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I'm your host Marc.
And I'm Courtney.
And this is Mountain State Mysteries.
Welcome to the season one finale of Mountain State Mysteries.
We're going to be doing things a little different for this episode.
I know this story and will be telling it to your listeners and Courtney for the first
time today.
This is the story of the mysterious death of Judith Paddy.
On Wednesday, February 6, 2008, around 5 p.m., 48-year-old Judith Paddy, who also went by
Judy, so I will call her Judy from here on out, left her grandmother's house to return
some books and DVDs to the local library.
Instead of driving, she decided to walk the seven miles to the Wood County Library.
By 8 p.m., when Judy had not returned, her family started to worry.
The Paddy 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 sailor on her family's
farm 13 miles away from her grandmother's house.
Was it 13 miles total or was it including where she went to the library?
13 miles total.
It's pretty long distance.
You're telling me that they found her remains?
You heard that right.
The house and the surrounding buildings burnt to the ground.
The fire was so hot that what started the fire is still undetermined to this day.
No one knows why or how Judy ended up on the family farm.
I'm not trying to sound horrible or anything of that nature, but you're telling me to
this day that they still cannot figure out what caused the fire and they can easily pinpoint
what started the fire or something like that.
It's like, oh my God, it was a random little match that just mysteriously went up.
I think it's just because it was so hot.
I'm not honestly too sure.
I know that in the podcast Safe Haven, the murder of Judith Paddy, they actually are
having an arson expert and a fire chief and all that look into it more than what's ever
been looked into.
I know I'm not saying as of right now, no, there's like no way of them to know, but soon
there could be.
I mean, honestly, I'm not trying to sound stupid, but there's pretty much like they
can pinpoint if it's arson.
I mean, it's just one of those things.
They can pinpoint it.
And I just right now at this way, the sounds this right here also just shows that this
right wasn't like done right.
It wasn't done right at all.
Not much is known about the final hours of Judy's life.
One thing that is known is that Judy was seen walking on Laurel Creek Road as the sun was
setting.
Everyone knew Judy loved to walk and that she preferred it over driving even though
she did have a car.
But by 8 30, just three hours and 30 minutes after Judy left, her family got worried.
When Judy didn't have her cell phone, 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.
Shockingly, they were told that no report could be made until it's been 24 hours.
To me, if someone has a medical condition, it's bull.
But they get told they have to wait 24 hours.
In all honesty, I think it's bull.
If anyone goes missing, they get told they have to wait 24 hours and basically go look
for themselves.
To me, if they would have went and looked automatically, Judy could technically be here right now
and we wouldn't have to tell her story.
I just, I'm already getting frustrated.
With her family being told that, they decided that it was best for them to just go out and
search for Judy on their own.
Starting at her grandmother's home, that was located on 36th Street, better known as
Old St. Mary's Pike.
Her father knew it was basically a direct route to the family farm.
He concentrated his search to the east.
For hours, Judy's father drove the back roads of Parkersburg that would lead to the family
farm.
He actually stopped at the gate to the farm a few times, not seeing anything or any signs
of Judy.
So he decided not to drive up to the farm.
He continued driving on the back roads until around 2am.
After listening to Melon State Mysteries.
At 7am the next morning, Judy's father decided to drive the back roads again, where he ended
up at the gate of the farm again.
This time, he decided he would try to drive up the road to the farm.
He made it about half the way up, and he had to park his truck and make the rest of the
trip on foot.
When he made it up to the top of the hill, he saw the farmhouse and the outbuilding have
been consumed by fire.
Mr. Petty ran to a nearby house to grab a cell phone and ran back up the hill to calm
911.
In an interview with the podcast Safe Haven, the unsolved murderer Judith Petty, her father
said there was no cell service at the bottom of the hill, so he had to go back up to the
top where there was service.
I got a question here.
If he went to a nearby house to get a cell phone, whose house did he go to?
That I'm not sure.
By the time that this went around, cell phones were just then becoming popular, service really
did suck.
Not too long after he called, all units began to arrive at the foot of the hill.
Sadly, with how wet the driveway was, it was basically impossible for the fire department
and others to make it up the hill.
Using a brush truck, a few firefighters were able to make it up the hill.
However, they basically told the Petty's that all they could do is let the fire burn out.
Judith's family couldn't understand why they couldn't figure out a way to hook a hose up
to something and get water out of a pond that was behind the house.
Years later, the house and the outbuilding have been burned to the ground.
Chief Danny Goodwin, with the Wood County Fire Investigation Team, said right then and
there that it would likely be impossible to determine the cause of the fire.
With all of this happening at the family's farm, Judith's family was still left with
the question of where was Judy?
Her disappearance had been broadcasted all over the radio stations and the local news
stations.
So they didn't even check in there for remains.
On February 9th, the search of the cellar started.
This is when they found the burned remains of Judy Petty, crawled up in a corner just
at the bottom of the steps.
They're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
Judy's remains were burned so bad the only way authorities were able to identify her
remains was by her dental records, with the information getting around the town of Parkersburg.
Some believe that Judy made her way up to the family farm and started a fire because
of how cold it was at night.
However, it's said that the house had electricity in it at the time so Judy could have just
turned the heat on.
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's office labeled Judy's death as extremely suspicious.
You don't say.
After that, Judy's remains were sent to the Smithsonian for further examination, which
showed that the damage done to Judy's bones had more than likely been caused by the fire.
Okay, now I'm just going to say this much right now.
That don't make no sense.
I mean, could the Smithsonian had determined what happened to her?
Sadly, no.
But here's what I'm going to say.
When they do cremation, the bones do not burn.
They have to crush them because they will not burn.
So you're telling me that that fire caused so much damage to her bones that they could
not determine what happened to her.
Sadly, no.
On the night Judy died, two children were killed in another house fire.
Maybe we had a little arsonist on the loose or something like that.
It none of this makes sense.
I just don't think that they could be related to you.
No.
The reason I'm actually telling you this is that during the following week, Judy's
remains were actually mixed up with the children's and she was buried in the wrong spot.
How in the hell did that happen?
Is he right?
Damn straight it is.
In the podcast Safe Haven, her mother said they only found out when it was put in the
newspaper the morning of the day they were going to have a service for Judy.
And the one thing everyone was worried about is if the family was going to sue them.
Her mother said, we just want our daughter.
We don't want to sue anyone.
So I've got another question.
Now, do you mistake adult bones with children's bones?
That I don't know.
I need somebody here to explain this to me because you knew I was going to have 50 million
questions.
I don't know what you're talking about.
If there was a mix up, how did her body end up, her bones end up at the Smithsonian?
She went to the Smithsonian before.
But even when they come back, how do her bones get mixed up?
I guess there was like one funeral home or something Parker's part.
I'm not sure.
And they were both at the same funeral home.
But you're telling me that you've got bones laying there and there's quite an obvious
difference between children's and grown as adults bones and they get mixed up.
So one of the biggest questions is, did she walk to the library?
Did somebody pick her up?
So with that, they still aren't sure about it.
They still have no idea if Judy actually walked to the library or if someone picked
her up.
Like I said before, there is a witness who saw Judy on Laurel Creek Road miles away from
her grandmother's house.
From Laurel Creek Road, they think Judy could have taken Elman Hill Road and walked onto
Jericho Road.
Now from here, it's said that Judy walked a little bit then accepted a ride from a guy
named Chris.
Just said he only drove Judy about one third mile and dropped her off at the driveway of
her family farm.
He said that Judy seemed to be acting normal and that there was no sign of distress.
If you listen to the Safe Haven podcast, they will get more into Chris.
So from the gate, Judy would have walked up the muddy driveway to the family farm.
I'm just curious, did anybody else see her with him?
No, but a few people did offer Judy a ride, but she declined, each and every person, other
than Chris.
I'm just curious, if she knew him, did she know anybody else offered a ride?
I forgot, oh jeez, so many questions.
That we're not sure about.
I'm going to say Chris said that he didn't know her, but that he's seen her walking
around.
But it's said that Judy had on a jean jacket and steel-toed boots, so maybe she was just
cold and maybe she was tired and just decided to take a ride from him.
And it is definitely confirmed that she walked up to the farm.
Yes, Judy's dad said that he actually saw a footprint in the muddy driveway, which to
me, if he could only make it up halfway, I don't see another person being able to make
it up the driveway.
Well, I understand that right there, but are they sure that it's even her footprints?
See that, I'm not sure yet.
I'm not sure if they took an imprint of it to see.
Evidently not.
Was it anybody even like seeing the flames?
Well, when Judy's dad walked up on the burnt house, there were still two feet of flames
coming from the debris.
The only things neighbors remember were dogs barking like crazy.
They couldn't see any flames.
So it was that well protected around that barn to where nobody could see flames.
You could not see a glaze.
Which I will say from like Google Earth, it is like surrounded by woods and all that.
But still, it's February.
There are no leaves on the trees.
Was it pine trees?
I'm not sure.
I mean, things of that nature, you can pinpoint a glow in the night.
We're listening to Mount Stade Mysteries.
According to the official Fire Marshals report, it says the ground between the house and the
outbuilding wasn't burnt.
So either the flames jumped or someone set both of the buildings on fire after they killed
Judy.
So how far was in between the buildings?
It was 32 feet and there was a camper right next to the outbuilding that wasn't touched
by flames.
But there was a motorcycle and a truck that were burnt.
Along with that, the report also says that Judy's body was laying east to south.
Her head appearing to be east and her feet to the south.
So to put a picture in everyone's head, Judy's head would have been next to the wall with
her feet closer to the steps.
They can figure all that out, but they can't figure out how this fire started.
I mean, they figured it out because her remains were there.
But this right here is his, her body was curled up.
I know there's no pictures of her remains, but where her remains were.
So I'm thinking that possibly maybe she could have been in the fetal position or something
that makes the most sense to me.
So like I said before, I'm not sure if the fire jumped or if someone set the two buildings
on fire at different times just to have the evidence of a murder.
It's still not said if Chris had anything to do with it or not.
All he says is that he just dropped her off and left.
He's always been helpful to the police and everyone who's had any questions.
Not for me, I'm not ruling him out just yet.
For 15 years, Judy's family has grieved the loss of a life taken far too soon.
The pain is only amplified by the lack of answers surrounding her death.
Someone out there knows something that could help detectives solve this case and give Judy
the justice she deserves.
If that person is listening to the podcast or if you know anything about the strange
death of Judy Petty in 2008, it's time to speak up.
If you have any information on the death of Judy Petty, please call the Wood County,
West Virginia Prosecuting Attorney Office at 304-424-1776.
Or you can call the American Military University's Cold Case Tip Line at 224-225-5208.
To learn more about Judy's case, listen to the podcast, Safe Haven, The Unsolved Murder
of Judith Petty, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Courtney, do you have any final thoughts on this case?
I've never been so frustrated by a case.
This is honestly one of the most frustrating ones I have ever listened to.
I'm sure that it has been very well vocalized about this.
It's just, I feel our justice system fails the victims so much.
I feel that she has failed in every aspect about this.
I definitely feel that she has failed by the investigators.
I feel this poor woman's life was ended way too early.
And I just feel, I just honestly, I just feel every single bit of this has just been failed.
It's just been a failure.
And it upsets me because we have come so far with technology now to help with solving
murders.
I mean, people now, you can take a 23 a May and they can find a murderer.
But you can't find the cause of a fire?
No, it's just, it's frustrating.
I'm just extremely frustrated with this case.
100% frustrated.
Mark the Honey Thoughts.
In the beginning, I had no idea about this case.
A few months ago, I came across the podcast, Safe Haven.
Let me tell you, Melissa, Justin, and Jennifer have been hitting the ground running with
this case.
There is so much that they have found out that was not said in 2008, that was not released.
They are basically leaving no stone unturned when it comes to Judy's case.
I basically became fascinated with this case.
I mean, you can ask Courtney, I was like, Oh my God, this is this.
Ask your person, you know, in Parker'sburg about this case.
And I'm like, don't search it.
So I am at the end of the day, I just want all of the justice to be served.
And I truly believe that maybe one day they are able to find out what happened to Judy.
So Courtney, are you guys ready for season two as I am?
I am.
Next time on Mountain State Mysteries, we're going to tell you the story of our most requested
case.
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