Marina Pearl Boelter is a young mother, daughter, sister, aunt, sister-in-law, and friend. Petite in stature but with a big personality, her mother, Tressie "Cricket" Palmer, affectionately referred to her as her "little tornado". Marina's favorite color is purple; she loved to write poems when she was young and became a prolific journaler as she grew into a young adult. Her sister-in-law and biggest advocate, Ashley Boelter, is married to Marina's brother David and remembers falling in love with Marina instantly the moment she met her at age 6.
At the time of her disappearance, Marina was working at the deli counter at the local IGA grocery store in Bloomfield, IN, but Marina had bigger goals in mind. She took the job at the deli as a first step on the road to her dream career of becoming a pastry chef. Smart and loving, she was a good student in her early years in Ohio but became less engaged with school after the move to Indiana. However, she'd earned her GED and was even planning on applying to colleges to achieve her dreams of a culinary career when she went missing. She had become a mom to Landen - her child with her on-again, off-again 20 year old boyfriend Douglas "DJ" Lockhart - in April of 2014, when she was just shy of 18. She was a very good mom, but an incident occurred at her home where Marina lived with her mother Tressie Palmer, father John Boelter, grandfather Craven Palmer, sister Faith Boelter, and other siblings. A fight between her sister Faith and her boyfriend resulted in the child being involved in a tragic accident, and Marina subsequently lost custody. Landen was placed in foster care, and the fight caused a rift in the family that stands to this day. However, Marina was on her way to regaining custody and was actually supposed to get Landen back right around the time she disappeared.
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On New Year's Eve 2014, Marina was looking forward to celebrating a new year and excited about the party she would be attending later that evening. She'd had a rough year, but it seemed things were looking up. She had just moved into a new apartment in Bloomfield, IN and she was on track to regain custody of her 8 month old son Landen. Marina admittedly had some struggles with the men she became involved with. Landen's dad DJ Lockhart was said to be abusive at times, but Marina's mom was convinced they loved one another and Lockhart would never harm her. Though they were not together at the time of her disappearance, it was clear Lockhart still loved her and in fact, wanted her to go to a party with him on the night she vanished instead of the party she was planning on attending. That party was being hosted by Marina's current boyfriend Toby Deem, who Marina was secretly seeing. Deem was an older married man who also happened to be a close friend of the family, particularly of Tressie Palmer. He'd helped Marina get an apartment just a few blocks from his home and his business Deemon Cycles and also helped her move in. The party was being held at Deem's home and his wife was also hosting, but Marina was still looking forward to attending.
At about 6:00 pm after her shift at the deli counter on 12/31/2014, Marina got ready to leave, but Lockhart had come by and tried to talk her out of going to Toby Deem's party. He wanted Marina to attend a party with him instead, but Marina declined. In fact, she was on the phone with Deem when Lockhart appeared at the IGA, and she said "Oh , it's DJ" and told Deem she'd call him back, but she never did. Witnesses reported Marina and Lockhart having words, and Marina accepted a ride home from an unidentified man who was reportedly a frequent customer of the deli. Lockhart stated he observed Marina getting into a car with a heavyset, middle-aged man wearing glasses, at the old Sunoco gas station gravel parking lot directly north of the IGA where Marina worked. The car was described as a metallic colored (gold, silver, or beige) Mercury Milan manufactured between 2009 and 2011 with multi-spoke rims, a spoiler, and a Bluetooth or shark fin antenna on top. That was the last time anyone ever saw Marina; she did not show up at the party that evening as planned.
More at link:
A young mother vanishes after her shift at work on New Year's Eve; family needs answers
uncovered.com
