SurrealisticSlumbers
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Sheree Marie Magaro
Missing since February 22, 1987 from Kennedysville (formerly called Kentmore Park), Kent County, Md.
Date of Birth: October 23, 1956
Age at Time of Disappearance: 30 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3; 140 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown, short hair; brown eyes.
Circumstances of Disappearance:
Sheree Magaro, 30, was last seen departing her boyfriend's residence in Kennedysville (formerly called Kentmore Park), Md. on Sunday, February 22, 1987 at approximately 9:45 p.m. She was headed back home to Harrisburg, Pa. That night, there was a severe snow storm in the area. The snow started falling during the early evening and forecasters predicted a major storm. She had originally planned to spend the night with her boyfriend, Frank Brown, at his home and then drive to work early in the morning. She’d spent the last few days with Brown, leaving her 4-year-old son Tony at her mother’s house. Her mother, Mary Grace Youtz, said her daughter visited Brown often. But, as the snow fell harder, Magaro decided to leave that night.
She said her goodbyes sometime around 9:30 p.m. and climbed into her gray, four-door ’76 Ford Torino. “She called me and told me she was leaving because it was snowing,” said her mother. “I told her, ‘Don’t come home because you will be traveling with the storm.’ She said she had to come home to go to work.”
She never made it.
Her burnt, abandoned vehicle was discovered the next day — but she wasn’t in it. Sheree Magaro has never been heard from since.
That night, a full 18 inches of snow blanketed Cecil County, Md. At 9:30 a.m. that next day, Trooper Tom Kerns responded to an anonymous call reporting a deserted vehicle in a field about 100 feet west of Route 213, two and-a-half miles south of the Bohemia River Bridge, which is just north of Cecilton. He found Magaro's partially burnt car facing toward the Kent County border. Kerns saw blood in the car and noticed clothing scattered about. Hair and human tissue was found in the car, too. Even without a body, the medical examiner declared Magaro dead because of the amount of blood and brain matter found at the scene. The official cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators would not release what kind of weapon they believed was used. Investigators interviewed witnesses who remember driving past the field and seeing a Ford Mustang with Pennsylvania license plates and its hazard lights on. One witness told police she saw a man talking to a woman in a car that resembled Magaro's gray Torino.
"We looked at her stopping to help someone who was disabled," Maryland State Police homicide investigator Roger Cassell said. "And we got various stories from her family and friends. Some said she would stop and help anyone. Others said she was very cautious, and she wouldn't stop." Youtz said her daughter would have stopped. "She would have given anyone a ride," Youtz said. "She would have pitied them."
Police determined the car could not have broken down. It was in perfect working order with nearly seven gallons of gasoline in the tank - more than enough to get her to Elkton where she normally stopped. "The mechanics went over the car," said Capt. Larry Meusel, who was active in the case. "It started. It ran. The tires were filled. It had coolant in it. There was gas in the tank."
Police recovered Magaro's pocketbook, her driver's license and a tube of lipstick in the field. Months after the disappearance, a crew cleaning the roads recovered a credit card of Magaro's, near White Hall Road about 10-11 miles north of where the car was found. Nothing else was recovered during a search of the area.
With more than a foot of snow covering the field, police theorized her body might be buried. Officers formed a line and shuffled through the snow, but to no avail. To this day, her body has never been found, and police have made no arrests. Some think Magaro's body was dumped in the Bohemia River Bridge, which was being reconstructed at the time of her murder.
Meusel said police thoroughly investigated that theory. "There were no tire prints or tracks or anything by the bridge," he said. "We took dirt samples and grass samples to see if the car was driven in any other area. But it wasn't. The construction workers looked the best they could. They said she couldn't be in there. There's a lot of theories that go on whenever we do have a homicide," Meusel said. "You speculate and think 'Could this have happened?' If you don't have a body, where is the body? We searched the fields. We searched the woods. We searched the river. We had divers in the river. We had divers in by the bridge. We searched the new construction by the bridge, all along the highway from where we found the car up until Elkton."
The biggest hindrance investigators had to deal with was the snow. The roads were largely deserted because of the time and the impending storm. The few drivers on the road were too focused on getting home to notice anything unusual.
While investigators were still searching for clues at the crime scene, they learned a man had attempted to use Magaro's credit card at a Sears department store in Bel Air, Md. to buy a television. Because the credit card was maxed out, the clerk kept the card and the man left the store without saying much. Although the witnesses' descriptions of the men differ slightly, police believe the two men could be the same person.
Magaro's ex-husband, Michael Magaro, was a suspect in her murder. The couple had been divorced about a year before Magaro was killed. She had full custody of Tony. "They had the normal divorce and custody problems," Meusel said. "We looked at the ex-husband very hard, but nothing ever came from it." Michael said he and his ex-wife parted on good terms, and has always maintained his innocence. He said he worked with the police in 1987, when he traveled from his Harrisburg home to the state police barrack in North East, Md., to take two lie detector tests.
"Police said whoever killed her, she knew her killer," Michael said. "It was someone from that area. I was in Harrisburg - a good 90 to 100 miles away. What's the motive? Why would I kill her?" He can rule himself out as the killer, but everything else confuses him. "You can't make sense of something like that," he said. "She did nothing wrong. You're never going to get an answer. I feel guilty because if we were still together, she wouldn't have gone down there."
Magaro married Michael when she was young. She had Tony when she was 26 years old. She was a petite woman, with short brown hair. "It seems like yesterday [that she was still here],” Youtz said. "She was vivacious and outgoing and so friendly. I think about her four or five a times a day. I don't know if this case will ever be solved. If it's in the Lord's will, he will expose [the killer] before I die."
And while most would think the families of the victims are the only ones affected, Magaro's death still haunts investigators. Meusel, who lives in North East, said he thinks about the case constantly. He admits investigators are not any closer to solving the crime today than they were 14 years ago, but he still hopes for closure. "Every time I go down that way, I think 'Sheree, where are you?'"
Sources:
Doe Network: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/587dfmd.html
The Charley Project: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/magaro_sheree.html
Cecil Daily: http://www.cecildaily.com/news/localnews/article_235997b0-a5e8-528b-bc3f-85447c9e03ad.html
