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I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The story we have for you today is about an army sergeant who disappeared without a trace.
Some say he was a victim of the mad butcher. Others say he was a victim of three men after a bar room fight.
This is the story of James Lee Haines.
James Lee Haines was born on August 10, 1932 in Moorhead, Kentucky.
His father was Archie Haines, 19, and his mother, Edna Joel Haines, 17.
James married Theda Ruth Arnold in 1959.
We know his mother married Vernon Clay. We aren't sure if James's parents got a divorce or she remarried due to his father's passing.
James was a 32-year-old U.S. Army Sergeant who sadly went missing on December 7, 1963.
Fifty-nine years later, there are still questions about his disappearance.
James lived in Baltimore, Maryland, along with his wife and three children.
James was coming home to visit his mother and stepfather for Christmas in Salisville, West Virginia, located in Wyoming County.
James decided to leave the family car with his wife and children.
He decided to hitchhike the 370-mile trip from Baltimore to Wyoming County, West Virginia.
His trip was mostly uneventful, that is, until he got to Bolt, West Virginia.
He decided to stop in a local tavern in Bolt to warm up because it was a chilly December night.
The tavern was located in what is now a wide spot across from the road from Breckinridge Road.
Sadly, James ended up getting into the fight with three men at the tavern.
James Cazord, James Floyd Cox, and William Lundy Trump.
We have no idea what started the fight or what the reasoning for it was.
After things settled down, James decided to leave the tavern and head to Salisville.
After he left, the three men decided to follow him.
When they turned up Bolt Mountain heading towards Glen Rogers, West Virginia, they saw James walking.
When they saw James, they ran him over and to make sure he was dead, they backed over him.
A man who were going called John Doe, who was at the tavern that night,
recalled turning up the mountain and a few feet off the side of the road.
There was a wide spot where he saw the three men pulled over with their trunk open.
Not to lose any momentum, he rolled down the window and asked if they needed any help.
They told him no, and he went on his way.
The very next day, he heard about James going missing.
You're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
A few weeks later, a cook at Glen Rogers High School recalled one of Lundy Trump's family members
telling her how he brought the body of James home and had his wife help wrap him up in a blanket.
He allegedly stuck the body in a room that just had a dirt floor.
Soon after James' arrival at his mother and stepfather's home, he was reported missing.
Not too long after he was reported missing, authorities got a tip and started a search for James on Bolt Mountain.
The search led authorities to an area where they found a tree that had his dog tags nailed to it,
his wallet, and a few bloody rags stuffed in a tree stump.
However, they weren't able to find the body of James.
A year later, in 1964, James Lee Haynes was declared dead.
James Paul Cazort, James Floyd Cox, and William Lundy Trump was allegedly heard bragging about the murder of James.
Police have had around 150 interviews of people testifying to the confession of the three.
In 1971, Trump was arrested and charged with the murder of Haynes.
Sadly, the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence.
James Cazort, who moved to Oregon, was questioned in 1971.
His brother promised to tell authorities where the body of Haynes was located if James didn't tell him.
Sadly, this was a broken promise.
At this time, authorities say changes are unlikely.
In 2015, the family of James went to the property of Trump.
The room that had the dirt floor at the time of the murder was a room they were curious about.
They used ground scanning equipment.
They actually saw something on it.
Sadly, it was just a rock.
Since then, we haven't heard any updates on the case.
James Haynes hasn't been seen alive since 1963.
However, his spirit has made an appearance a few times since then.
A listener messaged us.
He heard our second episode would be on James.
He told us that his wife and daughter, Anna Cazin,
had seen a man standing out in various points of their property.
When his daughter and cousin told him about the man who disappeared,
they both described him in the same outfit that his wife saw him in.
He told us he wasn't originally from the area, so he did some research on missing persons
because he didn't imagine knowing anything like that.
He determined that the man they could be seeing wearing military-type clothing
so he searched missing soldiers or missing persons in both West Virginia on Google.
The guy he saw was James Lee Haynes.
He talked to an older person in the area,
and he told that the boys killed James on Bolt Mountain,
and they buried him in a holler where he came off of the mountain down off a bolt.
He never really thought anything else about it until his boss had a random encounter
with a woman who claimed to be the Claire Foyant and mentioned his name
and said that they had a spirit that they were dealing with, but not to worry.
He was just a soldier trying to find his way home, and they needed to help him find peace.
The listener said he is not a person who is easily freaked out or anything,
but he didn't dabble in paranormal.
He said he called the Wyoming County Sheriff's Department because they were the ones handling the case.
They said that they were going to come down and do something to see if they could find his body.
Sadly, they never showed up. He said they've never seen his spirit again.
The next paranormal story actually comes from the home Haynes was taken to after he was murdered.
A woman who lived there years later were going to call her Jane Doe.
She and her family would be asleep and everything would be off in the house.
She said she would wake up in the middle of the night to watch what she thought was the TV being on.
However, she walked in the living room and saw that it was actually the radio.
She said it was always this one song, North to Alaska by Johnny Horan.
In 2015, she learned from the daughter of Haynes that North to Alaska was James' favorite song.
If you have any information on the remains of James Lee Haynes, please call the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office at 304-255-9300
or call the Wyoming County Sheriff's Office at 304-732-8000.
If you think you are able to assist, Courtney, do you have any final thoughts before we sign off?
I just, I don't know. I mean, it's so weird now because the tavern that he allegedly was at,
it was the only tour down just a few years ago, maybe about 10 years max.
I was that. I never really knew much about this until you told me and we started investigating a little bit on it.
And, you know, it's so funny because it's something that my grandmother was telling me about along with my mom.
It was something that they knew well about, but I never knew anything about it.
So, you know, that was quite interesting.
I hate that this has happened to him. I hate that this happened to his family.
I hate that his family never really got any justice for what was done.
I mean, that's the sad part about everything because I will say it again just the way that I said last time.
A wife and his children lost their husband and their father.
His mother and stepfather lost a son and his life was ended.
And you had three other people who went on living normal lives.
And it's really sad and it just makes you wonder why no justice was ever done with this.
I hate it more than anything. Do you have anything to add?
I mean, just knowing where the house is, seeing it for all these years,
knowing that they've done investigations and all that, and I didn't add this in.
But the woman who actually lives on the property said that her kids would always bring buttons that would be like off of an army jacket or something like that.
And she never thought anything of it until 2015 and sadly she threw the buttons away.
It was like almost 50 years right there before you even really thought anything about it.
I really hate that, but in all honesty, if there's any information that you think could help,
please reach out to the Sheriff's Department and the phone numbers that we have gave you.
Next time on Mountain State Mysteries, we're going to tell the story of Elizabeth Mae Williams-Aggie.
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Mountain State Mysteries