OH OH - Judy Martins, 22, Kent, 24 May 1978

[Marilynilpa]

Has anyone heard of this person? She was a junior at Kent State University, and in the spring of 1978 she had planned to go away for the Memorial Day weekend. The night before she was planning to leave, she walked from her dorm to visit some friends in another dorm. She was wearing a red wig to show them - it was part of a costume she planned on wearing to a party. She was seen leaving their dorm around 2 a.m., but never made it back to her dormitory. Her friends called the police, who searched the campus with no luck. In spite of a $1,500 reward, no helpful leads were forthcoming.

Apparently this case didn't get much press coverage off-campus, and I only stumbled across this while researching another Ohio disappearance.

If anyone has heard of this and has anything more to add, I'd love to hear it.

 

[HollywoodBound]

I just did a search and can't seem to find a thing on this case. I had never heard of it until your post but I will look some more and post if I find anything.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I don't believe this woman has been added to any of the missing persons websites, and my internet search didn't come up with anything. I'll check some newspaper archives and see what I can find, if anything.

Quite a puzzler - someone disappears and there is little coverage of it.:waitasec:

 

[MaryLiz]

I found some articles in NewspaperArchives.com...a few from May-June 1978 when she first disappeared and then a few more articles from 1980.

Here is an article about a possible suspect in the case named William John Posey, Jr.

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=7293972&src=browse

I hope it copies okay. All their articles are in Adobe Format and nearly impossible to copy. I tried e-mailing it to myself and then copying it so we'll see if it works. If it does, I will post a couple of the articles from when she first disappeared.

 

[MaryLiz]

Hurray! It looks like it worked. Scroll down to the article about the Illinois man. Here is another article from when she first disappeared. The article is on 2 separate pages and the second part is in the link below the first one.

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=30250671



http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=30013214

 

[MaryLiz]

Here is one more article about when her parents and siblings visited KSU.

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=30255073


Sorry to have to copy the entire pages in these links instead of just the articles of interest. That seems to be the only way to post links from the NewspaperArchives.com site since they are in Adobe format.

 

[MaryLiz]

As far as what ever happened with Posey as a suspect in her disappearance, I will have to search on that later and see what I can find.

 

[Marilynilpa]

liz325, you're the greatest! I let my subscription to newspaperarchives lapse, so your research is greatly appreciated.

Thanks much!:clap:

 

[MaryLiz]

liz325, you're the greatest! I let my subscription to newspaperarchives lapse, so your research is greatly appreciated.

Thanks much!:clap:

You're welcome..but I just tried to click on the links and they wouldn't work! I'm going to PM you.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I was able to locate a bit of information about Judy Martins, but I am still surprised at the lack of coverage this disappearance received.

Unfortunately, Judy's mother died in 2003 without ever learning what became of her daughter. At one time, there were rumors that Judy had traveled to Cleveland and was working as a prostitute. Her family went from bar to bar and streetcorner to streetcorner in an attempt to locate her, and they did finally locate a woman who resembled their daughter, but wasn't her. There was a three part story in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram about their efforts.

Another rumor claimed Judy had hitch-hiked to Mexico, but that lead never panned out.

It appears there were other disappearances in Ohio around that time, and I have not been able to locate any follow-up stories to determine whether these women were ever found. Yvonne Reglar, a 17 year old gas station attendant, vanished on 8/8/77. Kathy Morrow, a 22 year old nurse's aide, disappeared on 3/10/78.

On 4/1/80 there was a brief story about the badly decomposed body of a woman being washed up on Cedar Point Beach in Sandusky, Ohio. Dental charts, including those of Judy Martins and Yvonne Reglar, were to be forwarded to the Coroner's Office. Again, there is no follow-up to this.

It is so sad that these people seemingly disappear without a trace.

 

[LisainWV]

I am completely amazed, and saddened, by the number of young people that are STILL MISSING from the 70's. It seems to be the time period that serial killers got their start. However, most of these kids were presumed to have run away and things were not really investigated. Sounds like the case with this young lady........

We can't really blame LE, someone out trolling for kids, teens, women, young men....and killing them for fun was just too bizarre to believe.

Oh, what time has taught us!!!

 

[Marilynilpa]

I have been in contact with Judy Martins' sister, and she wants to talk to me about her sister's disappearance. I hope to talk to her this weekend.

I learned from Judy's sister that the family did not get much respect from law enforcement during their limited investigation of her sister's disappearance. The police assumed this was a voluntary disappearance and apparently did not do a great deal of investigation.

That ties in with the surprising lack of newspaper coverage of Judy's disappearance. Kent State was trying very hard to improve it's reputation after the shootings that occurred there just a few years earlier, and most likely they did their best to downplay this case.

From all accounts, Judy was a great student, close to her family, friendly to everyone, and a very responsible person. This is another case where it appears the missing woman had no apparent reason to willingly disappear.

After I talk to Judy's sister this weekend, I'll update this thread with any new info.

 

[GraceBlue]

I have been in contact with Judy Martins' sister, and she wants to talk to me about her sister's disappearance. I hope to talk to her this weekend.
I learned from Judy's sister that the family did not get much respect from law enforcement during their limited investigation of her sister's disappearance. The police assumed this was a voluntary disappearance and apparently did not do a great deal of investigation.

That ties in with the surprising lack of newspaper coverage of Judy's disappearance. Kent State was trying very hard to improve it's reputation after the shootings that occurred there just a few years earlier, and most likely they did their best to downplay this case.

From all accounts, Judy was a great student, close to her family, friendly to everyone, and a very responsible person. This is another case where it appears the missing woman had no apparent reason to willingly disappear.

After I talk to Judy's sister this weekend, I'll update this thread with any new info.

Marilynilpa- How did the talk with Judy's sister go?

 

[Marilynilpa]

Marilynilpa- How did the talk with Judy's sister go?

Thanks for asking, GraceBlue. The conversation went very well, and lasted well over an hour. Judy's sister was able to provide me with a great deal of information regarding the police search for Judy, as well as some other information about this incident.

Judy vanished two days before the Memorial Day weekend in 1978, but wasn't reported missing until the day before the weekend started. It wasn't until school started up after the long weekend that Kent State University police began any type of search for Judy and/or any clues to her disappearance. According to her sister, the police were convinced that Judy left of her own accord. They conducted a search, the extent of which is questionable. The police say they conducted a very thorough search, but Judy's family never got the impression that much was being done to find Judy. In fact, the family felt that Kent State really wanted this matter to "go away." They were still trying to get over the Kent State shootings, enrollment was down and they were trying hard to attract new students. The last thing the University wanted was the publicity surrounding a disappearance of a coed from campus.

A short time after Judy disappeared, there were three people at a garage sale who were convinced they saw and talked to Judy Martins, and that she was talking about hitchhiking to Mexico and working as a waitress. The police felt this was a credible sighting, and that caused them to decrease their investigation. Two weeks later, the woman who was mistakenly identified as Judy came forward and said she was the one at the garage sale, but the police by that time had more or less shut down their investigation.

There are no words to describe how devastating this event was for the Martins family. Judy's sister advised that her father died at 59 years of age, and believes his grief over Judy led to his early demise.

I am still diligently researching William John Posey, Jr., who lived in Kent, Ohio at the time Judy disappeared. He was subsequently arrested for the murder of one woman in Illinois, and the kidnapping and assumed murder of a woman in Vermont (her body was never found).

As I get more info, I'll post it.

 

[Marilynilpa]

FYI, I may have located William John Posey, a convicted killer who lived in Kent, Ohio, when Judy Martins disappeared. An inmate by that name is locked up in a federal prison in North Carolina, and the age seems about right. I'll look into this and post whatever I find out.

 

[meggilyweggily]

Does anyone else think Judy Martins looks like the archetype of a Bundy victim? I believe Bundy was incarcerated by 1978, so I'm not suggesting he was responsible, but if you lay her pic side by side with pics of the women he preferred...wow.

I fear Judy was the victim of the same kind of man.

 

[smile22]

Does anyone else think Judy Martins looks like the archetype of a Bundy victim? I believe Bundy was incarcerated by 1978, so I'm not suggesting he was responsible, but if you lay her pic side by side with pics of the women he preferred...wow.

I fear Judy was the victim of the same kind of man.

those links were not so clear and i think u need a susbscription to the archives does anyone have a clear picture of her we could see the name william john posey sounded familar but i was thinking of this actor named john posey or something posey

 

[meggilyweggily]

She got added to Doe today: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2474dfoh.html I'm going to add her to Charley tomorrow, with another picture, but not a very good pic alas.

 

[Marilynilpa]

She got added to Doe today: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2474dfoh.html I'm going to add her to Charley tomorrow, with another picture, but not a very good pic alas.

I'm glad her family is finally taking this step. I talked to Judy's sister a while back and we discussed the possibility of adding Judy to the Doe and Charley sites.

I am still looking into info about William Posey who I've mentioned before on this thread. I found a William Posey in prison in North Carolina and thought perhaps this was the same man, but it turns out this was a different man. I intend to keep plugging away at this as time allows, as I still think this is a case that could be solved.

Also, I certainly agree that Judy looks very much like a Bundy victim, and her family wondered about that. A quick internet search, however, shows that Bundy was not in the area at that time. In fact, if memory serves me, I believe he was in Florida and possibly already incarcerated at that time.

Many girls of Judy's age in the 1970's had a similar appearance, including myself. I'm sure Bundy wasn't the only one who had a preference for that look.

Thanks for the update, Megan.

 

[meggilyweggily]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/martins_judy.html Here's her Charley page. It has an additional picture.

There certainly seem to be a lot of girl college students that walked off the face of the earth. One that's interested me is Lynne Schulze: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/schulze_lynne.html

I'm not suggesting her case and Judy's are related -- they happened years apart and like a thousand miles away from one another -- or that any of the cases are necessarily related, but merely that female college students make good victims for predators. Young, usually pretty naive, but relishing in their newfound freedom in the dorms. When I was about nineteen I encountered someone in my dormitory whom I'm quite sure had something on his mind. It was three o'clock in the morning and no one was around. I feel lucky to have gotten away from him.