MD MD - Nancy Snow, 44, Annapolis, 6 Nov 1980

This case is an intriguing one. Nancy Snow disappeared and the only information that police have comes from an individual named Collins, who was supposedly "house sitting" for Nancy, and even cashing her checks (forging her name to them) for months after her disappearance.

It even includes a "sea story" (told by Collins) about her meeting a mysterious "Captain J" and dropping everything to sail the Carribean with him in the winter.
I would love to see the exact transcript of his sea story to see if it begins with the obligatory preface; "This is no sh....."

This is one of those cases with a suspect, but no body. If authorities are looking into it seriously, perhaps there could be an inditment without a body. It has been done in Maryland before. Haden Clark was convicted of the murder of little Michelle Dorr, even though prosecutors had no body as evidence.
 
Richard said:
This case is an intriguing one. Nancy Snow disappeared and the only information that police have comes from an individual named Collins, who was supposedly "house sitting" for Nancy, and even cashing her checks (forging her name to them) for months after her disappearance.
I haven't clicked on the articles yet, but right off the bat it sounds like the Camilla Lyman case.
 
wow, she looks like an older paris hilton with short hair. They have the same lips, nose, and eyes. Weird. Yeah, and it's obvious the housesitter did it. Can't they indict him without having a body? I know from watching court TV they're done it before...
 
jodierenee said:
...Can't they indict him without having a body? I know from watching court TV they're done it before...
Inditments without a body are very rare. They can be done, however, if there is sufficient evidence to convince a grand jury that there is a case. In a Maryland case, Hadden Clark (who had already been convicted of a murder) was indited for the murder of Little Michelle Dorr, based on evidence that placed him at the scene, and with trace blood evidence found in the house where he was staying. He was convicted of murder, and then led investigators to her grave.

In this case of Nancy Snow, you have an individual who claims knowledge of her disappearance, yet the story does not check out. You also find that her disappearance enriched him to an extent - he lived at her home, stole cash from her bank accounts, etc. At a minimum, he should have been indited for theft and forgery - then pressured for more information. If he had a vehicle or boat, search warrents should have been issued for police to search them for trace evidence of Nancy's presence.
 
Nancy Marleine Snow
Missing since November 6, 1980 from Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: July 13, 1936
Age at Time of Disappearance: 44 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'6"; 120 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blue eyes; short, graying dark brown hair.
Marks, Scars: She had broken her leg in several places in a ski accident a couple years before her disappearance. The family believes it was the right leg. Snow was born with the two toes next to her big toes deformed. She also was double jointed in both elbows. She had had three children and a hysterectomy.
Jewelry: Snow always wore a Fega (a Brazilian protection/good luck charm shaped as a wrist with a hand in a fist with the thumb between the first and second knuckles) on a long thin gold chain. The Fega was a white stone with a gold band. Snow also always wore the bracelet pictured at the link below.
Dentals: Charts & X-rays are available. Gap in front teeth. Almost all molars missing except lower right 3rd which had a silver filling. Extensive silver and white fillings.
DNA: available

Circumstances of Disappearance

Nancy Snow disappeared after allegedly returning to Annapolis, Maryland on or about November 6, 1980.

She had flown from St. Louis, Missouri, where she had been temporally sent by her employers at the Republican National Committee during the Reagan/Bush Campaign, where she was a fund raiser for the campaign to elect McNary for Senator. The evening of November 5th 1980 she flew to Baltimore Maryland, to attend a private party.

She allegedly spent the night there in a motel after the party and had breakfast with the man whose party she had attended. The man had dated Snow during the campaign. After breakfast Snow waited with the man in his car until her temporary housesitter picked her up. He arrived driving a car, which one witness remembers to have been a type other than Snow's Turquoise V.W. convertible. The party host claimed that Nancy got out of his car, said good bye and got into the car driven by the housesitter. In a letter to Nancy's daughter the party host claimed that Nancy told him she and the housesitter were to drive to Connecticut the next day.

The family could make no sense of this Connecticut detour, because they had been told by Nancy by phone the night before and by letters and post cards that she was exhausted after being on the campaign trail for 2 months and could not wait to get back to her Annapolis apartment and relax and catch up. That was the last time she was ever seen alive. She was never seen or heard from again by her family.

The housesitter claims he drove Snow home to Annapolis from the Baltimore hotel and that evening she went out to a local Irish bar called McGarvey's for a drink. He clamed that Nancy came home and said she met a boat captain named "Captain Jay" or "Captain J" who told her he was driving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida that night to pick up a yacht and then deliver it to either the Bahamas or U.S. Virgin Islands. She was going to go with him and crew the boat and be back by Christmas the housesitter claimed.

The housesitter claims she packed a few things and allegedly told him to use her check book to pay the bills while she was gone. He further claims he walked her to a certain street where Captain J picked her up, but he got no contact information from the Captain, did not inquire after the name of the boat, and does not remember the car he was driving, the license plate number, or even what the Captain looked like. He further claims Nancy left no note or letter for her daughters to tell them where she was going and with whom, the name of the boat or when she would return and no contact information.
Snow's family finds this unlikely, as Nancy Snow was a devoted mother to her three young daughters and would never have left town in such haste with a stranger and especially would not have left her belongings and checkbook in the hands of a relative stranger. She called her daughters every day before her disappearance and would never have left town without calling her family to inform them of such a huge decision. She asked all her daughters day's before her disappearance to send her letters so she could read them when she arrived in Annapolis in a few days.

In the 6 months after Snow's disappearance the roommate wrote checks to himself and for bills on Snow's check book (forging her signature) totalling apx. of $10,000. He also continued to drive her V.W., which he told the family was in storage, sold and gave away her belongings and all of her files and papers disappeared.

After questioning by Annapolis Police, in October 1981, The housesitter left the country for the Bahamas in December 1981, before he could be questioned by a Grand Jury.

Snow's disappearance remains unsolved.

There has been no social security activity on her name since her disappearance and she never used her credit cards or attempted to withdraw money from her bank account after her disappearance, even though she had just inherited a sum of money a few moths before.

Investigators

If you have any information concerning this case no matter how seemingly insignifigant, please contact:
Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office
Chief Investigator David Cordle
410-222-1740 Ex. 3863
Or
Detective William Johns 410-222-1740 x3844
You may remain anonymous when submitting information

NCIC Number: M-827828917
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source:
The Doe Network: Case File 1157DFMD

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1157dfmd.html
 
I mean, you don't have to have a degree in forsenics or criminology to know that the housesitter is either 100% responsible for Nancy being missing/dead or at the very least he is implicated in some way.

This should be a very easy case to solve...all the answers lie with Collins, the last to see her alive (verified), her roommate and the only one who knew about her 'plans' to go on the yacht etc., which he told the family and police.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/07/AR2005050700934.html

This whole story smells.
 
actually, I wonder about this. Yes I agree it is highly likely that the houseman probably did something to her... But this whole story reminds me of a woman who went missing and was shown on unsolved mysteries...

There was a story of a woman who went to a bar and met a man. She told her family he owned a boat, and they were going somewhere, (I actually am fairly certain it was supposed to be Florida), and than called them from Florida and told her family she would go on with them because she was having a good time. I think she also said she would be helping man the boat.

Than if memory serves correctly, she never surfaces. The family gets worried and calls police to file a missing person's report. The boat is found eventually when it comes back to Florida. And they found out something about the boat was being used to smuggle things.

They think she found out about the smuggling and fought with the owner of the boat, and was killed. Probably thrown overboard.

I want to find the story from UM. Cause this sounds eerily similar to the story I remember.
 
Okay I was wrong on quite a few details but I still think it may be worth a look. The other woman went missing in 1980, this woman went missing in 1989.


Lisa Bishop
A freighter disappears with nine people on board after leaving Miami for Haiti.


Lisa Bishop
Missing:

Gender:Female
Height: 5’2”
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown



Florian Bourch befriended Lisa


Missing:

Gender: Male
Height: 6’2”
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde



The Freedon never made it to Haiti

A witness claimed he saw the missing ship


CASE DETAILS



An actual photo of the Freedon
In January, 1989, Falcon jets from the United States Coast Guard searched the Old Bahama Channel in the Caribbean for an 82-foot freighter called the Freedon. The ship was on its way to Haiti but had been reported missing. On board were seven Haitian crewmembers, a young sea captain, and a 23-year old American journalism student named Lisa Bishop. Lisa's mother, Linda Bishop, said that Lisa had called her to say goodbye on the morning of her departure:

"I could feel something was wrong. Mother's intuition, I guess you could call it. Lisa was to call me when she arrived. And that call never came."

Lisa wanted to write an article about the contrasts between the wealth of America and the economic devastation of Haiti. Her voyage on the Freedon was the chance of a lifetime, even though it meant leaving behind her boyfriend of three years, Paul Cornwell:

"We had a long discussion the night before she left, that she had to make her own decisions in life, that I couldn't follow her and take care of her wherever she went."


The Freedon was supposed to dock at Haiti
Somewhere between Miami and Haiti, the Freedon simply vanished. No one has any idea what happened or why. People have suggested everything from pirates, to smugglers, and even the mysterious Bermuda Triangle.

Lisa's voyage began when she met a 28-year old German national named Florian Meyer Bourch at a nightclub owned by her boyfriend. Florian was a marine mechanic and sea captain who had sailed throughout the Caribbean. According to Linda Bishop:

"From what I've learned about him, Florian is a drifter, and he sponges off of people. Freeloads."

A year after their first meeting, Florian told Lisa of an upcoming voyage from Miami to Haiti. He invited her to join him. Paul was upset when Lisa told him that she planned to sail to Haiti with Florian:

"I didn't trust him with Lisa. Of course, I was concerned about Florian, you know, being a young guy. And she tried to tell me there was nothing to worry about, there was nothing romantic. I tried to discourage her as her parents tried to discourage her from going."

Lisa's father, Bill Bishop, said there was no talking Lisa out of it:

"I expressed my feelings about it, that I didn't want her to go or anything, and Lisa was a very headstrong girl when she made up her mind to do something."

On the morning of December 17 th , 1988, at 2:30 in the afternoon, tugboats eased the Freedon through the Miami River on its way out to sea. The Freedon's planned route would take the ship 600 miles past the coast of Cuba to Gonaives, a small port on the western coast of Haiti. There were no storms and no distress calls, but the Freedon never arrived. When Lisa didn't call on Christmas Day, her family became concerned. Lt. Cdr. Jeff Karonis was with the U.S. Coast Guard:

"The relatives of the people on board kept calling us, asking us for information. We kept in touch with the port authorities in the various ports in the Caribbean area, and likewise, down in Haiti. We sent several search and rescue flights in the most commonly traveled areas in the Old Bahama Channel, which is the area between the United States and Haiti. Still, it was unsuccessful."

Linda Bishop and her husband traveled to Miami:

"We came to Miami hoping to maybe get some answers from some of Florian's friends or just find anything we could. We were desperate."

Finally, Lisa's parents received a promising lead. An underwater salvager named Bob Nyberg said that he had seen the ship two weeks after it was supposed to have disappeared:

"I remembered that while I was working in Grand Cayman in January of that year, there'd been a boat that came in. We were working underwater, directly in the harbor area where the ships pulled up and tied up. When I heard the ship coming in, we came up, and as I was coming out of the water, we looked back and noticed that the name was Freedon. F-R-E-E-D-O-N. And I made a statement to my friend, that those guys need their freedom, they can't even spell the word. They were there for some time that afternoon. The next morning the boat was gone."

Nyberg saw the Freedon in Georgetown Harbor on Grand Cayman Island, over 500 miles from Haiti. It was the kind of news Linda Bishop had been hoping for:

"The fact that the ship was spotted, and that it had not gone down, brought me hope that Lisa was alive and had to be held against her will in order for her not to contact us."

Lisa's boyfriend, Paul Cornwell, and Bob Nyberg went to Grand Cayman to pursue the lead. They met a number of witnesses who claimed to have seen Florian around the same time that Nyberg spotted the Freedon. Apparently, Florian was not alone during his mysterious visit to Grand Cayman. Some saw him with a short man with black hair.

Paul returned to Atlanta and questioned a woman who had been storing Florian's personal belongings. There he found a picture of the man seen with Florian in Grand Cayman. The woman said his name was Phillipe. Paul later found out that it was actually Phillipe who had chartered the Freedon.

"The girl told me that he mentioned that he was involved in a large scale smuggling thing, and that something had gone wrong, and that they had gotten involved in something too deep that Lisa didn't know about and couldn't handle it. I feel that if Florian is out there, eventually, I'll find out about it, and I'll locate him."

Authorities believe that Florian Meyer Bourch is the key to the Freedon's disappearance.
 
Wow, the Lisa Bishop story is interesting! You should def. start a thread on that in here, if there isn't one already.

I feel like for both women, the boating/yachting community is quite small, in the sense that when mysteries come up like these, there always seems to be some real tangible clues at the docks and ports that these ships travel to. It would be interesting to note in both cases if police have gone down to the Caribbean island communities to search/interview people, as this was the most likely destination for Lisa and Nancy.
 
Bumping this up...

As far as Nancy heading off to Florida, I think it is a red herring. The only evidence of it happening was from the roommate/house sitter who had every reason to lie to the family in order to maintain his control over Nancy's checkbook and possessions. Did Nancy have any known skills for crewing a yacht?

The friend who hosted the party in Baltimore I'm less sure about... His own version of Nancy's plan that contradict what she told her family makes him look suspicious, but as described in Richard's post, I can't imagine what connection he could have with the house sitter.
 
Bumping this up...

As far as Nancy heading off to Florida, I think it is a red herring. The only evidence of it happening was from the roommate/house sitter who had every reason to lie to the family in order to maintain his control over Nancy's checkbook and possessions. Did Nancy have any known skills for crewing a yacht?

The friend who hosted the party in Baltimore I'm less sure about... His own version of Nancy's plan that contradict what she told her family makes him look suspicious, but as described in Richard's post, I can't imagine what connection he could have with the house sitter.

Thanks for bumping this up..this case has always bothered me. I've always thought it was a no-brainer, and the housesitter was responsible for her diappearance. But it's so odd that the party host would tell the family of an alternate plan. Maybe the party host and housesitter were in cahoots together?? I don't know..but Nancy's disappearance is certainly baffling.
 
Thanks for bumping this up..this case has always bothered me. I've always thought it was a no-brainer, and the housesitter was responsible for her diappearance. But it's so odd that the party host would tell the family of an alternate plan. Maybe the party host and housesitter were in cahoots together?? I don't know..but Nancy's disappearance is certainly baffling.
The party host guy and Nancy had been dating. Maybe he was stalking her and the house sitter was a plant. "We get rid of her because she left me and you keep her checkbook and car..."

That sounds too conspiratorial to me, but that's the only connection I can imagine between the two.

I would really like to know if the police investigated the two men and any kind of connection between them.
 
There is an article in the Annapolis newspaper about this case today. www.hometownannapolis.com. Police believe a boat named the Cotton Blossom may be involved.
Interesting story. And they didn't stick 'the' in front of the name of the boat either. Good for them.

As far as its relevance...
1. They gave this guy Collins immunity thirty years later. Okay. What does he have to say? That she was looking for work on a boat at some local shipyard. That's not much different from what he first told the authorities about Captain Jay thirty years ago. Either he's still covering for someone or he didn't know jack in the first place.

2. The family finding the name of a boat she might have found work on is more helpful, but at the same time, I would have anticipated the same problems police say they're running into. Thirty years is a long time to be looking for one small boat... I wish them good luck.

I'd still like to know what the police think about that friend from the party...
 
has anyone looked into Nancy Snow being 540ufny on doe network???? It's skull only and could date as far back as 1980 when she disappeared. The face shape, the cheekbones and position of other features resemble her. Any comments? Gracias.....
 
has anyone looked into Nancy Snow being 540ufny on doe network???? It's skull only and could date as far back as 1980 when she disappeared. The face shape, the cheekbones and position of other features resemble her. Any comments? Gracias.....

I don't think Nancy was on the ruleout list yet when you posted this but she was submitted and is now ruled out.
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9803
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...UFNY)-25-55-Found-on-Platte-Clove-Road-Aug-02

Bumping for 34 years.
 
Could she have been stored somewhere after her death and then disposed OR possibly died later?
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/6642
This UID was found 08/07/1986 by a trash hauler. It is just a torso and left leg, no head, arms or right leg. Some of limbs that were missing on these remains could have led to her identification-her facial features, the injuries to her right leg. They both had hysterectomies. The age estimate is off as well but I thought I would throw this out there since it's been forever since anyone posted on her thread.
 
It is important to note that Snow was the non-custodial parent. This isn't terribly unusual, as there are a number of reasons a mother may not want primary custody - I imagine for Snow, it was because of her demanding career. It certainly seemed as though she was a devoted mother.

This article is a bit old, from 2012, but still contains some interesting tidbits:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/annapolis-woman-missing-for-nearly-32-years/article/2506930

She moved to Annapolis after her divorce. She had been a talkshow host in California, where I assume she and her family lived until the divorce occurred. Article mentions that her ex-husband and three daughters stayed behind in CA. I guess she gave up the talkshow career to go into politics... still, Maryland seems awfully far away from her kids in CA, and though she kept in constant contact with her daughters, I don't imagine they got to visit their mother too often, living literally in the opposite end of the country. I know this Collins guy fabricated the whole story and is responsible, but my big question is - was there acrimony between Snow and her ex-husband? I hate to think of multiple people being involved in making this apparently wonderful person disappear. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if Collins was not acting alone or if he had someone behind him, telling him what to do and say. I wouldn't be surprised if the motive for making her "disappear" was not just financial, but also romantic in nature - either the party host who dated her during the campaign, or her jealous/vengeful ex-husband. Not sure if she received alimony or if she was trying to get primary custody of the girls. And, we don't know why the marriage ended. She was an attractive woman, and with her career status, perhaps the marriage fell apart due to insecurity issues or cheating... just speculation. They have got to lift the immunity on the Collins guy and follow up on this case, interviewing all witnesses again, so that the daughters can finally get some closure after 35 years...
 

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