249 - The Disappearance of John & Shelly Markley - Trace Evidence

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
On a cold Friday afternoon in December of nineteen ninety five,
John and Shelley Markley's five children returned home from school
to find the house in disarray and their parents missing.
There were no notes or calls, nothing to suggest where
they might have gone or when they would return. There were, however,
several disturbing signs which indicated something might be wrong. Safes

(00:32):
and locked cabinets were found open and emptied, the coffee
pot was still on and had nearly brewed dry, and
the tarps which always covered John's prized corvette were missing.
The couple's absence was noted as particularly disturbing because this
was not just any old Friday. It was both the
eighth birthday of their youngest child, and that evening was

(00:56):
awake for John's beloved twin sister, who passed away days earlier.
If there was anything that could be said about John
and Shelley, it was that they would have never missed
either event for anything in the world. Family meant everything
to them. So where had they gone. That's a question which,
nearly thirty years later, remains unanswered. Local investigators would find

(01:21):
themselves embroiled in a case of organized chaos from a
crime scene stripped of evidence by family members with good intentions,
to a bizarre extortion plot involving an old friend turned enemy.
Were John and Shelley the victims of a random crime?
Had they been targeted by a former friend? Or was

(01:41):
their disappearance about something entirely different, something no one has
yet managed to uncover. This is Trace Evidence, Episode two
forty nine, The Disappearance of John and Shelley Markley. Welcome

(02:02):
to Trace Evidence. I'm your host Stephen Pacheco. Today we
examined the strange and mysterious disappearance of John and Shelley Markley,
who left behind five children, a completely paid off house,
and a series of unanswered questions which continue to haunt
their loved ones as well as investigators to this day.
This is the Disappearance of John and Shelley Markley. Friday,

(02:37):
December fifteenth, nineteen ninety five, was a cold and gloomy
looking day in the northwestern Ohio township of Bloomfield, approximately
forty miles northwest of Youngstown. Though the two areas were
divided by just over thirty miles, they stood in stark
contrast to one another. While Youngstown was the larger area

(02:58):
by far. It was also home to more than ninety
thousand residents, while all of Bloomfield Township held less than
two thousand. Youngstown was the city to folks in Trumbull County,
a busy metropolitan area, while Bloomfield was vastly more rural, quiet,
and underdeveloped. Gray skies hung heavy overhead with the threat

(03:21):
of rain or perhaps snow looming along the edge of
every sharp breeze, and locals clung tightly to their jackets
as they went about their daily business. Christmas lights were
strung along power poles, and colorful decorations adorned the slightly
fogged glass of store and home windows. With Christmas just
ten days away, you could see the excitement on the

(03:43):
faces of school children as they made their way to class,
pink cheeks amidst a cloud of hot breath in the
chilled air. For many, it was a time of delight
when families come together to share in their joy, love,
and celebration. For at least one family, though, their holiday
excitement was tempered by a tragic loss, which brought them

(04:05):
together in a time of grief and mourning. However, that
would only be the beginning for them, as another tragedy
would strike, leaving them without answers and in many ways,
without the hope of a reprieve. It began quietly that
morning at a small red brick building just north of
the intersection of Ohio eighty seven and forty five in

(04:27):
the heart of North Bloomfield. Today a hardware store, the
building was at the time a local bank which served
many residents in the rural community. Despite renovations and a
change of business, you can still see the old drive
up window located along the southern wall of the structure.
On this particular Friday morning, it was through that very

(04:51):
window that John and Shelley Markley were seen alive for
the last time. It was approximately ten thirty in the
morning when the mar red over silver Chevy pickup truck
pulled around the brick building and stopped at the teller window.
The woman working the window that morning greeted the occupants
of the vehicle, which she would later notice, counting three.

(05:13):
There was John Markley sitting in the driver's seat and
his wife, Shelley, sitting between her husband and another man
the teller did not recognize by sight. According to the
bank employee, she did not notice anything particularly out of
the ordinary at that time, and after greeting the couple,
she was informed that they would be making a withdrawal.

(05:35):
The teller watched as Shelley produced a thousand dollars check,
wrote it out to cash, and signed it right there,
leaning on the truck's dashboard. Handing the check to the teller,
she quickly processed it and counted out one thousand dollars,
which she then tucked into a small yellow envelope along
with a receipt of the transaction. Handing it over, the

(05:56):
teller asked if there was anything else she could do
for the couple, but Shelly simply shook her head. The
teller wished them a good Friday and watched as the
truck slowly drove back onto Ohio forty five. A few
hours later, the markleas five children would arrive home from
school to find the family's rural, isolated home in disarray

(06:18):
and their parents gone, with no note, no messages, nothing
to explain where they had went or when they would return.
Family members reported them missing a little more than twelve
hours after they had last been seen, when the two
failed to arrive at a wake for John's twin sister,
who had passed just days earlier. It had been a

(06:38):
devastating loss for John, and while some believed he'd taken
off with his wife to process his grief, almost no
one in the family believed that to be a viable possibility.
John had been close with his sister and he wouldn't
have missed her wake for anything. What would soon become
a key to determining just what had happened to the

(06:58):
Markleys revolved around that second man seen in the truck
that morning, Who exactly was he and what role had
he played in their disappearance. John Markley Junior was born
on Wednesday, July eighth, nineteen fifty nine, to parents John

(07:21):
and Ruth in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. John was one
of ten children born to the Markleys, alongside his twin sister, Bonnie.
According to available records, John's family moved around a bit
during his childhood, but by the time he turned fourteen
in nineteen seventy three, much of the family was comfortably
settled in Ohio, predominantly located within Trumbull County. John has

(07:46):
been described by friends and family as a kind hearted,
fun loving man who enjoyed a good laugh. Many have
noted that John had a deep affection for his siblings
and parents, which instilled a tendency in him to always
put family first. Loyalty and devotion were less a choice
for John, but more a way of life, something that
he learned from a young age and something that continued

(08:08):
to grow throughout his lifetime. Shelley Renee Applequist was born
on Saturday, November sixteenth, nineteen sixty three, to parents Orrin
and Carol, in the city of Warren, the seat of
Trumbull County. One of three daughters born to the Applequists,
she would go on to be one of five children,
alongside the addition of two brothers. Smart, sweet, and kind,

(08:33):
Shelley has been described as a warm, though somewhat shy,
young woman with a big heart and a lot of
love to offer. She was extremely attentive and caring, always
offering a shoulder to cry on or a tight hug
when someone needed it. For the most part, people speak
extremely fondly of Shelley and describe her as one of
a kind in many ways. Deeply connected to family and friends,

(08:56):
she was loyal and devoted, two key attributes she and
John would connect over later in life. Little has been
shared about the specific details surrounding Shelley and John's meeting
and eventual relationship. Friends and family, however, have noted that
when the two met, there was an undeniable spark felt
on both ends, and they quickly fell deeply in love.

(09:18):
Trumbull County records show that on Friday, November thirtieth, nineteen
seventy nine, John and Shelley were officially married in a
ceremony overseen by Reverend Albert Broadwater of Bristolville. According to
the marriage document, John was at that time listed as
living in Courtland, a city just ten miles northeast from Warren,

(09:38):
where Shelley had lived her entire life. At the time
of the wedding, John was twenty years old and Shelley
was sixteen, and as a result, both of her parents
signed the document giving their consent. One section of the
certificate offers a line detailing each individual's occupation, and while
Shelley's is blank, John's notes that at the time he

(10:00):
was working as a driller on an oil rig. Following
their nuptuels, John and Shelley wasted little time in beginning
the formation of their family. Over the course of the
next sixteen years, the couple would have five children, four girls, Ruthie, Stacy, Bonnie,
and Crystal, and one son, Johnny. John and Shelley were

(10:21):
deeply loving and devoted parents who wanted the best for
their children. John went on to become an independent truck driver,
while Shelley remained with the children and was described by
friends and family as a homemaker. Their children later in
life would describe their mother as deeply loving and caring,
noting that she managed to wrangle and corral all five

(10:42):
of the kids each week to go grocery shopping together.
Their father, they said, was a very loving and protective
man who was a bit on the strict side, telling
the four girls that they weren't allowed to date until
they were sixteen. John's sensibilities in that regard may have
had more to do with the fact that Shelley was
sixteen when they married, and he wanted his children to

(11:05):
choose a different path. Unfortunately, the Markleys would lose their
first home in a terrible fire, which ignited on Sunday,
July fourth, nineteen ninety three. While a terrible incident, the
Markleys rebounded quickly and began looking for a new home
a forever home. The couple ultimately purchased and settled into

(11:26):
a four bedroom, two bathroom, sixteen hundred square foot home
seated on a little more than an acre of property
located along Greenville Road in West Farmington, a rural village
in the northwest of Trumbull County. West Farmington is very rural,
with a lot of woods and farmlands surrounding it. When
the Markleys moved into the house in nineteen ninety three,

(11:48):
the total population of West Farmington was listed as only
five hundred and forty two. Twenty seven years later, in
twenty twenty, the population count is exactly the same now.
In order to avoid confusion, I should note some sources
list their home in West Farmington, while others state the
location as Bristolville, nine miles to the west. Looking on

(12:12):
a map, the family home was nearly equidistant, approximately one
mile closer to Bristolville, an unincorporated community in central Bristol Township.
Greenville Road, also known as Ohio eighty eight, runs approximately
fifty miles primarily east to west, beginning in Portage County

(12:33):
and terminating in the east just past Vernon at the
Pennsylvania state line. The family home is rather isolated, with
a handful of neighbors located miles down the road. For
John and Shelley, it was exactly what they'd been looking for,
the perfect place to raise their growing family. Wisely, at
the time of the purchase, the Marklies used what funds

(12:56):
they had to completely pay off the home, leaving them
only with annual taxes to cover. John was doing well
and ultimately formed a long distance trucking company, mark Lee Trucking,
and would go on to own at least two semis. However,
perhaps the pride and joy of his vehicles was a
beautifully maintained nineteen seventy eight deep apple red corvette that

(13:20):
was always kept in the garage beneath two tarps to
double protect it from any potential damage. While things were
going well for the mark LEAs, the year of nineteen
ninety four, just one year before their disappearance, would prove
a challenging one by sheer will of seemingly bad luck.
One year after their home burned down, on Monday July fourth,

(13:42):
nineteen ninety four, John's father, John Markley Senior, passed away
at the age of eighty. It was a tough loss
for John, who looked up to his father, and of
course was very close to his family before the wound
of that death could even begin to heal. One month later,
in August, An, the nephew of the couple, also passed
away following a struggle with depression. It was a harsh

(14:06):
summer with loss and pain, but unfortunately this was just
the beginning for John and Shelley, as there was another
terrible loss to come, and that would happen just days
before the couple seemingly vanished from the face of the earth.
By December of nineteen ninety five, John, then thirty six
years old, and Shelley thirty two, respectively, were living together

(14:28):
happily raising their five children. The four girls were all
within a year or two of one another, with their
ages listed as twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, while Johnny
was seven and looking forward to turning eight in the
middle of the month. Although John still had the trucking company,
money was a little tight. He had reaggravated an old

(14:49):
back injury, making it difficult, if not impossible, for him
to drive long distances, and so he was staying at
home and collecting disability. Unfortunately, things were about to take
another tragic turn when on Wednesday, December thirteenth, John's twin sister, Bonnie,
passed away after losing a three year battle with breast cancer.

(15:10):
John was absolutely devastated by his twin sister's death. According
to the family, Bonnie was initially diagnosed with breast cancer
three years earlier in nineteen ninety two. She took every
step she could to try and fight the disease, but
while some efforts may have delayed or slowed the spread,
nothing seemed capable of stopping it. Desperate to get her

(15:33):
effective treatments, the family managed to raise fifteen thousand dollars
to send her to Tijuana, Mexico, for experimental treatments, which
showed promise but ultimately could not help. Bonnie spent six
weeks in Mexico during the summer of ninety five, and
John ended up selling his above ground pool to contribute
additional money to continue funding her stay south of the border.

(15:58):
When Bonnie returned to her home in Ashes to Bula County,
she scheduled an appointment with her doctor to check on
her progress. Sadly, the doctor informed Bonnie that her condition
was terminal and they could do little more than make
her comfortable. John was there the night his sister passed away,
and it was clear to everyone that he had taken

(16:18):
it harder than the rest of his siblings. Bonnie and
he were close, and he had convinced himself that somehow,
no matter what the doctor said, she was going to
pull through. John's sister, Linda Mason, noted the pain and
grief her brother experience that night, telling the Tribune Chronicle quote,
he said he never prayed so hard all his life

(16:40):
to God to heal her. He was angry. I told
him Bonnie was in a lot of pain and anguish
and that God took her so she wouldn't have the pain.
According to the children, they saw their father sobbing in
the aftermath, repeating over and over to himself, part of
me is gone, Part of me is gone. Arrangements were

(17:03):
made at the Trask Funeral Home, located in Middlefield, twelve
miles northwest from the Markley family home. Though John had
broken down following the death of his sister, his children
and siblings noted that by the next day he had
managed to pull himself together. He was still heartbroken, no
doubt anyone could see that written all over his face,

(17:24):
but he pushed through and was determined to be there
not just for Bonnie, but for the rest of the
family as they navigated this tragic loss. A viewing was
scheduled for the evening of Friday, December fifteenth, with the
funeral to follow the next day, Saturday, the sixteenth. Neither
John Norshelley would make it to either the visitation or

(17:44):
the funeral. In fact, the last time they would be
seen alive is at the bank on the morning of
the fifteenth, leaving behind five children, a chaotic scene at
the home, and a long list of questions which remain
unanswered to this day. Friday, December fifteenth was a cold
and wet day in Trumbull County. At seven forty two am,

(18:07):
sunrise gave pale illumination, partly obscured behind the dull, gray
curtain of an overcast sky. Temperatures lingered in the mid
thirties with high humidity, making for a cold and uncomfortably
damp morning. The day would show little improvement, with periodic showers,
growing winds sweeping in from the south, and temperatures barely

(18:28):
breaking into the forties At the Markely home. It was
set to be a difficult day, featuring the stark contradiction
between Bonnie's funeral and a celebration of Johnny's eighth birthday.
What few details we have about the activities in and
around the home on Greenville Road that morning come from
the children, with young Johnny being the last to see

(18:49):
his parents after his older sisters left for school that morning.
Johnny would later tell investigators that after getting up and
getting ready for school, he went into the kitchen where
Shelley made him a bowl of cereal. After breakfast, the
two walked out of the house together and Shelley accompanied
Johnny along Greenville Road to his bus stop, waiting with

(19:10):
him until approximately eight thirty am, when he made his
way to school. This was the last time any member
of the Markley family would see either john or Shelley,
but no one would be aware anything might possibly be
wrong until hours later, when Johnny's sisters arrived home from
school to find an empty house with several odd and

(19:31):
out of place details. Firstly, upon arriving home, the children
found that all four doors leading into the house were
closed but not locked, something very out of character for
the Markleys, who, living out in a rural area, were
quite security conscience Several of the children noted that despite
the unlocked house, the family Chevy pickup truck was not

(19:54):
parked in the driveway, and there were no signs of
John or Shelley inside. The story took an even stranger turn.
In the kitchen, there were several indications that things were
not right, with the children noting the coffee pot was
powered on and still heating to the point that it
had nearly boiled dry, suggesting someone had started the coffee

(20:16):
maker but was not there to turn it off when
it finished. On the counter sat a fake leather cigarette
case holding a pack of Marlboroughs with a lighter beside it.
Shelley was a big time smoker and never left her
cigarettes behind, even if she were just going on a
short errand in addition to this, John's watch was spotted

(20:37):
on a shelf above the stove, where he would normally
leave it at the end of the day. But John
never went anywhere without the watch, and after waking in
the morning, one of his first steps for the day
always involved securing that watch to his wrist. One relative
later told police that he'd actually witnessed John in previous
days coming into the kitchen still in his pajamas and

(21:01):
putting that watch on before he even had his first
cup of coffee. Stepping into the attached garage, the kids
immediately noticed that John's prize nineteen seventy eight apple red
corvette was sitting in its usual spot, but the two
tarps which always covered it were gone. According to the
family and friends, John absolutely never left the corvette uncovered,

(21:24):
as he was extremely paranoid of potential scratches from one
of the children's bikes or toys. Back inside the main house,
the kids proceeded upstairs to their parents' bedroom, where several
things stood out to them. Firstly, the gun cabinet was
unlocked and the door was hanging open, and this was
a major red flag. John had collected guns over the

(21:47):
years and was very careful considering the children, so he
always made sure they were locked up. Deeper inside the bedroom,
the kids found two suits of John's laid out on
the queen size bed, beside a couple of Shelley's more
formal outfits, seemingly the clothing the couple planned to wear
to the wake that night. The bed itself was unkempt,

(22:10):
and it was later reported that none of the beds
in the house were made, something that Shelley was always
meticulous about doing. There was a walk in closet just
off the master bedroom which housed a small safe. The
safe was found open, and a lock box, which was
normally kept inside, was sitting on the bathroom counter, also opened.

(22:32):
There were legal documents, paperwork, and even birth certificates strewn about,
and it appeared as though someone had gone through the box,
maybe even the whole house, in search of something in particular,
but the kids didn't have any idea what that something
might be. In fact, at that point, the kids weren't
even sure something untoward had happened, and instead, knowing how

(22:53):
devastated John had been by Bonnie's death, they initially assumed
the couple had gone to run errands that had taken
longer than expected, or maybe they'd gone for a drive
to clear their heads and take a little time away
from their grief and pain. However, as time continued passing
and the calling hours for the wake drew near, the

(23:14):
kids decided to contact their aunt and uncle, Judy and
Tom Yaeger, who lived just a few miles away. Unsure
of whether or not anything was wrong, Judy instructed Ruthie
to make some food for her brother and sisters. She
said she and Tom would come by shortly, and in
the interim, Ruthie prepared some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

(23:35):
for her siblings. Judy and Tom arrived shortly thereafter, around
four pm, and decided to wait at the house with
the kids for John and Shelley. They never showed, and
at five point thirty pm it was decided to leave
for the funeral home, so Judy and Tom loaded the
children into two separate cars and made the short drive
to Middlefield. Judy would later state that she had desperately

(23:59):
hoped to find John and Shelley already there waiting for
their arrival, but they were nowhere to be found and
no one had heard from either one of them. Calling
hours lasted a little over three hours and concluded at
approximately nine pm. Judy gathered the children together and took
them back to the home on Greenville Road. The house

(24:19):
was still empty and there was no sign that John
or Shelley had returned. Finally, just after midnight on Saturday,
December sixteenth, Judy and Tom decided to contact the Trumbull
County Sheriff's office to report the couple and their red
over silver Chevy pickup truck missing. Sheriff's deputies noted that
they would need to keep an eye out for the

(24:40):
couple and their vehicle and planned to come and look
through the house after the family had laid Bonnie to rest.
The funeral began at two PM, and up until the
moment of the service, Judy and the kids were still
expecting to see John and Shelley come walking in, ruffled
and full of apologies and excuses, but they never showed.

(25:00):
There was a big turnout for the funeral. They had
a large family, and Bonnie had a lot of people
in her life who cared deeply and had mourned her loss.
The only members of the family who did not attend
were John and Shelley. Several members of the family noticed
their absence, but questions about that sort of thing were
saved for. After the service, everyone gathered together at a

(25:23):
local VFW hall to support the family and have refreshments.
After dinner, Judy broke the news to the rest of
the family John and Shelley were missing and the Sheriff's
office was now involved. Together, they hoped for the best
and wondered if perhaps the couple had decided to take
time away to deal with their emotions and for John
to put himself together, but they knew deep down he

(25:47):
wouldn't have missed his beloved twin sister's funeral for anything,
And beyond that, as close as they were to the kids,
they certainly wouldn't have gone without so much as a
call or a note. Something wasn't right when the dark
cloud which had hung over the mark Leaves for the
previous few years appeared to be growing darker. Tom Jaeger
would later comment to The Daily Advocate, explaining, quote, with

(26:11):
four young girls and a boy living in a rural area,
they just didn't take any chances with their kids for
them to just come up missing. No matter how distraught
he would have been for the loss of his twin sister,
they would have let somebody know. Early in the day
on Sunday the seventeenth, deputies patrolling the northeastern section of

(26:32):
the city of Warren quickly spotted a truck which matched
the description of John and Shelley's nineteen ninety red over
Silver Chevy. The truck was located in the parking lot
of what was then a Stambas hardware store at thirty
eight fifty Elm Road Northeast, approximately fifteen miles southeast from
the family home. After running the plate to confirm the

(26:54):
truck did in fact belong to the mark Les, deputies
began examining the vehicle itself. They noted that it appeared
to be coated in a dirty, dusty film, suggesting it
had been driven off road somewhere. The truck was actually
so coated in dirt that someone had used their finger
to write wash me on one of the doors. According

(27:15):
to family members, though the truck wasn't in the greatest shape,
John and Shelley were not in the habit of driving
it off road, nor did they typically allow for layers
of dirt and filth to build up. The doors to
the truck were locked and the keys were nowhere to
be found. In fact, they have never been found. After
gaining entry to the vehicle, deputies reported they saw no

(27:38):
signs of a struggle in or around the truck. Few
items were actually recovered, but deputies noted that the Markley
cell phone was discovered sitting on the center console. In
the bed of the vehicle, was a tire for a
semi truck, and just beneath it the two missing tarps
which had previously covered John's corvette, one blue and green.

(28:02):
After securing the truck, it was impounded by the Sheriff's
office and a full and thorough sweep for evidence was conducted. Unfortunately,
nothing of evidentiary value was found, not even an unidentified
fingerprint or hair. While finding the truck gave them some
concept of where the Markleys may have been in the
hours following their disappearance, but did little to advance the investigation.

(28:26):
Deputies did go to the hardware store and speak to employees,
but none of them could say when nor for how
long the truck had been parked there, let alone who
had been driving it. Later in the day, two deputies,
Jane Timcoe and Roger Gregory, were dispatched to the home
on Greenville Road to interview family members and neighbors and

(28:48):
to walk the house in search of potential clues. Frustratingly,
the pursuit for clues was cut short when investigators discovered
that in the days after the disappearance, family members had
been in and out of the house looking after the children,
and had actually cleaned up much of the house, eliminating
whatever potential evidence had been left behind, clothing was put away,

(29:11):
beds made, paperwork returned to the safe, which was closed
and locked, and the coffee pot was cleaned. No one
could say with any certainty what exactly, if anything, was
missing from the home. When investigators examined the gun cabinet,

(29:32):
they found it empty, but no one was certain how many,
if any, guns, had been in there at the time
of the disappearance. John had previously collected guns, but his mother, Ruth,
informed detectives that he had recently sold some of his
weapons for extra cash, and she could not confirm if
he had kept any of them or if he'd sold
them all off Another brick wall to the deputies. While

(29:55):
this certainly impacted the development of the investigation, deputies fell
there was enough known to believe that John and Shelley
were more likely in some kind of danger rather than
just going off on their own. Shelley was described as
a pacadet smoker, but had left behind her cigarettes. In
addition to that, the couple had just recently fully stocked

(30:16):
their freezer for the winter, something that seemed an odd
choice if they were planning on running off. Officer Timcoe
and Gregory spent the vast majority of their shifts that day,
speaking to the family and checking around the house. Ultimately,
all that could be determined was that John and Shelley's
check book appeared to be missing. It wasn't much, but

(30:37):
it gave them a direction to go. While the two
deputies were with the family, their sergeant accompanied firefighters on
a search of the surrounding area. Judy and Tom Yaeger
gathered up friends and family in a number totaling approximately
one hundred people, and began a large search, coming through
hundreds of acres of property which surrounded the rural home.

(30:59):
When boots on the round failed to turn anything up,
and air search was launched, which targeted the home and
surrounding areas including Bristolville, Champion, Farmington, and Holland. Although nothing
was found during these searches, the family stated that they
were planning more searches for the future and were considering

(31:19):
putting together a ward for information or assistance. Asked about
the children, Tom Yager explained that they were doing as
well as could be expected and that the family were
trying to figure out how to keep them in their home,
not wanting to cause further trauma by relocating them. The
yagers were considering selling their own home to move into
the Marklis with the kids, should John and Shelley go unlocated.

(31:44):
Following up on the missing checkbook, deputies examined data from
the couple's bank and quickly learned that the last transaction
had occurred on Friday, December fifteenth, at ten thirty six am,
just over two hours after Shelley had put Johnny on
the bus arsenal check made out to cash and signed
by Shelley, who was cash for one thousand dollars, leaving

(32:06):
only eight hundred and sixty five dollars in the account.
The bank was located in Bloomfield at the intersections of
Ohio eighty seven and forty five, a little over seven
miles north of the family home. Deputies arrived at the
bank today a hardware store, and sat down to interview
the teller who'd been working the drive up window the

(32:27):
day of the disappearance. She relayed to investigators that the
red over silver Chevy drove up to the window and
Shelley rode out and signed the check right there on
the dashboard. She informed detectives that John was in the
driver's seat while Shelley sat in the middle, wedged between
him and another man she was unable to identify. Given

(32:48):
the passage of several days and how busy the bank
generally was on a Friday, she couldn't remember a great
deal about the unknown man. Ultimately, she was only able
to describe him to investigate as a dark haired man
with a slender build. It wasn't much to go on,
and apparently there were no cameras covering the drive through

(33:09):
window at that time. Discovery of the bank transaction and
what few details they could obtain about the unknown man
were the last solid pieces of information investigators were able
to uncover at the time. Though they continued speaking to friends, family,
and neighbors, the case was already beginning to grow cold.
The holidays were coming, and at least for little Johnny,

(33:30):
his Christmas list was only one sentence long and read
all I want for Christmas is Mom and Dad. Tuesday,
December nineteenth was a snow day at school, and so
several family members gathered at the Markley's home and brought
in a tree for decorating, doing the best they could
to keep up some semblance of normalcy for the children.

(33:51):
John's sister, Linda Mason and her husband Jean, traveled up
from their home in Salisbury, North Carolina, and began staying
in the home on Greenville Road, pitching in to help
Judy and Tom take care of the children and hoping
to contribute to the search for John and Shelley. Sheriff's
deputies visited the home on this same Tuesday, speaking with

(34:12):
the family and looking for additional information, but no one
had learned anything new. Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altyer noted
that they were doing all they could to try and
find the missing couple. However, given the lack of evidence,
it was beginning to look grim, as all tier explained
to The Tribune Chronicle, saying, quote, They've never left like

(34:34):
this before. It's a tough one. We're suspecting foul play
until we find out that they're okay. We're looking at
the worst right now. Sheriff all Tyer told reporters that
they put out a message over the teletype to all
law enforcement agencies in Ohio and surrounding states about the disappearance,
and they had included physical descriptions of both John and Shelley.

(34:57):
Though the family were trying to stay positive and keep
their hopes up, if for nothing less than the sake
of the children. The longer they went without answers, the
harder it became. Linda explained, they thought maybe John was
just so upset he needed time. She stated, quote, he
was very bitter about his sister's death. He blamed everybody,

(35:18):
He blamed the doctors, he blamed God. I was hoping
he just couldn't cope and had to get away for
a while. But now that it's been this long, investigators
aren't ruling out foul play. Sadly, Christmas came and went
with no new information about John and Shelley. The family
did the best they could to band together and support

(35:40):
the children, celebrating the holiday as much as one can
given the circumstances. On Wednesday, December twenty seventh, twelve days
since the couple vanished, Sheriff's deputies with few if any leads,
once again visited the family and reinterviewed friends and neighbors,
hoping for something new, but there was nothing to find.

(36:02):
Ruth John's mother told police that while they could not
be entirely sure, they thought that some Christmas presents were
missing from the home. Reportedly, the children had found them
while snooping around in the days before the disappearance, but
when it came time to open everything, certain items were missing.
The family were at that point beginning to grow desperate.

(36:26):
With the regular investigation failing to develop any solid leads
or clues as to John and Shelley's whereabouts or who
may have taken them, some members of the family began
considering more unusual methods to try and track down the
missing couple. Linda Mason explained, quote, we are seriously thinking
about getting a psychic to come in. At this point.

(36:47):
We are willing to do anything that will give us
a lead. From what I've heard, there are some really
terrific ones that have helped the police before. Just a
few days after Christmas, though, this story would take a
dreamly bizarre turn, leading into a series of events that
felt more like something out of a poor quality crime
movie rather than a real life investigation into missing persons.

(37:10):
It all started with a phone call on or around Thursday,
December twenty eighth in the evening. The phone started ringing
in the Markely home and was answered by the children's uncle,
Jeene Mason. The person on the other end of the
line an older sounding man with a raspy voice specifically

(37:31):
asked to speak to Ruth, the eldest of John and
Shelley's children. When Jeane told the caller that Ruth was asleep,
the unknown man requested to speak to John's sister. Though
he didn't seem to know her name, it is believed
that he must have meant Linda. Gene explained that she
was also sleeping and offered to take a message, but

(37:51):
the caller said nothing more and then hung up. At
the time, Jean thought little of it. People had been
calling at all times hoping for news of the missing
c family, friends and neighbors. On Friday, December twenty ninth,
exactly two weeks after John and Shelley's disappearance, Linda was
home when the phone started ringing. She picked it up

(38:13):
and on the other end it was again the raspy
voiced man. This time he had a lot to say.
According to Linda, the man claimed to be holding John
and Shelley hostage. He told her that they would be
sacrificed to a cult on New Year's Eve unless he
was paid ten thousand dollars in cash. After making the

(38:34):
ransom demand, the unknown caller abruptly ended the call. A
few minutes later, the phone rang again, and again it
was the raspy voiced man, Apparently having forgotten his final
point on the previous call. The man told Linda that
if they couldn't come up with the ten grand, they
could always sell John's corvette to raise the money, then

(38:55):
he hung up again. Moments after the second call ended,
Linda call the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office and explain the
situation to Detective Wayne Carterrelli. He supplied Linda with a
device that, when attached to the phone, would allow for
her to record the next call, and they had ten
thousand reasons to expect there would be another call. Saturday

(39:17):
the thirtieth passed with no contact from the raspy voice man,
but he wouldn't stay quiet for long. On the morning
of Sunday, New Year's Eve, the phone started ringing again,
and this time Jeane was present and made sure to
flip on the recording device before answering. It was the
raspy voiced man and he had instructions for Jane. He

(39:38):
told him to go to a Rally's fast food restaurant
located just off Ohio for twenty two, at the southeast
corner of the Eastwood Mall in Niles, approximately twenty miles
southeast of the home on Greenville Road. The caller continued
telling Jane that after arriving at the restaurant, he was
to retrieve a note which had been to into the

(40:00):
coin slot of a payphone. That note would give him
further instructions as to where and how to deliver the
ten thousand dollars in cash to ensure the return of
John and Shelley. Jane and Detective Carterrelli left for the
restaurant in separate vehicles, and it was actually the officer
who arrived first. Reaching into the coin return, he pulled

(40:22):
out a wadded up piece of paper and handed it
to Jane. The note, filled with misspellings, was hand written
in big block letters, and read as follows.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Go to Kaufman's entrance next to mall entrance, Park in
front next to sidewalk. Once inside door, go left to
sweatshirts with penguin bird on them, Put package between shirts
and leave by same door. Then drive to back of
JC Penny entrance. Go into telephone next to restrooms. Wait

(40:54):
fifteen minutes. If no law is seen a boy will
give you a note with the eye. If any law
or anything doesn't look right, go back and get package
because no deal.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Detective Carterrelli handed Jeane a paper bag and filled it
with dish towels to simulate the approximate weight and appearance
of being stuffed with ten thousand dollars in cash. Jean
went into the store and stashed the bag as he
had been instructed, and then proceeded on with the rest
of the directions, walking back out the door he had
come in. All the while, Detective Michael Davis, dressed in

(41:32):
plain clothes, was inside the store, watching and waiting. The
bag had been placed between the sweatshirts with the penguin
on them, which Detective David quickly identified as the Youngstown
University mascot. A few moments later, a man, a woman,
and a boy stopped and looked at the sweatshirts, but
then moved on without looking for or touching the fake

(41:55):
bag of money. Jean had proceeded on to the JC
Penny entered the store through the back entrance and was
sitting by the telephone next to the restroom. He waited
the fifteen minutes he had been advised to, but no
boy ever came by with a note. Because of this,
he assumed something had gone wrong and began making his

(42:16):
way back towards Kaufman's to retrieve the bag as the
note had instructed him to do. Exiting the store once again,
bag in hand, he spoke briefly with Detective Carterrelli, but
neither had any idea what could have gone wrong or
why the caller hadn't made the pickup at the time.
They assumed he was delayed or something else had gone wrong,

(42:39):
and so they decided to repeat the process, with Gene
entering again, putting the bag between the sweatshirts, and then
driving back to J. C. Penny to wait for the call.
Around this time, Detective Carterrelli was contacted over his police
radio and informed that moments earlier, Linda Mason received a

(42:59):
call back at the Markly residence. It was the raspy
voiced man, and he was agitated, apparently saying to Linda,
where is he at? I see the cops. You people
are not following my directions. New instructions were delivered by
the caller, who now directed Jane to leave them all
and drive half a mile west along Ohio four twenty two,

(43:23):
at the corner of four twenty two and North Road southeast,
there was an old gas station and convenience store, Mcquaid's Snoco,
and this would be the new drop spot for the money.
Jeane was told to leave the bag of money in
the restroom and did as he was instructed. Meanwhile, Detective
Carterrelli pulled into the parking lot of the Niles Plaza

(43:46):
shopping center, which was connected to the rear exit of
the filling station. Sitting in his car less than fifty
yards from the Sonoco, Carterrelli had an unobstructed view of
the restroom door, which was on the rear side of
the structure and accessible from the outside. There were several
other deputies in the area, keeping out of sight and

(44:08):
waiting for Carterrelli's call to move in should the suspects
show up. It was a cold afternoon and was only
growing colder, and while the detective kept his eyes focused
on that bathroom door, he noticed it it started snowing.
Less than ten minutes after Jeanne had left the bag.
Detective Carterirelli observed an unknown individual dressed in a hooded

(44:31):
jacket entering the bathroom. Moments later, the figure emerged, and
nearly simultaneously, a white car with a man behind the
wheel pulled around and stopped, waiting for the person in
the hooded jacket. The figure moved quickly and climbed into
the car, at which time Carterrelli gave the order, and
before he could even pull out from the gas station,

(44:53):
multiple Sheriff's deputies surrounded the car, commanding everyone inside to
put their hands up and for the driver to show
the engine off. Deputies quickly identified the driver as forty
five year old Stephen Durst of the City of Warren.
Detective Davis, who had been inside the Kaufman's for the

(45:16):
original drop, confirmed that Durst was the man he had
seen approach the clothing rack after Jean had left the
money bag behind. Also in the car was Durst's teenage daughter.
It was she who was wearing the hood and jacket
and had originally entered the restroom. Neither of the mark
Leaves were president in the car, and neither was the
fake money bag it was still inside the bathroom. As

(45:39):
it would turn out, Durst was not just some random
person trying to cash in on the Markley's misfortunes. He
had a history with the family, in particular John, and
things had not ended well between the two former friends. Durst,
also a truck driver, had fallen on hard times a
year prior to the markleys dis appearance. Wanting to help

(46:01):
out his friend, John not only gave Durst a job
driving his other semi, he also allowed him and his
two children to share the home on Greenville Road. Something
went wrong during the summer of ninety five, six months
before the disappearance, and the two had a heated dispute
over money. Things went so poorly that John ended up

(46:23):
firing Durst and telling him that he and his children
needed to find a new place to live because they
were no longer welcome in his home. According to the family,
John was so angry with Durst that he withheld his
final paycheck, which was for one thousand dollars. Durst made
a lot of noise about that one thousand dollars and

(46:43):
said he was going to get it one way or
the other. Detective Timco explained quote Durst was out of
work when the Markleys disappeared. He told a lot of
people that the Markleys owed him one thousand dollars Durst
was placed under arrest in charge with extortion. He was
held in the Trumbull County Jail on fifteen thousand dollars bond.

(47:07):
Although she had been present at the scene, Durst's daughter,
eighteen at the time, was not charged. Detectives noted that
she had been very cooperative with them and did not
appear to have any knowledge of the extortion plot her
father was carrying out. On Wednesday, January third, nineteen ninety six,
Durst pleaded not guilty to felony extortion in Niles Municipal

(47:30):
Court and was remanded pending the posting of bond. Investigators
were unsure at the time as to whether Durst actually
was involved in John and Shelley's disappearance, or if he
was merely trying to take advantage of a terrible situation
to get that one thousand dollars he claims he was owed.
Even without solid evidence of his involvement, it was hard

(47:52):
to dismiss the coincidence between his anger over one thousand
dollars and the one thousand dollars checked the Markley's cash
the morning of their disappearance in the company of an
unknown man. However, there was one thing there was no
doubt about Durst had tried to extort the family. Sheriff
Altyer explained, saying, quote, we have a tape recorder that

(48:14):
we gave to the family this Stephen Durst called and
told them to take ten thousand dollars in a brown
paper bag to the Eastwood Mall area on Sunday. He
said he did have the whereabouts of the Markleys. After
being released from jail on bond while awaiting his extortion trial,
Durst apparently decided that he needed to do whatever was

(48:36):
possible to prove his innocence, not just of the extortion,
but of any involvement in John and Shelley's disappearance. According
to the plane Dealer, Durst was asked if he would
be willing to take a polygraph examination, and he agreed
to do so. Now. While this is reported as a
voluntary choice from Durst, later articles from the Tribune Chronicles

(48:58):
suggest he agreed to the polygraph because prosecutors had offered
up a plea deal. Durst would serve a shorter sentence,
perhaps even just parole, if he could be cleared of
involvement in the disappearance. At the time, he was facing
four to ten years in federal prison were he to
be found guilty, and the smart money was to roll
the dice and go along with the polygraph. William D.

(49:22):
Evans was a polygraph examiner from the Akron area, and
he was brought to Trumbull County to conduct the exam.
Evans ultimately determined that Durst failed the polygraph and showed
deception on questions revolving around John and Shelley's fate. The
test was not conclusive enough to narrow down the deception
to one specific question, with Evans noting it could have

(49:44):
been any of the following four questions. Were you involved
in John and Shelley Markley's disappearance in any way? Did
you see John and Shelley Markley after they were reported missing?
Do you know where John and Shelley are now? Now?
Did you know in advance that John and Shelley Markley disappeared? Now?

(50:06):
Regardless of one's feelings towards the reliability of polygraph examinations,
I've made it clear many times that I don't believe
them to be scientifically reliable, the suggestion that Durst failed
the test resulted in a sort of cognitive dissonance for
law enforcement. On the one hand, they had the so
called failure, which would lead one to presume that Durst

(50:28):
either possessed some knowledge about the crime or was directly
involved in it. But two law enforcement sources within the
Sheriff's office stated publicly that they did not believe Durst
was involved. One of those voices was that of Sheriff's
detective James Phillips, and the other, surprisingly was that of
Sheriff Altier himself, who stated, quote, there's nothing we've found

(50:52):
that would lead us to believe he has any involvement.
It was theorized at the time that Durst had become
aware of the disappearance and hoped to take advantage of
the situation to his own financial gain, but that he
was not responsible for the disappearance itself. This was a
controversial take, though, with other investigators and members of the

(51:13):
family expressing their belief that Durst knew much more than
he was saying. Then lead investigator, Detective Jane Timcoe noted quote,
since he's failed the polygraph, it indicates that he knows
something about them. The entire legal fiasco revolving around Durst
and the extortion charge lasted four months and during that time,

(51:36):
multiple searches were launched seeking out John and Shelley, but
none of them resulted in any new leads or pieces
of evidence. The Sheriff's office made it clear that while
they had some leads left to pursue, nothing was very concrete,
and due to that they wouldn't reveal additional information about
what led to the searches, nor the locations at which

(51:57):
they were conducted. In the midst of all of the chaos,
there was another court hearing with ramifications involving custody of
John and Shelley's five children. In June of nineteen ninety six,
a family court placed the Markly children into the custody
of Judy and Tom Yaeger. They were apparently somewhat surprised

(52:17):
by the decision, since up until that point Linda and
Jean Mason had been living with and looking after the kids.
Uncertain of their ability, Judy commented to the judge that
at forty six years old, she wasn't sure she was
even capable of becoming a full time mother to five children.
The judge, leaning forward in his chair, looked down at

(52:38):
Judy and commented, quote, well, you don't know what you
can do until you have to do it and the
matter was settled. It was by far not an easy
thing to do for the Jaegers. For the first week
or so, the four girls shared one bedroom while Johnny
used the other. Money was tight, and so the couple

(52:59):
relied on public assistance, donations, and help from friends and family.
It was certainly difficult, but the more time went on,
the more things seemed to fall into place, and the
Jaegers found themselves making it work better than they could
have imagined. By the end of July, more than a
month after the ruling, Judy and Tom had started to

(53:19):
see the kids as their own, and the children were
adjusting as good as could be expected. They were provided
with counseling to help them deal with this dramatic and
unexpected shift in their lives, but they admitted to their
new caretakers that they still held out hope that one
day their mother and father would reappear. One month later,
in August of ninety six, Durst would finally get his

(53:42):
day in court, some eight months since John and Shelley
had vanished. At the time, Durst was represented by Warren
Area defense attorney George kafanteris in his mind at least
his client was innocent and law enforcement had presented a
poor case. Urist argued that Durst's presence at the Sonoco

(54:02):
the day of the extortion attempt was purely coincidental, though
the prosecution easily dismantled that argument. Reportedly, there was an
audio recording of a member of the Markley family, who,
upon hearing the recording of the extortion caller, not only
failed to identify that man as Durst, but actually gave
a different name entirely. It was also alleged that Jean

(54:24):
Mason had stated that he could not say conclusively that
the man he'd spoken to on the phone was Stephen Durst.
Cafanterists argued passionately that investigators weren't even sure if the
caller was Durst, noting that they had elected not to
create a digital voice stamp of the call, which could
then be scientifically compared to recordings of Durst. The reason

(54:47):
law enforcement had chosen not to do this, cafanterists suggested,
was because they knew the test would prove that Durst
had not been the one making the calls. The jury, though,
weren't buying what the defense was selling, and after just
two and a half hours of deliberation, they found Dirst
guilty of extortion. Kafanterists would later comment that his client

(55:08):
was a victim of circumstance, someone who was being punished
not because he was guilty, but because the jury wanted
to see someone pay for what had happened to the Markleys.
To Kafanteris, they found Dirst guilty on extortion not because
of evidence, but because they believed he was involved in
the disappearance dirts. Sentencing was scheduled for nine am on

(55:31):
the morning of Tuesday, September third. Much of the Markley
family was president in the courtroom that day, including John
and Shelley's oldest Ruth, who was then sixteen and took
the day off from school to attend. Durst allowed an
opportunity to speak before sentencing, begged the judge for leniency,
arguing that he was just a good family man caught

(55:53):
up in a crazy situation. Durst stated quote, I am
not an habitual criminal. I just want to raise my children.
Since this case has happened, I have lost two jobs
and I've had my children taken from me. I have
lost my home. I have been brought down to the bottom.
I don't think incarceration of any term is going to

(56:15):
do anything for my character. Well, he was probably right
about that. Judge Andrew Logan wasn't interested in Durst please
and felt that the man hadn't shown any true regret
or sorrow about his involvement in the whole sad affair.
He made it clear to the man that it was
completely unacceptable to try and make money off someone else's misery,

(56:37):
accusing Durst of quote using this unfortunate incident for personal gain.
At one point, the judge also brought up the disappearance,
admonishing Durst by saying, quote, I certainly hope that you
don't know more on this than you have led everyone
to believe. Ultimately, Judge Logan sentenced Durst to forty ten

(56:57):
years at the Lorraine Correctional Institution. Durst would appeal his
conviction two years later, but the appellate court would deny
his claim. While the family reacted with mostly celebratory responses,
there was some concern in the courtroom. John's mother, Ruth,
wondered if this might have sealed the fate for her

(57:17):
son and his wife, telling the Tribune Chronicle quote it
scares me, what if he had them and he was
giving them maybe a piece of bread and water each day.
Now that he's in jail, they're not getting anything. Law enforcement, however,
expressed optimism that with Durst locked behind bars, people with
knowledge of his alleged involvement in the disappearance might feel

(57:41):
more comfortable coming forward. Detective Timcoe reported that just after
he was found guilty, they received several calls from people
looking to share information about Durst and his activities. Whereas before,
Timcoe reported that people were afraid of him and refused
to cooperate, she hoped there would be more calls to come.

(58:01):
She remained laser focused on Durst, telling the Plaine Dealer quote,
I truly believe that Stephen Durst knows what happened to them,
and he just won't say. When Assistant Prosecutor Debbie Smith
was asked about Durst's potential role in the crime, she replied, quote,
that is the whole mystery. I think this conviction will

(58:23):
help in the investigation. I think there's got to be
someone out there that knows more, and now that he's
in jail, that information should come more freely. Unfortunately, while
Timco did receive new calls over the next few months.
Most of them were unhelpful, and by the beginning of
nineteen ninety seven, the only people still reaching out were

(58:44):
so called psychics. Detective Timcoe noted that three of these
Charlatans claimed to envision the couple either dead and in
the dark, or down beneath the water somewhere. One claimed
to have a vision of the couple in an abandoned
farmhouse on the Ohio Indiana border. Though Detective Timcoe follows
up on all tips, there was little to work with,

(59:06):
and she did the best she could. She sent divers
into the murky waters of an abandoned quarry, cadaver dogs
through fields in along shore lines, and Indiana law enforcement
searched a dozen unoccupied her abandoned farmhouses, finding nothing connected
to John or Shelley. It was often back to the

(59:26):
drawing board, wondering what they had missed, what clue might
completely changed the direction of the investigation. Timco has a
lot of different thoughts, sometimes wondering if it was less
of a personal crime and something more to do with
John's trucking. Maybe Her thoughts were always evolving, As she explained, quote,
there are so many maybees today, I feel this happened tomorrow,

(59:50):
I could feel entirely different. By October of nineteen ninety seven,
twenty two months had passed, and law enforcement did not
appear to be any closer to finding John Shelley or
any answers as to who may have been involved in
their disappearance. Desperate for something, anything, to run with, Judy
Yager agreed to appear on an episode of The Montell

(01:00:12):
Williams Show, alongside alleged psychic Sylvia Brown, whose most notorious
claim to fame maybe when she told a mother on
television in front of a live studio audience that her
missing daughter, Amanda Berry, was dead. Amanda's mother went to
her grave, believing that only for the missing woman to
escape her captors, and later acknowledged she had actually seen

(01:00:35):
the show in which Sylvia told her mother she was dead.
Brown had previously done the same when she told the
parents of missing teenager Sean Hornbeck that he was dead
and his body would be found near two jagged boulders.
She claimed he had been abducted by a dark skinned
man with dreadlocks. Five years later, Sean was found alive,

(01:00:58):
and it turned out he had been a deducted by
a Caucasian man with short hair. One could easily do
an entire series of podcast episodes about the lies and
deceptions of Sylvia Brown, perhaps one of the only human
beings less reliable than a polygraph test, but I digress.
During her appearance on the show, Judy was informed by

(01:01:20):
Brown that John and Shelley's remains could be found along
the banks of a creek or drainage ditch not far
from Bowling Green, Ohio, located more than one hundred and
fifty miles west of the home on Greenville Road. She
further stated that the location carried the name of two
minor presidents, Jackson and Taylor. Armed with this information, six

(01:01:42):
members of the family approached Sheriff John Cole of Wood County,
where Bowling Green is located, and requested his department's assistance
in searching for the missing couple. Cole, who noted he
wasn't sure he believed in the accuracy of psychics, agreed
to search, saying that you just never know what can happen.
The target area for the search was Jackson Cut off,

(01:02:04):
a large culvert that runs through Weston and intersects with
Taylor Street, bringing together the Jackson and Taylor reference of Brown.
A thorough search of the area was carried out by
Sheriff's deputies and members of the family, but nothing was found.
Sheriff's detective Chuck Frizell noted that they had considered the
search unlikely to yield results, but it was worth trying,

(01:02:29):
he would comment to The Sentinel Tribune, saying, quote, if
they were there, it'd be hard to find anything after
this long, But with the family still looking and wondering,
I guess you almost have to do something. Despite the
lack of results, Judy and Tom were highly complimentary of
Sheriff Cole for listening to their pleas and doing what

(01:02:50):
he could to help them, where other law enforcement officers
might have just dismissed them as wackos. It was another
dead end for Judy and Tom, who had spent a
lot of their free time over the previous two years
searching everywhere they could think of in any place. Anyone
suggested they were desperate for answers and to find John

(01:03:11):
and Shelley, but never did it seem to pan out.
Wherever the couple were, it seemed they were extremely well hidden.
Asked about their searches, Judy would reply, quote, anytime someone
calls us with any information that can help us find them,
we drop what we're doing and we go we're at
the point where we're looking at any kind of lead

(01:03:33):
at all. We'd like to put this all behind us
and put it to rest. For the kids, they need
to put this in the past so they can get
on with their lives. They need some sense of closure.
For the most part, this is where the major developments,
if you can even call them, that, come to a stop.

(01:03:53):
Though law enforcement continued to work it and would track
down all tips and leads delivered to them, nothing ever
seemed to advance the investigation. Soon days turned to weeks,
weeks to months, and months to years. Life moved forward
regardless of concern or appeal, and each subsequent year the

(01:04:14):
holiday season would bring with it reminders of a dark
past that can never be fully illuminated until John and
Shelley are found, their fate determined, and their abductor and
likely killer arrested and charged. Few, if any, believe that
they are alive out there somewhere, with most accepting they
were likely killed before they were even reported missing. Tuesday,

(01:04:39):
December fifteenth, twenty fifteen marked twenty years since the mark
Leaves disappeared. With two decades passed, the case had moved
through the hands of different investigators and now the files
were on the desk of Detective Tom Stuart. Since taking over,
Stuart had put in a lot of work revisiting witnesses
and exact man what evidence they did possess, mostly papers

(01:05:03):
and documents held in two large bankers boxes. The pickup
truck discovered in the days after the disappearance was still
in the possession of law enforcement, and they were using
new more advanced technology to search for potential missed evidence
or DNA. Sheriff al Tyr was clear that despite the
passage of time, the case was still active and he

(01:05:25):
was determined to break it open, but he was also
open about the fact that they would need assistance from
the public. He explained to WFMJ twenty one NBC News, saying, quote,
this has been on my mind for twenty years, this case.
As a matter of fact, a couple of weeks ago
we got some more leads on this and it's funny

(01:05:47):
because now it's the twenty year anniversary. We have interviewed
three people last week and we're looking for three more
people to interview. We just need that one tidbit to
come up with and we can hopefully do some indictments.
Despite the new interviews, nothing appeared to come out of it,
and Detective Stuart noted that the investigation was still hitting

(01:06:09):
a roadblock. The last news coverage about this case was
in July of twenty twenty one, more than twenty five
years since John and Shelley were last seen alive. Things
were difficult for their children in the years following the disappearance,
and while they were loved and cared for by relatives,
there's no way to truly substitute for someone's parents, especially

(01:06:32):
when their ultimate fate remains unknown. It becomes a broken door,
unable to fully close on a pass that cannot be confronted.
Months earlier, in late twenty twenty, the family had John
and Shelley officially declared dead. Stacey, the couple's second oldest daughter,
felt like she hadn't been fully able to grasp it all,

(01:06:54):
but in the aftermath she had to adjust. She commented
to The Morning Journal, saying, I know I'm still a kid,
but I see things differently. We were made to grow
up fast. Ruthie the oldest of the children, married and
started her own family. She would eventually move back into

(01:07:14):
the Greenville Road home alongside her husband. They would be
joined by two of her sisters, living back together in
a home that had once been at the center of
their lives. It was a different kind of feeling, but
there was a certain therapy in revisiting old haunts and
peeling back the bandages from wounds that had never fully healed.

(01:07:34):
For Ruthie, she sacrificed much of her youth, being the oldest.
She explained that family members, no matter how well meaning,
had placed a great deal of pressure on her, expressing
how important it was that she stay strong for her
brother and sisters, but that left little room to face
her own pain. At the same time, the search for

(01:07:56):
their parents and for the truth could not be dismissed.
In fact, several of the sisters noted it was necessary
for them. They were unified in saying that it was
the unknown that had made things so hard for them,
the lack of answers that kept them from being able
to fully move forward as they believed their parents would
have wanted them to. Asked about that, Ruthie replied, quote,

(01:08:19):
I told myself. You've got to turn cold. That's how
I'll deal with it. Even if we find out they're dead,
it'll be over. Surely. They believe someone out there has
the ability to provide them with the truth, to help
alleviate the pain they've lived with for the majority of
their lives, and to finally bring their parents home to

(01:08:41):
lay them to rest, to see the promise of a
new tomorrow. When last scene, John Marklee was described as
being a white male with brown hair and green eyes,
standing five feet ten inches tall and weighing approximately one
hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy pounds. John
has a mole and a scar on his back and

(01:09:02):
a scar on his right forearm. He is thought to
have been carrying a pocket knife, a black Peter Built
brand knife case, and a cigarette lighter. He was last
seen at the home on Greenville Road on the morning
of Friday, December fifteenth, nineteen ninety five. Shelley renee Markley
is described as being a white female with brown hair

(01:09:24):
and blue eyes, standing five feet four inches tall and
weighing approximately one hundred and twenty five pounds. She has freckles,
a scar on her right forearm, and both ears are pierced.
She is thought to have been wearing stud earrings and
a round gold ring with two diamonds. She was a
packadet smoker at the time, with her brand being Barbara Reds.

(01:09:48):
At the time of their disappearance, John was thirty six
and Shelley thirty one. If alive today, they would be
sixty five and sixty one years old, respectively. They were
last seen in the vicinity of the former bank now
a hardware store on Painesville Warren State Road in North Bloomfield.

(01:10:09):
They were sitting in their red over silver nineteen ninety
Chevy Fleetwood four by four with the cellular antenna and
a loud muffler, alongside a third unidentified man. He has
only ever been described as a white male, slender and
build with dark hair. The truck was later found abandoned

(01:10:29):
in the parking lot of the former Stambas Hardware store,
located then at thirty eight fifty Elm Road Northeast in
the city of Warren. This December will mark thirty years
since Shelley Markley walked her eight year old son to
his bus stop and then vanished off the face of
the earth along with her husband John. The house was

(01:10:50):
left in disarray, suggesting a quick exit, and likely not
one of their own choosing. The couple disappeared on the
same day as their son's perth day and the wake
for John's beloved twin sister, Bonnie, two events that no
one in the family believed they would have ever missed
unless they were forced to. Over the last three decades,

(01:11:11):
their children were forced to grow up quickly and learned
all too soon about the nameless, faceless evil in the
world that will steal your family away from you and
never pay the price. There is little doubt someone out
there knows more, But what exactly has kept them quiet
all these years, and who or what they're protecting, is

(01:11:31):
a mystery all of its own. Someone stole John and
Shelley's lives. They robbed their children of their family, shattered
their bonds, and left them orphaned for something as paltry
as a matter of one thousand dollars. Anyone who would
protect a monster like that has already become a monster themselves.

(01:12:00):
The disappearance of John and Shelley Markley is a strange
case with a lot of different twists and turns. Two
grown adults, parents of five in the midst of a
family tragedy, mysteriously disappear from their home, which is left
in such a status to suggest they left rapidly, so fast,
in fact, that they left the coffee pot, brewing papers

(01:12:20):
strewn about, safes open and unlocked, and beds completely unmade.
It appeared clear from the first moments that this was
not a case of two people running off for some reason. Sure,
some have argued that perhaps John was struggling emotionally with
the loss of his sister, as several family members attested too,

(01:12:40):
but that doesn't exactly fit in with the known details either.
His sister died two days earlier, he and Shelley were
selecting the clothes they would wear to her wake, and
then what sometime after putting their son on the bus
on what happened to be his eighth birthday, they just
decided to hit the road, leaving behind no notes, no directions,

(01:13:01):
and never calling to check in. Though there is always
a subsect of people who actually believe this is a possibility,
logic and reason are fairly powerful in their ability to
overcome this theory, marking it as little more than a remote,
if not extremely unlikely scenario. Running off whether it's for

(01:13:21):
a short period of time or for what has now
extended into nearly thirty years. Typically is not a spur
of the moment decision, especially when you've got a home,
a company, and five children who depend on you. Now
to a degree, I understand initial theories and beliefs of
family members that maybe John, so heartbroken and devastated by

(01:13:42):
the loss, might have wanted a little time to get
his head together, to get away from it all, and Shelley,
being the devoted and loving wife she was, may have
wanted to go along with him. When the kids first
arrived home and found the house empty, even they theorize
that may their parents had chosen to take a long
drive to give themselves the ability to decompress. But as

(01:14:06):
the hours slowly ticked by, it became apparent to everyone
that knew the Markleys that they would never purposefully abandon
their children, let alone to leave everything they owned behind.
For those who still considered it probable, they were never
able to explain to what end this plan was executed.
It seems very clear today, with three decades to look

(01:14:28):
back on in retrospect, that running away is not only
an extremely unlikely theory, today it was a pretty far
fetched one back in December of ninety five. To their credit,
law enforcement didn't entertain that possibility for very long. Once
they were informed of the disappearance approximately sixteen hours after
they were last seen, they established pretty quickly that this

(01:14:50):
was likely a case of foul play. To them, not
a whole lot about it made sense, and given what
else was going on, there had to be something or
someone john and Shelley from coming home. Unfortunately, it was
difficult to determine too much of what may have happened
due to a severe lack of physical evidence. The crime scene,

(01:15:11):
as it were, was the family home on Greenville Road.
Whatever happened that cold Friday in December started there sometime
in the ninety or so minutes between Shelley putting Johnny
on the school bus around eight thirty am and the
bank teller cashing the check for them at ten thirty six.
It seemed most likely that someone or perhaps multiple people

(01:15:33):
somehow gained entry to the family home that morning, most
likely armed, and took control of the missing couple. While
the crime scene had been cleaned up and therefore essentially
swept clean of valuable forensic data. A LA Jean Benet Ramsey.
Although I don't believe this is a case that has
room for speculation that someone in the home was responsible,

(01:15:55):
what we were told about the condition of the home
spoke volumes someone besides John and Shelley was there that day,
though for what reason no one has ever been able
to clarify. We all know that the safe was opened,
the lock box was removed and sifted through. The gun cabinet,
which was always locked, was also accessed, and although it

(01:16:16):
was found empty by the children later in the day,
there's no accounting for what nor how many guns may
have been inside of it, if any at all. The
coffee pot was left on and had nearly brewed itself dry.
John's prized watch was left behind, and Shelley, a chainsmoker,
leaves her cigarettes and lighter on the counter. It all

(01:16:37):
seems to point to the same kind of a situation.
Someone came into the home, was looking for something specific,
likely money or items of value, and after being unsuccessful
in their bid, they forced John and Shelley out into
their own truck for a quick trip to the bank. There,
Shelley writes out a one thousand dollars check to cash

(01:16:57):
from a one, eight hundred and sixty five dollars act count,
and they're never seen again. The teller, who was somewhat
familiar with the Markleys as frequent customers, spots another man
in the truck with them, a dark haired man with
a slender build. Unfortunately, it's a quick transaction and she
doesn't pay a great deal of attention to the unknown man,

(01:17:18):
so little, in fact, that she's later unable to identify
anyone she has shown a photo of, making it clear
she really didn't get much of a look. So police
learned some new details, but it does little to assist them. Maybe, however,
they've managed to uncover the motive that this was all
about money at the same time. Abducting two people, forcing

(01:17:40):
them to cash a check for you, and then possibly
killing them and disposing of their bodies seems like a
lot of work for one thousand dollars, but people have
been killed for less. It's also a really strange crime
where there was a high likelihood of being caught. Anyone
could have seen who was with the mark Leys that
morning and possibly recognized him. John or Shelley could have

(01:18:01):
said something during the bank that morning to warrant suspicion
or to elicit assistance leading to a nine to one
one call. None of that ends up happening, but the
risk was there, and at least to me, this doesn't
come across like a crime planned and executed by an
experienced and skilled criminal. It seems more likely that an
opportunity presented itself, perhaps learning about the passing of John's sister,

(01:18:26):
and someone intended to cash in in whatever way possible.
To me, at least, this has always come across as
a crime laiden with anger and specifically targeting John and
Shelley for personal reasons. Sure this could have been completely random,
but it doesn't feel that way. It's too involved, It's

(01:18:47):
too high profile and way too risky. I don't think
a Rando would have gone to the bank with the
couple to get that one thousand dollars. More likely, I
would have expected that corvette to have been taken and
the Marquis themselves to have been killed inside of their home,
leading to a grizzly discovery later in the day. I've

(01:19:07):
often wondered how things may have been different if they
had had the cash in the house that morning, if
they were able to just hand it to the suspect,
would he still have felt the need to kill them,
though it's impossible to say with any certainty. The fact
that the two tarps were stripped off of the corvette
and taken along in the truck suggests some type of

(01:19:28):
planning in regard to disposing of the bodies or concealing them.
But then those very tarps are found in the bed
of the truck, and it's just another piece of evidence
that doesn't make sense. There have never been any reports
of blood evidence or DNA being recovered from the tarps,
so what exactly their purpose was and why they were

(01:19:49):
taken is just another part of this inexplicable mystery. The
truck is found in the parking lot of what used
to be a hardware store on the northeastern end of
the city of Warren, Shelley's hometown. Police note that the
vehicle is covered in dirt and dust, suggesting it was
driven off road, and all members of the Markley family
comment that this is inconsistent with John and Shelley's typical behaviors.

(01:20:13):
It's also the discovery of this truck that is often
noted as the final dagger in any potential running away theory.
As it would be fairly difficult for the couple to
get much of anywhere without their vehicle, and perhaps carrying
just one thousand dollars in cash, although nobody actually believes
that check was cash for their personal use. In the truck,

(01:20:35):
police find the couple's cell phone, an expensive commodity in
nineteen ninety five, a spare tire for one of John's semis,
and the two previously missing tarps laying in the bed
with the tire on top of them. No signs of
a struggle, no traces of blood or hair, not even
an out of place fingerprint. There's no sign that whoever
was responsible for their disappearance had wiped down the interior,

(01:20:59):
so it seems more likely this person wore gloves or
was extremely careful not to touch anything from there. We
simply don't know anything more. For the most part, it's
theorized that whoever left the truck in that parking lot
was involved in the disappearance. There's no belief that John
or Shelley were still there when it was left. Something

(01:21:19):
I've always thought about when thinking about the details of
how this crime was committed is the killer's method of
getting to the Markley's residence and then getting away from
the truck that afternoon. Sure, it's entirely possible the suspect
parked in that same area and simply walked from the
truck to his own vehicle. But then you have to
ask how the hell did he get to the Markley's

(01:21:41):
home some thirty miles away. To me, the answer has
always been clear. This is at a minimum a two
person job. Someone had to drop the killer off and
or pick the killer up after all was said and done.
John and Shelley lived in a rural area miles from
most signs of life, and the idea that someone walked

(01:22:02):
to the house makes even less sense than them running
away of their own volition. So you're looking at at
least two people, the driver and the suspect who actually
enters the home and confronts the Markleys. You have to
wonder if the suspect was dropped off and gave instructions
on where to later pick him up, or if all
along the way from the home to the bank, to

(01:22:24):
wherever they were killed and disposed of, and then to
the hardware store parking lot, there was another vehicle following along,
driven by the second suspect. Either way, there's no doubt
that once news of the mark Les disappearance hits television
and airwaves, and both their home end truck are shown
on the news, the person who drove the suspect is

(01:22:47):
becoming completely aware of what happened. Even if they didn't
know at the time, they certainly knew within a few
days of the crime. And yet no one comes forward. Perhaps,
as the DA's office suggested, people were scared to discuss
the suspect, or maybe this was someone who was just
as deep into the motive and who has as much,

(01:23:08):
if not more, reason to want to see John and
Shelley Gonne. There's really no way of knowing, but I
think in a way, that's pretty much what this comes
down to. Maybe the one thousand dollars was the driving
motive that got the wheels turning on this plan. But
at the end of the day, this was a double
homicide from start to finish. Whoever walked into the Marketly

(01:23:30):
home that morning knew that anyone they came upon in
that house was not going to live to see the
next day. They knew exactly what they were doing, what
they were looking for, and how they were going to
pull it off. Presumably they even had a location in
mind for the murders and the disposal of the bodies,
and considering how much time has passed, they obviously chose

(01:23:53):
a secluded enough location that no trace of the missing
couple has ever been found. There is a lot of
wide open fields, densely wooded spots, and everything in between
in the rural parts of Trumbull County. You're talking thousands
of acres of land and water to search, much more
than law enforcement could properly carry out in a matter

(01:24:15):
of months, let alone years. The sad truth is, once
John and Shelley got into that truck with the killer,
everything was basically over for them. One horrifying question that
troubles me often is exactly when did they know that
they were going to be killed, that there was no
coming back from this. Somewhere along that drive, it must

(01:24:38):
have dawned on them one by one or simultaneously that
they weren't going to make it. It's a terrible fate,
and the minutes must have ticked by like hours as
they persisted mile by mile towards their final moments. Another
question I've seen asked in several places and I've often
wondered about myself, is why John and Shelley went along

(01:25:01):
with the suspects plan. Now, surely you could argue they
were being held at gunpoint or at the end of
some other weapon, and they were simply scared and did
what they were told to do because they wanted to
get things over with as quickly as possible. I'm not
trying to discard that theory. I think it's as reasonable
as anything else. But I can't help but wondering if
perhaps they went along with everything in order to protect

(01:25:24):
their children. It's been made clear time and time again
that John and Shelley were loving and devoted parents who
did everything they could to look out for their four
daughters and one son. Perhaps one of them offered up
some resistance, and the suspect commented how if they wouldn't
go along with things, he would just have to wait
for the kids to come home. How far would John

(01:25:47):
and Shelley be willing to go to save their children,
all the way to a bloody end, as it would
turn out. But there is another possibility, one that I
can't get out of my head, and that's the idea
that John and Shelley knew the person who showed up
at the house on Greenville Road that morning. Not only
did they know this person, they had reason to believe that,

(01:26:07):
while threatening and demanding money, this person was unlikely to
actually kill them. There's a big piece of me that
thinks they felt like once they gave this person the money,
they'd be taken home and told to keep their mouths shut,
or some worse fate might befall them. At the same time,
it's entirely possible that a personal connection may have actually

(01:26:28):
aggravated the situation. They knew who the suspect was. Even
if they promised not to call the police, the killer
would likely be unwilling to risk his or her freedom
on a promise given by either of them. Hell, for
all we know, something was directly stated to the suspect
informing him that they were gonna make sure he went

(01:26:48):
to prison for this, and that sealed their fate. But
I somewhat doubt the latter. As I said earlier, it
appears clear to me that murder was always the plan here.
There's not exactly a long list of suspects in this case.
In fact, there's only one who's ever mentioned by name,
and that's John's former friend and employee, Stephen Durst, who

(01:27:10):
just so happened to live in Warren at the time,
the same city where the truck was found abandoned. Initially,
Durst's name doesn't really come up in the investigation. There's
no mentions of him or his previous associations with the
family until we become embroiled in that whole attempted extortion fiasco,
which is such a ridiculously planned and executed crime that

(01:27:32):
it's difficult to accept someone with so limited brain power
could have actually pulled off the double abduction and murder
of John and Shelley. But at the same time, there
are key details that feed right into it. According to
the family, Durst had a previous association with John in
that they had worked together and were friends. Sometime in
early ninety five, Durst hits a rust spot financially, and John,

(01:27:55):
out of the goodness of his heart, not only offers
Durst a job driving for him, he allows him to
use one of his own trucks because he knows Durst
doesn't have one. On top of that, he invites Durst
and his children to come live in the house on
Greenville Road. Now details are sparse, but it's reported that
sometime in the summer, approximately five to six months before

(01:28:17):
the disappearance, an argument between John and Durst over money
leads to John not only firing Durst, but throwing him
and his kids out of the house. It's also reported
that as a result of this argument, John tells Durst
that he's not going to issue his final paycheck totally
some one thousand dollars, and in the months after, Durst

(01:28:38):
apparently makes a lot of noise about John owing him
a grand and how he's gonna get that money one
way or another. Now. It also sounds like this guy
was generally a bag of hot air, so most people
didn't take it seriously until the day John and Shelley disappeared.
Two weeks or so after the disappearance, the family starts
getting calls from an unknown man with a raspy voice.

(01:29:02):
He demands ten thousand dollars or one hundred thousand, depending
on who you ask, for the safe release of John
and Shelley, who he claims to be holding. After a
bunch of calls and random threats, this all leads to
a so stupid it's almost comical charade involving loading money
into a paper bag, dropping in a mall, waiting for
a boy with a note to deliver further instructions. When

(01:29:25):
that doesn't work out, things get changed and instead the
money is supposed to be left in the bathroom of
McQuaid Sonoco, a gas station just down the street from
the Eastwood Mall. After everything is done and all instructions
are followed, Durst shows up with his daughter, who enters
the bathroom when police jump into action. Durst claims ignorance

(01:29:46):
and pretends that he just happened to be at the
gas station and he doesn't understand what all the police
presence is about. He of course forgets that a detective
saw him at the mall where the money drop was
supposed to be as well. Who's not as much of
a moron as her father? Tells law enforcement whatever they
need to know, and fully cooperates. It's determined that she

(01:30:08):
was unaware of the extortion plan and was merely doing
what her father had instructed her to do. Durst still
denies involvement, claiming so vehemently that he's innocent and it's
just a misunderstanding that he voluntarily takes a polygraph examination
thinking he's going to be vindicated by a piece of
technology that, for the most part, is considered a flawed

(01:30:31):
and unscientific device. The only thing he manages to prove
is that he's even dumber than anyone had given him
credit for. Not only does the polygraph not go his
way shocker, the administer states that it specifically shows signs
of deception on basically all of the key questions asked
about whether or not Durst was involved in or has

(01:30:51):
any knowledge of John and Shelley's disappearance. In the end,
Durst continues to deny any involvement in either crime, but
has found guilt of extortion and is sentenced to four
to ten years in prison. He tries to appeal it
a few years later, but his appeal is quickly denied
on the basis of there being enough evidence to link
him to the extortion that even a jury as dumb

(01:31:13):
as him would have voted to convict. The thing is,
after the extortion sentencing, you never hear about Durst again.
Some law enforcement officers comment that they don't think he
was involved in the disappearance and merely tried to use
the situation to his own benefit. Other law enforcement officers
state their belief that Durst absolutely knows more about the

(01:31:35):
disappearance and was likely involved, but no one ever comes
forward with corroborating information, and no solid evidence is ever
found to directly connect Durst to that crime. As much
as I have suggested that Durst is a moron, if
he was involved, he has somehow managed to get away
with it. Everything against him is basically circumstantial. There's no

(01:31:59):
smoking gun. He was owed one thousand dollars in the
day of the disappearance. That's the exact amount of money
they take out of the bank. John and Shelley are
accompanied by an unknown man with dark hair who's described
as slender. Durst himself is a dark haired slender man.
But that's pretty much where the evidence stops, if you

(01:32:20):
can even call it that. Maybe if they had something
more to pressure him with, Durst might have talked, or
maybe he really wasn't involved, although I personally don't believe that.
Digging deeper into Durst, I was able to find three
addresses associated with him throughout the nineteen nineties, and all
of them are within five miles of the parking lot

(01:32:41):
where the truck was found. That doesn't necessarily mean he
had to have been directly involved in the crime, but
it's certainly some more circumstantial evidence to add to an
already large pile of facts. To me, Durst is the
most likely and key suspect in this case, and for
whatever reason, police have never managed to connect him to it.
He either kept this crime completely to himself, which I

(01:33:05):
don't think is possible given our previous discussion about needing
a ride, or whoever worked with him is dead or
continues nearly three decades later to help cover up a
crime that robbed five children of their parents on the
day of their aunt's wake, their little brother's eighth birthday,
and just ten days before Christmas. This isn't just a

(01:33:26):
crime committed by a monster, but one protected by at
least one other person who is just as much of
a devious, heartless scumbag. There is one other theory, for
lack of a better term, I'd like to address before
we wrap this episode up, and that involves a man
named Milton Kertzman. In April of twenty twenty, Kurtzman, then

(01:33:51):
seventy one and living on property he co owned in Bristolville,
is arrested and charged with felonious assault after he shoots
his roommate and caretaker, sixty four year old Alan Biler,
multiple times. Biler manages to survive by some miracle, and
Kurtzman is taken into custody by Trumbull County deputies and

(01:34:12):
placed in a cell where less than twenty four hours later,
he's found dead on the floor. The coroner, who examines
the body determines that Kurtzman's death is as a result
of natural causes. He had in previous years been struggling
with bad health and had suffered some strokes. Friends and
neighbors later comment that after the strokes, Kurtzman had become

(01:34:34):
more disagreeable and violent, and in the weeks leading up
to the shooting had multiple clashes with law enforcement, in
part about his possession of firearms despite apparent mental decline.
I should note it's interesting that one of his neighbors
was named Markley. From the outside, this appears to just
be another horrible event which occurs within the borders of

(01:34:56):
Trumbull County, But what many believe may link it to
the Markley's disappear pearance comes. After Kertzman dies, the Trumbull
County Sheriff's Office launches multiple searches on Kirtzman's property, though
they will not specify what exactly they're looking for. Instead,
they provide vague answers to the possibility of additional crimes

(01:35:16):
carried out on Kirtzman's property. Things really pop off when
Sheriff Paul Monroe makes reference to a crime from the past,
telling WKBN CBS News quote, there may be additional crimes
that occurred on this property and evidence of such which
we're trying to recover at this time. This is something

(01:35:37):
that dates back historically twenty years that we're looking at now.
Twenty years would put you at the year two thousand.
But a lot of people have suggested that what Trumbull
County authorities were actually looking for is something connected to
John and Shelley. I should note this is all speculation.
I haven't seen a single quote from law enforcement nor

(01:35:59):
any solid evidence to link Kurtzman to John and Shelley's disappearance.
But this search stirred up a lot of different theories,
and many people have chosen to run with it. When
you look into this case, you're undoubtedly going to come
across this story, and in many places it's presented as
fact that there is a connection, and while it's an
interesting alley to go down, there's not a lot of

(01:36:21):
evans to be dealt with. Perhaps the most interesting angle
of it comes from the fact that Kurtzman lived in
and owned land surrounding a home in the thirteen hundred
block of Hyde Oakfield Road, just five miles from the
Greenville Road home. In fact, if one were to leave
John and Shelley's home and drive to Kurtzman's, you would

(01:36:42):
pass by the bank where they cashed that one thousand
dollars check the morning of their disappearance. Perhaps another interesting
connection comes up when it's learned that Kurtzman had previously
worked for the Republic Steel Corporation, which changed names and
owners multiple times. It was out of Warren, Ohio, again

(01:37:03):
the same city in which the Marklee truck was found abandoned.
In fact, the site of the former steel mill was
less than four miles from that hardware store parking lot,
five miles from the home, four miles from the truck.
It's no wonder people have been digging into this theory.
At the same time, proximity doesn't exactly mean involvement, but

(01:37:25):
there's a little more left to explore. Although curious. The
location isn't the only interesting detail. It's the fact that
Kertzman worked in the steel industry. According to several members
of the Marklee family, who still very much believed Stephen
Durst was involved in the disappearance, his job prior to

(01:37:46):
being hired by John was as a trucker hauling steel.
Is it possible that Durst and Kertzman were connected in
some way and maybe law enforcement believed he might have
bodies hidden somewhere on his expansive or property just five
miles from the Markleys. Maybe, but if true, there have

(01:38:06):
been no solid development since Kurtzman's death in twenty twenty,
and law enforcement have not made any direct references to
John or Shelley in relation to that search. I went
down this rabbit hole pretty good during research, and while
a very interesting angle, I couldn't find a lot of
additional information to make any solid connections from what I

(01:38:27):
can tell. The origin of this possible connection came out
of a Web Sleuths post in which a user linked
to the article about Kurtzman's arrest back in twenty twenty
and simply wondered if there was a connection. That's kind
of it. There's nothing in any news articles or official
quotes from law enforcement that directly connects Kurtzman to the disappearance,

(01:38:48):
and while there's a lot of possibility there left to explore,
it appears that much like after Durst went to prison
and people stopped bringing up his name, Kurtzman's death pretty
much did any conversation about him either. Another weird, coincidental
twist in a case that already has too many. This

(01:39:10):
December will mark thirty years since John and Shelley Markley
mysteriously vanished from their Bristolville, West Farmington home. Left behind
was a house in disorder, a confusing set of clues
that didn't directly lead anywhere, a family devastated by yet
another loss, and five children who, all these years later

(01:39:30):
still desperately seek the truth about their beloved parents. John
and Shelley have never been found, and although a tombstone
has been erected for them, the family are acutely aware
that their bodies are not buried beneath it. The family
seeks answers, They want the truth, but more than anything else,
they want to bring John and Shelley home, to lay

(01:39:52):
them to rest, and to finally have the closure they
need to properly mourn and move on with their lives. Unfortunately,
after all of these years, unless someone comes forward, new
evidence is found, or their bodies are located, the disappearance
of John and Shelley Markley will remain open, unsolved, and

(01:40:14):
growing cold. If you're looking for more information about the
disappearance of John and Shelley Markley, there are many websites
and forums discussing this case. The Trail Went Cold has

(01:40:35):
done an episode on it as well. For this episode,
the Sentinel Tribune and Tribune Chronicle were the most helpful. However,
this episode would not have been possible without the amazing
and detailed reporting from the Plane Dealer. If you have
any information about the disappearance of John and Shelley Markley,

(01:40:57):
please contact the Trumbull County s Griff's office at three
three zero six seven five two five zero eight. They
are case number two four dash zero zero four four eight.
You can also contact crime Stoppers at three three zero

(01:41:19):
seven four six twenty five eighty three, where you can
remain completely anonymous. What do you believe happened? Tweet me
at trace Vpod, email me at trace Evidencepod at gmail
dot com, or comment in the Facebook group. You can
find all social media and contact links in the show notes.

(01:41:42):
At this time, I'd like to take a moment to
thank our amazing Patreon producers, without whom this show would
not be possible. Ann m Bertram Brett, Edie, Christine Greco,
Crystal J. Dearthi, Denise Dingsdale, Dianni Dyson, Jennifer Winkler, Justin Snyder,

(01:42:07):
Caar Morland, Leslie b Lisa Hopson, Nick Mohar, Shirs, ROBERTI Janssen,
Stacy Finnegan, Tom Radford, and Whitney Welp. This concludes our
look into the nineteen ninety five disappearance of John and
Shelley Markley, an extremely solvable case if only those with

(01:42:30):
additional information would come forward and tell what they know.
There are five people out there today who grew up
without the love and adoration of their parents who were
stolen away from them, and anyone who would conceal the
truth is no better than the person who is responsible.
I want to thank you all for listening, and I
hope you'll join me next time for another unsolved case.

(01:42:54):
On the next episode of Trace Evidence,

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249 - The Disappearance of John & Shelly Markley

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}249 - The Disappearance of John & Shelly Markley