The Dallas Police Department announced on Tuesday, Jan. 6 that they had solved the case of missing teenager Norman Prater, who vanished in 1973
NEED TO KNOW
- The oldest missing persons case in Texas has finally been solved, 52 years after teenager Norman Prater vanished in Rockport
- Dallas-based detective Ryan Dalby linked Prater’s disappearance to a previously unidentified victim of a hit-and-run
- This came after a new photo of the hit-and-run victim was unearthed in late 2025 by the Aransas County Medical Examiner’s Office
The oldest missing persons case in Texas has finally been solved thanks to an incredible breakthrough.
On Jan. 14, 1973, Norman Prater was reported missing to the Dallas Police Department (DPD), the authorities said in a Tuesday, Jan. 6 release on Facebook. The 16-year-old was last seen walking with his friends in East Dallas, Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
Later that year, on July 9, an “unidentified white male was killed in a hit-and-run incident” on Highway 35 in the Texan city of Rockport, in what appeared to be an unrelated incident at the time, according to the release…