WV WV - Margaret 'Margie' Dodd, 27, Beaver, 7 Sept 1977

Margret Dodd
Missing since September 7, 1977 from Beaver, West Virginia.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics


Date Of Birth: May 8, 1950
Age at Time of Disappearance: 27 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'6" - 168 cm; 141 lbs - 64 kg
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown eyes; brown hair

Circumstances of Disappearance


Margret Dodd was abducted when she stopped her vehicle at a vacant service station lot four miles from her place of employment at the Cardinal State Bank near Beckley. Witnesses claim to have heard her screaming while she was being forced into an unidentified vehicle. While there were no descriptions of the alleged kidnappers, police were initially searching for three men believed to be involved with the case.

An ex-convict, James Hendree of Akron, Ohio, claimed he had kidnapped Dodd, or was at least in contact with the kidnappers. He called Dodd's parents, also of Akron, several times, the first time being on September 22nd. At first he claimed that she was being held outside of Ohio, then he claimed she was being held in Akron. He demanded a ransom of $10,000.

Arrangements were made for the alleged kidnapper to meet with one of Dodd's relatives so that the money could be collected and Dodd's whereabouts revealed. An FBI agent, posing as Dodd's father, met with the extortionist. The trip ended in Barberton, about seven miles outside of Akron, when Hendree held a concealed object to the FBI agent's head, claiming it was a gun. He threatened to shoot if he wasn't given the ransom money. Another agent, hidden in the car, ordered Hendree to drop the weapon. When he failed to do so, the second agent fired, killing Hendree. The concealed weapon was later discovered to be a pencil.

Investigators acknowledged that there was a possibility that Hendree only posed as the kidnapper to extort the money.

Margret Dodd is originally from Akron, Ohio but was living near Beckley, West Virginia at the time of her disappearance, while she lived in West Virginia with her husband.

Some agencies list her disappearance date as September 8, 1977 and spell her name "Margaret". She has never been located.

Investigators

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

West Virginia State Police
Sgt M E Spradlin
304-647-7600

Email: wvtroopers@wvstatepolice.com

NCIC Number: M-821197769


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

Source Information:

West Virginia State Police
The Doe Network: Case File 404DFWV

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/404dfwv.html

Margret is not listed in NamUs at this time.

No archived articles for Margret.

This week will mark 33 years that Margret has been missing. Come home soon.

Bumping case up. Has anyone seen any other information on her?

Richard said:

Bumping case up. Has anyone seen any other information on her?

Click to expand...

It's not much but it does at least let people who knew her, and her family, that she hasn't been forgotten. I'm hoping this will lead to more information s to what happened to Margaret.
http://www.wvva.com/story/26511193/...ors-take-closer-look-at-decades-old-cold-case

Thank you for bumping Margret's case up. She has been missing for over 37 years now.

Here are some more links:

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/13244

http://newspaperarchive.com/us/west-virginia/beckley/beckley-post-herald/1977/10-13/

Another bump and a bit more information. The following link gives quite a good summary plus a few details I have not seen elsewhere (such as the victims approach to the car following which does suggest a party known to the victim). http://raleighcounty.crimestoppersweb.com/misc.aspx?p=1
The next link is to a discussion blog from 2014 where a poster states there were marital issues and suggests suspects are known and have influence over LE. Whether this is solid information or just gossip is unknown. http://www.topix.com/forum/city/beckley-wv/TRB38TC73OL0D6EF1

It does seem that the husband, Kent Dodd merits a closer look. His full name is Julian Kent Dodd (from Ancestry marriage record to Margaret Horan in Ohio in June 1972). He may now be living in Raleigh, NC (as a Julian Kent Dodd owns property there). Having said he is worth a look it has to be said that he does not present as an obvious suspect judging by his behaviour after the event (cooperation with police, public grieving) and his lack of any subsequent issues I can find. One oddity which did emerge was that weeks before the snatch of his wife he filed a complaint against Beckley Water Company with the Public Service Corporation of WV; http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scripts/orders/ViewDocument.cfm?CaseActivityID=2260&Source=Archives
Call me paranoid but I do wonder if there is anything here to suggest motive.

Such an odd case. Did her hubby remarry?

Margaret's body has been identified as a Jane Doe who was discovered in 1993 on Bolt Mountain. Apparently, family recognized belongings found with the skeleton and mitochondrial DNA testing just confirmed her identity.

http://www.wvva.com/story/35904384/2017/07/17/investigators-identify-remains-in-40-year-old-cold-case

RIP Margaret. :rose:

I hope there can still be justice after so many years.

Here's the link for the remains identified as Margaret: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...letal-858UFWV-27-33-near-Bolt-Mountain-Nov-93

oh wow, that's amazing she was identified after all this time. Weird they never showed the jewellery to her family before... like surely they considered it if she had been missing from the area.

This thread was first posted in Websleuths as a missing person case in 2010. Margaret's body was finally identified but her killers have yet been brought to justice:

--------------------------------

Body found on Bolt Mountain positively identified as that of woman who went missing in 1977

• By Jessica Farrish REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER
• Jul 19, 2017

For nearly two decades, she was the woman on Bolt Mountain.

Her body had lay, hidden, at an abandoned mine site on the mountain until 1993. Hunters found her skull then, leading police to her skeleton and the rest: her dirt-covered sweater and flared slacks, her high-heeled clogs and the ring that would help identify her in 2017.

Her body yielded little evidence of who she had been, but detectives were able to get a miniscule DNA sample.

Last week, Raleigh County Sheriff's Office Capt. Larry Lilly had positively learned the identity of the woman whose remains had mystified investigators since 1993.

Her name was Margaret Dodd.

Now, Lilly, along with West Virginia State Police Sgt. R.A. Daniel and retired Beckley Police Department Detective Bureau Chief Frank Pack, the original investigator of Dodd's abduction, are looking for Dodd's murderer.

“This is a big step in the case,” said Lilly. “But the biggest step is still there, to try to find who did this to Margie.”

Lilly said police have reopened the investigation into Dodd's disappearance and are determined to find the person responsible for taking her life.

“This is about Margie Dodd and trying to get her some justice,” Raleigh Sheriff Scott Van Meter said Tuesday. “A lot of people think if it's been almost 40 years, they think there's no way the police can solve this.

“That's not true,” added Van Meter, a former cold case investigator for the West Virginia State Police. “These cases can be worked, and they can be solved.”...

... Margie Dodd, 27, an Akron, Ohio, native was living with her husband, Kent Dodd, in Shady Spring in 1977. Friends and family described her as a “sweet” person who lived a low-risk lifestyle, according to police statements.

As Dodd drove home from her job at Cardinal Bank in Beckley on the warm, early evening of Sept. 7, 1977, she pulled her car from U.S. 19 in Beaver into the lot of an abandoned gas station. The reason is unclear.

Two witnesses reported that a man pulled Dodd, screaming, into a second car.

“Two state troopers were dispatched, and they were very, very close by,” Lilly reported “They arrived nearly immediately and found her car and some items on the ground.

“Margie and the other car were gone,” Lilly said.

According to data at Charley's Project, a website that tracks missing persons cases, police were initially searching for three suspects.

The young woman's abduction struck a deep chord in the community in 1977, long before social media and the 24-hour news cycle. Sgt. Daniel said he believes that witnesses from the local Baby Boomer generation will be key in locating Dodd's killer.

“I feel that some of these folks will have some type of knowledge, some of type of information and say, 'Now that I think about it, now that I'm more mature, I know I need to pass this information,'” Daniel said.

None of Dodd's family lived in the area.

Around one month after her abduction, an Ohio man, James Hendree, told Dodd's parents that he was holding her for ransom.

When an FBI agent posing as John Horan, Dodd's father, met for the ransom drop in Ohio, Hendree threatened the agent and was shot by a second agent. FBI officials reported that it was unlikely Hendree had been involved in Dodd's disappearance.

Later, Dodd was declared legally dead, based on the circumstances of her disappearance. Her parents died without ever learning what had happened to her.

“Margie was never seen again by anyone that we know of, until 1993,” Lilly noted.

Pack said that on the chance Dodd's body was found, early investigators kept a set of incomplete dental records for matching purposes –– the only forensic evidence available in 1977....

... In 1993, deer hunters on Bolt Mountain found a human skull, prompting police to search the area. Investigators found the skeletal remains of a Caucasian female, along with jewelry and clothing from the late 1970s or early 1980s era.

The unidentified body had been dumped “like garbage” at what had once been a mine, on a section of the property where miners routinely disposed of trash, according to former Raleigh Sheriff Steve Tanner, who had worked to solve the case before his retirement in December.

Police believed the suspect knew the area, but they had no way of proving the victim was a local woman.

Genetic material had degraded over the years. Police were able to obtain enough DNA for testing, but a 2004 test was inconclusive.

Investigators compared the Bolt Mountain case against cases of local missing women, including Tammy Daniel of Beckley and Susan Roop of Fayette County. Both were eventually ruled out as viable identifications....

... Lilly noticed that police had found a unique ring with the Bolt Mountain remains.

When he presented pictures of it to her surviving family members, they identified the ring as Dodd's wedding set.

Rather than wait up to 18 months to go through a government lab, Van Meter paid for testing of a small DNA sample that had been kept at a private lab from the 2004 testing cycle.

The DNA results were matched to one of Dodd's brothers last week, nearly 40 years after her abduction, Lilly said....

... Lilly urged anyone with knowledge of Dodd or her abductors to contact the Raleigh Sheriff's Department at 304-255-9300, West Virginia State Police at 304-436-2101 or Crime Stoppers at 304-255-STOP to place an anonymous tip and possibly receive a cash award. ...

Read full article at below link.

LINK:

Body found on Bolt Mountain positively identified as that of woman who went missing in 1977

Margaret "Margie" Dodd age 27, went missing 7 September 1977.
Her body was found in 1993 and identified in 2017.


LINK: