FL - Evelyn Laverne Mackey, 40, Hernando County, 1981

[Richard]

25 years ago...

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Evelyn Laverne Mackey
Missing since November 5, 1981 from Hernando County, Florida.
Classification: Endangered Missing
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: April 15, 1940
Age at Time of Disappearance: 40 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 120 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; grey eyes.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Evelyn Mackey was last seen on November 5, 1981, at her residence in central Hernando County, Florida.

Her 14 year old daughter was leaving for school as her mother was leaving with her new husband, Merl Mackey. Mr. Mackey picked the daughter up at school that afternoon, advising that her mother had left to care for a sick relative who lived out of state. The relative had no knowledge of Mrs. Mackey's alleged visit, and she has not been seen or heard from since that date.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Hernando County Sheriff's Office
352-754-6830

Agency Case Number: 82-03041
NCIC Number: M-425176238
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
Hernando County Sheriff's Office
The Doe Network: Case File 1087DFFL

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1087dffl.html

[docwho3]

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.

[Richard]

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.
That is my impression as well. His story was obviously a lie which did not check out. Who was/is this guy, and what is his history. How long had he been maried to Evelyn? Was there any motive such as an insurance policy or inheritance? Did she learn something about his past?

Not much information here, but what there is makes red flags go up.

[LisainWV]

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.
No kidding. Her body can only be located within a specified area (and I realize that is still a large area to cover), but if Mom was seen alive with stepdad as the daughter left for school, stepdad picked her up from school, there is only a certain time frame that he could have traveled to dump the body and get back.

She has rather common looks (not to be derrogatory) and listing her with gray eyes has possibly caused a problem in id'ing her if she's been found already.

[LisainWV]

I poked around in the FL unid'ed files and this one stuck out...

http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/520uffl.html

Height and weight aren't exact, but this is potentially nearly a year later.

THE THING THAT STRIKES ME ABOUT HER IS HER WEDDING RING. Evelyn was newly married and look how new and unworn the wedding ring in that photo looks!! I know most wedding rings get battered in a short amount of time because they are worn all the time.

What do you think?

[CatMama3]

Richard,

I've read a lot of your posts (long time lurker) and I'm always impressed with your knowledge of things, so I'm asking your opinion in general. Why weren't cases like this (obvious lie from SO who is usually a likely suspect) pursued more agressively in the recent past? It's not as if LE didn't have resources to investigate missing persons in the last twenty years. I know access to info would have been harder (ie, no Net, no Doe, no WS), but with some cases, it seems as if LE poked around, didn't find anything obvious, and moved on to another case.

[Richard]

Richard...Why weren't cases like this (obvious lie from SO who is usually a likely suspect) pursued more agressively in the recent past? It's not as if LE didn't have resources to investigate missing persons in the last twenty years. I know access to info would have been harder (ie, no Net, no Doe, no WS), but with some cases, it seems as if LE poked around, didn't find anything obvious, and moved on to another case.
The quality and thoroughness of any investigation depends in large part upon the people doing the investigation, their experience, available resources, and work load. It is hard to say what specific factors entered into or hampered any given investigation.

While, in this case, it seems pretty obvious that the husband either did something, or knew something, the reasons for LE not investigating more closely are not so obvious. Some of these sketchy case summaries were written many years after the fact, and often information which is included in them was NOT available at the time to the investigators. Other pieces of information which was available early in the investigation, might get left out of the summary.

Unfortunately, by the time a lead comes in, the trail is often cold, or things have changed considerably. Even if some really good information is given to police by a reliable source years after a crime, it has to be checked out and verified - and investigators run into such problems as witnesses who have moved or died, records which have been destroyed, businesses which have closed, etc. Usually, the more time that elapses, the harder it is to solve a case. Even when a case is solved, closed, and the perpetrator in jail, the case might be thrown back at new investigators because of an appeal court decision.

Police Investigators have to find specific evidence and there are very strict rules regarding how they can get it. There are a lot of cases concerning missing persons, where the police know beyond a doubt that a murder was committed and who did it - but they have to have the evidence for proof. And usually this means that they have to have a body. Without a body, an investigator might feel pretty frustrated when his gut tells him what happened and who was responsible.

All that said, I believe that many of these cold cases CAN be solved with the right insight, some police work, perseverance, and also a little luck.

[LisainWV]

This is one of those cases where I suspect the husband may be willing to talk or has enough of a record to make them look harder at him (he has probably done other bad deeds) or the daughter may be able to provide more insight. IMO, a case that is solvable.

PS What did you guys and gals think of my possible match above? I'm not real good at these matches because I'm not a people watcher. I prefer the facts and circumstances end of these cases (like the ring thing).

PPS the unid'ed was shot 4 times in the chest. did the hubby have a gun? And did it match the kind she was shot with?

What bad grammar i've used!!