Harley Murphy has not seen her sister, 22-year-old Haleigh Murphy, since dropping her off at a bar for a night out in Austin, Texas, on Friday, June 16, 2023.
Haleigh is an Army veteran, a mother to a 2-year-old boy, and a beloved daughter and sister.
Haleigh’s mother, Becky Mitchell, told Dateline that when Haleigh was in the Army, one of her responsibilities was to go out to the barracks and check on the female soldiers. One of those soldiers was Vanessa Guillen, who went missing from Fort Hood on April 22, 2020. According to Becky, Haleigh was the one who originally noted that she had not seen Vanessa in a while, and when her roommate had not seen her, either, that’s when the search for Vanessa began. Months later, Vanessa’s remains were found buried in a shallow grave. Dateline covered Vanessa’s story in the episode, “Voices from Vanessa,” which aired in November of 2020.
Becky told Dateline that Haleigh was in the Army for about three years before she was medically discharged due to hip problems. According to Becky, Haleigh pivoted and had just started her first semester as a business student, while also studying for her real estate license.
“We’ve always been really close, ever since we were kids, because we’re only two years apart,” Harley told Dateline about her relationship with her older sister.
Harley told Dateline that on June 16, she dropped her sister off at an Austin bar called Slick Willie’s around 9:00 p.m. She recalls seeing Haleigh get into another car with a male friend. She hasn’t seen her sister since.
However, Harley did speak with her sister once more that night. “It was raining that night. And about an hour after I left, she had called me and was checking to see if I had gotten home safe because it was raining so bad,” Harley said. “The power at the bar she was at had went out.”
Harley said she could tell that when she spoke with her that Haleigh was at a bar by the sound in the background.
On the day she went missing, Haleigh told Becky that she was changing her phone number. “We had a conversation on the 16th, early in the morning. I had just woken up to get ready for work. It was probably about 6:30 in the morning. And she had texted me telling me she was changing her cell phone number,” Becky said. “And I texted her back and asked her why, and she said, ‘Just because too many people have my number and I just want to change it.’”
Becky said she called Haleigh after that and they talked for about 45 minutes. They discussed Haleigh’s plans for the weekend, which included potentially going to see her ex-boyfriend for his birthday.
According to Becky, Haleigh was going to stay the night with a friend after going out on June 16 and then the following morning she was supposed to pick up a rental car to drive to the ex-boyfriend’s birthday party. She never picked the car up, and she didn’t attend the party.
Haleigh was not supposed to be back until after the weekend, so her family was not initially concerned that they hadn’t heard from her for a couple of days.
By Sunday, though, Becky was getting concerned. “My mom had called me and she was like, ‘Have you heard from Haleigh?’” Harley said. “And I was like, ‘No, but I texted her yesterday.’ I just figured she’d get back to me when she can, because I know she was out of town.”
The family said they really began to worry when their texts stopped going through to Haleigh’s phone.
On Monday, June 19, 2023, Haleigh’s mother and sister tried to contact her through social media. “Me and my mom blew up her social media and was like, ‘Hey, if you don’t get in contact with us, we’re going to call the police and file the missing person.’”
When they didn’t hear back, that’s just what Becky said they did. On Tuesday, June 20, she filed a police report with the Austin Police Department. According to Becky, the case was turned over to the Texas Rangers on the evening of June 21.
The Texas Rangers told Dateline that they “began a Missing Person investigation in Austin, Travis County, Texas” on June 25, 2023. They provided information that is currently available to the public at the time and confirmed that the “investigation continues,” but would not go into further detail to protect the investigation.
Dateline also reached out to the Austin Police Department but has yet to hear back.
Becky said the family and friends have “plastered social media” with Haleigh’s photo and hung flyers all over Austin. “We went everywhere and put them everywhere, in hospitals, all kinds of stuff,” she said.
According to Becky, some people did come forward and said they were at another bar, Eddie’s Tavern Round Rock, on June 16 and saw Haleigh there playing darts. Eddie’s is about 15 miles from Slick Willie’s where Harley had dropped her sister off earlier in the evening. “They recognized my daughter’s picture from all the flyers and stuff and said that they left Eddie’s Tavern around 11:30 at night,” Becky said. Haleigh was reportedly with the same friend she’d gotten in the car with at Slick Willie’s.
Darin Wesley, a close friend of Haleigh’s, told Dateline that he found out that she was missing through social media and reached out to Becky to see if it was true. He noted that it was completely uncharacteristic of Haleigh to disappear. “She was in contact with someone that was close to her on a daily basis,” Darin said. “That really piqued my curiosity as to what was going on. And so that’s when, like I said, I reached out, and that was one of the things that I said to her mother when we spoke was: That’s completely out of character for her.”
Darin told Dateline he got to work trying to help Haleigh’s family search for her. He said he assisted in getting her case entered into the statewide missing persons database for Texas.
He said Haleigh would never be out of contact with her family and friends for this long. “We laughed and joked, and everything we did was really fun,” Darin remembered fondly of his missing friend.
“[Haleigh] is the life of the party. She likes to be seen. She’s a princess, for sure,” Becky told Dateline.
“She is a good mom. Her son was everything to her,” Becky added. “Everything was about him. Everything she ever did in her life was for him.”
The family is hoping Haleigh will come home to her 2-year-old son, who misses her dearly.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse, Haleigh is 5’0”, and 130 lbs. She has short blonde hair, hazel eyes and multiple brightly colored tattoos. She would be 23 years old today. Haleigh was last seen wearing a “light purple t-shirt, light colored jean shorts, and light purple vans.”
If you have information on Haleigh’s whereabouts, please contact the Texas Rangers at 512- 424-2160 or the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 512-424-5074.
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