Criminology - Margaret Fox

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

In 1974, 14-year-old Margaret Fox disappeared in New Jersey. She was set to meet a man named John Marshall, who was looking for someone to watch his 5-year-old son. This man had responded to an ad that Margaret and her cousin Lynne had placed in the paper. Margaret made it to the bus stop where this man was supposed to pick her up, but she was never heard from or seen again. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the mysterious disappearance of Margaret Fox. From the start, investigators did not believe that Margaret had run away from home. They believed that she was the victim of foul play. The investigation stalled after police couldn't locate a John Marshall, and they discovered that the number Margaret had written down came from a pay phone. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. So, everyone, and welcome to episode 259 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, man, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm excited.

It's Memorial Day weekend. A lot of stuff planned. And I know everyone out there listening probably does too. And I'm also excited to jump into this case because this is one that happened essentially in my backyard. Yeah, so you'll be able to give us some insight into, at the very least, the geography and the locations maybe and some stuff like that. I am excited for Memorial Day weekend because my daughter's coming home from college. We're all going to get to hang out as a family. And we really just don't get to do that much anymore. And it'll be even less, you know,

later this year when my youngest daughter goes off to college. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. It's a time for everyone to get together and reflect to on, you know, people that have given their lives to this country to help us be free and big shout out to all of our current military. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. All right, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Michelle Walden, John Hutt, Kelly Honer, and B. Gebhardt. So a lot of great new support. We really appreciate that. Yeah, as always, thank you so much for that support. It goes a long way to getting the show out. and anyone that would like to support criminology, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy. Let's jump into this week's case. And as you mentioned, Morf, this case takes us to your old stopping grounds, southern New Jersey.

We're discussing a puzzling missing person's case, one that is stumped investigators for decades, despite having some good leads in the case and even a possible recording of the voice of the perpetrator. we're talking about the 1974 abduction of 14-year-old Margaret Ellen Fox, which happened in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Morph, since you're so familiar with Mount Holly, why don't you help give listeners an understanding of that area? Yeah, so as I mentioned, I grew up in that area. I had family in Mount Holly. I worked in Mount Holly. Some of the things that we're going to talk about happened a couple hundred yards from where I worked. And so it's really close to home for me.

A little bit about Mount Holly. It's a township, not a town, located in South Jersey and Burlington County. It's located about the halfway point between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. It hasn't changed a lot, at least as far as appearance in the last four decades. Overall, it's a middle-class neighborhood. But it also has a very well-to-do section with pricey 200-year-old historic homes. And just down the street, there are low-income residences. The citizens of Mount Holly come from every different background you can imagine. It's really a big melting pot. While both ends of the Mount Holly area, where most people live are quiet, the center of town

is really busy, and there are large courthouses, county offices, restaurants, and bars. It's bustling and busy in the center of town, and the roads are dotted with public bus stop signs. And as we'll get into, that specific mode of transportation played a big role in this case. It was from one of these bus stops at Margaret was abducted. The population of Mount Holly today is around 10,000 people. Back in the mid-70s, when this case took place, it was a little larger at around 12,000 people. For anyone looking at a map or Google Earth, Mount Holly stands over to a busy Route 38, which officially is classified as Lumberton Township.

But this area factors into the case, too. Because it was from a phone booth along Route 38 that a call was made in Margaret's case, quite possibly from her abductor. All right, Morf, thank you for, you know, setting the same. scene for us. Now let's get into the details of the case. At around 8.40 a.m. on June 24th, 174, 14-year-old Margaret Ellen Fox headed out to a babysitting job. She had graduated eighth grade at St. Paul's grammar school in Burlington, New Jersey, two weeks earlier and was ready to earn some money for herself, have a little bit of independence. Burlington is a city very similar to

Mount Holly, about seven miles northeast of Mount Holly, Margaret's younger brother, 11-year-old Joe, watched as she walked to the bus stop. She was going to catch a bus to the intersection of Mill Street and High Street in Mount Holly. Margaret expected to meet a man named John Marshall to come pick her up so she could interview for a job, babysitting his five-year-old son. Margaret, along with her younger cousin, Lynn Parks, had placed an ad in the paper announcing their services as babysitters trying to earn some cash during the summer. The ad read babysitters experienced teen girls love kids, work at your house, call, and it included Lynn's phone number and also Margaret's.

As far as what newspaper, the girls ran that ad in, just about every report out there on this case simply lists it as their local. newspaper. But more if I know as you and I talked about it, you said you believe it very possibly was placed in the Burlington County Times, which is the biggest paper, was the biggest paper in that area. Whatever the case, the ad ran in the Tuesday, June 18th edition of the paper. Margaret and Lynn lived on the same street, and they seemed to be very close. Babysitting together when possible would be a fun way to earn money and pass the time during the summer. They were excited about getting a response to the ad, and it didn't take long.

They got their first call the next day on June 19th from a man identifying himself as John Marshall. The call came to Lynn as her number was listed first in the ad. This John Marshall asked Lynn if she could babysit in his home for his son, who was five years old. He told Lynn that she could use the pool and the swing set in his home the past time. Lynn was excited, but her parents didn't want her to take on the job because she would need to take the bus to Mount Holly. and it was too far away for someone who was 11 years old. Disappointed, she instead gave the man Margaret's phone number so that she'd be able to get what sounded like a great job, one that Lynn was bummed to miss out on.

In hindsight, it may have saved her life. So this is 1974. You know, I was barely born at this point in time. Obviously, we're talking about a different time period than the one we live in today. I can't even imagine my daughters when they were that age, getting up the gumption to place an ad in the paper. I mean, really there's no need today, right?

You can go online. You can find jobs or babysitter type gigs and neighborhood posts. I mean, there's just so much that exists today that didn't in 1974. But, you know, you really got to give it up to them because, they wanted to earn some extra money and they came up with a plan. Now, obviously, we're, we're going to find out it went horribly wrong for Margaret, but I just wanted to point out kind of

the difference. You know, a lot of people don't even read the paper today. Probably most people read it in 1974. Yeah, I think there's no doubt it was a common way to interact with people before social media. It was a way to advertise your services and what you're looking for and for people. that were looking for the same thing to respond. But I'm curious what the screening process was for something like that because you're essentially two people with two different phone numbers just calling, and that's really all you have. So unless there was some way to meet them and suss them out to see if they were legit, you never really knew who you were interacting with. But I want to touch on Lynn for a minute. You know, you mentioned it more. She was only 11 years old. And so, you know,

for her parents to say, no, we don't want you to get on a bus and go meet a stranger. You can't really argue with that. I don't think a lot of parents would want their 11-year-old daughter, or son, for that matter, just getting on a bus to go meet a stranger for any reason. Yeah, it's definitely something that I couldn't see one of my kids doing just randomly. Hey, we'll see you later. We're heading off to go meet so-and-so to do some babysitting. It's just scary.

Well, and Margaret was only 14. So we'll talk about that probably later. But, you know, that's pretty young too. To be doing that type of thing on your own meeting a stranger, a lot of parents would probably nix that as well. Later that day, Margaret received a call from John Marshall. He asked her to watch his son on Friday, June 21st. Margaret said she would need to ask her mom.

but her mom told her to ask her dad. After getting permission, either Margaret called the man back or he called the Fox home again, there are some mixed reports as to who called who back. Once Margaret talked to John again, he changed his plans. He then asked Margaret to start on Monday, June 24th, and watch his son for four hours a day each weekday. She would earn $40 a week, almost $250 today, for about 20 hours of work.

So when you, you know, kind of extrapolate the, the dollars, it's a good little chunk of change for, you know, a 14 year old. Obviously, you're not busing tables or being a waitress or, you know, able to take on some of those types of jobs. But babysitting was something that younger kids could do and did do a lot back in the day. I think back to when I was young and I was young and I. I knew so many people that were Margaret's age that would babysit and make extra money that way. So I think you're right.

It was a very popular way to earn some extra cash. But from my recollection, most of the people that I remember babysat for, you know, friends of the family or people they knew. I don't know or don't remember a lot of friends kind of, you know, placing ads or going to meet. strangers. I just don't remember that. Maybe it's because I lived in a pretty small town. Yeah, it was the same here. I don't know that anyone I knew did or would respond to an ad or place an ad to do babysitting. It was mostly referrals, friends, family, that kind of stuff. On June 24th, Margaret took the short bus trip from Burlington to Mount Holly. Margaret didn't have too many details about John Marshall. All she knew was that him or his wife wouldn't be picking her up

at the intersection of Mill Street and High Street, and they would be driving a flashy red VW, a car that would be easy for Margaret to see. From there, they would take her to their home so she could babysit for four hours, and later on, John Marshall's wife would drive her home. Later on, police did find witnesses that saw Margaret waiting at the bus stop in Mount Holly, so we know that she made it there safely. But what happened to her next is unknown to this day. She never called home like her parents had instructed her to do as soon as she got to the Marshall's home, and she was never seen again. At around 2.30 p.m. Margaret was supposed to be home. At around 3.30 p.m., Mary Fox was worried. If plans had changed, Margaret should have called home and checked in by then. Mary thought at first,

maybe Margaret was overwhelmed and forgot to call home. And if she had just immediately started her babysitting job walking through the door and receiving instructions, and then just meeting the five-year-old and taking care of him, she may have forgotten to call. She didn't want to pastor her daughter on her first day babysitting, but she was getting nervous at this point. So she decided it was time to call the Marshall home. She grabbed the paper with the phone number that Margaret had written down and left

for her, presumably the number that John Marshall had given Margaret. A woman answered and said that no one named Margaret. was there. Confused, Mary called back and someone else answered and informed her that she was calling a pay phone outside of an ANP supermarket on Route 38 in Lumberton on the 1630 block. This phone booth was about a mile southeast of where Margaret was dropped off at the bus stop. It was at this moment that Mary Fox went into full-fledged panic mode. So there's a few things here to unpack and you know, for me, it's this point in any case of an unsolved nature where someone, normally a parent, a family member, starts to worry and that worry escalates into panic. So we're at that point.

But I want to go back to Mary not hearing from Margaret. You know, she was instructed to call when she got there. I can't tell you more if how many times my kids have failed to do. that when we instructed them to do that. And there was worry there. But we also had many more ways to get in touch with them. My kids have had cell phones for many, many years. No cell phones in 1974. No apps to help locate someone. You really were limited to phone calls. And it was just much tougher to try to track someone down. Yeah, and I can understand why Mary was so panicked because she literally had a phone number and a man's name to go on and nothing else, no way to track her daughter's

movements. So that had to be very, very frightening. And just a little side note, too, this story, it really hits home for me because that A&P supermarket on Route 38, I went there in the 70s as a kid. My aunt would take me to that same store. And of course, as a kid, I didn't, didn't know anything about that it was long before my true crime days. I didn't know that a phone call in this case came from that phone booth that was in front of that store, but it's just, it's weird when you talk about these cases and they're actually close to you, you've actually been to those spots. Yeah, you and I hear from listeners all the time when we cover a case in their area where they grew up. And I hear that same thing. You know, I'm listening to the case and I'm

driving by a location that you're talking about. And, you know, a case always hits a little different, a little harder when you know the area. Sometimes it, you know, sends chills down your spine just because you're there. You know it. You've seen it. You've interacted with different places. Mary opened up a phone book and started calling all the homes listed as Marshall and Mount Holly. As you can imagine, there were a lot of them. But Margaret wasn't at any of those homes, nor was there John Marshall.

Margaret's dad, David Fox, drove to Mount Holly to search for Margaret. He looked around the bus stop, but there was no sign of her. So he headed over to the police station, which was nearby, and he reported her disappearance. Mount Holly Lieutenant Ben English heard the last name Marshall and the A&P supermarket, and he was intrigued. He knew that Jack Marshall, not John, was the assistant, manager of the A&P, where the payphone was located. Multiple people who knew this Jack Marshall, including police officers, vouched for him as a good man. He claimed to have no idea what was going on or why his last name had been used, and he took and passed a polygraph test. He also had an alibi. He was working on the day of Margaret's disappearance. If he wasn't the caller,

it's unknown whether this was a coincidence, a cruel joke by the real caller, or even an attempt to frame Jack Marshall. Detective Leonard Burr was clear with the media from day one, telling them something bad has happened. A lot of 14-year-old girls run away from home, but that's not what happened here. All the Foxes could do was anxiously await news about their daughter. On June 28th, four days after Margaret was last seen by witnesses at the bus stop,

the Foxes received a call from someone demanding $10,000 as a ransom. for Margaret. The phone call was disturbing and being prepared for a possible ransom call, police had recording equipment set up. We're going to play that actual phone call now. So just to repeat what the caller

said in case the audio wasn't loud enough or clear enough, they said to Mary Fox that the amount of money, $10,000 might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the buttered topping. Then Mary said, who is this? An indication that she didn't recognize the cult. So there's a couple things to discuss here. Number one, your daughter's missing. And then you get a ransom demand. I mean, this is harrowing stuff. You can only imagine what the foxes were going through. You know, I want to go back to

this detective Leonard Burr telling the media right away. Something bad has happened. You know, in a lot of cases that we've done from the 70s, especially, 14-year-old girls who went missing were often thought to have been runaways. That clearly was not the case here in the thinking on law enforcement, or at least on the part of Leonard Burr, he said it. That's not what happened here. Yeah, I think it was pretty clear that this was some kind of plan

hatched by someone under the pretense of needing a babysitter to abduct a girl. And unfortunately, Margaret just happened to be the girl that he was successful in doing that with. And then this statement that the caller made, $10,000 might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the buttered topping. I found that so odd. I don't know if it means anything as far as the actual words that the caller used, but I found it very strange, the buttered topping. Yeah, and the word bread, I think, was probably used a lot more in the 70s.

A lot of people use that. I don't think a lot of people use it today. But yeah, the butter topping thing was definitely odd. maybe it's just a phrase that he used, but then again, I remember the old aluminum popcorn poppers that you would put on the stove and cook your popcorn in them. They had some buttered topping packet you would put on there, so who knows what this guy was thinking when he used that phrase. Authorities weren't sure whether the ransom demand was legitimate or not, because a story about Margaret's disappearance had already been published in the local

paper. Margaret's parents also received two notes from whoever was demanding the ransom. The first note, which showed up on June 9th at the Fox home before the ransom call was made, demanded $10,000 to be put in a blue box, which the writer noted was the same color as Margaret's blouse. The writer claimed that Margaret was unharmed, saying Margaret is all right, and we only tore her blouse and broke her glasses. It also mentioned the SLA, or Sinbene's Liberation Army, who were involved in the abduction of heiress Patty Hurst

just four months before Margaret's disappearance. That case made a lot of headlines. This ransom note was dusted for fingerprints, but no match was found. At the time, the databases were only local as opposed to one central national database. A second note called off the ransom handoff, because according to whoever was demanding the ransom, Margaret's parents goofed the plan. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations piling up, and audit dread? It's time for Vanta.

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disappeared from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, a few miles up, Route 38, not far from Burlington and Holland. John, who worked two paper routes, disappeared after leaving his home around 2 p.m. He hopped on his 10-speed bike to pick up newspapers and didn't return. Due to his age, the location, and how fresh in the mind of residence. Margaret's disappearance was, many wondered whether the two disappearances were related. But police found nothing to indicate that the two cases were connected in any way. Thankfully, it turned out that, that the two cases were connected in any way. Thankfully, it turned out that there was no foul play involved in John's disappearance at all. He had simply ridden off. He was found at 2.10 a.m.

about a week after going missing, 427 miles from home. The odometer on his bike reflected every single mile. He had not been picked up and dropped off. After leaving Mount Laurel, he rode through New York back into Phillipsburg, New Jersey, through Pennsylvania, back to Trenton, New Jersey, and then finally made his way to Clinton, New Jersey, where he was found. So this was just a case of a teenager actually running off on his own. So with the Burns case not being connected to Margaret's,

and no idea if the ransom caller was actually Margaret's abductor, police were back to square one. It was discovered that Margaret had written in her diary about wanting to move away from Burlington, maybe to California or Florida, to get a fresh start. She had been bullied at school and wrote about other children

throwing snowballs at her. She really doesn't look happy in her school photo, which seems to be the one that's most widely used for publicity for her case. But despite the entries in her diary, police still seemed sure

that Margaret had left home intending to babysit and safely return and that she didn't run away. And police never seriously considered her a runaway. But obviously, you know, some kids did run away.

some kids run away today. I mean, you just have to look at, you know, this case of John Burns. You know, this 14-year-old rode 427 miles over about a week's time period. We don't have a lot of the details on why or exactly what happened, but it's interesting to me that they dismissed that thought in Margaret's case so quickly. you know, essentially from the start because that's different from what we've heard in some other cases. Yeah, we often hear, well, they probably just went out to have some fun, they'll be back, they're hanging with their friends, something like that.

In Margaret's case, it seems like they never really felt that way at all. In August 1974, authorities released a sketch of a man that they wanted to talk to regarding Margaret's disappearance. he was white about 5 foot 10 between 200 and 230 pounds. He had what was described as very blue eyes, light blonde or reddish hair, worn in a crew cut, graying with very noticeable even white teeth. In May 1974, a man fitting this description had attempted to pick up a young girl in Mount Holly in a red or orange Volkswagen. There was a registered sex offender known to drive a red Volkswagen in Mount Holly,

but he had an alibi for the day Margaret disappeared. He had been talking to someone on a ham radio when Margaret got to Mount Holly. He was cleared in 1978. But some people wonder if whoever called Margaret knew about this man and wanted to throw investigators off his own trail by pointing to a known sex offender. In May 1976, 53-year-old Charles M. Cloudbridge from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to two to three years in prison for a false confession regarding Margaret's disappearance. He made this false confession in November 1975,

claiming he had murdered Margaret and dumped her body off a cliff in New York's Catskill Mountains. Multiple agencies searched the area for three months on a false lead. Authorities found records proving Cloubridge had been receiving psychiatric treatment in a hospital at the time Margaret disappeared, making it impossible for him to have been John Marshall. This unfortunately was another wasted lead that investigators had to run down. And this is something more that I still don't understand. The number of people that we've seen in the cases that we've covered who have come forward and made false confessions.

I mean, it's one thing for police to, you know, intimidate someone, kind of beat, them down to the point where they confess to something because they just want to get out of the room. I'm not sure that's what happened here. There are a lot of people that just come forward and say that they committed a crime that they didn't do. Now, obviously, it sounds like this guy had some mental health issues that most likely played into it. But, you know, for a lot of people, I just don't understand why someone would come forward and try to take credit. credit for, you know, a crime, a kidnapping, a murder. Doesn't make sense.

And the shame of it is that detectives have to look at those leads, check them out. And at the end of the day, if they're a waste of time, it's a waste of police resources when they could be doing other avenues of investigation that might actually lead someplace. On June 14, 1977, 15-year-old Patricia Koolthaw disappeared from Milltown, New Jersey. This is a town about 45 miles northeast of Mount Holly. As in Margaret's case, Patricia had placed an ad in the paper offering her babysitting services. The first person to call about the ad was a prank caller who said obscene things. Next, a John Anderson called her and she scheduled an interview.

When she left the home around 7 p.m. on the way to meet John Anderson, she disappeared. immediately authorities began to search for her. Middlesex County prosecutor C. Judson Hamlin told the New York Daily News, we are treating this case as an abduction. In Patricia's case, this Mr. Anderson called Patricia's mom Judy the day after her disappearance and said he had spoken to her for 45 minutes at his house on Fresh Pond Road, but never saw or heard from her after that. Police investigated the location and found that there was no John Anderson who lived there.

On June 16, 1977, three teenage girls walking in the woods off Dutch Road in East Brunswick, New Jersey, about five miles from Patricia's home, found her body. Her purse was next to her. She was fully clothed, and there were no signs of sexual assault, but her blouse was in disarray, due to her killer apparently dragging her body. She had been stabbed 29 times. Detectives were working a different case when they stumbled on to Patricia's killer. A man reported that his daughter received a job offer from a man calling himself Mr. Anderson,

but he wanted her to take the bus and meet him alone at a shopping center. She wouldn't and told him she couldn't go anywhere she didn't tell her parents about. The man left his number in case she changed her mind, and with that, the police were able to track him down. Apparently, there had been a rash of obscene phone calls to young women in North Brunswick around that time. The number from Mr. Anderson actually belonged to Jack Owens' houseman, a six-foot-one 260-pound man nicknamed Judo Jack. This Jack Owens' houseman had been convicted of two sexually motivated crimes in the past. The first in October 1972 was when he asked a woman

for a ride to work, but ended up forcing her to drive to a secluded area at knife point. He tried to sexually assault her, but ran off when the woman fought back. Her young child was in the car at the time. The second offense was in March 1974, when he did pretty much the same thing to a different young woman, this time fleeing in her car. He received suspended sentences for both incidents, leaving him free to have been the one to abduct Margaret Fox on November 21, 1977. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 11 to 13 years for using a knife and violation of probation. His girlfriend, Barbara Ryan, who lived with him at the time of Patricia Kulthaw's murder, was also sentenced to two to three years for concealing a crime.

Houseman had informed her he was going to call a young woman who had placed an ad in the paper offering babysitting services despite the fact that neither of them had kids. was sitting across from him when he called Patricia and set up the meeting. And she knew he had left the home that night for about 45 minutes. And shockingly, he later returned to the scene of the murder with Barbara to make sure that Patricia was dead. By 1984, Barbara had been released from prison. So Howl's men was sentenced to life in prison, plus some, for the murder of Patricia Kulthaw.

but as we've seen time and time again, he had these incidents in his past and he essentially got slaps on the wrist, suspended sentences, leaving him out on the street to commit more crimes. And I always think about what else was there? What else did this guy do? Because, you know, obviously we only know about the crimes he committed that came to light. How many were there that we don't know about? And what should have been done to this guy for the crimes he committed earlier that may have changed the course of the lives of many people? And while Hausman was on the streets during the time Margaret was abducted, he doesn't fit the description of the man seen with the red or orange Volkswagen that tried to pick up a teenage girl in Mount Holly just before Margaret's disappearance. But there is another murder that Houseman is a reasonable suspect in, a case from 1971, before his first arrest for attempted sexual assault. On October 3, 1971, 16-year-old Susan Sunday walked her dog through East Brunswick,

and this is something she would often do, tying the dog's leash to a tree while she sat nearby reading. Three hours after she set off her walk, the dog showed back up at home without her. Its leash had been cut. At 7.15 p.m., Susan's parents reported her missing to the police after two days of searching. The rest of the dog's leash was found tied around a tree in the woods, but there was no sign of Susan. On December 15, 1971, her body was found in an area that had been previously searched just half a mile from her home. She was visually identified because of the clothing she was wearing due to the state of her remains.

A confirmation had to be made with dental records. Susan's murder is still unsolved, but Jack Housman makes a compelling suspect. Patricia and Susan were around the same age, both had dark hair, and were both left in wooded areas. Hausman's mother lived in a trailer not far from either Susan's home or the woods where her body was found. Hausman stayed with his mother often, and Susan often walked her. dog. So, you know, there really are some possible connections here. Hey, criminology listeners, have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during a murder trial? If so, we've got a podcast that should be your next binge. Murderish is a true

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15-year-old Kelly Jane Evelyn Cook received a call from a new babysitting client, a Bill Christensen on April 22, 1981. Later that night, he picked her up at her house. She didn't call her parents to check in when she got to his home, like she always did whenever she babysat. On June 28th, her body was found in Chin Lake Reservoir, about two and a half hours away from her home in Standard, Alberta. Patricia Koolthal's killer, Jack Hausman, was behind bars when Kelly Jane Cook was lured out of her home to a fake babysitting job and killed.

So he's not the one who killed her. And to this day, it's unknown who did. The case is still unsolved. So we've talked about a number of cases here, and it may be a reach trying to link some of these cases we're talking about to Margaret's. But I do think they're worth mentioning because of the similarities. it's very possible that the kinds of perpetrators that committed these types of crimes against young babysitters, many of them probably used the same playbook. Or did some of them learn from each other?

And I think you can look at that a couple of different ways. If your intention is to abduct a young girl in, let's say, the 1970s, Are you driving around hoping to find that kind of window of opportunity? You know, I'm thinking as a perpetrator here, or would it be easier to find an ad in the newspaper where a young girl is advertising babysitting services and you can kind of set up a meeting that way? So I'm sure these cases are not all connected. we know they're not, but it's scary to think that probably so many different people thought of that same thing

as a way to lure young females to a spot, a location where they could do what they wanted to do. It's sick, but it seems like it happened. Now, when you get into the area of criminals learning from other criminals, Are they reading things in the paper and then thinking, oh, I should do it that way? You know, that's a scary thought as well. Yeah, and using the phone to carry out some of these crimes, I mean, it was so far back that we're talking the days before Star 69 or caller ID, that kind of stuff. So if someone wanted to perpetrate one of these crimes over the phone, there wasn't much of a way to track them or identify who they are. Of course, if a tap was set up, they could trace calls, things like that. And, you know,

once it got to that stage, they could try and keep someone on the line if they called. But just calling initially, there'd be no real way to ID them based off a phone call. Well, also in the 1970s, there was no surveillance video. Like I mentioned earlier, no cell phone tracker apps, no social media. If a young babysitter left the house, there was really no way to keep track of them. And before we move on, I wanted to mention when doing some research on this case,

we found several reports from 1971 to 1981 throughout New Jersey of suspects driving red Vox wagons in attempted child abduction cases. Could one of these incidents be connected to Margaret? Possibly. But then again, we really don't know if Margaret's abductor had a red VW. Maybe he only told her that he did to throw police off for her parents.

He could have met Margaret at the bus stop and told her that his red Volkswagen was broke down or something along those lines and drove her away in an entirely different vehicle. On December 10, 1988, the skull of a young woman was found near Sandy Hook Bay in Atlantic Highlands, 70 miles from Mount Holly. In 1992, the Courier Post ran a headline about Margaret's disappearance with the title, 18-year mystery near solution. Authorities believe that the skull found in Atlantic Highlands could be Margaret Fox. A clay reconstruction of the skull resembled Margaret and her clothes were even similar. They were both wearing brown strapped sandals. So obviously along with the skull, they found some clothing as well.

Highlands Police Chief Charles Mazarella told the press, if we found out it's Margaret Fox. We have a suspect we could bring in to talk to in a couple days. So you can see why authorities were hopeful, but nothing ever came out of this. They were unable to compare Margaret's dental records to the Jane Do's because Margaret's had been lost. 17 years later in 2005, DNA proved that this Jane Doe was not Margaret Fox. But what I did find very interesting is this police chief saying,

if it turns out to be Margaret Fox, we have a suspect we could bring in to talk to. So they had someone very high on their radar. But I'm taking from his comment that they needed to find her body before they would bring this person in. Yeah, and I'm curious as to what made this person a suspect in. their mind, maybe some kind of tie between Mount Holly and Atlantic Highlands, something along those lines possibly. In 2017, the Philadelphia Inquirer referred to Margaret's disappearance as Burlington County's coldest case. Retired Burlington Police Detective Michael Delicio started pouring over the case files and spoke to NBC News 10 in Philadelphia to ask for the

public's help in the case. Detective Burr, now retired, wondered if maybe Margaret had run away. He told the inquire, if that's the case, then who knows? Maybe she just decided she liked her freedom and went off. He also acknowledged that when Margaret disappeared, the FBI and Burlington Police were not cooperating with each other. They, like many agencies at the time, didn't freely share information. That's since changed, but it didn't help in Margaret's case. Burr told the inquirer, the goal now is to solve a case, not get credit. You know, and Morif isn't that something that we've seen in cases that go back many years, that seemed to be, you know,

kind of a real thing with different law enforcement agencies, almost like competing against each other, not wanting to share information, wanting to solve the case themselves to get the credit. That's the way it seems. And I think he's kind of pointing that out. Yeah. And it was a real thing back in the 60s and 70s.

And if you had an offender, committing crimes and multiple jurisdictions, and if those jurisdictions weren't cooperating with each other, it may have gone to a lot of cases being unsolved. In 2019, on the 45th anniversary of Margaret's disappearance, Burlington Police Chief John Fine said to the courier post that Margaret's disappearance was an open wound on the community. at the time, two of Margaret's four brothers were still alive, an age progression photo of Margaret was released showing what she may look like in her 50s. The FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information.

And for the first time, the FBI also released an audio clip of the ransom demand, the one we played for you earlier. We don't know how long the call was, how much was recorded, or what if anything else was said. If the caller is really from the Mount Holly area, you might think his accent sounds familiar if you're a regular listener of this show. Because I think some people do describe it as a Jersey accent,

maybe something along the lines of what you may have more, but many people hear a Pennsylvania accent, while some people hear North Jersey and others think the speaker may not even be from the United States. Some people don't hear any regional accent. And some have theorized that the caller has a possible speech impediment. Morph, you grew up there. Did you think this caller sounded like a local? I actually felt that he had more of a North Jersey or New York sound in his voice. And, you know, let me say up front of I'm not a voice expert, but it's not wrong to say that there's a difference in

accent from North Jersey to South Jersey. and from South Jersey over to the Delaware River to Philadelphia, there's an entire different accent. And to my untrained year, the caller had an accent on the word daughter, more like doubter than daughter. He also had noticeable accent on the word dollars. The O sort of sounded more like an ah sound. He spoke quickly, but enunciated the words, Daughter's Life is the Butter topping, emphasizing the word life. it sounded sort of rehearsed or maybe like he was reading something that was rehearsed a few times,

but, you know, we talked a little bit about it earlier. This whole butter topping thing is just a strange phrase. Yeah, and I often think that a phrase like that might stand out to someone because it is a little different. So you might have, you know, a person who you've heard use that phrase like more often than than most people would. And maybe they would come forward and say, well, I know someone who says that all the time, but obviously that never happened in this case.

No matter where the caller was from, the call may be one of the biggest clues in this case. We mentioned that the audio of this ransom call wasn't released until 2019. So you have to think that there was a huge mis-opportuny. here. If people could have heard this audio sooner, by my way of thinking, there would have been a much greater chance that somebody may have recognized the voice, the accent, the emphasis on certain words. Apparently, according to the FBI, the audio was so bad before that it took them all this time to clean it up for release to the public, which I thought was a strange

admission. I get it. Technology has come a long way, but 2019, they've had audio technology that was pretty good before that. But all those decades passing, before the public was able to hear that voice, seems like it may have aided in the caller, you know, going unidentified. If it was played earlier on, people may have recognized it. But playing that voice 45 years later, what are the odds, someone would recognize it at that point, probably slim. First of all, there could be a lot of people who might have recognized the voice who are no longer alive. Also, that many years passing, memories fade. You don't remember what people sound like. There's just a lot of different things that go into releasing something like that so many years later. We also don't know that the caller was

actually involved in Margaret's disappearance. It could have been a hoax call or maybe someone out to extort the family, but it still seems like one of the best things in Margaret's case to pursue. And sadly, we've seen that happen in so many cases where, you know, a person hears about a disappearance and they either try to cash in on it by extorting the family for money. or just by playing cruel jokes on the family, calling and saying things about their loved one. And ultimately, it's found out that they had nothing to do with the disappearance at all. Yeah, these kind of cases bring out the best and worse than people,

people that want to help, they want to come search, they want to offer whatever service they can. On the other hand, you've got these grifters that come out trying to make money or just mean-spirited people that want to poke the family when they're going through this terrible time. So you definitely see how it brings out different types of people. You know, and you could make a comparison to, you know, let's say a disaster, a big weather event. You know, let's talk about where you live down in Florida, right? you all have quite a number of weather events, you're going to have the same thing.

It's going to bring out the best in some people, helping their neighbors and all that. But then you also have these people who swoop in trying to make money, trying to scam grifters. In 2022, the Atlantic Highlands Jane Doe that was once suspected to be Margaret Fox was identified as Nancy Fitzgerald, a 16-year-old from Bloomfield, New Jersey. She disappeared on April 3rd, 1972, and called home one year later asking her mom for help because she had made a mistake. Before her disappearance, she had been running with a rough crowd, engaging in sex work and selling drugs. She had overdosed on barbiturates in 1971, but was taken to the hospital and recovered. It seems she was considered a runaway, and probably had chosen to leave home only to find herself in real trouble,

Nancy's sister Kathleen went all over the United States looking for her sister because of that phone call from her asking for help, but never found her. Sadly, we don't know a lot about Margaret Fox. There just wasn't all that much out there about her. She was born on February 4, 1960 to David and Mary Fox. She had four brothers. She loved horses. And she took piano lessons. She went to a Roman Catholic school and wore glasses.

if she were alive today, she would be 63 years old. There have been a few tips throughout the years that she is alive. But investigators have been unable to verify these sightings. It seems as if Margaret's family has passed away without ever finding out what happened. But Margaret does have one surviving brother. And I'm sure more if he would love nothing more than to find out what happened. happened to Margaret, to get justice for Margaret. That's something in these cases that I find incredibly sad. You have the person that goes missing and that's horrible. We don't know what

happened to them. You have to assume that it wasn't good. I just can't imagine that Margaret Fox at 63 years old over all these years wouldn't have reached out to her family, the one that were still alive, I'm not saying it's, it's not possible because people do leave voluntarily and just never call. I just don't think that's the greatest probability, though, in this case. I hate to say it, but I lean towards foul play because I just can't imagine that they wouldn't at some point down the road let somebody know that they're okay. Yeah, I get, if you, want to leave and you want to you want your freedom you want to be on your own but to allow your family to suffer all those years when you could just pick up the phone you don't even have to tell

them where they are but just say hey i'm okay i don't know what are your thoughts on that well i think all that's accurate and especially after this big push in recent years to get attention for a case you think if she was out there someplace she would have heard that and said, okay, I'm here, I'm here, I'm fine. You don't have to keep looking for me. You know, maybe you could make the argument that she, if she was out there, she wouldn't want to come forward and hurt her family, but we just mentioned just about all of her family's gone now. So, you know, she could at this point come out, not really hurt her family and just let the authorities know that they can stop looking for her. She's okay. But I'm with you.

you, I don't think that's the case. I think something happened to her back then and she didn't survive. The other thing that really kind of entered my mind was, as we often see, as you're researching one case, you find all of these other individuals who are either, you know, convicted of doing really bad things or suspected of doing really bad things, kind of operating in the same area around the same time frame. You know, those are just scary thoughts that, number one, anybody out there is looking to abduct and harm, you know, a young person, but that there's possibly multiple people in the same area operating at the same time.

Yeah, it goes back to that question. Is it more frightening that one person could do all of those things or is it more frightening that there's a lot of people out there doing those things. So it's really eye-opening, especially we're talking about South Jersey where I lived to know that there was this much stuff going on. And I, as a kid, I wasn't really aware of it, but definitely frightening. The FBI is still offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction in this case. If you have information about the disappearance of Margaret Fox or the identity of John Marshall, please call the Burlington City.

Police Department at 609, 386, 3300. You can also call the FBI's Newark Office at 973-721-3.000. So as we wrap up this case, I think we have to talk about the few clues that there are to work with. I mean, in my mind, and maybe you spotted something else, but it seems like we have the possibility that the Perp had a red Volkswagen. We know that he possibly sent a ransom, sent ransom letters. So to me, they're the only clues that police can work with, maybe to solve this case one day. But then again, at the same time, we don't know that the perp in this case really had a red Volkswagen. We don't know that the letters that were sent in the case were actually from him. But if you're the FBI, if you're the police, I think you have to run those leads down and see where they go. And if

you can identify someone who's tied to to either of those, then you can backtrack and figure out if they could have also abducted. The letter writer may have took steps to avoid leaving prints on that letter, but he didn't know about DNA. So if he licked the stamp, if he looked those envelopes, might there be DNA on there that they could do genealogy on and ID the person that sent that letter? And at the end of the day, maybe it turns out they were just doing a hoax, but at the same time, it could be someone connected to Margaret's abduction. Yeah, my mind was kind of going the DNA route, but I think that all hinges on whether or not they still have that evidence, how they preserve that evidence. Because as we've often seen, there was no way that authorities in the early 1970s could have foreseen that this amazing DNA technology was going to come along.

So, you know, a stamp, the thought of doing something with the saliva that might have been on the envelope. It just wasn't a thing. Yeah, to your point, if this stuff's still in evidence, we know stuff gets lost. We mentioned that even Margaret's dental records were lost and they couldn't compare them against that skull that they found. So if her dental records can get lost, what else in this case may have been lost over the decades? Well, but that's what happens, you know, when a case spans 50 plus years, you know, things disappear. You'd like to think that that never happens, but unfortunately it does. You know, we've done cases where evidence has been damaged by, you know, a flood or some other type of disaster.

It just, it happens. Yeah, at the end of the day, I'd love to see this case solved, but unfortunately, I don't have too much hope that. I bet it will be. I think it's a tough one. There's no doubt about that. But we never say never, right? The hope is always there. But that's it for our episode on Margaret Ellen Fox and another episode of criminology. But Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.