Missing on Campus /// Part 1 /// 522 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
tried to amend his carnivorous habits here he is the captain yeah it's good to be seen it's good to see you thanks for
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] this week
in the garage we tell the tale of a promising and popular college student one that has seen plenty of academic
success in our True Crime Story a holiday is coming up which means a break in the college action
so this will be a chance for our successful student and their classmates to take some time
off finally getting the opportunity to take some time and spend it on oneself with a
trip this is a chance to take a break and get away excited for the break and for their trip
out of state our student decides to spend an evening out to celebrate going out to dinner
and then a little drinking and partying afterward evening drinks turn into late night fun
and late night fun turns into the small hours of the next day it's 2 am and things are wrapping up winding down
it's time to go home and then poof just like that our college student disappears
some say into the night and others say Into Thin Air long time listeners of this show are
most certainly thinking of Brian Shafer a promising Ohio State med student gearing up for a vacation with his
girlfriend out with his friends and having a great time when suddenly he's gone and now it's been over 15 years
and he's still gone still missing one night he walked into a bar and 15 years go by and his name and photos of
him are still listed on the Charlie projects website and the all missing persons database
maintained by the Ohio attorney general Dave Yost office but we won't be telling you the tale of
Brian Shafer again this week because sadly there is another student the very strangely experienced a quite
similar fate a fate of possibly never being seen alive again or simply put lost but never found
this week we will be covering another missing student from another Ohio College campus
Judy Martins went out partying with friends on the night of May 23rd come morning she was gone
and quite possibly lost and never to be found this is true crime garage and this is
the case of Judy Martins [Music] [Music] Judy Martins was born on July 15 1955 to Proud parents Arthur and Dolores
she would be the eldest of three children all three children were pretty close in age and Judy and her sister
Nancy had a tight Bond Judy was born and raised in the nice community of Avon Lake Ohio which is up near the Cleveland
area on the shores of Lake Erie Judy graduated from Avon Lake High School in 1973 and she enrolled to go to school at
Ohio University in Athens but things changed a couple years in and she transferred to Kent State University
yeah the rumors were that she was getting homesick sadly Kent State University is mostly known for the
notorious Kent State shootings also known as the May 4 Massacre this was the killings of four Kent State students and
the wounding of nine others all unarmed when 28 Ohio National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds at the
group of students 10 soldiers in Nixon come in there Captain I'm not a crook but as set Judy enrolled in Ohio
University where she completed two years of college after that she moved back home and eventually enrolled at Kent
State where she moved into one of the dorms Judy was seeking an art major minoring in women's studies and she told
her parents and fellow students she wanted to be a therapist or counselor and in 1978 she was well on her way she
was completing her schooling at Kent State and she was a resident staff assistant at one of the all-female
dormitories this is the Engelman Hall dorm and she was a volunteer counselor at the campuses pregnancy information
center and that brings us up to the details of when Judy went missing yeah so the night question here captain or
the days in question here will be the later part of May 23rd or the early hours of May 24
1978. now here is The Disappearance as reported by The Columbus Dispatch which is one of the bigger newspapers here in
Ohio and we will pause periodically to add in our own two cents or in my case one cent but the dispatch article says
Judy was last seen at about 2 30 a.m May 24 1978. Witnesses told police she left the
party headed for Engelman Hall only four to six minutes away on foot okay stepping in here Captain she was at
Dunbar Hall this is an all-male dormitory building aldongs she was living alone at Engelman Hall an
all-female dorm now the article that we are citing says four to six minutes on foot the best report that I think I
could find out there states that it was 215 yards from door to door so two football fields-ish of a walk
late at night by yourself now this might be conflicting information information I
get is it's about a hundred yards but the issue becomes that there's two entrance ways there's a front entrance
and a back entrance so maybe that is why there's a discrepancy on how many yards
away it is yes and neither of us have made this walk ourselves so obviously we're going off of different reports
from different people but I have been on the campus though the information I'm citing here came from the chief of
police at Kent State University but again this is an old case and some of this information is 30 40 years old
either way it's a very small distance correct well and one critical thing here that I think we should point out
regardless if it's one football field or two football fields in distance is that
we have a situation where Judy made this trip before you know this is a common thing that she would have done she was
an evening outgoing person she was very sociable one thing that I think we should also mention here is a very
general statement of her personality and I think this really sums her up very nicely is it was said by her friends
that Judy was very sociable and very much the life of the party after hours but she was incredibly responsible she
was never late to school never missed school never missed work never late to work she was top-notch go-getter during
the day and sociable in the evening time so again a short walk by herself the middle of the night
and a trip that she had done on foot several times she was also known to ride a bicycle around on campus and the bike
is mentioned throughout our story and will be mentioned throughout our story but it was never mentioned I could never
find any mention of this bicycle on the statement of how she was getting home that night it's always been stated that
she was walking home that night now Judy was wearing a curly red wig over her long dark hair
she was wearing I believe you said call it Gaucho style jeans a brown and yellow
blouse beige trench coat brown boots and carrying a large white imitation leather
shoulder bag okay so the wig and her get up for that night she was out and she was partying with friends so she was
definitely playing dress up here that night later after she was reported missing several people
would say that they saw her that night and Judy was dressed like a hooker these are their words and I don't think that
they mean that to paint Judy in any kind of negative light here captain again I believe she was just playing dress-up
that night so maybe she was telling people that she was dressing like a hooker that night well in that style of
jeans would have been popular in the 70s think of a bell bottom but instead of them being tight and then flaring out at
the bottom they just they're just flaring out all over they're flaring out all over but they kind of look like bell
bottoms at the at the bottom and that's a good description and another good description is that when we say or she
said or her friend said she was dressed like a hooker that night this is not like the movie Pretty Woman street
walker type clothing stuff that is very revealing this is basically funny looking jeans and a button-up shirt
the following day Judy was supposed to travel home to Avon Lake to get her new car when she didn't come home or didn't
call home by that Friday Dolores her mother called Judy's room every hour without success yeah so she was supposed
to go back to pick up her car but she was going to go on a trip yeah so that is one thing that I wanted to jump in
here with on that story right because this is one of the confusing portions of the story let me finish up the next two
sentences of this article real quick this is again is from the information from The Columbus Dispatch it says a
fellow student officially reported Judy missing on May 26th please note that date May 26th which would be two days
after the last sighting or supposed last sighting of Judy when her room was searched nothing was missing so she left
behind her glasses clothing books and cosmetics now back to the double story there of picking up the car
and or going on a trip so again Captain I found this to be a little troubling the how the how it was
noticed that Judy was missing because I've seen these two different stories or different versions of What Judy was
supposed to be doing on the 24th or the 25th and this was one of my questions when
I met with one of the law enforcement agencies still investigating Judy's case so there's some good news there right
this case is still very active you mentioned a trip to New York so there was two stories one that she's
going home to pick up a car the other story is she was going with two of her friends from Kent State to go to out of
state to go to New York and I asked law enforcement since we know that Judy didn't have a car on
campus she rode that bike most places and her family says her family's words were that she was returning home to get
her car or a new car so my question for law enforcement was well who was going to drive her to get to Avon Lake
to retrieve that vehicle because obviously I think that would be my number one suspect because whoever that
was was not the same person that reported her missing to my knowledge now the Memorial Day weekend was coming up
and Judy Martins had planned a trip to New York with two friends and I believe some of the confusion here is possibly
that maybe both stories are accurate that she would be doing both as we are talking about having five or six days
when she could achieve both of these events yeah so possibly my schedules lighter at this point let me go pick up
my car I'll bring it back to campus and then when we go on the road trip we're going to take my vehicle yeah because
what I was told was no uh we didn't have any information that she was coming home
but again the article in the dispatch those are the family's words so that portion there has to be
some truth to that to me and then the law enforcement version is that New York trip has always been something that they
were they were investigating the thing here though we need to remind the listeners that are not familiar with the
state of Ohio we're talking about an hour and 15 to maybe an hour and 30 minute drive from the college campus to
Avon Lake so this is something that she would if she was going to go home she would need someone to drive her there
now we have Judy's siblings weighing in in the article and saying wearing contact lenses when she vanished they
say no way would she have left her eyeglasses behind this is Steve Martin's her younger brother
and saying that she rarely went anywhere without makeup according to her sister so remember it was quickly and easily
determined that nothing was missing from Judy's dorm room leaving behind her glasses clothing
books and cosmetics now anywhere you would see Judy's case you will absolutely see this portion of the case
information repeated as there were several outside sources that would later say Judy left on her own the family says
no her family says no and I say no but we will examine the mysterious details of those claims as our case unfolds okay
so she's at this party and when we say party loose terms right because there it wasn't like there was
hundreds of people there she was in another dorm having a couple drinks with people and hanging out there correct and
I think to call it a party really is is something that just confuses the matter a little bit more I I would not
describe any of these goings on to be any type of party they may have had a drink or two and and may have called it
that or maybe she went to the dorm thinking she was going to a party and it was just as you said hanging out with a
couple of people it was a little bit of uh room jumping or or going from dorm to
dorm and we have some more details on that now the article goes on and says the week after she goes missing her
family the Martin family had a sit-down meeting with Kent State president Brad Golding and they say that they left this
meeting unimpressed Judy's sister Nancy said she believes that the University was still rebuilding
its reputation after the May 4 1970 incident and didn't want any type of negative PR about their college
campus or their college right and Steve Martin's agrees saying quote what was disappointing was
the way that the investigation played out the university didn't want a whole lot of press end quote and we've talked
about this with Brian shaffer's case but it's more obvious here isn't it no well
no because it's a different time period obviously back then they're going hey we
don't want if we talk about this too much we're going to get more newspapers we don't want the big newspapers to talk
about this and Brian shaffer's case when you looked up medical student missing Ohio State it was flooded with the first
few pages of Google that's all you could find within a few days once you typed in
Ohio State student missing it didn't show up the University was able to bury it in
Google searches and so just look if you're in a state and you hear about a college student going missing Google it
and you'll find within a week that university has took control of the Google searches to make sure that those
stories get buried so when Johnny from Iowa gets a letter saying he can go to the Ohio State University they
want to make sure when that parent Googles or searches for the Ohio State University that's something
from the actual University pops up well yeah your kid's going to go off and be living elsewhere for the first time not
under your roof you don't want Mom and Dad or Mom or Dad separately or together don't want to send you know their their
little their young their daughter or their son off to what they believe might be a dangerous place right and if the
first thing that they Google about that college is missing a person then some red flags get thrown up there Arthur and
Dolores speaking of parents the Martins kept Faith according to this article kept total faith in the police Nancy
said and never hired a private investigator because they thought it would make the police upset Nancy
believes investigators assumed Judy left on her own and broke contact with the family that's a mistake I'm gonna say
this I'll I base my reputation on you have a missing person case immediately hire a private investigator
but you're not trying to hinder the investigation at all you're just going to be doing your due diligence and the
thing here in this case Captain I see a situation where the case got hindered the investigation got messed up very
early on and it became a confusing and complicated case very early on unnecessarily like there were steps that
could have been made that that would have made this investigation a little easier and speaking of which let's dive
into the investigation and search for Judy because Judy leaving a party at 2 or 2 30 a.m to walk a short distance
home and never making it there is obviously not the whole story there is much much more detail to it than that
but the investigation really was just a poorly conducted investigation from the beginning and this was for several
reasons the first was this was really an uphill climb in my opinion for the Kent
State Police because years later and this would have been from information I found from 1983 so five years after she
went missing we have Kent State Police Chief Robert Malone saying on record this is the only
case that we have had at Kent State of a missing person who could not be accounted for he says I know it's the
only one since 1973 when I came on board so now a 10-year span 73 to 83 according to
Robert Malone now we need to keep in mind Robert Malone was not the police chief in 78 when
when Judy went missing but he goes on to say with 17 000 students we get a lot of missing
persons reports here but there always seems to be an explanation so think about that 10-year period when this man
has worked there seventeen thousand students we get a lot of missing persons reports she's the only one in 10 years
that we couldn't find out where she went or what happened to her so what happened
to Judy on the night of May 24 1978 when Judy apparently left the party at Dunbar
Hall on her way home to Engelman Hall first Judy lived alone so that caused a delay to report her
missing she was missing and unaccounted for just no one knew so she was not reported
missing until the 26th so that's two days now local police went to Judy's dorm and they find everything
as it should be nothing's missing no sign of Foul Play no sign of a struggle no forced entry in fact there are a lot
of theories out there in this case but I could not find one single source I spoke to three different people that
know this case better than anyone else no Source says that Judy returned to her dorm that night
no case expert says that she made it home that night and I could not find anything to suggest
that she in my opinion made it home that night after going out so whatever happened to Judy that night
it looks like it happened sometime after this party and before she could arrive at her dorm she's not reported missing
for two days and then her family is notified after she's reported missing Judy's mom says she was calling Judy's
dorm often looking for her so at least we have the knight in question narrowed down to a matter of a couple of hours
yeah and Captain I would put that window of time when something went down something bad happened to Judy between
11 pm on the 23rd and maybe as late as 3 A.M on the 24th so some additional issues with the initial investigation as
we said the Memorial Day long weekend yeah was the weekend after she went missing most of the students have left
the campus by the time police start looking into this so they have no one to question
or they're missing a lot of the people that they could question and not really anyone to help fill in
the blanks here within the first couple of days and they just didn't take it seriously
at first and look often we all become products of our environment and the environment at Kent State in the late
70s according to the police chief said that they were receiving two missing persons cases a week on average and in
every case up to Judy's case the person was accounted for within hours or days of the report
so you can almost see how the police themselves fall victim to this environment and the police likely
thought that this would be the case here as well usually someone turns up they stayed with a boyfriend or a
girlfriend or they went home back home unexpectedly now regardless because think about how many missing
persons cases turn into homicide cases right right well your homicide investigation will go much better if you
are not starting from scratch once you figure it out or decide that it is in fact a homicide case rather than a
missing person's case so what sort of things can one do well it's interviewing persons and
properly recording their statements you can take photographs of her dorm and belongings take photographs of all of
the last known places she is believed to have been and photos of the people she was with did any of them have any
noticeable scratches or injuries none of that happened in this case so really this is just an all-out difficult
situation for the investigation as we can view it 40 years later and to make matters worse
according to Kent State they lost or destroyed the case File this is due to some [ __ ] records protocol hey now
and it's believed in the year 2000 that they got rid of the file now sometimes two in these older cases
Captain you find that the lead detective took the file home or the police chief took the file home but for whatever
reason when the case was being looked at again and this would have been in the last 10 to maybe 15 years
when they were looking at this case Again by a different agency other than Kent State Police well that's when they
learned that the Kent State Police file no longer exist on this case but some smart people did do some smart
moves one Judy was reported missing in two jurisdictions right she was reported missing where she was going to school
and two she was reported where she was from so she's reported missing an Avon Lake as well so Avon Lake was
investigating this case as well and they had a file of their own that in air quotes survived and we managed to
get a copy of the file that still exists [Music] thank you [Music] thank you all right we're back cheers mates cheers
to you Captain cheers to all the fine fine people out there so the investigative timeline as laid out in
the police file is as follows and it's going to start as early as late April or early May and that's their exact
statement here that in late April or early May of 1978 Jim young visits Judy at KSU
they are intimate per gym Jim young is or was Judy's long time on again and off-again boyfriend he was considered a
suspect in this case now we need to note that Jim is Judy's boyfriend from Avon Lake not Kent State he does not
attend Kent State right he says their breakup was pretty much Mutual and it basically involved that they
didn't see each other very much they lived in two different locations and so they both agreed to break up it sounded
like that Judy had some other concerns maybe Jim party too much or drank too much but According to Jim the breakup
was mutual and I couldn't really find any family or friends to go against that idea that the makeup the
breakup was Mutual yeah but just because it's mutual at one time doesn't mean it
stayed that way he did say that he would visit her on occasion at Kent State and
when she was home on break or during the summer time the two of them would hang out this is probably
information backing up the idea that everybody puts forward that they were on again off again well and also because
she's resident staff that means she has her own room and she would have been basically the hall monitor for her floor
or a section of her floor so it does suck that we don't have a roommate that is able to back up Jim's
claims what we do have though I I want to kind of go out of my way to point this out is it sounds to me Captain like
her family her remaining family and the friends that she had at the time are backing up to police what this young man
was saying now we should though make mental note of two things one his name because we're going to be going through
different names and different people during this timeline but we should also make mental note that
he was considered a suspect very early on in this case so the things that he says or suspicions around him as you're
pointing out Captain are important to this story but this brings us to May 19th now this will be the last day that
Judy's mother talks to her daughter on the phone and then we have May 23rd so note she disappeared on either the 23rd
or 24th this is the last time that Jim Young the former boyfriend or John Young says
that he talked with Judy on the phone now at one o'clock 1 pm approximately that afternoon
James kratchik reports seeing Judy in the Prentice Hall cafeteria sitting with a another student named Kevin Greer
Greer states that they were sitting and eating with Steve another classmate named Steve no last name given and that
kratchik borrowed coupons or meal tickets at this time from Judy Judy told him to pay her back as she would be
needing them by the end of the year I do want to point this out like this is just
another one of those little tidbits one of those little indicators along the way
that she was making plans she probably wasn't planning on taking off or at least a statement of hey yeah
I'll give you a meal ticket or two to cover you for today but I need these back before the end of the year well
it's similar like with the Brian shaver case a lot of people go well why would Brian go missing
from a bar when you look at the Judy Martin's case okay she leaves this party let's say roughly around two but nobody
was in her dorm room for multiple days correct so we don't know if she made it back toward dorm room so maybe she made
it back and maybe on her answering machine if there was one she had a message from some guy that she had a
crush on it that said come out to California and she decided to leave without a car
but we don't know that all we'd know is that there wasn't really anything Disturbed in her dorm
room right and just pointing out that there's nothing to indicate up to this point that she wasn't planning on doing
anything other than attending school for the remainder of the year right so this brings us to about 3 P.M that
day when Judy leaves a note for Charles Neville in his room and the note says that she stopped by when he was not
there now I'm not certain here Captain but from what I gather Charles is a popular
dude and may have been considered quite the catch back then so I'm not sure if they were just friends or if there was
something there but according to the investigation she dropped by roughly around 3 P.M that afternoon leaving a
note for Charles that evening Judy goes to dinner with one of her good friends and her name is Robin after dinner this
is approximately 8 30 p.m Judy leaves her friend Michelle Morgan's room telling her that she was going to see
Charles Neville she said she might stop back at the room after leaving Charles's place
now Charles lives in the dorm rooms as almost everybody that we're going to be mentioning did at the time right Kent
State for example is not a highly commuted College a lot of a good majority of the students live on campus
at approximately 11 pm this is where I think I really start to call things into question but this is the information
that the police have collected over the years at approximately 11 pm Judy leaves
her friend Robin's room in Engelman Hall dormitory she tells her that she is going to Charles Neville's room after
that Judy arrives at 233 Dunbar Hall stays there with Charles Neville's and John beckony this is in John's room
Judy removes the wig sunglasses and trench coat at this time remember she's playing dress-up that
night again around 11 pm approximately this is per Kevin Greer who we have already mentioned Judy stops by to see
if Bernie Caffrey would be there but he's not home so she talks to Bernie's roommate Leo robe for a minute or two
and then goes to Charles Neville's room Leo robe says Judy was dressed quote like a hooker okay so the important
thing here though to me Captain is now we have multiple independent Witnesses placing our
missing person in Dunbar Hall in the Dunbar hall building I guess the male dormitory yeah this is an all-male
dormitory so that doesn't seem to be really in question right we can question what was going on or how things went
down after this but it's not a question that she was there in that building at 11 o'clock and a little bit afterwards
yeah but here's what we don't know as we we're getting this information from Robin right no this information is
coming from all kinds of different sources independent sources so these this is statements from Charles from
Robin from James every person that we've mentioned so far on the 23rd all this information is coming from them yeah but
if you that's why you should let somebody finish talking but this information is coming from
Robins coming from Charles right what we don't know is what were Charles initial statements I'd
be interested to know that I'd be interested to know if they said hey well we we believe that she visited you on
the night she went missing and he said uh I don't remember or um I know I don't think she did and then
they got information from Robin and said hey well we got information from Robin that she headed towards your dorm and
then we got information from this other person that she was here and then he comes forward you see what I'm saying
like we we know what their statements are but we don't know exactly how they got them yeah that's
that's cool and the thing here is it's not really them coming forward you know I I I know what you mean by that but I
always kind of hate that statement right right because it sounds like they went up and called the police station or
knocked on the the front door and said hey I got a story to tell this is Kent State Police going around and asking
people did you see anything on the 23rd did you see anything on the 24th and you're right we don't know the exact
wording of questions that were first fired at any of these individuals but from my understanding and the way that
the information that we received reads to me is that these are all their initial statements when first
asked about that night and if anything changed when they were questioned at a later date right it's
noted in the information as well but also what's interesting too is we have this isolated
space that you would think and and we're kind of talking about this off air before we started recording was this is
78 smoking in the 70s you could smoke in the hospital buildings not all hospitals
but a lot of them you could you were smoking in a lot of the schools so I if I had to bet make a wager here I would
put my money on smoking was allowed in the dorms yes and and I think that becomes a big key here because if it
wasn't allowed but there was still a lot of smokers that you would have a gathering outside of the male dorm room
even though it'd be late but you know college students stay up pretty late so there I think there would have been
more eyewitnesses so if somebody would say hey they were smoking in the dorm rooms I go well there's probably not
going to be a bunch of people gathered outside or less people gathered outside to be eyewitnesses once she left the
all-male dorm rooms well smoking or non-smoking aside you're really hitting on something I think that's important
here Captain where you're right this is May it was a warm night that night she wasn't the only one going out and having
a good time that night there's a lot of people going out and having a good time that night and who knows how late they
stayed up we know that there was not much schooling or academic activity that was going to be taking place over the
next several days so this was a time to kind of let loose and if you were going to stay up or stay out till three or
four in the morning this sounds to me like this was a good night to do it at approximately midnight John beckony who
we've mentioned already says that he knocks on Charles Neville's door he and a friend are going to the 7-Eleven for
those that don't know what a 7-Eleven is it's a like a little convenience store a
little gas station also people know it as Heaven There you go beckony Returns the wig sunglasses and coat to
Judy at this time per his statement beckony reports that Judy is in quote good mental and physical condition at
this time May 24th at approximately 2 30 a.m Charles Neville's says that this is the
time that Judy leaves his room now a weird note in our timeline and there are going to be several of these as we get
further from her disappearance but this is the first one and this takes place on
May 24th so by all of the stories the information that we've received and every story out there
she goes missing sometime after leaving that male dormitory at 2 30 A.M right this brings us to 1 30 p.m on that
same day so if all those stories are right she's already missing just not reported missing at this time right we
have another individual who is named David horning David says or reports to police and this is where I think it's
appropriate to say comes forward it sounds like this man came forward and reports seeing a girl who matched
Judy's description and clothing at the bus stop near a sandwich shop he says a large yellow car pulled near the Stop
and the girl either got in or was pulled in he was not sure the car then abruptly
pulled from the curb and went to the far left lane it was then heading westbound
on Route 59 and I'm not saying that this individual is a lying whatsoever but it's not clear that he's stating that he
knew her before she went missing right does a guy that came forward after when they're growing hey we're looking
for this girl he goes well I saw a girl that looked similar I would hold a lot more weight to this
eyewitness if he said I'm friends with her I'm friends with Judy yeah and I saw her get into a car
then at that point what do we know what we know is that she went back to her dorm she probably felt you know she
slept in her own bed the next day she took off with somebody around 1pm 1 30 P.M
but this guy doesn't know her he's not friends with her so he's going hey well she look like the similar person
and so we have no clue if she ever made it back to her dorm room well and one thing that's really tricky in this case
here and again I mean we can keep circling around this but but I've not seen any information to suggest that she
ever made it home that night ever anywhere by by any of the investigating agencies any of her friends or family no
one's that seems to be one of the furthest things from speculation well I remember at some point and I could be
wrong but some of my buddies would live in like a all male dorm and then you'd have the all-female dorm and then you
have a co-ed dorm but some of the dorms you actually had to sign in even though like you lived
there like you had to sign in because it was past like midnight and they didn't have maybe somebody on guard to see who
was coming into the buildings yeah and that is very smart of you because that's one thing I was thinking as well like
would would there be a curfew because this was during the week would there be a curfew to get in or or
would you at least have to sign in or sign out and what I was told now again we're
being told this 40 years later so we can't hop in the DeLorean and no 100 but from what I was told was that it was a
pretty casual laid back atmosphere on campus that year and maybe even years after that I don't
know if her going missing changed some of that here becomes the problem with her going missing was like I said she's
basically like The Chaperone on her floor so she would she would be one of those
individuals if some other girl went missing on her floor they'd be going right to her right right to Judy and
saying hey what did you see what do you know can you talk to these other girls well not only that if there were someone
to get away with not signing in she would be able to do that right the uh statement about this this young man
seeing somebody matching Judy's description either getting into a vehicle or maybe she was pulled in he
doesn't know for certain as you pointed out Captain you're very right he's coming forward after the you know he's
seeing missing persons flyers and one thing that that I thought was amazing about this case you know we always have
these little very unique details in each one of these cases you would think that
at some point here in the garage after you've covered several hundreds of cases that at some point they just start
becoming carbon copies of one another where in Judy's case it was interesting to me that the story
on the surface is very similar to Brian shaffer's but then here we have this interesting unique portion to her case
where she's playing dress-up the night that she goes missing right how freaking weird is that so
they all become amalgamation of like a bunch of different cases so she when he says the the statement in
the police file is someone matching or someone matched Judy's description that this vehicle
which description is it is it the description of her playing dress-up that night that's a great point or is it the
description of her because she she looks very different that night than she does
the rest of the days and that is one thing that I found bizarre about this case because some of the missing persons
Flyers only had the picture from her from that night where she's wearing a freaking wig
you know like I mean this is a young beautiful college student and she looks but she's quite a bit
different she looks quite a bit different in in both of those images to me that's my opinion
and we'll post all those photos on social media so follow us on Facebook Twitter and Instagram at True Crime
garage if you want to see those photos the missing persons flyers in this case that I liked the best or that I thought
carried the most weight were the ones that had a recent photo of her as she would regularly look
and a photo from that night because I think it's crucial here when you're looking for someone this is how she
looks when she's not in her little disguise or playing dress-up that night but these are the items that we expect
to be with her or items that we might want to find because we can't locate her but like you said in her dorm
there's no wig there's no glasses no fake leather purse right to me that's more evidence that I can
lean towards the fact that she never made it back to her dorm right she's wearing contacts that night
she's wearing sunglasses none of those things are ever found in in her dorm now it's two days later as we said earlier
but it's at 4 35 p.m when the actual missing persons report is filed by a Michelle Shabbat I believe is how you
say her last name I probably got that wrong the report was taken by detective Brandon of the Kansas
the report was taken by the the report was taken by detective Brandon of Kent State University PD the then Judy is
reported missing to Avon Lake PD at about the same time this is a weird part to the case as well
May 27th the day after she's reported missing Judy's camera is secured this is by the Kent State PD
they obtain her camera pictures show how Judy was dressed that night so this is interesting because we
have the photos of Judy from the night that she went missing so how she looked that night and what she was wearing the
wig and all that and what is missing from the police information here though Captain is
and this is really anyone's guess where and from whom did they get the camera again
you know we everything we have says that she didn't come home that night so did she leave this camera with one of
her female friends or a male friend after dinner or was it recovered from you know a female friend's dorm or a
male friend dormitory room well like we just don't know it's it's an answer that
I would love to have yes and I think there's a couple things one it could have been our dorm room
or it could have been when she left her wig and and other items and that other kids dorm room and he returned those
items maybe he just didn't notice that she had a camera there uh and here's why I questioned that it
could be from our dorm room is it is it possible that she had this outfit took some pictures of her in this outfit
at some point in time and then just went hey I'm going out to have fun tonight have a couple drinks with my buddies
before I go on this trip and I'm going to put on my zany outfit you're right I'm with you I think that from the
information that I've seen it sounds to me like there's a a high probability this wasn't the first time that she wore
that outfit or the wig or some version of such but the other thing too is we know she was back at her dorm building
after dinner hanging out with different friends that she didn't go to dinner with so when we say she didn't go back
to her dorm that night I really want to underline and Echo what we were saying earlier that
I mean that that once she went to the mail dorm building that she didn't go back to her dorm that night I believe
that after dinner she probably went back there because we know she was in the building so why not stop by her own
place if you need anything or yes she may have dropped off her camera at that time not wanting to carry it around
already taking pictures of her and her friend hanging out before during or after dinner that's a very good point
and also maybe it's part of her responsibilities to then go and check on her floor and make sure
there's nobody reporting anything because that's part of their job I mean I I believe like
I believe they actually get paid to do that well on the following day on the 27th
Judy is officially entered as a missing person so this is technically now three days after she's gone missing the county
jail the hospital and campus Health Center are all contacted to see if she would be there for any reason at all and
of course they received negative results uh friends Michelle and Robin so this is
the one friend that reported her missing the one friend that went to dinner with
her that night and Judy's mom along with Sergeant hunt of the Avon Lake Police Department
on the 27th they have like a group call a group phone call that goes to Kent State PD and they basically ask what the
f is going on in the investigation my guess here is because they probably don't think that
kspd is doing anything or actively investigating the missing persons case that they think it's just another person
that will turn up in a few hours or a couple days well then when you see this look we always talk about all this
happened in a small town and this this law enforcement agency is not equipped to handle this right well that's what a
campus is is a small town and yes Kent State Police will know more about the nooks
and crannies of their little Community then State Police or the local law enforcement
but they're not equipped to handle a missing person case like this like once you don't find her
and I'm not even saying the 24-hour rule I'd say on a campus you don't find an individual in 12 hours
this needs to be handed over to the big boys well this is when uh Judy's mother says
that she is going to call the media and I don't I imagine this is like a threat of hey I don't think you're doing enough
or doing anything and we're not it's not gone unnoticed but and ask yourself this
question if you were questioned by Kent State Police or the sheriff department which one are
you going to be more intimidated by in this case it would be the sheriff's department you know what I mean it's
like there's a lot of people when they're on campuses they don't take even though they have what they are calling a
police department and they can't arrest you people don't take them as serious they look at them more as like security
guards then they do police officers look most of their work is going to be busting up
underage drinking parties or breaking up drinking parties especially back in the
late 70s catching people smoking pots smoking doobies um that kind of stuff so you're right you're absolutely right on
that now we said that there are going to be some weird things in the timeline and
here's another strange one on May 30th time unknown there's no time mentioned here I imagine this is a person coming
forward after the fact after they've witnessed this Deborah helmick claims to have seen Judy on Merrell Circle near
Engelman and that's as far as that statement goes again on May 30th this is at approximately 9 pm Bill Jones a resident
of college Towers says that he saw a tall girl with long dark hair being led out of the main door of the complex by
two males he said that the female seemed spaced out and heard her saying quote I
haven't been home since Tuesday but she wasn't all that tall yeah you're you're right um five foot four I would not
consider that to be tall correct again I think with some of these sightings of Judy what I think we need
to keep in mind is I don't think I think that they're seeing young ladies that look similar
they're just not seeing Judy and I think that these are just people that are you
know they see a missing persons flyer and they're trying to help you know I I saw this and it's probably nothing but I
want to make sure that I at least report it to the proper authorities and what did you call them Groucho pants is that
what they're called I no I called them Gaucho pants and I don't know if that's correct they're probably not called
Groucho pants uh but I also wonder because if somebody said to me oh well this guy went missing and he had a navy
blue hoodie and then three days later I'm like oh I saw this guy with a navy navy blue hoodie but he wasn't he wasn't
shorter he was a little bit taller I would report it like where it filled like I had to because
he had a similar item and like I said these were kind of these were popular pants at the time
so I wonder if there was some sightings just based off her clothing oh I saw a girl with
you know a flannel shirt in in these uh Gaucho pants on May 30th again no time given for this one Jim young the former
boyfriend is contacted he agrees to an interview and is told to make an appointment ASAP with a detective
at 2 p.m on that same day an attempt to interview Charles Neville's is made but he isn't in his room detective Stanley
instead finds John beckony who he then interviewed also on May 30th officers interview Bernie Caffrey in the hallway
at 3 30 p.m on the same day officers go to Jim kratchik's room they they re-interview him officers
state it takes several minutes for him to answer or open the door the officers requested to go into the room for
privacy purposes and find an unidentified female in his room he repeats that he last Saw Judy at 11 30
to 12 30 on May 23rd 24th along with Kevin Greer well we know why it took him so long to answer the door and put his
pants back on also on the 30th Captain this is at 4 45 officers stopped by Charles Neville's
room remember we already mentioned that they went there to speak with him again earlier that day they don't find him
he's not home and they speak to Bernie Caffrey and Jim kratchik in the meantime so now they're going to circle back to
talk with Charles Neville's again he is home at this time at 4 45 they enter Charles's room
again they probably asked if they could come in for privacy purposes privacy of the questions that they're going to ask
and they don't want right when you're interviewing people that may have been the last person or one of the last
people to see a missing person you don't want their story being broadcast to everybody else now do you no so they're
in Charles's room and officers stated that he repeated the same story that he told another Detective
so this would be the second time that they spoke with him per this statement and they said that Charles during this
visit speaks with his mother and his brother of course this is going to be via phone I believe that his mother and
brother are not only in another state but I believe that they are in two different states themselves he states
that his brother is an attorney at the time or will be an attorney soon and after speaking with his family he agrees
to a polygraph test with the police department and Charles was read his rights at that time and given a
statement form and he stated that he would complete these later as he was cooking dinner so
he agrees to the polygraph but it's not going to be administered right then obviously they're in his room they give
him a statement form to fill out this would be like what's your official statement right write it out and sign it
this is kind of your sworn statement right basically we know you've talked to detectives but now we want you to write
down that same story and here we go with back to casual atmosphere of the campus we have a
missing person here's your statement form that I need you to fill out but it's okay if you get to it later right
right it's like we don't want you to burn your dinner here Charles or your dong why don't you finish cooking have
your dinner have a nice night and give us a call when you've completed the form and my problem with this is he's a
person of interest because we're talking about what's happening two days after she possibly goes missing
what we do know is that she went out to dinner with a friend Robin they she comes back she's in her
her dorm building we know that because we have two different individuals stating that they
spoke with her there at that building and these are two people that didn't go to dinner with her yeah so is it
possible that she stopped by her room to freshen up or or to change clothes or to
grab something and then head over to this Charles guys dorm and in the and look anybody that's been a part of dorm
life when you're going to go visit with somebody you could just be walking past a room
and somebody pops out because they they spot you hey what's up Captain what are you doing and you sit there and talk to
him for a while or you pass a couple people that you are in class with and you go hey did you get homework done for
the day or whatever so she runs into some other people so we know she's in the all-male dorm room
and then we know that at some point she's in Charles's room we know at some point she's in somebody
else's room and then she goes back to Charles's room yep and this is per Charles Neville's and per these other
individuals as well and and those were the good old days when you just open up the door to your room and on a night
where there's a lot of activity and people out and about you never know who's going to drop in who you're going
to see or when a party's going to bust out in your place yeah and tell you you know you get labeled
icky flicky flicky and nobody wants to talk to you anymore so again she's in the mail dorm room we don't have anybody
that places her back into her dorm we don't have anybody that places her outside heading towards her dorm room so
look though then these individuals Charles John Jim Bernie and Kevin they all become Persons of Interest and we
need to know if their stories line up or if any of them have any nefarious background
I think those that's the starting point of the investigation but like you said they're already going about it in such a
such a lackadaisical Manner and to top that off here captain that will not be this will not be the end of the weird
activities or the strange events that will take place in this timeline [Music] so much more to get to to check out our
blog go to truecrime garage.com and please join us back here tomorrow in the garage
until then be good be kind and don't litter thank you foreign

Missing on Campus /// Part 1 /// 522

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week in the Garage we discuss a case that may be old but it’s far from cold. Law Enforcement agencies are still investigating the mysterious disappearance of Kent State student Judy Martins. Judy was 22 years old when she was last seen. Anyone with any information please call the U.S. Marshal's Office @ 1-866-4-WANTED, that's 1-866-492-6833.

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Brief Summary

Judy Martins vanished in 1978 after leaving a party, with her case raising questions about the investigation's handling.

Key points

The Disappearance of Judy Martins. Judy Martins, a college student, vanished after a night out with friends in 1978.
The Investigation's Flaws. The investigation into Judy's disappearance was poorly conducted from the start.
Judy's Disappearance Timeline. Judy was last seen on May 23rd, 1978, before going missing. The timeline narrows down the window of her disappearance to just a few hours.
Investigation Challenges. The initial investigation faced significant challenges, including a lack of witnesses and lost case files.
Eyewitness Account. An eyewitness reported seeing a girl matching Judy's description getting into a car, raising questions about her fate.
Judy's Missing Person Report. Judy is officially entered as a missing person three days after she went missing.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Just like that, our college student disappears.

Describing the sudden disappearance of a student.

3:59WatchNov 4, 2022

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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