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I'm your host, Mark.
And I'm Courtney.
And this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The case we have for you today is about a bank teller who was abducted in 1977, whose body was found in 1993, but wasn't identified until 2017.
This is the story of Margaret Celeste Dodd.
Margaret Dodd, better known as Margie, so from here we will call her Margie, was born on May 8, 1960 in Akron, Ohio, to John and Evelyn Dodd.
Margie met her husband Kent Dodd while attending classes at Akron College in Ohio.
Kent was the brother of Margie's roommate, Edna Lee Dodd.
On June 2, 1972, Margie and Kent would get married.
The couple would end up moving to Beckley, West Virginia to be close to Kent's family.
The couple suffered a major loss early on into their marriage.
During her first pregnancy, Margie suffered from preeclampsia and lost their first child just four days after delivery.
In an effort to move forward, Margie and Kent purchased their first home in Shady Spring, West Virginia in 1977.
Margie started a new job as a teller at the Cardinal Bank in the parking lot of the Raleigh Mall, and the couple started taking classes together at Concord University in the mornings.
After their classes, Kent would drive the 39 mile trip to drop Margie off at work.
When Margie's shift was over at 8.30, she would wait for Kent's shift to end at 11.30 p.m.
To pass the time, she would hang out and shop at the Raleigh Mall.
She would visit friends or hang out at the Fryer Pub.
Margie was a very friendly person who loved talking to various people while passing the time.
To help both her and Kent, Margie would end up purchasing a green in 1977 Chevy Cervé.
The loan card to drive to and from one.
September 7, 1977 started off as a normal day for the couple.
They both attended their morning classes and after Margie left for work.
From articles we've seen, there was some trouble at the bank that day.
An altercation with a man trying to enter the bank.
A loan from Margie ended up as she called the police.
The man is reported to have threatened Margie saying that he was going to quote,
going to get her for this end quote.
After hearing about the altercation, Kent Dodd called a friend in law enforcement to help Margie when she got off at 8.30.
Margie's shift was seemed to end without any incident and she left to go home while she was driving home.
For reasons we still do not know, to this day Margie will pull off the road just five miles away from the bank at the Emaco Gas and Service Station in Beaver, West Virginia.
It is believed that Margie may have been flagged down by another driver, possibly someone she knew or a person pretending to be the police officer.
Around 8.45pm, people who live near the Emaco station reported to police that they heard a woman screaming.
Witnesses also reported to police that they saw a woman get out of her car and approach another parked behind her.
John Cole was backing out of his mother's driveway around 8.45pm that evening when he heard screaming coming from the Emaco station near his mother's house.
He turned to see a man forcing a woman into a car. After getting the woman into the car, the man walked to the back of the vehicle where he retrieved her purse lying on the ground.
He snatched up the purse but left a few items that spilled lying on the ground.
He returned to the car with the purse pulled back onto Route 21 and headed north towards Beckley.
Within 15 minutes, police were on the scene. J. O. Cole and Sergeant H. H. Matter began to investigate.
One officer interviewed John Cole with the other continuing the search.
Cole described the abductor as a tall, slender male wearing blue jeans and a dark jacket.
John's 7-year-old daughter, Lori, described the man looking like Henry Winkler, better known as the Fonz.
Officers immediately began a road search of the surrounding area for the next 6 hours.
Five state troopers searched deserted roads of Raleigh County searching for the missing vehicle.
Every possible escape route was placed on watch. Every vehicle vaguely resembling the car described by Cole was stopped and the drivers were questioned.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
A search at the car left at the crime scene determined that the missing woman was Marjorie Dodd.
The police immediately contacted her husband, Kent, at the couple's shady spring home.
Upon learning that his wife's car had been found abandoned, Kent ran from the home to join police, leaving the front door open in the stereo plank.
Kent was at the Emaco station by 9.30 p.m.
Kent joined state police in the search for Marjorie. Hope was high that the officers were getting to the crime scene in 15 minutes and having the victim's name with the description of the assailant in his vehicle.
They were solved that night.
However, by 4 a.m. authorities were forced to give up on the hunt. To them, it seemed like Marjorie and her abductor vanished into thin air.
Officials were determined to learn what happened to Marjorie within the five miles from the Cardinal State Bank to the Emaco service station in Beaver.
Led by Beckley City Chief of Detectives Frank Pack and State Trooper Preston Gooden, officers began to question everyone they could determine to have contact with Marjorie on the day of her disappearance.
They began with records of customers at the Cardinal State Bank. Over the next few weeks, they interviewed over 300 people in desperate search for clues.
Kent Todd was investigated heavily during the first week after the abduction, but his alibi ruled him out as a suspect.
Due to Marjorie's friendly disposition, there were many people of interest to investigate.
Many who had not been found or have came forward.
Marjorie's abduction was very concerning because there had been several rapes, kidnappings, and suspicious disappearances in and around Beckley at that time.
A man with a car matching the suspects was reported by a tracker as seen trying to force another woman into the car.
The police were able to find the car by the license plate, but determined the car could not have been used that day as there was evidence they had not been moved.
More than a dozen women had been brutally raped in the surrounding area where Marjorie was abducted from.
The rapist was eventually apprehended, but no connection to Marjorie's abduction could be made.
Several psychics came forward claiming Marjorie came to them in a vision. Police were impressed that the psychics appeared to know details about the case that had not been previously released to the public.
With no connection being seen between the three psychics, police did notice that their visions were eerily similar.
All claimed that there had been two men involved in Marjorie's abduction, and that she knew one of the men.
They also said that her body was lying within five miles of her home, that the body was hidden under brush near a body of water, and that articles from her purse were thrown about her.
They also claimed that the murderers turned northward at a triangle in the road and proceeded to an area that appeared to have been the scene of construction work using heavy equipment to move earth.
You're listening to Milton's state mysteries.
To be honest, officers didn't place much faith into the supernatural visions. Frank Pack would remember the psychics shortly afterward when he received an anonymous phone call.
The caller claimed to have found a body while parking with a woman near the 4-H Reservoir, which from research I think it's Little Beaver State Park. He said they could not give his name because the woman he was with was not his wife, but he insisted that the call was legit.
An intense search was organized utilizing the combined forces of the Beckley City Police, the state police, and the area of volunteers. For several days, over 500 officers and volunteers combed the brushes, roadways, and banks of the 4-H Reservoir, searching for the body of Marjorie Dodge.
However, this search proved to be fruitless. However, when Pack returned from the search, he found a letter waiting for him from a psychic in Ohio.
In the letter, the psychic claimed to have included a map showing the location of Marjorie's body. The X marked the spot where the body's location was directly on the 4-H Reservoir, where they have recently been searching.
A few weeks after the abduction, on September 29, Marjorie's mother was contacted by a man over the phone claiming his brother was holding Marjorie hostage in Four Corners, West Virginia.
The closest thing I could come to find anything related to Four Corners, West Virginia is Four Corners, Virginia.
The caller also said he would have to travel to West Virginia and kill his brother so he could rescue Marjorie.
The man claimed that he could rescue Marjorie for $15,000.
The FBI traced the calls to pay phones in Akron, Ohio, where Marjorie's parents lived.
The caller went by the name Joe Bob, told Marjorie's parents that he was holding their daughter captive in a sleazy motel in Akron.
An FBI agent posing as Marjorie's uncle made plans to meet with Joe Bob to pay the ransom.
With another agent hiding in the backseat of the car, the agent picked up an African-American male and followed his instructions driving ground Akron.
When the man became a little agitated, thinking he saw police lights, he asked if they were being followed.
He turned to the agent and asked if he ever saw a gun and what it could do.
With his hand in his jacket pocket, he made a clicking noise.
The agent hidden in the backseat revealed himself and told the man to drop the weapon when he didn't.
When he wouldn't remove his hand from his pocket, the officers shot him, causing the driver to let go of the steering wheel and grab the man asking where Marjorie was.
After the car stopped, the officers reached into the man's jacket pocket and found an ink pen.
Later, it was determined that the man pretending to be Joe Bob was actually a 26-year-old ex-convent home parole named James Williams-Hindry, who had nothing to do with the abduction of Marjorie.
He only learned about her abduction in the newspaper and claimed to be the abductor to try to extort money from her desperate parents.
After this, the psychics came forward claiming that Margie came to them saying that no one cares anymore, which we know, which we all know, is the furthest thing from the truth.
In 1993, a couple of deer hunters happened upon a human skull on Little Bolt Mountain.
Police later discovered the rest of the remains under a light covering of leaves.
There had been some cold waste disposals in the area as well as some landscaping.
The remains might have been covered more previously, possibly partially unearthed from the activity.
The remains were badly decomposed, along with the remains were a dirty sweater, bell bottoms, high heel clogs, and a 70-style engagement ring.
Despite these items, the body could not be positively identified at the time.
Even the dental x-rays weren't enough to make a positive identification.
Officer Steve Tanner with the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department was in charge of the investigation of the woman on Bolt Mountain.
From the remains, a sample of DNA was able to be extracted.
Frank Pack told Steve Tanner to test for Margie Dodd.
However, Steve Tanner wanted to test for Sioux Faye Group.
A missing woman from the county, Tanner moved on to other missing women in the area.
In 2017, Sheriff Scott Faminer promised to look into cold cases.
Frank Pack asked Scott to test the DNA for Margie Dodd.
So Scott contacted Kent Dodd and had him come in and look at pictures of the items that were found with the bones on Bolt Mountain.
It took Kent three seconds to confirm it was Margie.
With DNA for Margie's brother, it was finally confirmed 24 years later that the body on Little Bolt Mountain was Margie Dodd.
In November 2017, Kent Dodd filed against the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department, the Raleigh County Commission, and Steve Tanner, claiming negligent and intention of emotional distress.
In 1980, both of Margie's parents passed away, not knowing what happened to their daughter.
Margie Dodd was cremated in 2017.
And during the ceremony, Kent Dodd released a white dove to represent Margie's family home.
46 years later, in 2023, people are still talking about Margie Dodd in her case.
There are reports of a son of a Raleigh County man contacting the Dodd family, claiming that his father is the one who abducted Margie and murdered her.
We, just like everyone else in Raleigh County, have questions as to what happened to Margie Dodd.
And we believe that one day soon, we will finally know what happened.
If you have any information on the case of Margie Dodd, please contact the Raleigh County Detachment
at the West Virginia State Police at 304-256-6700,
the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department at 304-255-9300,
or Crime Stoppers of West Virginia at 304-255-7867, or at CrimeStoppersWestVirginia.com.
You can also email us at MountaintMistries304 at gmail.com.
Courtney, do you have any final thoughts on this case?
I already have a few questions.
My first question is, the man who actually saw the abduction happen, why didn't he stop it?
Because, I mean, I just feel that her life could have been spared, her life could have been saved if he had stepped in.
I mean, you're right there and you see everything going on.
And you didn't take the opportunity to stop and question why, you know, this was going on or anything of that nature.
My next thing is, is why didn't the Sheriff's Department want to test her DNA at that particular time?
That's a good question because I'm not even sure.
I just know that Steve Tanner dropped the bone a big year ago.
It's really disturbing for the fact that that family, her body was found in 1993,
and wasn't positively identified until 2017 when her body was identified.
And for 24 years, her family had to wait for them to test and see if it was her.
I mean, that's horrible. It's absolutely horrible, it's disgusting.
I hate that her parents passed three years after her disappearance.
And, you know, you died not knowing what happened to your child.
And I can't imagine the misery that these people felt, the helplessness that they felt,
knowing that their child was out there with, you know, if their child was dead or alive or anything of that nature.
I can't imagine how her husband felt.
I mean, from 1997 to 2017, and your wife was gone all that time.
I can't imagine. And I'm really disappointed with the way that this case was handled.
I'm really sad on that disappointment. I forgot to add this in, but they actually lost all of the evidence.
So can't we have pictures of it to go by?
You know what? Doesn't shock me. Does not shock me.
Mark, do you have any final thoughts on this case?
This is like a little twisted fun fact, but we are actually recording just a few miles away from where her body was found.
It's actually a few yards from where James Lee Haynes was ran over.
But the first time I heard about this case was when I was a child.
I want to say there might have been a billboard or something with her picture on it in Becley.
But I remember my nanny telling me that she was on her way to work going across the little mountain when she saw the cops and everything.
Bring her body out, her bones and investigating that tire scene.
This case has always been a little bit of a deep dive for me.
I'm so happy we finally covered Margie's case because it's been on her list for almost a year.
I want to say maybe last Thursday we went out and we drove from where the Cardinal City Bank used to be to where the building of the Emaco station is.
And a few reports said that it was four miles, some said 4.5.
I tracked it and it was exactly five miles from the bank to the station.
At the end of the day I'm just happy Margie's body was found.
However, it makes me so mad.
Like I said earlier that Steve Tanner dropped the ball in a major way and never tested the DNA for Margie.
The case could have been solved long before 2017.
Next time on Mountain State Mysteries we're going to tell you one of West Virginia's most intriguing cases.
The case of the Sotter family.
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