Crime of Your Life - The Disappearing Story of Margie Ada Snead

A young woman named Margie Ada Snead went missing in 1974. The story behind her case has also disappeared. But we only need a few additional details to piece together a new narrative. It's worth a try, isn't it?

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Listener discretion is advised. When aperson is reported missing, a description of

(00:39):
who they are and the circumstances oftheir disappearance is published on the Internet for
the world to see. It's oftenframed as a call to action to anyone
who might know something, or tothose who might be willing to help with
the investigation. If you're like me, you've probably spent countless nights staying up
late sifting through web pages of peoplewho have mysteriously disappeared. And maybe you've

(01:02):
stumbled across what you thought would bethe story of a missing person and it
turns out to be just a pictureand a name, perhaps with a physical
description and the city where they werelast seen. So you understand the empty
feeling that comes from looking at theoutline of a case and simply not knowing
enough. Because we already know thatevery missing person does have a story,

(01:26):
a story that deserves to be told, even if the details and the information
we need to tell it are sometimesnowhere to be found. It's still worth
a try, isn't it. Inthe last episode of Crime of Your Life,
I examine the details and information orlack thereof, and a handful of

(01:46):
missing persons cases out of Central Arkansas. I told my listeners that I would
be submitting at Freedom of Information Actrequests and that I would provide an update
if I uncovered anything new or unreportedin the disappearances of David J. Stephens,
Alan Buckle's senior, Serenity Lachey Hosey, and Margie Aida Snead. Now,

(02:08):
unfortunately I haven't yet been able tofind any new details regarding David J.
Stephens or Serenity Lachey Hosey. Fiftytwo year old David J. Stephens
was last seen on Wednesday, Decemberninth, twenty twenty, after leaving one
of the HI hospitals in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Thirteen year old Serenity lache

(02:30):
Hosey also disappeared out of Hot Springsjust a few weeks earlier, on November
thirtieth, but we don't know whereshe was last seen apart from the physical
descriptions I included in my previous episode, and as far as I can see,
that's all the information we really have. And this becomes increasingly concerning as

(02:51):
we move deeper into the new yearand further away from the reported dates of
these disappearances, which were unavoidably recent. The disappearance of sixty three year old
Alan Buckle's senior, who went missingout of Little Rock, Arkansas, was
also recent. He left his homeone afternoon on Thursday, December eighteenth,
twenty twenty, to buy groceries,and no one has seen him since.

(03:16):
Compared to the other cases we've beenlooking at, we've had a lot of
information since the first week in thevanishing of Allan Buckle's senior. Multiple publicized
searches have been held in his case, but there doesn't appear to be any
new information available as of this recording, although there has been a recent development

(03:36):
that is at least geographically relevant toAllan's disappearance. Shortly before I published my
most recent narrative, news reports startedappearing online that described the recent discovery of
a body floating in the Arkansas Rivernear a structure known as the Big Dam
Bridge, in an area known asMurray Lock and Dam. This location is

(03:59):
part of the navigation system of theArkansas River, and it's only about five
minutes away from Murray Park, whereAllan's white van was discovered abandoned. The
body was described as that of anolder white male around sixty years of age,
and it was discovered on January twentysixth, twenty twenty one, which
was just a little over a monthafter Alan vanished. But within a few

(04:24):
days of the initial reports, anidentification was made and it became clear that
the deceased person was not Alan Buckle'ssenior. Instead, it was a different
man from Glenwood, Arkansas, whichis about an hour and a half away
from Little Rock, and it's evencloser to Hot Springs. And while the
identity of this person has been madepublic, I won't be including their name

(04:46):
in this podcast as the discovery wasmade so recently, and my heart goes
out to the family of the person, as I know they must be grieving
even as I write and record this. But what will say here is that
police have not released any additional informationin relation to the discovery either. We
don't even know if the person wasever reported missing. It could be a

(05:10):
terribly tragic and unfortunate but ultimately unrelatedoccurrence. It doesn't look like there is
any connection. Some of the physicalsimilarities between this person and Alan Buckle Senior
are at least notable, as isthe close proximity between the discovery of the
body and the recovery of Alan's vehicle. If it turns out that more details

(05:32):
are released that allow for more questionsthan answers, we will revisit the case
in a future episode. But untilthen, there is a missing person's case
for which I believe I have informationthat isn't currently available on any public website
or database. And even though itmay not seem like a lot, it's

(05:53):
more than just the mostly empty webpages I've seen across the Internet that tell
us that this person is missing andvirtually nothing else. It's information that maybe
wasn't carried forward to the Internet afterthe person was reported missing, or perhaps
it was lost at some point forunknown reasons. According to what has been

(06:14):
published online, Margie Aidas Snead wasa young woman who went missing in nineteen
seventy four. She was reportedly nineteenyears old at the time, and the
city of Hot Springs, which islocated in Garland County, Arkansas, is
listed as her last known location beforeshe disappeared. Her case was published on
the National Missing and Unidentified Person Systemon July tenth, twenty thirteen, and

(06:39):
a physical description was provided. Thereis one inconsistency in the details of her
physical description as it appears across anumber of websites. They all list her
as being between five foot four andfive foot five, but some of them
list her weight as one hundred andtwenty pounds versus one hundred and fifty pounds.
The thirty pound discrepancy may not seemthat significant, but when so few

(07:03):
details are available to begin with,everything is significant. Accurate details of Margie's
physical appearance from the time she waslast seen by her family would be important
in the unlikely but certainly possible eventthat she shows up in an old photograph
or camera footage from the nineteen seventies. It could mean the difference between verifying

(07:25):
a clue or a Mira coincidence,a definite match, or a doppelganger.
There is an actual picture of Margieavailable publicly. In the image online,
you can see a woman with aknowing, gentle smile. Her face is
framed by dark hair, and sheappears to be wearing dark clothing. It

(07:46):
looks like it could be a senioryearbook photo. Although there isn't a lot
to observe in one small image,and you can't judge a book by its
cover, it's easy to look atthe picture and see someone kind, smart
and capable, someone who was juststarting out in life before vanishing into the
nineteen seventies, a decade during whichit seemed like a lot of young women

(08:09):
were going missing without any explanation.But maybe that's the reality of every decade,
or rather every day. Apart frommy own interpretations of her picture,
everything I just told you is essentiallythe sum of what you can read on
the Internet about the disappearance of Margieaidas Sneed. It is what I believe

(08:31):
to be the total of what thepublic has had at its disposal in order
to engage with this case and toat least attempt to solve it. At
least it was until today. Iwas surprised to receive a response within a
few days of submitting my Freedom ofInformation Act request. From my understanding,
that's not typically how it works.I haven't made a request like this before,

(08:54):
and to be honest with you,I didn't even really know what I
was doing. I'm just a guywith a podcast, and I have a
lot of admiration and respect for thevictim advocates and other true crime podcasters who
put much more time and work intothese kinds of requests, as they often
have to wait quite a while beforeeven getting a response. But in my

(09:16):
situation, I was very fortunate tohave the assistance of the Hot Springs city
clerk, a woman named Harmony Morrissey. She was just incredibly helpful, and
apart from my beginner's luck, she'sprobably the only reason I'm able to do
this follow up with the additional informationI now have, so thank you Harmony.

(09:37):
Now, the pieces of information Ihave are small, but we're going
to go through them one by one. The document I received from the Hot
Springs Police Department is actually a recordfrom July ninth, twenty thirteen, which
is the exact date Margie Adas Sneadwas reported missing, nearly forty years after
she was last seen in nineteen seventyfour. Her case was sent to NamUs

(10:01):
the very next day, and itdoesn't appear that she was ever reported missing
in Arkansas prior to twenty thirteen.I don't know for certain if this also
means that she has never been reportedmissing anywhere before, but that's what it
looks like, and this raises thesimple question of how does that happen?

(10:22):
How does someone go missing, neverto be seen or heard? From again,
and it's only reported to law enforcementafter decades have gone by. There
are a lot of possible answers tothe question, but in the least this
means that Margie's case wasn't some knowncold case that was unearthed from a back
room of dusty files. It doesn'tappear to carry with it a decades long

(10:46):
history of changing hands between different investigatorsor new task forces dedicated to solving the
cases that haunt us. Maybe that'sbecause this case has never had the chance
to have that kind of impact.The document list her physical description as white
or non Hispanic, five foot fourand a definite one hundred and twenty pounds.

(11:09):
No hair or eye color is listed, although it is a reasonable observation
to make from the photo that wasprovided that Margie has brown hair and brown
eyes. An actual date of birthwas provided as well, which was listed
as July eighteenth, nineteen fifty four. Now about the person who reported Margie

(11:30):
missing. What I'm going to tellyou next is something I struggled with initially
in terms of whether or not Ishould provide a specific name. But even
though it's been long buried, itis technically public information, and in the
past the person has made his identityand association with the case available on social
media platforms. It turns out thatMargie Adisned was reported missing by a man

(11:56):
named Justin M. McCoy, whotold Hot Springs Please that he was trying
to locate his biological mother, arevelation which immediately adds an entirely new layer,
not just to her disappearance, butto Margie herself, a person who
has always been more than just aphysical description, a name, and a

(12:16):
black and white photograph. Margie Adisnedwas also someone's mother, the mother of
a son who was searching for heras recently as twenty thirteen, and from
his choice of words, it soundslike he believed in twenty thirteen that she
was still alive somewhere. Justin M. McCoy filed his missing person's report by

(12:41):
telephone, and he told the respondingofficer that previously he had hired a private
investigator to look into the disappearance ofhis mother, and that PI was at
least able to determine that Margie aidisSneed had sent her parents, Mike and
Kathleen's Need, a postcard back innineteen seventy four, only the year could
be seen on the time stamp,but it was mailed from Hot Springs,

(13:03):
Arkansas, and there are a feweasy conclusions that can be drawn at this
point. The first one is thatMargie had a family, two parents with
the same last name, meaning theywere probably married. The fact that a
single postcard was sent to both parentsat one residence also suggests they were married

(13:24):
at the time Margie was last seen, and the correspondence itself illustrates a level
of responsibility and consideration from Margie.She seems to have been someone who made
sure to stay in touch with herparents when she was away from them,
something one might typically do because theyhave a reasonably close relationship with their family,

(13:45):
and this also seems to indicate thatMargie wasn't actually from Hot Springs.
She may have not even been fromthe state of Arkansas, but either way,
people don't typically send postcards to theirown family unless it's from a distance,
which means that for a time inher life, Margie was likely a
young traveler, and whatever her reasonswere for being in Hot Springs, she

(14:09):
might have found herself to be ina place that was less familiar than her
typical surroundings. The postcard is alsothe last known contact from Margie adis Need,
the last time as far as weknow that any one heard from her
before she was never seen again.But perhaps even more significant than that was

(14:31):
what could be seen in the backgroundon the face of the postcard, adding
a level of specificity to Margie adisNeed's last known location was the image of
a towering fixture in the city ofHot Springs, Arkansas, the historic Arlington
Hotel. The Arlington Hotel opened forthe first time in eighteen seventy five.

(14:54):
Over the years, it's been apopular establishment with everyone from friendly tourists to
notori as crime bosses. Al Caponewas known to have stayed there more than
once in room four or forty threefor a period of time before his reign
of criminal activity came to an end. It's also a place that has managed
to attract the attention of those whoinvestigate the paranormal, with stories of hauntings

(15:18):
and unexplainable occurrences being reported throughout thehotel's sordid history. From a glance,
though, most of that activity seemslimited to changing or flickering lights, items
falling off of shelves, and weirdsounds. Pretty much the usual things you
might hear about with a supposedly hauntedhotel. But one way or another,

(15:39):
the Arlington Hotel is part of MargieAdisneed's story. She didn't just disappear from
the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is reasonable to conclude that she
was at least visiting, and likelyeven staying at the Arlington Hotel. It
seems unlikely that Margie would send apostcard from the hotel if she weren't staying

(16:00):
there. To place a visual inmy mind, I actually started searching the
web with phrases like Arlington Hotel postcardhot Springs, and a number of vintage
postcards did come up for sale oneBay. As hard as I tried,
I couldn't find one from nineteen seventyfour, but I did find some from
a number of years prior, andin the images I could see, the

(16:23):
Arlington Hotel has always been beautiful andgrandiose, situated in an area with considerable
foot traffic and bustling businesses. PerhapsMargie was just passing through town, Maybe
she was just visiting a relative ora friend. But Hot Springs has a
long history of attracting people to itsnatural water Springs and to an area near

(16:47):
the hotel known as bath House Row. It could easily have been the case
that Margie was in town for avacation, and maybe she had some idea
about all of the experiences Hot Springswould have to offer to an outsider.
Either way, we now have morethan just the name of a city as
her last known location. We havean address, and if we choose,

(17:08):
we can expand the narrative to saythat she may have last been seen at
the Arlington Hotel, which is locatedat two three nine Central Avenue, Hot
Springs National Park in Hot Springs,Arkansas. The details you just heard in
the questions they raise are the resultof a single paragraph of words on a

(17:30):
two page document, and yet theyallow us to begin looking at Margie's disappearance
in a new way. There werenow four names to associate with this missing
person's case, four names I couldsearch for instead of just one. Margie
Adis Sneed, her parents Kathleen Sneedand Mike's Need, and her biological son

(17:52):
Justin M. McCoy. Because somuch time has passed, it seems like
an impossible task to locate Margie's parents. It's not impossible but we don't even
really know where they're from or anythingabout them. I've searched for their names
on multiple web databases, sometimes withzero results and sometimes with far too many

(18:14):
results. Verifying that we have foundeven one of Margie's parents appears to be
tied to whether or not we canfind the other, and more so,
if they can be connected to Margieherself or to Justin m McCoy, a
person who theoretically should be easier tolocate than his grandparents. And that brings

(18:36):
me to something that stuck out tome when I read the police report he
filed in July of twenty thirteen.When Justin described his mother and the report,
he used the word biological that carriesa certain weight behind it. It's
the kind of word you might associatewith a journey to the past, to
one's own roots. It means thatthe search for Margie Aida Sneed isn't just

(19:00):
a search to find a missing person, but perhaps it is a search by
her son to find a part ofhimself, of his own identity. He
had the resources to hire a privateinvestigator, and he made the phone call
to the Hot Springs Police Department afterthe postcard was discovered. It's clear that
he had a strong determination to uncoverthe truth, and at one time I

(19:26):
know he needed help. I knowthat because I found just the slightest trace
of him on the internet. Icouldn't locate Justin McCoy himself, but I
did find a link to a Facebookpost that mentions him, and it appears
to have been made by him onJuly fifth, twenty thirteen, just days
before he reported his mother missing.You can't see the post itself anymore.

(19:49):
It's either been deleted or it's limitedto the people who saw it back when
it was first published. But youcan see a message from one person who
was clearly moved by whatever the storywas in the post, and they shared
it on their own social media.Nineteen hours after it first appeared online,
a person i'll refer to as kWwrote on her social media account that the

(20:12):
Facebook post had three thousand, ninehundred and nine shares in just nineteen hours,
and the title of the post appearedas well. It read the following
words, son is seeking his mother, Margie Aida Snead McCoy. This is
the one and only time that I'veever seen Margie's full name with McCoy included

(20:37):
at the end Justin McCoy was searchingfor his biological mother. He didn't provide
the name McCoy as part of Margie'sname when he reported her missing to the
police, but on July fifth,in his Facebook post, it would appear
that he considered his mother to bea McCoy. I don't know where I'm
even trying to go with this,and I don't know what any of it

(21:00):
really means, but I have somany questions. Why was Margie adis Need
in Hot Springs in nineteen seventy four, Why did she send a postcard to
her parents from the Arlington Hotel?What prompted her biological son, Justin McCoy
to hire a private investigator and filea missing person's report in twenty thirteen.

(21:22):
I have to wonder if it's becauseJustin only learned the truth about his parentage
when he was an adult, afterMargie had been missing since the nineteen seventies.
And could it be that Margie adisNeed is still alive, and if
not, what really happened to her. In my initial search for details,

(21:45):
I noticed an old online message boardof Webb sleuths who were discussing possible victims
of the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. The name and photograph of Margie adis
Need was presented, but no oneseemed to have any particular reason for associating
her with Bundy, apart from thecommon belief that he had killed more people

(22:06):
than he ever disclosed to law enforcementofficials, and he was operating during the
time Margie went missing. But thereis no actual apparent thread for any questions
we have about this case. Idon't think we can find the answers unless
we locate justin McCoy. And whileit's possible that he doesn't want to be

(22:26):
found, the case is still open, and I think it would be worth
it to find him, because maybethen we would know if there is still
a way to help solve the mystery, if he still wants any help.
Sometimes a story is only told oncebefore it disappears, and sometimes it disappears

(22:49):
forever. But there are also timeswhen the pieces of a story can be
rediscovered and reassembled into a new narrative. It may not be exactly the same
as it was, but it canstill resonate with us just as much,
if not more than what we hadbefore. It can still revive a search

(23:11):
for answers. It's reportedly been aroundforty seven years since Margie Adis Sneed was
last seen by her family. Shewould be sixty seven years old this year.
It is so difficult to imagine thather disappearance could ever be solved with
a road map that amounts to thename of a city, an old picture,

(23:33):
and an inconsistent physical description. Notmany people will remember Margie Adis Sneed,
a nineteen year old woman who wentmissing out of Hot Springs, Arkansas
in nineteen seventy four. But maybea few more people will remember Margie Adis
Sneed or Margie Adis Sneed McCoy,a nineteen year old woman who went missing

(23:56):
out of Hot Springs, Arkansas.A traveler who is visiting from out of
town, a daughter whose last contactwith her parents, Kathleen and Mike,
was by sending them a postcard fromthe historic Arlington Hotel, where more than
likely she was staying, and amother of a son who has been searching
for her. Margie is a personwho at one time was being talked about

(24:21):
by thousands of people. At leastfor one day, people heard a story
about a son who was searching forhis biological mother and they shared it with
others across the Internet and likely acrossthe world. As it stands now,
it's not a story dripping with details, twists and turns. There is still
so much we don't know. Theinformation I've provided in this episode feels new,

(24:45):
but the truth is it's really not. It's just been left untranslated and
buried or erased. It was hiddenfrom view, but it's not hidden anymore.
To ensure that it's never hidden again, I forwarded the details I covered
in this episode to the National Missingand Unidentified Person System, and I'll be

(25:07):
sending it to other databases as well. Hopefully, even with knowing just a
little more than we did before,we can begin to remember the disappearance of
Margie Aidis Need. We can remembertoday, tomorrow, and for however long
it takes until we finally uncover thetruth. And while the reality is that

(25:29):
we may never uncover it, wemay never actually get to that point.
At least now maybe we're a littlebit closer. If you have any information
regarding the disappearance of Margie Adis Need, please contact the Hot Springs Police Department
of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Thisepisode was created with the help of multiple

(26:06):
news publications and online databases. Sourcecitation is included in the show notes.
The music for this episode was writtenand composed by me, and the artwork
was created by Chaz Kaufman. Thankyou so much for listening. I hope
you've enjoyed this episode, and Iwant to give a special shout out to
my listeners across the world, whetheryou're in Australia, Brazil, Canada,

(26:30):
South Korea, the UK, orif you're here in the United States.
Wherever you are, I am sograteful that you've taken the time to listen
to my show. If you likewhat you've been hearing and you want to
stay up to date on the podcast, you can follow the show on Twitter
and other social media at Crime ofyour Life. You can also support the

(26:51):
show by signing up to become apatron at Patreon dot com slash Crime of
your Life, and you'll receive exclusiveaccess to bonus episodes and additional audio,
and you can email me directly atCrime of your Life at gmail dot com.
I would love to hear from you. My name is Jacob Randel and
you've been listening to Crime of yourLife