OH OH - Stephanie Pelfrey, 37, Chillicothe, 10 Jan 1974

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Stephanie Pelfrey

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Original


Missing Person / NamUs #MP89685
Stephanie Pelfrey, Female, White / Caucasian
Date of Last Contact: January 10, 1974
Missing From: Chillicothe, Ohio
Missing Age: 37 Years

Physical Description
Hair Color:Brown
Head Hair Description
--
Body Hair Description
--
Facial Hair Description
--
Left Eye Color:Green
Right Eye Color:Green
Eye Description
--
Distinctive Physical Features
No Information Entered
Clothing and Accessories
Item
Description
Jewelry: Gold wedding band

Circumstances of Disappearance: Stephanie was last seen in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1974.
 
Stephanie E. Pelfrey – The Charley Project
Added to the Charley Project

Pelfrey was last seen in Chillicothe, Ohio on January 10, 1974. She lived on Route 1 and Reservation Circle. She has never been heard from again. For unclear reasons, she was not reported missing until September 1975. Her husband divorced her on the grounds of willful absence around that time.

When Pelfrey's father died in 1999, his obituary mentioned that he had a daughter who was missing. Few details are available in her case, but she is presumed deceased.
 
There are a couple of odd things here: Stephanie vanished on 10th of January, 1974. There's no info about that last sighting.
No one informed the LE until September, 1975, a year and nine months after Stephanie's last known sighting. Shortly before, on July, her huband, William E. Pelfrey, divorced her on the grounds of willful absence.
www.newspapers.com

Divorce ad

Clipping found in Chillicothe Gazette published in Chillicothe, Ohio on 7/7/1975. Divorce ad
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com

Her family, on their behalf, had other theory:
www.newspapers.com

Article clipped from Chillicothe Gazette

Clipping found in Chillicothe Gazette published in Chillicothe, Ohio on 5/26/1979.
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com

I think this is her son's obituary. Stephanie (Sewards) Pelfrey is said to have died before him.
 
In earlier articles referenced on Ms. Pelfrey and the unidentified body in Ross County (later identified as Ms. Wingo), the paper mentioned multiple times that dental records for Ms. Pelfrey could not be located.
 
Diane Redfern said:
There are a couple of odd things here: Stephanie vanished on 10th of January, 1974. There's no info about that last sighting.
No one informed the LE until September, 1975, a year and nine months after Stephanie's last known sighting. Shortly before, on July, her huband, William E. Pelfrey, divorced her on the grounds of willful absence.
www.newspapers.com

Divorce ad

Clipping found in Chillicothe Gazette published in Chillicothe, Ohio on 7/7/1975. Divorce ad
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com

Her family, on their behalf, had other theory:
www.newspapers.com

Article clipped from Chillicothe Gazette

Clipping found in Chillicothe Gazette published in Chillicothe, Ohio on 5/26/1979.
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com

I think this is her son's obituary. Stephanie (Sewards) Pelfrey is said to have died before him.
Click to expand...

How was it possible that no one contacted LE to report her missing? Didn't her parents suspect anything? Were they unaware she was missing? Was she not in frequent contact with them? What about her son? Was he told she just ran away?

It resembles a common scenario when married women suddenly go missing with no explanation from the husband. Even more suspicious that he waited so long to report it. Even today, Ross Co., OH still has a problem with unsolved cases of missing and murdered women.

Here's another clipping from the Chilli Gazette 21 Jun 1977, when LE was still unable to completely rule out the UID woman's body was or wasn't Stephanie Pelfrey.

It mentions the body found in Nov 1975 had 4 missing teeth and that Pelfrey hadn't had any tooth extractions. However, it says they had no dental records for her. Also that the hair color of the deceased woman was not a match for Stephanie, but no details on that. They also claimed that Stephanie's family couldn't identify the clothes found with the deceased woman.

www.newspapers.com

Clipping from Chillicothe Gazette - Newspapers.com

Clipping found in Chillicothe Gazette in Chillicothe, Ohio on Jun 21, 1977.
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com

The new sheriff quote in the above article had defeated the previous one, in part because he was criticized for not solving the Pelfrey case.
 
Last edited:
This appears to be the obituary for Stephanie's husband

William Pelfrey obit - Ross Co - Genealogy.com

Pelfrey: William E. Pelfrey, 68, of Chillicothe, died at ho... Read more on Genealogy.com!
www.genealogy.com www.genealogy.com

He worked for the local fire department and later for the state prison at Chillicothe. He died only a few years before his and Stephanie's son passed away.
 
I was checking thru Chillicothe on line news archives. There are a number of articles pertaining to Stephanie E Pelfrey and husband William E Pelfrey. The famiy was well known in Ross County/ Chillicothe area. The articles mention Stephanie at one time was a good bowler at the lanes. They owned a prized Quarter horse. Stephanie worked for Social Services as a secretary at one time and William was a Fireman and then went to Chillicothe Correctional to work and ran a horse farm. These few articles are interesting:

So Stephanie disappears around January 10, 1974. Why is an exact date given? About 18 Months after Stephanie's disappearance, June 1975, William Pelfrey begins a required 28 day advertisement stating he has petitioned the court for a divorce from Stephanie, whereabouts unknown. Then in October of 1975 divorce is granted to William on grounds of Stephanie willfully deserting William.

LESS than two months after the divorce, December 1975, an unidentified woman is found and it is then learned William NEVER reported Stephanie missing. The unidentified woman will be revealed in 1979 as Inell Wingo of Columbus, Ohio.

ONE WEEK after people learn of this dead woman found in a shallow grave in December 1975, William E Pelfrey CALLED the Sheriff's office saying someone had entered his basement and stolen two rifles. A 30-30 Winchester and a Smith and Wesson .22 Caliber and a TV. Nothing else taken. When they found the dead woman her body had to be sent to the Franklin County Coroner office for official autopsy. So when William notified the Sheriff's dept. there were alot of unknowns about this mysterious dead woman found wrapped in plastic. Stephanie and William both had good professional careers working for the State, so there is going to be adequate Dental and Medical coverage. Given Stephanie's past I would find it hard there was never any dental records of her. She had four or five children so somewhere along the line she had dentist/dentists.

William's second wife, Joan Hedderson, had come to Chillicothe Correction Institute to work with inmate drug/ alcohol addictions, about 8 months prior to Stephanie Pelfrey disappearance. Not saying there was an affair, but the fact that William and Joan had known each other or aware of each other less than a year before Stephanie's disappearance is there. They married in late 1977.
 
I just did a bit more digging on Stephanie and William and second wife Joan..... Joan divorced her husband in August, 1973. I also found that Stephanie Pelfrey was still with the Shawnee Gals Bowling League up until the time of her disappearance ! There is mention of her being top game bowler with the Kings House Rental team in mid December 1973, just a few weeks before she disappears. As far as her immediate family members on her side, All were deceased except for her Dad prior to her missing, Mom and her two brothers were already deceased. The day Stephanie went missing, January 10, 1974, it was a Thursday. Kids would be back to school? PS she had three children, I had previously listed four or five.
 
#UP6716
Location Found: Richmond, IN [Roughly a 2.5-hour drive from Chillicothe]
Date Body Found: October 1, 1975
Estimated Age: 30 - 99
Estimated PMI: Months
Estimated Year of Death: 1975
Height: 5'2" (62 inches), Estimated
Weight: Cannot Estimate
Hair Color: Straight dark brown hair
Eye Color: Unknown
Race/Ethnicity: Uncertain
Circumstances: Body found in a sewer

#UP8546
Location Found: Smith Township, OH [Roughly a 3.5-hour drive from Chillicothe]
Date Body Found: October 4, 1976
Estimated Age: 30 - 40
Estimated PMI: 6 Months
Estimated Year of Death: 1976
Height: 6'2" (74 inches), Estimated
Weight: 180 lbs, Estimated
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Race/Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Circumstances: Found in a drainage ditch with upper body having a complete loss of tissue and the lower body having marked decomposition. There was complete seperation of the skull from the neck.
 
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