MS MS - Marguerite Mayden, 60, Biloxi, 30 April 1980

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Marguarite M. Mayden, 61, Missing since April 30, 1980 from Biloxi, MS

Marguarite M. Mayden
Missing since April 30, 1980 from Biloxi, Mississippi
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: November 22, 1919
Age at Time of Disappearance: 61 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 125 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blond hair; green eyes. Fair complexion.
Dentals: Available
AKA: Peggy

Circumstances of Disappearance

Mayden was last seen at her home at 108 Hickory Hills Circle in Biloxi, Ms.
Foul play is suspected.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Biloxi Police Department
228-435-6112

Agency Case Number: 80-05039

NCIC Number: M-254181924

Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:

Mississippi Missing and Unidentified
The Doe Network: Case File 3008DFMS

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3008dfms.html
 
NAMUS: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/9486/

15821


"Peggy" was last seen at her home at 108 Hickory Hills Circle in Biloxi, Ms.
It is suspected that Peggy was killed and put into a trunk of a car. The trunk liner to that car was discovered at Holiday Inn on Hwy. 90.
Foul play is suspected

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/9486/
 
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Original

First picture is from a news article in 1968, unknown date of second photo.)

While missing persons sites all list her as Marguarite, numerous newspaper articles from throughout her life spell her name as Marguerite (or only as Peggy), and legal documents relating to the probate of her estate refer to her as Marguerite. I did find one article that referenced her mother's name as being Marguarite, with that spelling. Her maiden name was Macmurray, and her middle name at birth was Mary.

DOB: 11/22/19 (60 years old at the time of her disappearance)
Height: 63" (5'3"--NamUs has her at 53", which is almost definitely a mistake)
Weight: 120-125 lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Green
Complexion: Fair

Her missing date is listed as April 30, which was a Wednesday, and an article notes that she was reported missing on a Friday, presumably May 2. She was last seen at her home at 108 Hickory Hills Circle (later described in probate as 208 Hickory Hills Circle, currently seems to be 2441). There were signs of a struggle inside the house, and someone appeared to have tried to clean blood. Her car and dog were missing. The car was found abandoned on Friday at a Holiday Inn on Highway 90 in Biloxi--a man (no description) had been seen leaving it Thursday evening. There were bloodstains in the trunk, and police presume her body was transported in the trunk prior to being dumped elsewhere. Her dog was found the following week about 15 miles away, in a neighborhood northeast of Gulfport, MS. The dog is variously described as a bulldog or pit bulldog.

There were extensive searches by canines and helicopter, and the Back Bay was dredged near Popps Ferry Bridge. A local creek was also searched. Despite all of this, her body was never found, and no one was ever charged with her homicide. Nothing seemed to be missing from the home, and probate revealed several items of value to still be present there. There was no sign of forced entry.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
The Doe Network: Case File 3008DFMS
Marguarite Mary Mayden – The Charley Project

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Thanks to the joys of newspapers in the midcentury, coming from a prominent family, marrying a man who had a very forward-facing job, and Peggy's participation (and wins) at golf tournaments, the course of her life is fairly easy to follow through digitized archives.

Peggy was born Marguerite or Marguarite Mary Macmurray to Charles Freeman and Marguarite (or Marguerite or Marguerita,nee Horter) Macmurray, who were married in New Orleans, where her mother's family had ties, although they also had a home in Nicaragua. At the time of her marriage in October of 1940, Peggy was living with her family in the Panama Canal Zone, where her future husband, James Daniel Mayden was stationed with the Air Force. My general impression based on articles is that her family did well in business there--she's listed in her engagement announcement as having attended Oldfields School in Maryland (fellow alums are Wallis Simpson, a Jordanian princess, and a Dupont heiress, current price is $60k/year), and her brother, also a golfer, and her mother continued to do business there. During the course of the war, her husband advanced to the rank of colonel, serving first in the Caribbean, then the UK and Belgium. There's some cool stuff online about his service during WWII; I recommend seeking it out.

It's not totally clear where she was during the war; she's listed in a society page in St. Louis as attending an engagement party there in 1943 and a wedding in 1944, with a residence of Panama. Afterward, they seem to have gone from Lackland AFB in CA in 1949, to Williams AFB in AZ until 1953, when they headed to Alaska, then National War College in DC until 1955, then Hamilton AFB in CA until 1958, then Richards-Gebaur AFB in MO until 1960, then Stead AFB in NV until around 1963. I lose them a bit around then, but they were at Maxwell AFB in AL in 1966, where Peggy won a golf tournament, then were gone the next year, when an article states that she won't be there to defend her title because she's moved.

1952
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1953
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1957

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They're mentioned in 1968 in Biloxi as him being retired from Keesler AFB (Biloxi) and having built a new home off hole No. 10 at the Sunkist golf course. This home is where she was presumably murdered in 1980. She shows up, blows everyone away at golf tournaments for a few years, lies low in the mid-70s, then resurfaces later in the decade, again participating at golf tournaments. This fits in with her husband's death date (on Find a Grave) of June 18, 1976, at the age of 63. Her mother also died in 1978 and was buried in Biloxi, beside HER mother, giving a further idea that Peggy may have had ties to Biloxi. Her mother had been a widow for 30 years at this point (her father died in Panama in 1948), so they were both widowed. Her final mention that I could find prior to her death is in regards to a golf tournament in October 1979.

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The Biloxi Sun Herald does not have online archives at this point in time, so there may well be more information about the final years of her life there.
 
Another close friend, husband? ....jumped away from justice.....went on living....being a murderer...Actually I'm totally fed up with this repeating and repeating kind of cases....oh she just left..
 
The things that interest me about the case:
  • There was some effort to clean up from the struggle, including blood. Why?
  • Her body was removed and disposed of, in her own car. To me, this would involve a good degree of risk to her killer--why was this deemed necessary? DNA evidence was not a thing at this point, so destruction of that would not be a motive.
  • Did her killer have to somehow recover his own vehicle after driving away in her car? How did he get to her home? How did he get away from the Holiday Inn where the car was abandoned? Someone else must almost certainly have been involved at that stage, even if unwittingly (#someoneknowssomething). Was there no further description of the man who abandoned the car?
  • The Holiday Inn in Biloxi is currently a 16 min drive south and to the east of the house, along Highway 90. I'm not sure if this is its original location, but ads contemporary to her death at least place it along the same road. Highway 90 goes from Jacksonville to Texas, which could indicate dump sites along that route. Or he just picked an easy spot with lots of people in and out.
  • If the car was abandoned on Thursday night (what time?), was she killed on Thursday? Was she killed, loaded, disposed of, and the car was abandoned all in a matter of hours, in a continuous event? If so, her body can't be that far from home, although Alabama and Louisiana are not far away.
  • There were no signs of forced entry. Did she let her murderer into the house, or was the door left unlocked? Why would she have let someone in? Were there property crimes occurring at the time in the neighborhood, i.e. her home was entered by perps checking doors randomly? Sex crimes?
  • Did the perpetrator or perpetrators leave forensic evidence (blood, hair, etc.)? I would love to know where the struggle occurred--a bedroom would obviously point to certain times of day, or if it encompassed multiple rooms, that could imply only one perpetrator.
  • Her probate mentions several items of jewelry but does not state if they were in the house. Electronics were left, but this may have been due to panic on the part of the killer or a lack of a safe way of loading larger items into the car. As someone living alone, she may have had valuables of which others were unaware that were taken, but it would be odd for them not to be mentioned in her will.
  • Two rifles were in the home per probate. She may have not had time to access these for defense or was unfamiliar with their use. Her killer either didn't find them or did not choose to steal them.
  • She had a pit bull, which was found loose and unharmed 15 miles from the home. Almost any dog will become aggressive if its owner is violently attacked (even if this person were known to it), and this could well be a dog that could cause some damage in defending its owner. How was the dog kept away (if it was), then released, intentionally or unintentionally, after its owner was violently assaulted and loaded in a trunk? If it attacked the perpetrator, it does not seem to have been injured in the process.
  • Unless the dog was somehow immediately put out of the house (would it not bark?), I would be suspicious that some of the blood was the perpetrator's. The victim was strong and fit, and there were signs of a struggle. I can't find any information about testing of the blood (human v. animal, blood type, etc.--obviously DNA was not yet a thing). Biloxi suffered hugely in Hurricane Katrina, so loss of physical evidence is unfortunately a serious possibility.
  • The house has a smallish carport. Her killer must have brought her outside, visible to the street, and placed her into the trunk. I would imagine this to need to take place at night.
  • The house literally does overlook the golf course--currently, at least, the rear of the house is completely accessible to the course, with a golf cart road running behind, no fence separating them. While it seems clear that the murderer left from the front with the car, the house could have been initially approached from the rear.
  • The house is quite close as the crow flies to the Biloxi River--a one minute drive or a two minute walk.
 
The things that interest me about the case:
  • There was some effort to clean up from the struggle, including blood. Why?
  • Her body was removed and disposed of, in her own car. To me, this would involve a good degree of risk to her killer--why was this deemed necessary? DNA evidence was not a thing at this point, so destruction of that would not be a motive.
  • Did her killer have to somehow recover his own vehicle after driving away in her car? How did he get to her home? How did he get away from the Holiday Inn where the car was abandoned? Someone else must almost certainly have been involved at that stage, even if unwittingly (#someoneknowssomething). Was there no further description of the man who abandoned the car?
  • The Holiday Inn in Biloxi is currently a 16 min drive south and to the east of the house, along Highway 90. I'm not sure if this is its original location, but ads contemporary to her death at least place it along the same road. Highway 90 goes from Jacksonville to Texas, which could indicate dump sites along that route. Or he just picked an easy spot with lots of people in and out.
  • If the car was abandoned on Thursday night (what time?), was she killed on Thursday? Was she killed, loaded, disposed of, and the car was abandoned all in a matter of hours, in a continuous event? If so, her body can't be that far from home, although Alabama and Louisiana are not far away.
  • There were no signs of forced entry. Did she let her murderer into the house, or was the door left unlocked? Why would she have let someone in? Were there property crimes occurring at the time in the neighborhood, i.e. her home was entered by perps checking doors randomly? Sex crimes?
  • Did the perpetrator or perpetrators leave forensic evidence (blood, hair, etc.)? I would love to know where the struggle occurred--a bedroom would obviously point to certain times of day, or if it encompassed multiple rooms, that could imply only one perpetrator.
  • Her probate mentions several items of jewelry but does not state if they were in the house. Electronics were left, but this may have been due to panic on the part of the killer or a lack of a safe way of loading larger items into the car. As someone living alone, she may have had valuables of which others were unaware that were taken, but it would be odd for them not to be mentioned in her will.
  • Two rifles were in the home per probate. She may have not had time to access these for defense or was unfamiliar with their use. Her killer either didn't find them or did not choose to steal them.
  • She had a pit bull, which was found loose and unharmed 15 miles from the home. Almost any dog will become aggressive if its owner is violently attacked (even if this person were known to it), and this could well be a dog that could cause some damage in defending its owner. How was the dog kept away (if it was), then released, intentionally or unintentionally, after its owner was violently assaulted and loaded in a trunk? If it attacked the perpetrator, it does not seem to have been injured in the process.
  • Unless the dog was somehow immediately put out of the house (would it not bark?), I would be suspicious that some of the blood was the perpetrator's. The victim was strong and fit, and there were signs of a struggle. I can't find any information about testing of the blood (human v. animal, blood type, etc.--obviously DNA was not yet a thing). Biloxi suffered hugely in Hurricane Katrina, so loss of physical evidence is unfortunately a serious possibility.
  • The house has a smallish carport. Her killer must have brought her outside, visible to the street, and placed her into the trunk. I would imagine this to need to take place at night.
  • The house literally does overlook the golf course--currently, at least, the rear of the house is completely accessible to the course, with a golf cart road running behind, no fence separating them. While it seems clear that the murderer left from the front with the car, the house could have been initially approached from the rear.
  • The house is quite close as the crow flies to the Biloxi River--a one minute drive or a two minute walk.

Very good analysis....for me the dog "thing" is very much saying....
 
MMayden.jpg


Marguerite M. Mayden
Missing since April 30, 1980 from Biloxi, Mississippi
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
    • Date Of Birth: November 22, 1919
    • Age at Time of Disappearance: 61 years old
    • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 125 lbs.
    • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blond hair; green eyes. Fair complexion.
    • Dentals: Available
    • AKA: Peggy
Mayden was last seen at her home at 108 Hickory Hills Circle in Biloxi, Ms.
Foul play is suspected.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Biloxi Police Department
228-435-6112


Agency Case Number: 80-05039
NCIC Number: M-254181924

Source Information:
Mississippi Missing and Unidentified
The Doe Network: Case File 3008DFMS
 

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