One in a series on unsolved cases in Ruston and Lincoln Parish.
by Wesley Harris
Case No. 4
Joseph Benjamin “Joe Ben” Beaird
Type of Case: Missing Person
Date: November 1966
Status: Remains missing
“Without a Trace” was a television drama that aired from 2002 to 2009 featuring a missing persons squad that used psychological profiling to find people who had vanished.
In each episode the team reconstructed the 24 hours before a disappearance to determine if the person was abducted, murdered, committed suicide, or ran away. So sophisticated was the portrayal that many agencies today lacked the resources the “Without a Trace” team used in its investigations.
In November 1966, Joseph Benjamen Beaird, “Joe Ben” to his friends, disappeared from Ruston without a trace.
In 1966, the Ruston Police Department had no detectives. Times were much different then. No task forces, no special teams, no sophisticated equipment. Nothing like the early 2000s TV show. Except for the chief, every Ruston officer was in uniform working in a patrol car, so investigations were handed off from one shift to the next. Somewhere along the way, cases were built or faded away.
Fortunately, Ruston experienced little crime in those days. A business break-in was a big deal. Murders, rapes, and armed robberies were rare, so a prolonged, in-depth investigation was rarely necessary.
Ruston officers relied on 2-way radios in their patrol cars. No walkie-talkie, pager, or cell phone. Step out of your patrol car, and you lost the lifeline to call for help. No computer to run rap sheets or check a driver’s license.
The department did have a “phone tree” to help when something big happened. When a suspect vehicle description was available right after a crime, selected civilians east and west of town on U. S. 80 and north and south on U. S. 167 were called to watch for the vehicle. Hardly like the license plate cameras police rely on today, but it was better than nothing.
The one local news article on Beaird’s (pronounced Beard) disappearance got his name wrong, calling the 19-year-old “John Ben” instead of Joe or Joseph. The account of Thursday, November 17, 1966 said Joe Ben had been reported missing by his parents, local pharmacist James L. “Roy” and Margaret Beaird.
The Beairds operated Beaird’s Pharmacy at the corner of North Trenton Street and Mississippi, the same shop later occupied for decades by pharmacist Phil Waltz.
According to his parents, Joe Ben left home Saturday night, November 12 to attend a late movie at the Dixie Theatre. He was last seen that night about 11:30 p.m. near the theatre on Vienna Street.
Friends expected him at the movie, but he never met up with them. Those friends say Joe Ben had a black 1964 ½ Ford Mustang—the “1/2” designating the car as one of the first produced for the 1965 model year but actually assembled in 1964. But that night, young Beaird was driving the family car, a blue-green 1964 Dodge Dart, Louisiana license 105F224.
Apparently, the Mustang, which would be a highly desirable collectors’ item today, was no longer available. The week before his disappearance, Joe Ben had discussed buying a used car with a local dealer and had said he would return the next week to seal the deal.
Roy Beaird said Joe Ben likely possessed less than five dollars in cash and did not take his coat or any other items. The teen gave no indication of any plans to leave.
Joseph Benjamin Beaird was a Ruston High School graduate and had attended Louisiana Tech but was not enrolled in college at the time of his disappearance. He had started a new job at the Louisiana Ordnance Plant, later called the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, on November 7. But after completing his first week on November 11, he did not return the following week. His plant ID badge was found in the Beaird home.
Days passed. A Monroe newspaper ran an account of the disappearance on November 18, saying Joe Ben was seen near the Dixie about 9:00 p.m. “An all-points bulletin has been issued on the missing youth,” the article said.
Presumably, the all-points bulletin, or “APB,” went out to other Louisiana law enforcement agencies from the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office through a network via use of a “teletype.” A message could be typed out on the device located at the courthouse and sent to a single police department, an entire state, or the nation. The sheriff’s office was the only agency with a connection to the network. Ruston Police was not approved to link up to the telecommunications network until the early 1980s.
Verifying what actions were taken in the investigation are impossible now, over 59 years later. When the police department moved from the old city hall on Mississippi Avenue to the new city hall/civic center complex on North Trenton in the early seventies, all police reports were lost or discarded.
And, obviously, every officer who worked for RPD in 1966 has retired and all are believed to be deceased. The entire current force had yet to be born in 1966.
When the Lincoln Parish Journal ran its last cold case on February 18, 2026, many contacted us, asking what about Joe Ben Beaird? He is still remembered and old friends still wonder what happened to him and that 1964 Dodge Dart.
Many of Joe Ben’s friends remain in Ruston. He was adopted by the Beaird in Texas before they moved to Ruston. He was an active Boy Scout and attended Ruston Elementary. He was quoted in the Ruston Daily Leader in 1958 expressing his love for reading. “Reading relaxes you and is interesting,” the fifth grader wrote. “Books tell you what you never knew before. Books are good, won’t you try reading!”
A victim of polio, according to friends, Joe Ben was small for his age. He used crutches in elementary school but eventually was able to walk with braces. Later, he wore specially-made shoes that permitted him to walk without the braces. By high school, friends barely noticed a limp.
Joe Ben was active at Ruston High, working on the Chatterbox, the school newspaper, appearing in a play, and participating in Science Club and the 4-H Club. He played an instrument in the Bearcat band. He apparently shied away from sports with his physical issues, unlike his younger brother Donald who excelled in local Dixie Youth baseball.
The Beairds faithfully attended Temple Baptist Church, but friends there don’t recall seeing Joe Ben at church after he graduated high school. One friend said Joe Ben was dating a girl at the time he vanished and the couple had been hanging around with others he did not meet at church, hinting they were not the best of local society.
Margaret Beaird died in May 1968 just 17 months after Joe Ben’s disappearance. Roy Beaird died in 1972. Both parents died at relatively young ages, Margaret at 53 and Roy at 63. Donald died in a car crash in 1982.
If Joe Ben is alive, he is 78 years old.
All law enforcement agencies, including Ruston Police, now have numerous resources for searching for missing persons that did not exist in 1966. Capabilities like national databases, Silver Alert protocols, inter-agency information-sharing options, detective training, and technological and scientific resources give investigators tools unavailable when Beaird disappeared.
Often in missing persons cases, some hint or clue arises days, months, or years later. But almost six decades later, no one who still misses Joe Ben Beaird has any idea what happened to him.
