Elderly couple posed closely together, the woman gently holding the man's face as both look upward against a plain lavender background.

Identified? Candle Face Victims 40 & 41: Rancher and His Wife

Written by: Arthur Mills

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Published on

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Time to read 5 min

About a month ago, a couple came to me, ranchers who'd lived east of Austin until Candle Face's voices tore their family apart. Their account carried enough hard detail that I found a real unsolved Texas case that matches it closely. I'm not naming them, out of respect for any family still searching for answers. Here's how the two stories line up, and where they don't.

November 7, 2024


A little over a month ago, I shared a journal entry about a visit from two Lost Souls, a couple who appeared in my living room one night when I couldn’t sleep. The man was hesitant at first, but they eventually shared their story. They described how they once lived peacefully on a ranch east of Austin, Texas, until their lives fell apart when the woman began hearing tormenting voices from Candle Face after losing faith in her. The voices wore her down until her husband, in a desperate attempt to end her suffering, took her life with a gun. Their story grew even darker when the husband himself was shot by their son, who acted out of anger and misunderstanding, convinced that his father was abandoning him. The couple’s remains were buried together, and the case was lost to time, while Candle Face kept their spirits in her Lair and continued their torment.


This couple’s story didn’t read like a simple recounting of suffering. It included specific details that worked like clues. I had to dig deeper and see whether historical records supported it.


So I started researching. The couple had mentioned a ranch east of Austin, the man’s Mexican heritage, and a death involving a firearm. To start, I used Google and tried search terms like “elderly couple disappearance Texas ranch,” “missing couple gun ranch Austin,” and “Texas couple killed.” At first, I kept hitting dead ends and unrelated cases. Then something caught my eye. An article described an unsolved case from 1976 about an elderly couple who vanished from their ranch under circumstances very similar to what the Lost Souls had told me.


Comparing the Two Stories


The Lost Souls


During our encounter, the elderly man said he ended his wife’s life to free her from the torment Candle Face had inflicted on her. He described the steps he took to cover it up: the bathroom door had a bullet hole he couldn’t repair, so he took it off its hinges and hid it in the barn under a pile of hay. He said he was then shot by their son, who believed, in a fit of rage, that his father was abandoning him. The son buried their bodies together in South Texas.


The Article


The article described an unsolved case involving an elderly couple who disappeared from their rural ranch east of Austin in 1976. The article noted that the husband had come to Texas from Mexico decades earlier. Investigators found signs of violence: a bullet hole in a window, bloodstains, and a missing bedroom door that was later discovered hidden in a barn on the property. Authorities considered different motives, from family conflict to outside involvement, but the couple’s bodies were never found, leaving the case unsolved.


Key Similarities


  1. Location and Background: Both the couple who visited me and the couple in the article lived on a ranch east of Austin. In both accounts, the husband had roots in Mexico.
  2. Unusual Circumstances of Death: Both stories involve a missing door and evidence of gunshots. The man who visited me mentioned hiding a door with a bullet hole in the barn, while the article noted that investigators found a hidden door in the barn during their search.
  3. Family Conflict: The article’s investigators suspected family conflict. In the couple’s account, that conflict has a face: their son, acting in anger.

One more detail comes only from the Lost Souls. The woman was pushed to her breaking point by cruel, relentless voices, which may have been Candle Face’s way of breaking her down and forcing her husband into a mercy killing. No investigator could have known that. It doesn’t belong in a comparison, because there’s nothing in the record to compare it to. I include it because it’s the reason everything else happened.


Key Differences


  1. Confession vs. Theories: The couple gave me a direct confession, filling in details that investigators could only guess at. The article is built from fragments and speculation, and it leaves much of the story unclear.
  2. Conflicting Details: The two accounts disagree on some of the physical details. The man told me the bathroom door carried the bullet hole and that he hid it in the barn under hay. The article says the missing door came from the bedroom and that the bullet hole was in a window. Still, a damaged door hidden in a barn sits near the center of both accounts.

I can’t treat those differences as evidence that the identification is correct. If anything, they are reasons to be cautious. But I don’t think they automatically rule it out either. Decades may have blurred the man’s memory, and my experiences with remote viewing have shown me that details can sometimes arrive distorted or reversed. For that reason, I treat these inconsistencies as unresolved, not as confirmation. The identification still has to stand on the details that independently match.


Despite the similarities, I could still be wrong. The parallels between the Lost Souls’ story and the historical case are strong, but it’s possible that I’m misreading their messages or that Candle Face’s manipulations have distorted the details. For that reason, I can’t say for certain that the couple who visited me and the individuals in the article are one and the same.


Out of respect for any surviving family members who may still be searching for answers, I won’t reveal their names here. But you can do your own research. My goal is to honor the spirits who reach out to me and share their stories in a way that respects their pain without causing more harm.


Whether these two stories are truly connected or not, these souls are still asking to be known. And as Candle Face continues to kill, I’ll continue to listen, to give them a voice, and to push back.

 
Cartoon portrait of Arthur Mills with gray hair, wearing a tan polo shirt.

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.