PA PA - Tracy King, 14, Littlestown, 8 July 1975

Lilachaze said:

Does anyone know the length of time between her leaving the home and being reported missing?

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There was an article in the Gettysburg Times on Friday, July 11, 1975, three days after Tracy (spelled with an e) left Hoffman House. She left with another girl. I couldn't find a follow-up, but I'm assuming the other girl returned.

Here's a link. Some articles are free and I think a non-subscriber can get up to 3 articles a day. This article is on the right hand side about half way down the page:
http://newspaperarchive.com/gettysburg-times/1975-07-11/pageno-7627149?tag=Tracey+King+hoffman+house

CCJD said:

There was an article in the Gettysburg Times on Friday, July 11, 1975, three days after Tracy (spelled with an e) left Hoffman House. She left with another girl. I couldn't find a follow-up, but I'm assuming the other girl returned.

Here's a link. Some articles are free and I think a non-subscriber can get up to 3 articles a day. This article is on the right hand side about half way down the page:
http://newspaperarchive.com/gettysburg-times/1975-07-11/pageno-7627149?tag=Tracey+King+hoffman+house

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Thank you for that link. That article has left me with more questions then before, like you I’m assuming the other girl was found but I wonder what happened to the boy it mentions, who ran away the next day. Was he found as well? I googled both and found nothing (I’m new at this)

I’m also wondering if the other girl said anything about Tracy.

Richard said:

Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. should be considered a possible suspect in her disappearance. He is a convicted child molester and child murderer now incarcerated in a North Carolina prison. In July 1975, he was employed by Vitro Laboratories in Wheaton, Maryland, about an hour drive south of the PA/MD line and located on Highway 97.

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Thank you for this information, I haven’t heard of Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. before I just looked him up and it say’s he was in the area of the Lyon sisters as well. He seems to have gotten around.

I want to lump her in with the other missing girls, but the fact that she was at a home throws me off. Why was she there, where were her family, were there any scandals about this home, any shady staffers and what happened to the girl that returned-did she ever say why Tracey didn't come back?

Tracy Anne King, 14, Missing since July 8, 1975 from Littlestown, PA

Tracy Anne King
Missing since July 8, 1975 from Littlestown, Adams County, Pennsylvania.
Classification: Non Family Abduction

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: October 11, 1960
Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3; 110 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Red hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: King has a scar on her right ankle. She has pockmarks on her temple.
Dentals: Available
DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance

King was last seen leaving Hoffman Homes, a children's home in Mount Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania on July 8, 1975.

King was having problems at the time and was living at the home as a result. She had run away from the facility twice before, but King returned shortly thereafter both times. She has never been heard from again.

King wrote her family often from her stay in the home. Her letters are described as being those of a normal teenager at the time.

King's family resided in Perry County, Pennsylvania in 1975.

Investigators

If you have any information concerning King's whereabouts, please contact:

Pennsylvania State Police
Troop H, Gettysburg Station
717-334-8111

or

Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation
Missing Persons Unit
717-783-5524

All information may be submitted on an anonymous basis.

Agency Case Number: H6-16329

NCMEC #:NCMC701787

NCIC Number: M360386548

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

Source Information:

The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
NamUs MP #2493
The Doe Network: Case File 342DFPA

LINK:

http://doenetwork.org/cases/342dfpa.html

Thanks for that info, but really doesn't answer the questions I have.

From an article in the Evening Sun, dated July 10, 2010 (from newslibrary.com - subscription needed):

King's disappearance was classified a non-family abduction, as online reports state she had run away from the home twice before and returned. She had been at the home because of personal problems. While at Hoffman Homes, King had been writing letters to her family, and those letters had been described as those of a normal teenager with no animosity toward her family. She often apologized for not writing them more. Police had expected foul play because of the circumstances involved.
BBM
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives/?p_action=list&p_queryname=4000

I've never found anything to suggest any scandal at Hoffman Homes. Thing is, these children were troubled when they entered the home and, according to one article (link below) 80 to 90% were 'runners' prior to admittance at HH.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...pg=6779,1303043&dq=runaway+hoffman-home&hl=en

the beginning of that article can be found here:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...dq=running+away+began+in+biblical+times&hl=en

An overview of Hoffman Home:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...pg=5481,3999654&dq=runaway+hoffman-home&hl=en

Thank you-the first link is broken, though.

scriptgirl said:

Thank you-the first link is broken, though.

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Thought that might happen - session expires if left dormant for too long. It was really just to validate that I got the paragraph from a newspaper.

Ok. I am perplexed by her family's seeming silence on Tracy's disappearence. Seems they didn't make a peep.

Hi,
Just found this thread. I grew up in Gettysburg and went to school with some of the kids from Hoffman Home. Back then (in 75) they came to school at the regular elementary and high school. I was in 5th grade at the time (and coincidently, my birthday is July 8). Many of the kids ran away on a regular basis. Littlestown is the next town over from Gettysburg on the way to Md. and had an elementary and Middle/High school (My mom taught there) and my Dad was w/ the PA State Police in Gburg at the time. I'll ask him if he remembers it.

Any questions about area, etc... i can probably answer. I lived there until i left at 18 for college. I do not remember this case as being a 'big deal' ...crime was pretty rare back in the day in our small town areas.

Why was running away so common?

Because the kids that were there were from trouble homes of some sort, most seemed to have discipline problems in school and I remember that they always had kids running away. Usually they were found pretty quick, we were a very small town where everyone knew everyone and most parents/teachers etc knew where to look for the kids. We only had a few places to really 'hide' and they typically were old barns and such.

Kaki-has the town changed very much-so since it was the norm for those kids to run away, was no one concerned about Tracey vanishing, then?

Littlestown, PA is only about two miles from the Maryland state line. It is closer to Maryland than it is to any other town in Pennsylvania.

I am also from a small PA town that is quite close to Maryland, so that is one of the reasons this case interests me.

The drive from Wheaton, Md (where the Lyons sisters went missing) to Littlestown, PA is longer than an hour. I would say an hour and a half. 97 is two lanes for a lot of the way between the two towns. While traffic would have been lighter in the 70's there is no way that it would have been only an hour.
I am not saying that it's not possible that their could be a connection but it is 60 to 70 miles distance. Some of the other posts would make it sound much closer.

abstr said:

The drive from Wheaton, Md (where the Lyons sisters went missing) to Littlestown, PA is longer than an hour. I would say an hour and a half. 97 is two lanes for a lot of the way between the two towns. While traffic would have been lighter in the 70's there is no way that it would have been only an hour.
I am not saying that it's not possible that their could be a connection but it is 60 to 70 miles distance. Some of the other posts would make it sound much closer.

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The actual distance between the two towns is 50 statute miles. You are correct that it may be more than an hour drive, since there are (and were) a few stop signs and stop lights and some speed limits lower than 55 mph.

Traffic today is indeed much heavier than it was in the 1970's. Back in 1975, a drive on Highway 97 would have been a fairly easy trip.

I don't think, however, that the time of the drive (whether an hour or two hours) between Littlestown and Wheaton would have been critical to an abductor who might have chosen to make that drive. He likely would have taken his time and would have been careful not to attract any attention by speeding or driving recklessly.

In Tracy's case, the more critical time and distance would have been the amount of time that it took to get her from Littlestown to the Maryland state line - which would have been only a few minutes.

I do not know how long she was missing before police were contacted, but it was probably long after her abductor had driven into Maryland with her, and hence out of their jurisdiciton for pursuit.

How do we know she was taken to Maryland?

scriptgirl said:

How do we know she was taken to Maryland?

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We don't know that at all.