42 Years After She Vanished From Concord, NH Cold Case Unit Jumpstarts Search For Shirley ‘Tippy’ McBride

CONCORD, NH — On Monday, the disappearance of Shirley Ann “Tippy” McBride, one of the most investigated missing persons cases in the capital city, turns 42.

Tippy, 15, had planned on picking up babysitting money on the evening of July 13, 1984, at a home on Washington Street in the city’s North End. She was then supposedly going to meet her boyfriend, who worked on Old Turnpike Road. And then, Tippy vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.

At the time, Tippy was living with her half-sister in an apartment on Union Street, right around the corner from her babysitting gig. She left behind clothing, money, keepsakes, and other personal items. Tippy had been known to leave and go off on her own, but she always returned. Since Tippy had run away from home before, the police presumed early on she had run away again. But when she did not immediately return, the family became concerned.

For more than four decades, police have been searching for her to no avail.

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New Evidence Search Requests

The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit is jump-starting its evidence collection effort to find Tippy.

While the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s Cold Case Unit website officially states, “Although this case has not been ruled a homicide, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance would suggest foul play was involved,” and she was declared dead many years ago, it is presumed, at this point, she is not alive, and investigators want to recover her body.

The cold case unit is requesting the public’s assistance in the following ways.

First, investigators want to speak with anyone who attended school or socialized with McBride.

Tippy attended elementary and middle school in Manchester. She moved to Pittsfield in 1983 and attended classes there for a year. While officials did not request a specific student population they wanted to speak with, based on the investigatory timeline, students from Pittsfield High School and Manchester West High School, Class of 1986 or 1987, should come forward and speak with investigators. Students in Manchester who attended the Parkside Middle School in the 1980s but may not have graduated from West should also come forward.

It is not believed she attended school in Concord; she was living with her half-sister for the summer.

Investigators are also looking to speak to anyone who lived in or around the Union Street neighborhood in July 1984.

At that time in the city’s history, Concord’s North End, a historically tight-knit Italian and Greek enclave, had become somewhat transient, with many rental units. Anyone who lived on Union Street that summer should come forward.

The cold case unit is also requesting copies of personal photos taken in the Concord area in July 1984 — particularly in and around Union Street or the surrounding downtown neighborhoods.

Officials did not elaborate on why they were looking for pictures from July 1984 of the community or how this request ties into the investigation of McBride’s disappearance.

Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles, the chief of the NH Cold Case Unit, said the team remained steadfast in their commitment to finding Tippy.

“Tippy was just 15 years old when she went missing, and her family has spent 42 years waiting for answers,” he said. “Even after four decades, this is a highly active investigation. We are asking the public to look through their archives from the summer of 1984. A background detail in a candid photograph, a vehicle parked on the street, or a familiar face captured incidentally could provide the missing piece of information we need to bring this family the resolution they deserve.”

To leave a tip, visit the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit website, linked here. Or call the tip line at 603-271-2663 or email coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.

What Happened To Tippy?

Because investigators have limited the release of information about the McBride case, most of what is available is second- or third-hand.

Those sources who have spoken to Patch about the case over the past eight years or so include family members, investigators, and others. In other words, people with knowledge of the case. Patch has also made right-to-know and public records requests for the most basic information about the case, as well as for documents previously released to the family and previously publicly released, in an attempt to fill in the blanks.

All of those requests have been rejected, disappointingly.

Since Tippy and her half-sister were hanging with a rough crowd, many of the men in the inner circle were considered suspects — including a previously convicted rapist and men believed to be involved in homicide cases. More than a dozen men were questioned during the initial investigation, although most of them were not considered serious suspects.

Her boyfriend at the time, who was 21, was considered a person of interest — to the point where Tippy’s father was tracking the man’s movements and was arrested for stalking.

The boyfriend’s friends were also questioned about the case. A few of them have since died, taking whatever they may have known with them.

While some suspect Tippy was walking to meet her boyfriend at his job on Old Turnpike Road, others believe she went to visit him at his family’s home on West Portsmouth Street off Exit 16, where they lived until the early 1990s. She could have been killed in the area or buried in the vast acreage of hog corn, nursery fields, and solar panels.

A resident in the neighborhood told Patch this week there were often people with metal detectors searching the cornfields in the spring, looking for Native American artifacts. Evidence technician vans or other police apparatus have not been seen in the area during the past few years.

After unsuccessfully reaching investigators several times about the case, Stacie Murray Coburn, a Nashua educator, led Concord police to a box of evidence stored at the Merrimack Police Department concerning Walter Davis II in 2014. Davis, who passed away in 2003, was an early suspect in the case.

In the box were clothes identified by her family as Tippy's — clothes Davis was attempting to burn after claiming he had raped a girl and thrown her in the river at the same time Tippy went missing, according to Coburn.

After years of resisting, family members submitted their DNA to see if any matches could be made to the clothes found in the Merrimack evidence box. As of two years ago, investigators have not been in touch with the family about any updates to the DNA testing.

For many years, the McBride family searched the Merrimack River for clues about Tippy.

New Hampshire State Police and New Hampshire Fish and Game have had some luck using a side-scan sonar device while searching rivers in the state. But it is unknown if they have used the equipment to search the river for McBride.

Between the rough crowd, the boyfriend, and Davis, the latest requests for information are interesting, compelling, and peculiar.

It makes sense for investigators to speak with former classmates and others in her social circle. If that had not been done in the past, it would have been a mistake.

It also makes sense to speak to residents who lived on Union Street in the summer of 1984. Did anyone recall hearing anything or seeing anything unusual just off the corner of Union and Washington streets that summer?

Viewing pictures of Union Street, the surrounding downtown neighborhoods, or the Concord area in general might yield some visual information. But this wide swath of a request is puzzling. Investigators could be casting an insanely wide net for information — almost like requesting more and more hay to sift through to find a needle. Or they might already know what they are looking for and are not 100 percent sure yet.

One thing that is known? Robin Ann McBride, Tippy’s sister, died in July 2025, not knowing what happened to her sister, who would be 57 today.

If you know anything about the case, come forward now and tell investigators.

Do you have a news tip? Email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube or Rumble channels. Patch in New Hampshire is now in 227 communities and neighborhoods — and expanding every day. Also, follow Patch on Google Discover.