TW: mentions of suicide and disturbing content

It’s been nearly 60 years since Terry and Alan Westerfield were last seen.
It was a normal late summer day: Sept. 12, 1964. Two brothers, Terry, 11, and Alan, 7, were at home with their babysitter, Barbara Temple. Their mother, Margie Westerfield Bock, was a hair stylist who worked long hours in order to support her two young children. At the time, Margie was divorced from Thomas “Mel” Westerfield, the boys’ father and her current husband, military policeman Carl Bock, was stationed at Fort Bragg after a complicated criminal history involving robbery and/or assault.
Only a few hours after Margie left for work, unbeknownst to her, Carl showed up to her and the boys’ house, where they were alone with their babysitter. Temple, surprised at his sudden appearance, hung around for as long as she could, but was eventually dismissed by Carl between 12:30 and 1 p.m.
From there, the details begin to blur. Around the exact time that Temple reported leaving, Alan was seen riding his bike in the area by the boys’ neighbors. Some of Terry’s friends also visited the house around this time asking if Terry could come out and play; Carl replied that Terry was “being punished” and couldn’t join in.
Around 4 p.m., Carl reportedly dropped the boys off at the Broadway Movie Theater for a double feature. The boys often visited the theater for showings and the staff knew them well, making the location a safe place for the boys to be on their own.
Later, the Broadway staff would be questioned about the events of the day. None of the employees, not even Carl’s soon-to-be girlfriend, Judy Moore, reported seeing either of the boys at the theater that day.
Around 5:30 p.m., Margie returned home to find Carl at her house. Margie was furious that Carl had taken the boys without her permission and an argument erupted between the two divorcees. Eventually, Carl settled the argument by promising to go and retrieve the boys from the theater as soon as the movies were over. Margie then proceeded to go out for the evening to the NCO Club on Pope Air Force Base.
Carl returned to the Broadway at 7:45 p.m., parking his car at the street corner, where he reportedly told the boys he’d meet them after the double feature. Nearly two hours passed, and the boys were nowhere to be seen. Carl returned to the house around 9:30 p.m., empty-handed. When Margie returned home at 1 a.m., she demanded to know where her sons were. Carl repeatedly told her that they had never met him at the corner of the theater like they were supposed to. At 2 a.m., Margie reported her sons missing.
The local and state police, as well as the FBI, conducted multiple searches, crossing several states over the next few months in search of the missing boys. Every single lead turned up empty.
Still, the questions remain. What really happened Sept. 12, 1964? Why did Carl show up unannounced? And most pressingly, why did Carl insist that he dropped the boys off at the Broadway when no one there ever reported seeing them that night?
The story of Terry and Alan Westerfield is a chilling one, marking North Carolina’s oldest and most mysterious cold case. Almost everyone who knew the boys in any significant manner is no longer alive, including the initial investigators on the case and the boys’ father Mel, who committed suicide in 1978 over his children still not being found. Margie would divorce Carl Bock during the investigation into Terry and Alan’s disappearance, and while he has always seemed to be the most obvious and logical subject in the case, not a single scrap of evidence has ever been discovered to incriminate him. In fact, no bodies or remains have ever been found to confirm the boys dead, nor has there been any evidence that has been confirmed to be linked to the case over the last six decades.
The case was reopened several times over the years, including in 2000 and 2012, when Carl Bock was questioned again. In both interviews, he referred to Terry and Alan as “them boys,” refusing to call them by name. In the 2012 interview, Carl gave the single most incriminating piece of evidence the police have in the form of a quote: “You know, I was the last one to see them alive.”
But a quote is not enough to arrest, let alone convict anyone. Carl Bock died only four years after giving the quote, and was buried with full military honors.
To this day, the Fayetteville police still have the file of Terry and Alan Westerfield: the boys who disappeared without a trace.