Date of the Disappearance

March 5, 1963

Description of the Disappearance

In the early 1960s, on a quiet and sparsely populated stretch of farmland located about five miles south of Port Townsend, Washington, a young family lived in a way that would later become one of the area’s most enduring mysteries.

Sharon Louise Giusti, born Sharon Louise Johnson on February 15, 1943, was twenty years old at the time of her disappearance. She stood five feet five inches tall, weighed between 120 and 130 pounds, and had dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Three years earlier, she had married Raymond William Giusti, known as Ray, on February 15, 1960, on her seventeenth birthday. Their small family lived on a working farm located approximately five miles south of Port Townsend, Washington, the county seat of Jefferson County. The area was sparsely populated and deeply rural, with the farm situated in relative isolation from town and neighbors. By 1963, Sharon and Ray had two young daughters. Michelle Renee Giusti was born on March 26, 1961, and was nearly two years old at the time. Her younger sister, Clara Arleen Giusti, sometimes recorded as Clara Arlene, was born on May 4, 1962, and was just ten months old. Both little girls had striking red hair and blue eyes.

Unfortunately, the marriage Sharon’s family describes was not a happy one. Even before the events of March 1963, there were well-documented signs of serious trouble within the Giusti household. Sharon had left Raymond on multiple occasions prior to her disappearance, often seeking refuge with her parents or other relatives, including her sisters and her aunt. On at least one occasion while pregnant, she moved back to her parents’ house, citing fear of her husband. That said, she was quite close to her sisters and they later believed her vanishing without a word to any of them was extremely unusual.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 5, 1963, Sharon and her two infant daughters were last seen at the family farm. According to Raymond Giusti’s account to deputies, he had been working out in the fields for most of the afternoon. When he returned to the farmhouse that evening, he found that Sharon, both children, their family car, some items of clothing, and a sum of cash were all missing.

It appears Raymond initially assumed that Sharon had again left him, as she had done before, and he did not immediately contact law enforcement. It would not be until Saturday, March 9, 1963, that Raymond reported his wife and daughters missing to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

This four-day gap between Sharon’s last known presence and the filing of the missing persons report has been a persistent point of scrutiny. Raymond’s explanation that he suspected she had simply run off left questions unanswered for police, particularly given that two infant children were involved. When deputies spoke with Sharon’s relatives, those family members confirmed that they had neither seen nor heard from Sharon or the children since March 5.

According to family accounts, the town sheriff at the time, identified as Bob Hansen, was a personal friend of Raymond Giusti, which may have impacted the later investigation. A family member recounted that years after the disappearance, Hansen told a relative that he wished he had investigated the case more thoroughly and that “his hands were tied,” an admission that has lingered as a source of grief and frustration for Sharon’s family.

The day after Raymond filed the missing persons report, March 10, investigators made a significant discovery. The family’s car was found abandoned and unlocked beneath a highway overpass. The vehicle was located more than two miles from the Giusti farm. There was no sign of Sharon, Michelle, or Clara inside or near the vehicle. Nor were the clothes or cash Raymond had cited as missing. In fact, nothing in the car suggested it was used for a planned departure.

The car’s location raised immediate questions. If Sharon had packed clothing and money and intentionally left, why was the vehicle found so close to the farm and in an unoccupied, unlocked state? If she had left voluntarily and sought help from someone else, there would have been little reason for her to abandon the car under a bridge just two miles from the home she was supposedly fleeing. This only deepened the mystery.

Some versions of early reporting introduced an additional discrepancy: one newspaper account described Raymond as having told deputies that he saw his wife drive off in the car, a materially different account from the version in which he returned from the fields to find them simply gone. Whether this reflected a reporting error, a misquotation, or an inconsistency in Raymond’s own statements has never been publicly clarified.

Despite the suspicious circumstances, no charges were ever filed in connection with the disappearance of Sharon and her daughters. Within approximately one year of their vanishing, Raymond remarried a woman identified by family members as Bobbi Smith, Sharon’s best friend at the time. In 2018, Raymond William Giusti died by suicide at the age of 88.

Despite the passage of decades, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has not permanently closed the Giusti case. The case was formally assigned an agency case number 92-0482 and has been reviewed periodically by investigators. Jefferson County established a cold case squad composed of retired law enforcement professionals to assist with unresolved historical cases. Investigators from the squad have reviewed multiple cold cases from the county, though publicly available information about specific investigative steps taken in the Giusti case is limited.

In 2019, a family member posted publicly that cold case detectives had made contact with Sharon’s family and that there was “new life” in the investigation, but there have been no further details as to what that change was.

Authorities have stated publicly that, given the length of time without any contact from Sharon or the children, they believe the three disappeared under suspicious circumstances and are probably deceased.

Multiple Victims?

Yes