Identified? Candle Face Victim #25 and #26: The Pen Pal Letters
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Time to read 4 min
A reader left a comment on the Pen Pal Letters entry. She's convinced one of the spirits who visited me was a friend of hers, a young woman murdered years ago whose case was never solved. So I went looking. Here's what I found lining up the testimony against the real record, where it matches and where it falls apart.
June 9, 2024
Main subjects:
- Victim #25
- Victim #26
Candle Face
On June 4, 2024, a commenter responded to the April 17, 2024, Candle Face Victim #25 and #26: The Pen Pal Letters journal entry. The commenter believes one of the victims described in the journal entry is her friend, Sonya Wallace, who was killed in February 1999. Here’s her comment:
A friend of mine sent me this article of yours. She said it sounded a lot like our friend Sonya Wallace. Sonya was last seen leaving a post office in Rockdale on February 19, 1999. She said she had to drop off a letter at the post office. No one knows who she was mailing a letter to. The news said her head was smashed in. Maybe this is farfetched, but if it was Sonya who visited you, please help her. Please find a way to help her escape Candle Face. If you have any questions, please email.
Could the spirit who visited me on April 17, 2024, have been Sonya Wallace? After researching her name, I found dozens of news reports about her disappearance and the discovery of her remains. Those reports go back more than two and a half decades.
According to a CBS Austin article, Sonya Wallace was a 15-year-old from Rockdale, Texas, about 60 miles east of Austin. She disappeared on February 19, 1999, while walking from the post office, and her body was found three weeks later in a creek bed in east Williamson County. At the time, she was a student at Rockdale High School and had connections in Rockdale, Taylor, Elgin, and Austin.
Read the CBS Austin article here: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/williamson-county-sheriffs-office-asking-for-help-in-1999-cold-case-sonya-wallace-rockdale-taylor-elgin-austin-disappearance-teenager-death
The spirit’s April 17, 2024, testimony describes her encounter with Candle Face. She also mentions a series of exchanges with her pen pal from San Francisco, which turn dark when the pen pal becomes obsessed with the legend of Candle Face.
The Lost Soul says her pen pal’s letters grew more frantic and full of fear. The pen pal disappears, and the Lost Soul later encounters Candle Face, leading to her death from a blow to the head with a large rock.
Here are some similarities between the spirit’s testimony and news reports about Sonya Wallace:
Disappearance and Discovery: Sonya Wallace disappeared while walking from the post office, and her body was found weeks later. The spirit’s testimony also mentions walking from the post office and disappearing afterward.
Geographic Connection: Sonya Wallace had connections in Rockdale, Taylor, Elgin, and Austin, which fits the Lost Soul’s description of moving through these areas and their connection to Candle Face, which is centered in the Austin area.
Paranormal Elements: The involvement of Candle Face in the spirit’s testimony lines up with the unexplained nature of Sonya Wallace’s disappearance and death and suggests a paranormal cause.
Cause of Death: Both Sonya Wallace and the Lost Soul were killed by blows to the head. According to news reports, Sonya Wallace’s head was bludgeoned, while the Lost Soul’s testimony describes a large rock being used to kill her.
Possible Contrasts
Pen Pal’s Location: The Lost Soul’s testimony mentions a pen pal from San Francisco, which doesn’t match Sonya Wallace’s known connections.
Age Difference: Sonya Wallace was a 15-year-old high school student at the time of her disappearance. The spirit who visited me was much older than 15, likely in her mid-twenties.
Timeline and Additional Missing Persons: The spirit’s testimony doesn’t specify a timeline for the pen pal’s disappearance. Further investigation is needed to determine whether a girl from San Francisco went missing from late January to mid-February 1999, which could provide more context.
Communication Methods: The spirit’s testimony says she and her pen pal communicated by letters. Facebook and other social media had no place in that account. This stands out because Facebook went live to the general public in September 2006, more than six years after Sonya Wallace went missing. That raises the possibility that the spirit was someone else who died in a similar way after Facebook became widely used.
Based on the similarities in background, geographic connection, and the circumstances of the disappearance, it’s possible that Sonya Wallace was the Lost Soul from Candle Face Victim #25 and #26: The Pen Pal Letters. The age difference and the communication details in the spirit’s testimony also leave open the possibility that this was someone else who died in a similar way after 2006.
Further Investigation
Further investigation into the connection between the real-life case of Sonya Wallace and the spirit’s testimony is needed. This could involve:
Investigating whether a girl from San Francisco went missing from late January to mid-February 1999. This could provide more context and possible connections.
Investigating other potential victims in Central Texas who disappeared in a similar way after 2006, when Facebook became widely used.
Arthur Mills
Arthur Mills served for more than two decades as an Army Intelligence Warrant Officer, specializing in piecing together what others missed: patterns, threats, enemy intent, and clandestine activity. He trained intelligence professionals, built threat models, and briefed commanders and world leaders on global threats and battlefield strategy. After retiring from the military, he moved into private investigation, focusing on missing persons, human trafficking, opposition research, and domestic terrorism. He holds a degree in Counter Terrorism Studies.
He has been writing books since 2006 and is an award-winning author. He publishes under his own name, though much of what he has written has appeared under pseudonyms. Readers may already know those titles without knowing they are his. The separation is intentional. His books invite readers to interpret what is hidden, and so does the way he publishes them.