Sheree Marie Magaro – The Charley Project
Last updated July 15, 2021; picture added, details of disappearance updated.
Several photos at link above.
Details of Disappearance
Magaro was last seen departing a friend's residence in Kentmore Park, Maryland on February 22, 1987 at approximately 9:45 p.m. Magaro was driving her gray four-door 1976 Ford Torino at the time. She was planning to drive back to her home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that evening.
A severe snowstorm occurred in the Kentmore Park region the night Magaro was last seen; eighteen inches of snow accumulated. She had wanted to get home before the weather became too bad to drive in. She never arrived home and has not been heard from again.
Magaro's car was discovered the following morning at approximately 9:45 a.m., after someone made an anonymous call to the police about it. The vehicle was located in a field west of State Route 213, which is approximately two miles south of the Bohemia River Bridge, north of Cecilton in Maryland. Although the snow in the field was 16 to 18 inches deep, only one inch was under the car, which indicated it had been left there between 10:15 and 10:45 p.m. the previous night.
Hair, blood and human tissue were discovered inside the car, and the interior had been partially burned. There was clothing scattered around the vehicle, which was in running condition with seven gallons of gas in the tank. There was no blood on the ground around the car. Magaro's purse, her driver's license and a tube of lipstick were on the ground about 100 yards from the car. The purse contained several expensive items of jewelry.
Witnesses reported seeing a Ford Mustang with Maryland license plates in the field with its hazard lights on. The Mustang's hazard lights were of a shape used only on models with the years 1974-1978, 1983, and 1987. One witness saw a man standing next to the car, talking to a woman who was in a car that resembled Magaro's vehicle. The man is described as 25 to 30 years old, 5'10 and 170 pounds with dark hair, brown eyes and a mustache.
An extensive search of the area turned up only one more clue, a man's plaid shirt found along Route 213 a few miles from where the car was located. The shirt was bloodstained, and DNA tests later proved the blood was Magaro's. Months later, a trash cleanup crew found one of Magaro's credit cards near White Hall Road, about ten or eleven miles from where her car had been found. Authorities searched the area but found nothing else of interest.
Investigators believe that she was murdered by unknown suspect(s) during the evening of her disappearance. They believe she died of blunt force trauma, but her remains have never been located.
A white male attempted to use one of Magaro's stolen credit cards to buy a television set at a Sears store in Bel Air, Maryland after her car was found. The card was maxed out, so the man was unable to buy anything and he left, leaving the card with the sales clerk. The man is described as 5'9 and 160 pounds, with short black hair, blue or green eyes, and a dark complexion. He was was in his twenties, and claimed the card belonged to his wife.
It is unknown if the man was involved in Magaro's presumed homicide, but he resembled the man seen talking to the woman in the car on the day of Magaro's disappearance. Two sketches of both men are posted with this case summary. Authorities believe the sketches may actually depict the same man.
Magaro left behind a four-year-old son. She taught modeling for a few years after graduating high school, then got a job as a secretary with Control Data Corp., a lottery machines manufacturer; she was considered a very good employee. She married in 1982, but divorced three years later, and had gotten engaged to a coworker.
Neither Magaro's ex-husband nor her fiance are suspects in her case. Some agencies list Earleville, Maryland as the location of her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved.
