 7th, 1998 behind a Pilot Travel Center in Weatherford, Texas. She was publicly identified on Monday, February 24th, 2025. 

According to Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Gillespie disappeared in August 1998 after a phone call to her son notifying him that she was driving to Arizona. Two months later, the body was found with a gun, a shell casing, a wig, and glasses nearby. The woman was not identified, but her cause of death was determined to be suicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

In 2023, investigators sent the woman’s teeth to a private lab in The Woodlands, Texas, where David Gillespie was determined to be a possible relative through DNA extracted from the teeth. David was contacted around Christmas 2023. David told officers that his mother had been missing for 26 years, and even described the wigs she often wore, and her glasses. David then took a DNA test, and confirmed that the deceased woman was his missing mother. 

“This was one of those cases that was very satisfying to be able to offer some closure to a family,” said Weatherford Police Department investigator Lt. Johnny Qualls. “Because we review cold cases that just a very small percentage of those cases are ever actually solved.”

 “My final prayer is that other families still seeking answers may also be blessed with the same closure our family is now able to realize,” David Gillespie said.