WV WV - Mared Malerik & Karen Ferrell, both 19, Morgantown, 18 Jan 1970

[Geocam]

Wildcat66,

Newspaperarchive.com has scanned in literally millions of newspapers, some going back to the 1800s. They have all the Morgantown papers, even the ones that have folded, like the Dominion News and the Morgantown Post, which have now been combined to the current Dominion Post.

There are some drawbacks, though. The searchable database has the papers page by page, and they come up like a Google search. When a story hops, is continued on another page, sometimes it is hard to find that second page among the pages listed. You can, however, limit your search to specific days.

The days it sounds like you'd be interested in would be from the days after January 18, 1970, when the girls disappeared, and the days from March 24 (when the State Police entered the investigation and events ramped up considerably) through April 16, when the girls were found. From April through about September, there were lots of articles about the investigation.

I've written you more about all this, as well as some alternatives to getting a one-month subscription to newspaperarchive.com. Look in your private messages folder in the upper right of your screen.

Hope this helps.

 

[LillyRush]

Where was Gary Hilton in 1970?

Sorry, I never saw this thread before until I looked at the online list and saw someone reading it. Very interesting!

 

[Geocam]

Interesting idea, LillyRush. The only things I could find so far are that a marriage ended in 1969 or 1970, in Georgia, I believe. And he had a chauffeurs license in Florida 1970-1972. Most of his activity seems to have been centered around those two states, but authorities are apparently looking into a couple of killings from North Carolina.

I'll keep looking for some connection to northern WV--and anyone who finds one, please post!--but so far I doubt it. One thought, though. If he was actually in the military, as he is reported to have said, perhaps he was discharged somewhere near there. . . .

However, from where the bodies were found and the material discarded, it looked like the crime had been committed by someone who knew the area pretty well.

Geocam

 

[Geocam]

Does anyone have any information about the unsolved murder of a 19-year-old woman who was killed in or near Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1991?

Or do you know where I can find the information?

Thanks,
Geocam

 

[Geocam]

I now have more specifics. Does any one have--or know where I can find--information about the following murder victims:
Terry Roach
Patsy Dawn Sparks
Maebelle Clark

The first two were murdered in the Parkersburg area in 1991 or 1992. The third was abducted from Athens, Ohio, and her body was found near Charleston, West Virginia. Any further information about any or all three would be appreciated.

Geocam

 

[trixie1]

I have stumbled across this website. My daughter is doing a project on capitol punishment. I was looking up serial killers and whether they were put to death or still in jail. I remembered our next door neighbor in NJ was murdered the year we moved next door to them. It was a terrible tragedy and the parents were devastated. I was just a kid, but I looked up her name on the internet to see if there was info on her murder and it led me here. Her name was Mared Malerik. I have ordered the book on the unsolved mysteries because I am curious as to what had happened. My parents were shocked that when we moved in, that the house next door had the girl who was murdered while away at school. So strange.
If there was any recent information like the man who confessed is not guilty or what happened with that, please let me know. My mom said that when the killer confessed and Mrs. Malerik had to go to trial, she lost it. She was never the same after that. She had to be put in a nursing home. It was very sad. We never did hitchhike. It was drilled into us what had happened to Mared.

 

[trixie1]

It appears to have come up on the wrong thread. I am sorry.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Geo, I think there's a book here, whether you can sort out Hacker's role with the co-ed case or not. Just the question of whether he was or not is interesting, as is his connection to the Monongah disaster. The quest for the answers to your questions is the story, or one of them.

 

[trixie1]

I stumbled across this thread today. I was helping my daughter research info on capitol punishment and was researching serial killers. I remembered that my neighbor in NJ was murdered in college and her name was Mared Malerik. I found this website and the information and I have ordered the book, the unsolved mysteries.
I was a kid when we moved in, spring 1970, but it shocked my parents that the story of the murdered girl was about our new neighbors. The parents were very nice and the mom lost it when the case was brought back up again and she had to attend the trial. She was never the same and had to go into a home not too long after that.
Does anyone know what happened after the case was reopened a few years ago?
Thanks.

 

[trixie1]

Well once again , it seems to be posting on a different thread and I apologize for the mistake. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Some of you responded on the other thread I am talking about so maybe you will recognize what I am talking about. This is about the WVU coeds that were murdered in 1970. Thanks.

 

[dearmont]

WDTV News


Story Created: Dec 7, 2006 at 6:55 PM EDT
Story Updated: Dec 7, 2006 at 7:27 PM EDT

(MORGANTOWN)---Officials from the state police say they may have a lead on a murder case that's over 35 years old. The case took place back in January of 1970 when two female students were murdered.

The two women, Karen Ferrel and Mared Malerick were last seen hitch hiking near downtown the night of January 18th. After their disappearance, it took police about 4 months to finally find out what had happened to the women as their decapitated bodies were found near what is now Goshen Road.

The Case lied relatively dormant for a few years until Eugene Clausen confessed to the crimes. Clausen was later charged and convicted for the murders and is now serving out his sentence.
Now almost 37 years later questions surrounding the actual murder weapon used that night have resurfaced. Retired State Police Trooper Richard Hall has been given a Machete found near where the two women's bodies are recovered. This machete is different from the one used during Clausen murder trial.
The machete has already been sent down to the state crime lab for testing, but there is no time table for when the results will come back.

http://www.wdtv.com/news/local/4856876.html

It was reported in Charleston WV newspaper on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 that no blood was found on the machete tested in connection with the murders.

 

[dearmont]

*WVU student from Grafton WV supposedly wrote a paper connecting decapitation and religious sects and was suspected of stealing a machete.

LisainWV/Geocam - do you have any further inforamation on this person?

 

[Geocam]

After investigating for three years (not counting the years Richard put into the case before I came on board), we are closing it out for now. We believe we have located the person who killed the coeds, but after talking with the DA in Monongalia County, have learned that we do not have quite enough for an indictment. Our case is much stronger than the alleged case compiled against Clawson, but considering the passage of time and Clawson’s recent death in Mount Olive prison, the DA does not want to go forward with the case at this time.

However, we are writing a book about our investigations and would like for it to be as complete as possible. To that end, we are trying to get in touch with a few people who might be able to help us fill in a few blanks in the record. If anyone knows any of these people, please send us contact information or have that person get in touch with us through here. We have tried to contact everyone we could, but it would help if we could contact these few people. We want them to fill in some blanks we have and will keep all communication confidential if that’s what they want.
Paulette “Itsy” Burns
Donna DeYoung
Kenneth Eye
Clarence “Skip” Lewis
Any member of the Malarik family
Andrea Ward
Hilary Wilt

During the course of the investigation, we have uncovered a number of things of interest, a few of which I have posted about here. Richard maintained from the beginning that cracking the case would be based on things that already existed in the records from 1970 and that, in turn, would lead to people coming forward with new information. He was right on both counts.

Karen’s mother, Mrs. Ferrell, has been very encouraging during this whole process. She never really believed that Clawson was the man who had done it, and our book explains in detail why he confessed, why his confession is not credible, and how he was convicted anyway. The bulk of the book then relates details of our investigation over the last three years (I say “our,” but most of the actual investigating was done by Richard), following each lead to the person of interest at whom the lead pointed.

One of the main things we discovered was that, rather than having too few suspects at the time, the original investigation was hampered by the sheer number of possible suspects. Each time we uncovered a plausible candidate, we learned more about someone who was even more likely. Along the way, we learned of a man who was possibly one of America’s first serial killers; another man who had a shrine to the coeds and who later killed his wife; a Morgantown delivery driver repeatedly picked up hitchhiking coeds and threatened to eat them; a coed killer copycat who ran down a woman in Maryland and almost severed her head with a pocketknife; and numerous leads about people who allegedly claimed to have killed the coeds or who other people had reason to believe had killed the coeds. For various reasons, we didn’t believe any of these people were responsible for the murders of Mared and Karen.

We are about to send out our manuscript to a few agents who are interested in seeing it, but if anyone has any suggestions for additional queries, please let us know. Thanks to everyone for your leads and suggestions, and stay tuned to this thread for more information as it develops.

Geocam

 

[firemedic83]

If witnesses state that the girls were picked up by a man in his 40's with dark hair. Well then how could they mistake some one thirty years older with short greyish white hair, and weighed probably 170 I know he wasn't in that great of shape....

 

[WVgal]

Dear Geocam, I was a small child when these women were murdered, and I have always been fascinated by the case. I'm very interested in learning more about your book. Can you post the specifics? Estimated publication date, for instance, and the publisher. Thanks!

 

[Geocam]

Hey folks,

I haven't checked in for a while--thought no one was really checking this thread out! Anyway, book plans are still in the making but we have one thing that's come up lately we want to run down, just to be certain. Does anyone know where I can get more information on John Brennan Crutchley? I ran across some interesting discussion of him by Ressler (Whoever Fights Monsters), and a little on the Web, but not much. He was born in Pittsburgh, went to college in Ohio and DC. I'm wodnering where I might learn more about him. Does anyone know?

This I found particularly interesting, in that it may result in learning something unexpected about the coed case: Ressler says "unexplained bodies had been found and missing women reported in Pennsylvania while he lived there." When and where was that? Anyone know?

Thanks.

 

[WVgal]

Hi-- I don't have any more information on JBC than the general web can offer, but when i was younger I often suspected that he--or perhaps another traveling serial killer-- had something to do with these murders.

Please keep us all informed. I've waited for 40 years to get the answers to this, as I'm sure others have as well.

 

[firemedic83]

He was a miner while in prison. He had lost both of his index fingers. also would like to know if you have any information on his first wife Opal Toothman Hacker. I tried to send email but kept comming back.

 

[HarmanCardon]

Are there pictures of Karen Ferrel and Mared Malerick available?

The links to pictures in prior post are inactive.

 

[Richard]

.... Does anyone know where I can get more information on John Brennan Crutchley? I ran across some interesting discussion of him by Ressler (Whoever Fights Monsters), and a little on the Web, but not much. He was born in Pittsburgh, went to college in Ohio and DC. I'm wodnering where I might learn more about him. Does anyone know?

This I found particularly interesting, in that it may result in learning something unexpected about the coed case: Ressler says "unexplained bodies had been found and missing women reported in Pennsylvania while he lived there." When and where was that? Anyone know?

Thanks.

Crutchley was discussed in the Lyon Sisters Featured Case on Websleuths in the possible suspects thread. I believe that there might be some links to more information on him there, and you might be able to PM someone who knows more.