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I'm your host Mark and this week I have an update for you on a case that we covered in
season one of Mountain State Mysteries.
I know you're probably wondering where Courtney is but this week I'm on vacation and I knew
I had to bring you the newest updates on the case of Judy Petty from Parkersburg, West
Virginia.
Today I wanted to bring you a few updates on the case of Judy Petty.
Here's a quick recap on Judy's case before I get into the updates.
On Wednesday, February 6, 2008, around 5 p.m., 48-year-old Judith Petty, who also went by
Judy, left her grandmother's house to return a book and some DVDs to the local library.
Instead of driving, she decided to walk the 7 miles to the Wood County Library by 8 p.m.
when Judy had not returned, her family started to worry.
The Petty family contacted the local police department and started a search of their own.
Sadly that night, they couldn't find Judy.
Judy's remains were found two days later in the basement of a cellar on the family's
farm 13 miles away from her grandmother's house.
The house and the surrounding buildings burnt to the ground.
The fire was so hot that what started the fire is still unknown.
No one knows how or why Judy ended up on the family farm.
Not much is really known about the final hours of Judy's life.
What is known is that Judy was walking on Laurel Creek Road as the sun was setting.
Everyone knew that Judy loved to walk and that she preferred it over driving even though
she had a car.
Her family knew that she didn't have her cell phone and that she was a diabetic.
They were afraid that she had a hypoglycemic attack without any way of contacting them.
Around 10 p.m. Judy's family contacted the Parkersburg Police Department to file a missing
persons report.
They were told that they could not make a report until it's been 24 hours.
So with her family being told that, they decided to go out on their own and search for Judy.
Her father basically knew that was a direct route to the family farm.
So he concentrated his search to the east.
He drove by the farm and stopped but he didn't notice anything out of place at the gate.
The next morning around 7 a.m. he drove back to the gate of the farm where he decided he
would try to drive up the driveway even though he knew it was muddy.
He parked his truck about halfway and decided to walk the rest.
When he got to the property he saw that the farmhouse and the cellar had been consumed
by fire.
He ran to a nearby house and dialed 911.
Not too long after Mr. Petty placed the call, units started to arrive to the scene.
The driveway was so muddy that the firefighters had to take a brush truck up the driveway
just to make it to the house.
They told the Petty's that they basically needed to let it burn before they could do
anything with the fire.
In chief Danny Goodwin with the Wood County Fire Investigation Team arrived, he said right
then and there that it would be hard to determine what started the fire.
On February 9th they started to search the grounds for any sign of Judy.
When they made it to the cellar they found the burnt remains of Judy, crawled up in the
corner just at the bottom of the steps.
Judy's remains were burned so bad that the only way authorities were able to identify
her were through her dental records.
Judy's autopsy showed that there was no carbon monoxide in her lungs, showing the medical
examiner that she was dead before the fire even started.
The medical examiner labeled Judy's death as extremely suspicious.
There isn't too many witnesses who saw Judy walking that night, however there were a few
who saw her.
Some witnesses saw Judy walking on Laurel Creek Road which they then think she took Alman
Hill Road and walked onto Jericho Road.
Here Judy accepted a ride from Chris.
If you remember in our season 1 finale, I said to me there wasn't a reason to mark Chris
off just yet.
However there is now a good reason to mark him off the list of suspects.
In today's update there is more information and a couple new suspects being added to the
list.
The first one is Mitchell Wright.
He was 24 years old in 2008 and his name was brought in by a source who mentioned Billy's
wrecking goss was Mitchell's uncle.
It's said that Billy told someone that Mitchell killed Judy and that his uncles helped cover
the crime up and threw Judy into the cellar and set it on fire.
In 2017 Mitchell died from an overdose on heroin.
Years prior Mitchell was in a bad car accident where they had to pin part of his hips to
his pelvis.
After that he started to get addicted to pain peels and in 2008 he was fully addicted to
peels.
In Parkersburg he was known as the thief.
It's said that Mitchell would drive around during the day and he would be looking for
places to steal things off of people's property.
He would then resell it just so that he could afford his pill addiction.
In 2008 Mitchell had a major change in his behavior to the point where him and his wife
ended up getting a divorce.
With all of this being said who's to say that Judy didn't walk up to the house because
it was cold that night and she was going to call her family to pick her up.
Who's to say that Mitchell wasn't on the property trying to steal something.
His uncle Billy was basically the neighbor to the petty farm.
Who's to say that he knew the petties weren't living there and that he knew it was safe
to steal.
To me this is all hearsay right now but there's three key elements in any crime.
Means, motive and opportunity and honestly Mitchell had them all.
He could have had the chance to kill Judy.
The second name that has been brought up is one I've already mentioned in this episode
Billy Shrekengoss.
Billy lived.5 miles from the petty farm.
From Billy's farm you can get to the petty farm by some trails through the woods.
It's said Billy also had a crush on Judy and her sister so the petty family knew him without
him just being a neighbor to their farm.
It's said that Billy was also a regular at the Sundance bar.
He would also use some drugs and that he would be fine one minute then two had to function
the next.
People also said that Billy tried to make LSD in college and that they think it really
messed him up.
Billy was basically a loner and no one really wanted to interact with him.
The Sundance bar closed early the night of Judy's death and it was said that people remember
Billy being there and maybe he went to go get something somewhere else and ended up walking
into the woods to his farm and saw Judy there that night and tried to do something to her
and ended up killing her.
With this theory both Judy and Billy knew each other and Judy was always nice to him.
Maybe he realized she was there by herself and tried to take advantage of her.
Everyone said Billy was crazy from talking to himself to talking about aliens being in
his backyard.
But they also said he was extremely smart and that he could flip the crazy off like
a light switch.
It's also known that Billy stole from the Petty farm.
Mr. Petty actually remembers his sawmill being stolen and being found on Billy's property
and get this all of the stealing stopped after Judy died.
Did it stop because Billy didn't want to return to the scene of a crime?
He definitely can't say there wasn't anything to steal after the fires because from the
crime scene pictures you can see that there was definitely a whole lot more.
In 2015 Billy committed suicide.
I realize that both of the people I mentioned in this update episode have passed away.
I realize I've thrown some of my own theories out there.
I also know that law enforcement in Parkersburg are taking another look into this case after
people have came forward with these names.
To me these are some of the strongest leads I've ever seen in this case.
They could only get stronger from here.
If you or anyone you know has any information about the death of Judy Petty you can email
the confidential tip line tips at justiceforjudy.com.
Or you can call the confidential number 224-225-5208.
All tipsters are guaranteed confidential.
Tips can also be reported directly to the Wood County Sheriff's Tip Line at 304-834-3919.
Stay tuned for our next episode, The Murder of a Matriarch, where Courtney and I will
be back to tell you the story of Juliette Buffington-Inslow.
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