It was a chilly November night in 1992 when truck driver Dale Hoffman filled his rig at a Texaco off Route 287, waved goodbye to a fellow driver, and disappeared into the Texas dark. No crash. No wreck. No trace. For months, his wife Linda waited by the phone, clinging to hope. When the insurance company declared him missing, locals whispered he’d run off with another woman. His daughter Emma, just eight years old, grew up believing her father had chosen to leave — until two decades later, when a drained quarry revealed a secret buried deep beneath the surface.
In October 2012, a construction team draining Garrison Quarry stumbled upon the rusted shell of a 1987 Peterbilt. Its VIN number matched Dale’s missing truck. Inside sat a skeleton, still strapped in the driver’s seat, alongside his wallet and ID. For Sheriff Tom Garrett, it was the break the case had waited twenty years for. For Linda and Emma, it was the end of a lie — and the beginning of another mystery. The medical examiner confirmed Dale hadn’t driven into the water by accident. He’d been shot once in the back of the head before the truck went under. Someone had made sure he’d never come home.
Investigators uncovered two Texaco receipts linking Carl Briggs to the night Dale vanished. Pressured by mobster Tony Castellano over gambling debts, Carl betrayed his partner. Years later, a cassette from Dale’s truck revealed the truth—a gunshot, Carl’s panic, and his confession that exposed Castellano’s crimes and cleared Dale’s name forever.
