Article from 2017
Martha Sue and Claude Shelton – UNSOLVED APPALACHIA
On May 21, 1971, Sue, 27, and Claude Shelton, 37, came home from a small get together with their friends. They put their 3 children into bed, letting them know that they were going to drive to a nearby truck stop for a late-night bite to eat. At around 2:00 AM they left their home at Gerry’s Trailer Park on 18th Street in Corbin, Ky, and headed to King’s Truck Stop. This was around 5 miles from their home, so it shouldn’t have taken them long to drive there and back, but they’ve never returned.
The Shelton’s daughter Sheila remembers her father asking her mother if she was ‘going to go with him or stay home’. That was the last time she heard their voices. They walked out of the house, took $600 that they had stored in a jar, shut the door behind them, and never came back.
The employees of King’s Truck Stop said they never saw Sue, Claude, or their vehicle (a white 1967 Ford Galaxie) on the night they went missing. For them to leave behind their 3 children, something bad had to have happened.
Family and friends were interviewed, all of which said that Martha and Claude would have never left their children unattended, so the entire trip was completely out of character for the couple.
The area around their home, the truck stop, as well as some wooded areas were searched after their disappearance but nothing was ever found.
The latest update regarding this case that I could find was an article from May 22, 2009. A DNA test was being conducted on the body of a woman that was found in Oregon just 2 days after Sue and Claude went missing. It was not a match.
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It seems that the trailer park and the truck stop are both gone now, so I’m working off the information of 18th street, and the fact that King’s was listed to be at Exit 29 in Corbin.
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