She was 33. A senior Delta flight attendant, newly cast in a Burt Reynolds picture, rebuilding a life. She flew from Atlanta to Florida to meet her estranged husband. No report was ever filed. No investigation was ever opened.
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After roughly two decades abroad, John Paul Sr. was deported to the United States on a federal parole violation. Read the record
The summer of 1981
Her husband asked her to meet him in Florida to repair the marriage. She agreed. She was last seen alive boarding the plane. Then everyone simply stopped asking.
Findings
01
In summer 1981 Chalice was separated from her second husband, the race driver John Paul Sr., and living in a rented house in Atlanta. He visited, asked her to meet him in Florida, and she flew down. Accounts place her final destination in the Florida Keys, and Key West specifically. She was never seen again.
02
Her husband never contacted her family. Her family, given several conflicting versions of where she was last seen, never went to the police. Because no report was ever taken, Chalice was never entered into the systems that became NCIC and NamUs — so there is no case, no case number, and no agency that considers her its responsibility. Broadcasters who wanted to cover her story have declined for exactly this reason.
03
That Chalice be formally recorded as a missing person. That her disappearance be reviewed alongside the December 2000 disappearance of Colleen Wood. And that anyone who was there — a paddock, a marina, a Delta crew room, a film set — comes forward while they still can.
Watch first
Before the record, before the chronology, before any of the rest of it — this is who she was. Her own photographs, assembled by the people who loved her.
Memorial film · official channel
Chalice Paul, Our Angel
Nothing is requested from YouTube until you press play.
The record
Born into a large, poor family in a small panhandle town on 31 August 1947 — and determined to leave it. She moved to Jacksonville, then to Georgia, and in 1965 Delta Air Lines hired her as cabin crew. She flew for fifteen years and made senior.
Working first class put her beside people who opened doors. By the summer of 1981 she had a featured part waiting on Sharky's Machine, then shooting in Atlanta. She never reported to set.
Contact sheet
Her photographs, letters and memorabilia survived because her friends refused to throw them away. Every frame here comes from that archive. Select any frame to enlarge it.
Fr. 01Portrait
Fr. 02Early yrs
Fr. 03Delta
Fr. 04Archive
Fr. 05Wedding
Fr. 06Wedding
Fr. 071980
Fr. 08Circuits
Fr. 09Circuits
Fr. 10Circuits
Fr. 11Atlanta '81
Fr. 12Atlanta '81
Fr. 13Memorabilia
Fr. 14Memorabilia
Fr. 15Memorabilia
Fr. 16Archive
Provenance Every frame above comes from Chalice's own memorabilia, saved by her closest friend and by family members for over three decades. Family photographs remain the property of the family.
Chronology
Convictions, extraditions and sentences are matters of public court record. Last-seen accounts and family recollections are marked as such.
1947
Born
31 August 1947, into a large family in a small town. She later moves to Jacksonville, then to Georgia.
1965
Career
She flies for fifteen years and reaches senior flight attendant. Around the same period she marries her first husband, Donald, becoming Chalice Barnett.
1980
26 May · marriage
They wed on the track at Lime Rock Park, Salisbury, Connecticut. Within the year they had separated, following an incident at the airport in Bermuda that ended her Delta career, and she had moved to Palm Beach.
1981
Summer · disappearance
Cast as a featured extra in Sharky's Machine and living in a rented Atlanta house, she agrees to meet her estranged husband in Florida. She is last seen alive boarding the plane. No report is filed and no investigation opens.
1982
Account
Chalice's mother dies less than a year after the disappearance. A note on a floral wreath at the casket carries both her husband's name and Chalice's. He later obtains a divorce in Haiti, where her presence was not required, and remarries.
1986
28 March · court record
Convicted over the 1983 shooting of Stephen Carson in St. Augustine, Florida, he fled while on bail and was returned to stand trial. He served 13 years of a 25-year sentence at Leavenworth. He is also a convicted marijuana smuggler from the same racing era.
2000
December · second disappearance
Colleen Wood, 53, tells her family she is leaving on a sailing trip with John Paul Sr. and is last seen in Florida. Her son later finds her phone disconnected for non-payment. She has never been found. Unlike Chalice's case, hers was investigated.
2002
Fugitive
Questioned by Fort Lauderdale homicide and denying involvement, he leaves the United States by sailboat, renaming it from Island Girl to Diamond Girl. Reported in the Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, then Europe, before settling in Phuket, Thailand.
2009
Turning point
Searching his name online, Chalice's best friend discovers Colleen Wood's disappearance and recognises the pattern. This is the origin of this site, the Facebook page in 2012, and the podcast in 2020.
2025
16 October · latest
After roughly two decades outside the country, John Paul Sr. was deported to the United States on his federal parole violation. Both women remain missing. Nobody has been charged in either case.
Named in both cases
Read this first John Paul Sr. has never been charged in connection with the disappearance of Chalice Paul or the disappearance of Colleen Wood, and has denied involvement in both. The convictions and fugitive status set out below are separate and documented. Everything relating to the two disappearances is stated as allegation, family account, or open question.
On 16 October 2025 it was announced that he had been deported to the United States on his federal parole violation, ending roughly two decades outside the country. For the first time since 2001, the man named in both disappearances is on American soil and within reach of the federal system.
That does not by itself reopen either case. It does change what is possible.
A successful sports-car driver of the late 1970s and early 1980s, racing alongside his son John Paul Jr. He is a convicted marijuana smuggler from the same period — a funding story documented in motorsport press including a 2016 Curbs magazine investigation and a 2022 Road & Track feature, "Escape of the Old Pirate."
Charged over the 1983 shooting of Stephen Carson in St. Augustine, Florida, and found guilty. He fled to Switzerland while released on bail and was extradited on 28 March 1986, then served 13 years of a 25-year sentence at Leavenworth.
Wanted for parole violation and tax evasion, he left the United States by sailboat, renaming his 55-foot schooner-rigged yacht from Island Girl to Diamond Girl. Reported sightings ran from the Caribbean to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji — where he was recognised by someone who had seen the 2002 Unsolved Mysteries broadcast — then Europe, before he settled in Phuket, Thailand.
The circa-2000 wanted-for-questioning notice described him as age 63, white male, brown or grey hair, possibly bearded.
Chalice Paul in 1981 and Colleen Wood in 2000 were both last reported seen in Florida in his company, nineteen years apart. Neither woman has been found. He has denied any involvement in either case and has never been charged in either.
Colleen was 53. She had recently met him, knew nothing of his record, and agreed to sail around the world with him. Detective Mark Shotwell of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department homicide division questioned him while Island Girl sat in dry dock at Islamorada. He left the country soon afterwards.
No broadcast and no investigation has ever formally examined the two cases together. That is the argument this site has been making since 2009.
Come forward
You do not need to be certain, and it does not need to be dramatic. A name, a date, a boat, a bar, a rumour you heard in a paddock. Small things have moved this case before.
Read by Chalice's family. Anonymous messages are welcome — you do not have to give a name. Nothing you send is published without your permission. If you would rather speak to law enforcement, say so and we will point you to the right agency.
Not an emergency service This is a private site run by a family. It is not monitored around the clock and it is not a law-enforcement agency. If someone is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
Dedication
Let my story be heard by anyone who cared, who wondered, who hoped for the best and knew the worst. Written for Chalice by the friends who never stopped looking
Editorial note Parts of this site are written in Chalice's first-person voice. She did not write them. They were written on her behalf by her closest friend and by family members who knew her, as a way of telling her story the way she might have told it herself. Where they describe other living people they reflect belief and recollection, not a finding of fact by any court or agency.
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