November, 1977. Love, peace, and groovy décor. There were bell bottoms and wide collars. Kids smoked and rode in the backs of pickup trucks. Jimmy Carter had just raised the minimum wage from $2.31 to $3.35, to be effective in 1981. Debbie Boone held the number one spot on the music charts with “You Light Up My Life” for the whole month prior, and held strong throughout all of November.
The UN declared a weapons embargo against South Africa even as the first all-race elections were taking place, ending apartheid. Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of PhilipII of Macedon. Racial tension mounts in the USA, while women's rights advance through the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas.
But the uneasy complacency of the dozing, quiet town of Emmett, Idaho is shattered by the disappearance of a local woman. Marie Ann Watson's disappearance leaves more questions than answers. The first question that arises is why it wasn't investigated. A ready answer is that she had the reputation of being a prostitute. The police merely assumed, it's said, that she “took off”.
Her car, her wallet, and an uncashed paycheck were found at a local diner.
More disturbing than these is the fact that there were rumors around the town. Whispers easily dismissed in the light of day became phantoms of possibility in the darkness of the night. Clandestine discussions, quickly dropped in public, speculated about the house at 5611 Cascade Road and what frightening deeds were carried out there.
The rumors of what went on there were from the darkest corners of human imagination. Mike and Dorothy Rogers were known to collect “stray” children like some women collect cats; no such thing as too many. Dorothy called them her “street kids”. These were children others didn't want or wouldn't take. Too often, they were children who had such tremendous behavior problems that they had no options left.
Mike and Dorothy were pros at finding the lost and the disenfranchised. They sought as far as Colorado, where they found a pair of children with nowhere to go. Marie Ann Watson was arrested, and her two children needed a home for the duration of her jail stay.
Into the nightmare world of 5611 Cascade, Dorothy took these two children. As she did with all of her “street kids”, she changed their names.
When Marie got out of jail, she came for her children. Mike and Dorothy would not return them to their mother, and a heated court battle began. Two days before custody was to be granted to Marie, she disappeared.
The police were afraid of Mike. He had threatened to shoot them on several occasions, and they had left the immediate area of Cascade Road as soon as he did. He was well known for his temper and his brutality amongst his fellow mill workers and around the town.
Perhaps another reason why her disappearance went unremarked by local law enforcement is that she was merely a prostitute by reputation. She was a recovering drug addict. Shiftless, unimportant...
The last person to see her alive is the person who was heard to say to a neighbor (about Marie), “What do you do with a ***** that gets into the henhouse and tries to steal chickens? You put it down, that's what you do. You can't let a stealing ***** live.” These were Dorothy's words about Marie's lawsuit to get her children back.
Another of the “foster” children (there are no records of them being foster parents) was arrested in 1994 with dismembered bodies in his storage area of the apartment complex he lived in. To this day, despite being in San Quentin on death row, Ramon Rogers maintains his innocence.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
For me, as Marie's daughter (as of this posting, waiting to be verified), there is little mystery to me in where my mother ended up. Below is the link to the three podcasts by Thin Air Podcasts about my mother. In the third episode, you'll get to hear Jordan's interview with me, where I explain my personal experiences and why no question about her exists for me.
What mysteries remain for me, personally, are what happened to the other children. Dorothy admits that there was a time when there were 17 foster children. At the time of their capture by authorities in 1978, there were only 6 of us.
What happened to the 'foster' child named Kevin?
I know that some of the kids were kidnapped (we had a name for them). But some weren't. Didn't anyone notice? Didn't anyone care? Where and how did they get all of the kids? How did they get away with this for so very long?
The level of violence in that house was tremendous, and we lived in utter squalor. I can't imagine how, even back then, anyone would willingly give these people kids. I was the only one there who was thought to be mentally handicapped that I know of (they thought this due to my speech impediment). I just don't understand it, and I wonder how many other families they harmed the way they harmed mine.
With no records of any kind, I doubt that it will ever be known for sure.
O~O~O~O~O~O
Links (there are many more at the thin air links, they did an amazing job!):
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/watson_marie.html
http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-2-marie-ann-watson/
http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-3-marie-ann-watson-part-2/
http://thinairpodcast.com/episode-5-marie-ann-watson-part-3/
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/case_report_html/2066
Idaho Missing Person Clearinghouse 208-884-7134 OR Gem County Sheriff’s Office 208-365-3521
Agency Case Number: CC35144
NCIC Number: M-021230559 Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
Ramon Rogers, convicted serial killer (foster brother implicated in Marie's murder):
http://murderpedia.org/male.R/r/rogers-ramon-jay.htm
https://www.facebook.com/TheForgottenCases/posts/350063425167933
The local Sheriff's disinterest in the case:
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/11587781/
from article said:
Also, Dorothy Rogers, the last person known to have seen Mrs. Watson, told authorities the Baxters' daughter got into a car with an unidentified motorist after the women's automobile went off the road near Emmett, the sheriff said. "She (Mrs. Watson) has a history of disappearances," he continued. "She'd be gone for three months or six months and when she got ready, she would let her folks know where she was."
There is a possible link to another disappearance, which is currently also under investigation. I have very little information on this, except that when I related what I'd seen of my mother being carried into the house, on a number of ocassions I was specifically asked, "Are you sure it was your mother, and not
the other woman who disappeared around the same time and who looked just like your mother?" So whether there is a link or not is uncertain, but it's definitely possible, as they literally have zero leads in Diane's case:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/schulte_diane.html
Please feel free to ask me questions. There are far, far more details in the podcasts, which did an incredible, amazing job of researching it all (they're local to it). I'm willing to answer questions, but please remember that I'm very sensitive around the topic. I remember seeing my mother being disposed of, and that often brings up a lot of questions for people. I don't mind answering them, and I do understand that some people are disbelieving of what I witnessed, but please state as much in a kind manner. I'm honest enough to admit that I'm sensitive around all of this, and I've hidden it and kept it secret for most of my life so I feel exposed and vulnerable talking about it now.
Anyway, there's a lot more to the case, and there are ongoing efforts to get the bones from the Sheriff's department there. I'm going to be calling the Idaho Attorney General on Monday (8-29-2016) to see if they will champion my cause and get the bones released to NamUs forensics division for retesting.
