FL FL - Evelyn Mackey, 40, Hernando County, 5 Nov 1981

25 years ago...

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Evelyn Laverne Mackey
Missing since November 5, 1981 from Hernando County, Florida.
Classification: Endangered Missing
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: April 15, 1940
Age at Time of Disappearance: 40 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 120 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; grey eyes.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Evelyn Mackey was last seen on November 5, 1981, at her residence in central Hernando County, Florida.

Her 14 year old daughter was leaving for school as her mother was leaving with her new husband, Merl Mackey. Mr. Mackey picked the daughter up at school that afternoon, advising that her mother had left to care for a sick relative who lived out of state. The relative had no knowledge of Mrs. Mackey's alleged visit, and she has not been seen or heard from since that date.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Hernando County Sheriff's Office
352-754-6830

Agency Case Number: 82-03041
NCIC Number: M-425176238
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
Hernando County Sheriff's Office
The Doe Network: Case File 1087DFFL

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1087dffl.html

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.

docwho3 said:

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.

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That is my impression as well. His story was obviously a lie which did not check out. Who was/is this guy, and what is his history. How long had he been maried to Evelyn? Was there any motive such as an insurance policy or inheritance? Did she learn something about his past?

Not much information here, but what there is makes red flags go up.

docwho3 said:

Other than producing a body I am unclear what more can be done for this case. It certainly seems, from the case description, to be that her husband was involved in her disappearance.

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No kidding. Her body can only be located within a specified area (and I realize that is still a large area to cover), but if Mom was seen alive with stepdad as the daughter left for school, stepdad picked her up from school, there is only a certain time frame that he could have traveled to dump the body and get back.

She has rather common looks (not to be derrogatory) and listing her with gray eyes has possibly caused a problem in id'ing her if she's been found already.

I poked around in the FL unid'ed files and this one stuck out...

http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/520uffl.html

Height and weight aren't exact, but this is potentially nearly a year later.

THE THING THAT STRIKES ME ABOUT HER IS HER WEDDING RING. Evelyn was newly married and look how new and unworn the wedding ring in that photo looks!! I know most wedding rings get battered in a short amount of time because they are worn all the time.

What do you think?

Richard,

I've read a lot of your posts (long time lurker) and I'm always impressed with your knowledge of things, so I'm asking your opinion in general. Why weren't cases like this (obvious lie from SO who is usually a likely suspect) pursued more agressively in the recent past? It's not as if LE didn't have resources to investigate missing persons in the last twenty years. I know access to info would have been harder (ie, no Net, no Doe, no WS), but with some cases, it seems as if LE poked around, didn't find anything obvious, and moved on to another case.

FFWifey said:

Richard...Why weren't cases like this (obvious lie from SO who is usually a likely suspect) pursued more agressively in the recent past? It's not as if LE didn't have resources to investigate missing persons in the last twenty years. I know access to info would have been harder (ie, no Net, no Doe, no WS), but with some cases, it seems as if LE poked around, didn't find anything obvious, and moved on to another case.

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The quality and thoroughness of any investigation depends in large part upon the people doing the investigation, their experience, available resources, and work load. It is hard to say what specific factors entered into or hampered any given investigation.

While, in this case, it seems pretty obvious that the husband either did something, or knew something, the reasons for LE not investigating more closely are not so obvious. Some of these sketchy case summaries were written many years after the fact, and often information which is included in them was NOT available at the time to the investigators. Other pieces of information which was available early in the investigation, might get left out of the summary.

Unfortunately, by the time a lead comes in, the trail is often cold, or things have changed considerably. Even if some really good information is given to police by a reliable source years after a crime, it has to be checked out and verified - and investigators run into such problems as witnesses who have moved or died, records which have been destroyed, businesses which have closed, etc. Usually, the more time that elapses, the harder it is to solve a case. Even when a case is solved, closed, and the perpetrator in jail, the case might be thrown back at new investigators because of an appeal court decision.

Police Investigators have to find specific evidence and there are very strict rules regarding how they can get it. There are a lot of cases concerning missing persons, where the police know beyond a doubt that a murder was committed and who did it - but they have to have the evidence for proof. And usually this means that they have to have a body. Without a body, an investigator might feel pretty frustrated when his gut tells him what happened and who was responsible.

All that said, I believe that many of these cold cases CAN be solved with the right insight, some police work, perseverance, and also a little luck.

This is one of those cases where I suspect the husband may be willing to talk or has enough of a record to make them look harder at him (he has probably done other bad deeds) or the daughter may be able to provide more insight. IMO, a case that is solvable.

PS What did you guys and gals think of my possible match above? I'm not real good at these matches because I'm not a people watcher. I prefer the facts and circumstances end of these cases (like the ring thing).

PPS the unid'ed was shot 4 times in the chest. did the hubby have a gun? And did it match the kind she was shot with?

What bad grammar i've used!!

I decided to look in the Hernando County records and found a order to dismiss a case filed regarding the marriage of Evelyn Laverne Mackey aka Evelyn Wallace. It was filed by her ex husband Larry S Wallace. The order was to dismiss the case (I think because she was a no show in court), dated 12/22/1983.

There is also a Judgment filed by Merl Mackey 2 months after she goes missing 1/1993 but it is sealed. Wonder if this is a divorce?

I don't see any records of marriage in Hernando for either Mackey or Wallace. So she may have married them in another state and moved to FL.

I wonder if they did any searches for Evelyn? Could the husband thinks she just ran off and that is what LE took this as? She had a 14yr old daughter at the time, I wonder if she went back to her bio dad? I will have to see if there are any articles on her when she went missing. I wish I knew where she married Merl and Wallace, what state, that may help.

There is no record of her and Meryl buying a home, in fact, nothing on him after the divorce 1/5/1982. I wonder if he left the state? update: didn't leave FL......

I am still digging, but I am pretty sure they married in FL, just have to find the record.
update: They did marry in Hernando. But the records change to Judgment when you file and get a divorce. But there would be a marriage certificate on file in the clerks office.

Who divorces their wife, two months after they go missing???? I can't even find the address she went missing from. No details, like if she took cloths, or her purse or anything. Merl has a long list of arrests after 1982.....

How did she leave? Did she get in a car and was supposed to drive up to see this sick relative? If so, why didn't they list what kind of car she was driving and a plate number? If she took a bus, there should have been a ticket purchased and people who could ID her on the bus or the driver, same if she flew. If I knew the daughter, I would contact her and ask that they look into this again. I would want cadaver dogs to do a search around the place they lived or any places that had woods or a place you would bury a body unseen. The more I think about this missing woman, the more I know it doesn't add up.

Florida is a place where it would be easy to get rid of a body, and have it never be found. With the swamps and Alligators, I doubt they will ever find a body!

In the early 80's they werent as good at finding traces of blood, like in a vehicle, as they are now.

Usually someone who is brazen enough to kill someone, and then gets away with it......will do it again. I wonder if the husband has been accused or suspected in other cases?

New Doe Network link.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1087dffl.html

It is good to see renewed interest and posts on this case. I origionally posted it on the 25th anniversary of Evelyn's disappearance. This November will mark 30 years since she went missing.

Well this month marked the 30 years Evelyn has been missing. I read today that Natalie Wood's case is being reopened after 30 years and thought of Evelyn. Too bad there isn't just one new thing to get the ball rolling for her. So little has been written about her or her family and you wonder what kind of person she was, and what she liked and how her daughter felt and is she okay.

Evelyn Laverne Trulock Wallace Mackey. She was born 4/15/1940 according to Doe network. Have not found a death record on SSDI with that birth date. On March 1961 Evelyn Laverne Trulock married in Pinellas Co., FL to Larry Sutton Wallace that ended in divorce 12/12/1978. The court record in Hernando Co. has a case # starting with 81, meaning the case dated 1981. The case was ended in 1983. I would speculate this case involved the Wallace divorce and maybe custody issues. It might explain why Evelyn was in Hernando Co. because her ex-husband was there. But did she really live there?
On 10/24/1979 Evelyn Laverne Trulock married Merl McFarland Mackey, Jr. in Pinellas Co. They both must have owned a home in Pinellas Co., because on 1/7/1983 a foreclosure against them can be found.
11/5/1981 is the date Evelyn is missing, yet, the Hernando County Sheriff website says the report was filed 1/7/1982. Well, that is two days after the divorce is filed in Hernando Co. by Merl against Evelyn. Three months later Merl marries again on 4/3/1982. She divorces him 4/1/1985. On 4/3/1987 he marries again and that ends in divorce 2/3/1988, she divorces him. Mr. Mackey has been incarcerated several times and once involved a firearm. My question is have any of the ex-wives been questioned? Mr. Wallace died several years back and I wonder if he was questioned. His obit has a lot of survivor info. It seems that the people involved are growing old and dying and maybe their stories will never be told.

So I wonder what happened to the daughter. Did she continue to live with Mr. Mackey or go to her father, who I assume is Mr. Wallace? I would think that she would have been questioned about violence/arguments between her mom and the new stepfather and she may have been old enough at the time to still remember things.

Trulock is a familiar name. Where the foreclosures in Dunedin?

I'm betting on new husband, afterall he was the one who told the daughter that her mom left town suddenly to see a sick relative so I would say that he probably was the last to see her before she disappeared.

I agree with Skully, where is her car (or lic plate / or vin #)? Did she walk to "out of town" or take a bus? Lots of unanswered questions.

The Pinellas County home address can't be determined from the online information. I am still trying to find it though. I can't imagine the daughter staying with the step-father, she must have gone with the natural father.

Did you know M.M. served time in Fl? Multiple offenses in Fl including carrying a concealed firearm,fraud, Grand Theft Auto, and then he escaped in 1998 in Madison Co. Priors listed on Fl Doc include firearm possession by a convicted felon in 1984. I wonder what the felony was. I'll have to look on Pinellas Clerk to see if it's listed there.

Found it 1983 felony check, interesting thing is he had LE's investigative records sealed in 1985.

What does LE's mean? Yes, I saw those arrests. I found another marriage and divorce record for him in TX that shows 3 children.