MA MA - Charles McArthur, 39, Worcester, 14 Sept 1982

[Kat]

The Doe Network:
Case File 3576DMMA

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3576dmma.html

Charles Hector McArthur Jr.
Missing since September 14, 1982 from Worcester, Massachusetts
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics
•Date Of Birth: April 20, 1943
•Estimated age: 39 years old
•Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 6' 1/2"; circa 235 lbs. Very muscular.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Dark brown hair, green eyes, full beard, very deep dimples, and a dimple on his chin.
•Marks, Scars: Bill had a tattoo on his bottom left arm of an Eagle in color. He also had a tattoo on his upper arm, ribbon effect with his name Bill in ballpoint pen (like kids used to do in the fifties).
•Medical: Had recently suffered a mild heart attack, had surgery for a mastoidectomy, possibly right ear.
•Clothing: A leather motorcycle jacket, Khaki or Black "Dockers", a light colored short sleeve shirt, and dark, tie-up shoes.
•AKA: Bill
•Dentals: Available in NCIC. Full upper denture, partial lower denture and some natural teeth, slight possibility he had full lower dentures.



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Circumstances of Disappearance
In the months before his disappearance, McArthur had seemed troubled. At the time he was married and had two children. He worked as a supervisor at the Harrington & Richardson firearms company in Gardner

Years of investigation has revealed that McArthur was holding some drugs for someone, which he gave to a friend, who never gave them back. As the persn wanted those drugs, McArthur was getting nervous because he didn’t have them.
The day of his disappearance, McArthur's daughter answered a phone call from someone, whose name she has since forgotten. She took a message. When her father got home, she told him the caller said to go to the Italian Kitchen on Shrewsbury Street. He went, as directed, and never came back.

The police learned that three men had escorted McArthur out of the restaurant. Two weeks later, his Thunderbird was found on the outskirts of Boston’s Combat Zone with two weeks worth of parking tickets at the windshield. His leather jacket and cigarettes were inside.

The prime suspect in the disappearance is still alive, but others who were likely involved have died.
Evidence indicated that McArthur was shot and his body was most likely dumped in water. Police searched lakes and ponds in the area after the disappearance.
McArthur has been declared legally dead.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Worcester Police Department
Detective Dan Sullivan
Detective William Donovan
508-799-8606 EXT 5681

Source Information:
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mcarthur_charles.html

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/7854/0/
NamUs Profile:
Dental: NA
DNA: Sample submitted-tests not complete
Fingerprints: NA

http://www.telegram.com/article/20070930/UNSOLVED/883555123
Sunday, September 30, 2007

Snipped:

And although 25 years have passed, she still cries when she talks about the man she loved. More than anything, she wants his body returned to her for burial. She isn’t so much worried about punishing those responsible.

Touching article about how the families of murder victims who are never found are impacted. Prayers.

Charles has been missing for almost 28 years. Come home soon.

 

[summer_breeze]

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120625/NEWS/306259961/0/NEWS07

Monday, June 25, 2012
By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — There was a man's voice on the telephone. He wanted Charles “Bill” H. McArthur Jr. to go to the Italian Kitchen on Shrewsbury Street.

Mr. McArthur obliged. He was never seen again.

The circumstances surrounding the 39-year-old's disappearance include drugs, money and — most likely — murder.

 

[Coffee56]

The 72 Unsolved Murders & Missing Persons Cases in Worcester

 

[Atombudd]

Unsolved, unsettling
Unsolved, unsettling
Sometimes, Karen L. McArthur laughs at jokes she doesn’t really get.
“I’m naive,” she admits. “I’ve always been.”
Her naivetê is probably part of the reason she never knew, back in the early 1980s, that her husband was involved in some dangerous activities.
Today, she believes those activities got him killed in 1982.
And although 25 years have passed, she still cries when she talks about the man she loved. More than anything, she wants his body returned to her for burial. She isn’t so much worried about punishing those responsible.
When Mrs. McArthur was 17, her sister brought home Charles Hector McArthur Jr. for her to check out. “Bill,” as he was known, was smitten with Karen and spent an entire night sitting in front of her house waiting for her. He followed her down the street, telling her that she would marry him one day. She wasn’t so sure.
“I was a plain girl,” she said. “I wondered what he wanted with me. He was so handsome.”
They were still “kids” when they married in 1963, she said. They had a daughter and a son, then bought a house on the outskirts of the city after someone assaulted their daughter as she rode her bike near Dewey Street. They settled into a pretty normal life -- or so Karen McArthur thought.
In the months before his disappearance, her husband had seemed troubled. A big, strapping, fearless man, he was reduced to tears one night when Karen tried to convince him to talk about what was wrong. She thought the mild heart attack he had recently suffered may have affected him.
“I asked him what was wrong, and he said he couldn’t tell me,” she said. “He was in an absolute panic.”
After years of investigation, a story has come to light, she said, and as hard as it is for her to tell it, it makes sense.
Her husband had a girlfriend, she said, a timekeeper he knew from his job as a supervisor at the Harrington & Richardson firearms company in Gardner. He was holding some drugs for someone and the girlfriend didn’t want them in her house, so he gave them to a friend, who never gave them back.
However, someone wanted those drugs, or the money they would have brought, so Mr. McArthur was getting nervous because he didn’t have them. He calmed down a bit one night when he came home with a lot of cash, and he was apparently going to get the rest of the money the following evening. But whoever told him that he’d be paid had lied.
The next day, his daughter, Lisa Marie, answered a phone call from someone whose name she has since forgotten. She took a message. When her father got home, she told him the caller said to go to the Italian Kitchen on Shrewsbury Street.
He went, as directed, and never came back.
During his investigation, then-Worcester police Detective Stanley R. Carpenter learned that three men had escorted Mr. McArthur out of the restaurant. Two weeks later, his beloved Thunderbird was found on the outskirts of Boston’s Combat Zone with two weeks’ worth of parking tickets plastered to the windshield. His leather jacket and cigarettes were inside. Mr. McArthur was gone.
“Will this ever be solved? I think not,” said Mr. Carpenter, now a private investigator who operates C&C Investigations in Auburn. “At the time, everybody did what they could. ... But without a body? Back then the DA wouldn’t be able to prosecute a case without a body.”
The prime suspect, a man who now lives in another country, is still alive, but others who were likely involved have died, he said.
The date of Mr. McArthur’s disappearance, Sept. 14, 1982, was the beginning of some unforgettably hard times for Mrs. McArthur and her children.
The Thunderbird, which Lisa Marie McArthur Berthel said she had hoped someday to have as her own, was repossessed.
“It was maroon, and it drove like a dream,” she said. “Instead, I got my mom’s Vega.”
Her father’s motorcycle was sold.
The McArthurs learned to love macaroni and cheese.
Mrs. McArthur thought about suicide. Detective Carpenter talked her out of it. Seven years later, he testified in court to have Mr. McArthur declared dead so that his wife could collect a small amount of benefits.
At a memorial service at that time, a small fraction of Mr. McArthur’s friends showed up.
And Mrs. McArthur cried. She cried all the way to work at her minimum-wage job and all the way home. She hid in the bathroom on her breaks and cried some more. Sometimes, alone in her car, she would scream and scream, she said. Once, when she could only buy a few of the pills her son needed for an ear infection, she broke down into tears in the pharmacy.
Mr. McArthur’s family had ended up exactly where he had always hoped they wouldn’t.
When he was 14, Mr. McArthur’s mother died. One of 10 children, he watched as relatives came by, collected his family’s belongings, picked out a sibling or two to raise, and left. When they’d all gone, only he remained. He felt as if no one wanted him.
He went off to live with his father in a hotel where he routinely saw prostitutes and other criminal activities unfit for a young teenager’s eyes, his wife said. The experience stayed with him, and when he had a family of his own, he looked after them with tenacity. ” ‘Me and mine,’ he used to say,” his daughter Lisa recalled. “Me and mine.”
Mr. McArthur’s sister, Tammylou A. Dascho, didn’t discover until she was an adult that she was not the biological daughter of the people she had called mom and dad, and that she had a big brother named Bill. She quickly grew to love him once they became reacquainted. They rode motorcycles together, she said, making up for lost time. She was pregnant in 1982, and her brother was excited about having a niece or nephew. But by the time the baby was born, Mr. McArthur had been missing for weeks. He never saw the baby.
In the home that Karen McArthur has struggled to keep up, with its welcoming country décor, she, Tammylou and Lisa Marie talked about Mr. McArthur last week. They agreed that he had “gotten in over his head” before his disappearance
Mr. Carpenter, the investigator who still keeps a file on the case, agrees. He used the same words: “He was somebody who had gotten in over his head.”
They also agreed that Mr. McArthur probably knew he was going to be killed. Mr. Carpenter said the evidence he collected indicated that Mr. McArthur was shot and his body was most likely dumped “in water.”
Police searched lakes and ponds in the area after the disappearance. They pulled several cars from Lake Quinsigamond during their efforts to find the missing man.
“The lake has many secrets that will never be uncovered,” Mr. Carpenter said.
Still, Mrs. McArthur is hopeful that she may someday have some small piece of her husband to lay in the empty grave she owns and visits regularly. When she hears of remains being found, sometimes she calls police and asks, “Could it be Bill?” She tried unsuccessfully a few years ago to have investigators collect DNA from her son or her brother-in-law so that, should a discovered body yield a match, she could have some peace. The police declined.
Timothy J. Connolly, spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said there is no statute of limitations on murder and that the office’s recently established unresolved case unit is looking into many old cases. Any new information about Mr. McArthur’s disappearance could trigger a renewed effort to find those responsible or to locate his body, he said.
And after a quarter-century, that is all Karen McArthur is asking for.

 

[Pennysmom2]

Aug 9, 2012

McArthur family desperate for answers

There was a man's voice on the telephone. He wanted Charles “Bill” H. McArthur Jr. to go to the Italian Kitchen on Shrewsbury Street. Mr. McArthur obliged. He was never seen again. The circumstan…

www.telegram.com

3576DMMA - Charles Hector McArthur

<<Distinguishing Marks/Features: Bill had a tattoo on his bottom left arm of an Eagle in color, He also had a tattoo on his upper arm, ribbon effect with his name Bill in ballpoint pen (like kids used to do in the fifties), Had recently suffered a mild heart attack, had surgery for a mastoidectomy, possibly right ear, Full upper denture, partial lower denture and some natural teeth, slight possibility he had full lower dentures, Full beard, Very deep dimples, and a Dimple on his chin

Identifiers​

Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available>>

 

[Pennysmom1]

Oct 10, 2023

Unsolved: Worcester - Charles McArthur - Sept. 14, 1982

Episode 2 of Unsolved: Worcester Season 6 tells the story of the disappearance of Charles McArthur on Sept. 14, 1982.

thisweekinworcester.com

June 3, 2024

40+ years ago man left for Italian Kitchen, was never seen again

Even with loads of identifying information to go on, Charles H. McArthur vanished without a trace more than 40 years ago

theworcesterguardian.org

Charles Hector McArthur Jr. – The Charley Project

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McArthur, circa 1982

Case Details | City of Worcester, MA

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