Going West: True Crime - The WVU Coed Murders // 275

Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teeze. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, big thank you to Chandler and Alexis for recommending today's case. As you guys will hear from our intro and just throughout the rest of this episode, it is a crazy one and it is so tragic. Yeah, it definitely is a wild one and thank you guys for listening to this episode and every other episode that we've put out.

Starting point is 00:00:39 I cannot believe that we're 25 episodes from 300. I know, like I feel like 200 wasn't that long ago, probably because we do two a week, so they fly by a little faster, but we have to think of something special to do once again for that episode. Absolutely. Well, let's get into today's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:56 This is episode 275 of Going West, so let's get into it. In January of 1970, two freshmen students at West Virginia University disappeared while hitchhiking after seeing a movie. While police originally thought the girls may have run away, suspicious letters began to arrive that suggested otherwise. After their beheaded bodies were found, police began a relentless search to find their ruthless killer. This is the story of Karen Farrell and Married Malarick, also known as the WVU Co-Ed

Starting point is 00:02:17 murders. Karen Lynn Farrell was born on April 4, 1951 in Critan, West Virginia, but she was raised in Quinnwood, West Virginia, which is a small mining town about a two-hour drive from the state's capital of Charleston. In a book written about this very case, it's called the W.V.U. murders, who killed, married, and Karen, which was written by Jeffrey Fuller and Sarah McGlaufflin. It is explained that Karen was originally born to Roberta and Mario Trajillo, but that they were unable to care for her and they gave her up for adoption to another local family.

Starting point is 00:03:04 So she was adopted by Best and Richard Farrell and she was their only child and basically just the absolute light of their lives. Best and Richard were incredibly kind and gentle people and parents. I mean, they're remembered in their community for buying Christmas presents for families in the area who couldn't afford them and regularly stalking the pantries of families in Quinnwood who were suffering from food insecurity, so just awesome people. And they absolutely doated on their beloved only daughter, Karen. So Karen grew up a very active participant of the Quinnwood Baptist Church, and she played

Starting point is 00:03:41 piano in her youth fellowship group. She attended four H meetings and volunteered with her parents. I mean, her family was basically a pillar of the community. She is remembered as being very close with her biological brother, who also is the son of Roberta and Mario, and his name is Tyrone Trahiel. After graduating from Criteon High School in 1969, Karen left her hometown for Morgan

Starting point is 00:04:07 Town, which is two and a half hours northeast to attend West Virginia University, aka WVU. aka the Mountaineers, if you're a football fan. But anyway, Married Ellen Mallorick was born on New Year's Eve 1950 to Dr. Edward and Margaret Mallorick and she had siblings Eddie, Anne, and Margo. Her father was a dentist and her mother worked as a teacher, and the family resided in Paseyck, New Jersey, just outside of New York City. Married enjoyed basically this traditional upbringing with a very close-knit family. The family moved to Cannellon, New Jersey, about 30 minutes farther outside of New York City than

Starting point is 00:04:48 Paseyek, which is where they were previously living. They moved into the Smokerise neighborhood, which is a high-end gated community on the shores of Lake Kennelon. Married attended Roman Catholic elementary school and DePaul Catholic High School, and as a teen, she served as her sister Margot's bridesmaid. She was active in school sports, competing on her high school swimming team, and both she and her family were very well-known and respected in the community.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Merritt worked as a clerk at a bakery and was described as, quote, a good girl. And at 18, she moved out of New Jersey for the first time to Morgantown, West Virginia, about 400 miles or over 600 kilometers away to attend West Virginia University just like Karen. It was there that she met Karen Farrell, because obviously they didn't know each other before since they lived in different places, but they actually met at freshman orientation

Starting point is 00:05:42 and the two became instant friends. The girls resided on West Virginia University's campus in the Westchester Hall dormitories and they planned on living together for their sophomore year. On Sunday, January 18th, 1970, Karen and Meredith, who were both 19 at this time, along with their two other friends, Paulette and Clarence, headed to the Metropolitan Movie Theatre in downtown Morgantown to see a screening of the 1968 musical classic Oliver. After the movie, Karen and Marid wanted to head back to their dorms while their companions really just wanted to stay out. And I want to kind of explain the map a little bit better here regarding where they lived

Starting point is 00:06:27 versus where they were this night. So their dorms were in the sunny side neighborhood of Morgantown. And while this was near downtown, it was about a 20 minute walk away. So that's really not that far. But the problem is they didn't even have the option not to walk because there were no taxis nearby, and Morgantown's public transit was five years away from existence. So Karen and Married were forced to choose between walking in the very frigid, January, air, by the way, or hitching a ride from a passing stranger.

Starting point is 00:07:02 And complicating matters was the fact that freshmen have to adhere to a curfew, and they must be present in their dorms for their nightly checks. So the girls decided to try their luck with hitchhiking because they really just didn't wanna walk, it was way too cold. And they also just didn't wanna get in trouble either for not being back at their dorms.

Starting point is 00:07:21 Exactly, and obviously this sounds more so absurd now, just knowing what we know. But as one article stated, quote, to everybody thumbed back then. This is 1970. Yeah, and we've talked about this in other episodes as well. And I remember somebody telling us, basically, clashing us on this and saying, like,

Starting point is 00:07:41 this is something that people would do all the time. And it didn't have that stigma back then. Well, yeah, I mean, this was 50 years ago. So a lot has changed a lot has happened since then. But at this time, they didn't think that they would be in any danger. They're just trying to get back to their dorms. So Paulette and Clarence, who again were the friends that they were with that night, watched the two of them, Meredith and Karen, get into what they described as a

Starting point is 00:08:03 cream or light coloredcolored sedan that was believed to be a chevrolet with a white man inside and drove off. Later that night, neither girl was in their dorm for the evening room check, which is the entire reason they were trying to get this ride anyway. So their families were notified of their absence and then the following day when they both failed to show up for their Monday classes, the girls were reported missing. Now Morgantown, which is a relatively small city of less than 30,000 people at the time, just really reeled from this news. Chaos ensued as the girls' families struggled to understand

Starting point is 00:08:43 what happened and the police struggled to scrape together any clues. As is usually the case when someone over 18 vanishes, the police initially suspected that the girls had just run away. The family scoffed at this assumption, both saying that it was totally unlike their daughters. And then rumors began to circulate on campus that the two were simply overwhelmed with schoolwork and had to run off to California to quote investigate hippy land. That sounds like something that a 1970s parent would be very worried about. Well, here we are in 1970.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Exactly. So a friend of merits from home wrote into a West Virginia paper to dispute this claim, saying, quote, As far as I'm concerned, the girls were not running away from the school. I had received a letter from Meredith earlier, in which she expressed a feeling of wanting to leave, but I don't think that this has any bearing on the case. I don't believe that they ran away, but were taken by someone and were not willing to go. And also, I think that everybody has to remember that they were last seen in a stranger's car trying to go home so that they can make the nightly check, which is something that their two friends who they were with last night knew about.

Starting point is 00:09:55 So they didn't have any of their stuff with them. If they were going to run away, they would have packed a bag and ditched. You know, like this. Yeah. You don't just run away after seeing a movie with your friends, with a stranger. And that's why I just think that it's so outlandish to even put that theory out there, especially knowing what we know that the friends, you know, told police, like, hey, we saw this car, like, yeah, no, that's just so weird.

Starting point is 00:10:18 I mean, if they had told somebody, oh, you know, I really want to go see California, and then someone saw them packing a bag and leaving. That would be different But this is a totally different situation. Exactly. So Marit's father Edward echoed this sentiment saying quote There's just one thing that goes through our minds. There's no other way of thinking now foul play Karen's mother echoed this saying quote You sit and you wait and you almost go crazy. We don't know what news will get and we hope it'll be good. I'm not happy with the way police have just fooled around all these weeks.

Starting point is 00:10:55 You just don't know how this has been. It's been terrible. I feel like my hands and feet are tied. Karen had no reason to not want to come home. I actually believe the girls were kidnapped. They were taken away against their will. What happened after that? I just don't know. And even more sad that their families are so sure that something bad happened to them and that it seems like all these rumors are going around that says the opposite. Like that must have been so frustrating for them. So it's safe to say that public opinion of the investigation, soured very quickly with

Starting point is 00:11:29 both the families and the Morgantown community, growing extremely impatient with the pace of the search. The only local Morgantown paper, which was called the Dominion News, also printed a critique of the local police forces investigation, claiming the lack of answers and public information were, quote, an outrage. And this is what they said, quote, totally inexcusable is the bungling of the cases of the Cohen's disappearance. This newspaper discovered that state police and the FBI had not questioned a Ripley truck

Starting point is 00:12:04 stop waitress or truck drivers in response to a report that two girls had hitchhiked there shortly after the co-eds were seen getting into an automobile on Willie Street. The governor told the student committee that 19 people disappear every week in West Virginia, and this is one reason the FBI could not handle missing persons cases. The other was that there has to be an indication. Surely these facts and many other reasons

Starting point is 00:12:34 exist for Governor Moore to ask the federal government even at this late date to help solve the most recent of Morgan Town's major crimes. This community does not want the kidnap murders to remain unsolved, along with all the previous major crimes in this county for the past four years. We are sure Governor Moore also wants the recent crime solved. He can act now. We sincerely hope he does. So despite the intimation of police that the girls had just left on their own accord, the

Starting point is 00:13:06 FBI were called in early to assist with the investigation. Local police argued that they were doing everything that they could given the small amount of information that they had. They posted a 13 state bulletin about the girl's disappearance hoping that if they had fled or been taken across state lines, that someone would spot them. They fielded tips and potential sightings from seven different states. Karen's church and Marid's family both offered rewards for information leading to the girls' whereabouts.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Months passed without any sign of the girls, and their families waited in agony. A local church in Marid's hometown of Kennleon was raising funds to hire a private detective to look into Maritz' disappearance, because obviously it just seems like the police are just not really doing their job at this point. Then, on March 1st, 1970, a clue finally emerged. A young boy walking along US Route 119, which is a north-south highway that dissects West Virginia and goes right through Morgantown, discovered a discarded purse. The 13-year-old boy had been out searching for soda bottles to add to his collection,

Starting point is 00:14:18 and stumbled upon Meredith's purse tossed about 50 feet from the road. Inside the brown suede shoulder bag was a wallet containing 13 cents in change, Merid stood in ID and a receipt from a Morgantown dentist. Yeah, obviously this does not look good. So the following month on April 11th, also along Route 119, Mer, merits discarded eyeglasses were located. Then three days later on April 14, a handbag similar to merits confirmed by Karen's roommates to belong to her was also found. Along with a small piece of glass believed to come from a compact mirror, a hairbrush, and a bottle of unused prescription pain medication given to merit by her dentist for pain

Starting point is 00:15:10 that she had been having after a recent dental procedure. As he said, there was a receipt in her purse as well. So according to the police, fearing false confessions, they did not publicly announce the discovery of the purses. And strangely, the purses and the items inside were not as damaged by the elements as they should have been after all this time. I mean, this is like three months.

Starting point is 00:15:35 You know, had they been discarded on the side of the road in the snow and the cold of that mid-January night. So this led police to believe that they had been planted there later, perhaps to cause media attention and taunt the investigation. So that makes it hard to determine if where these were tossed is even relevant to where they ended up.

Starting point is 00:15:59 You know, because if they were put there later, they could have just driven their randomly. This can be a completely random spot that has nothing to do with where they are now. Exactly. But things are only going to get creepier because on April 8, 1970, the West Virginia state police received a strange letter that would change the course of the investigation forever. The letter, which was postmarked from Cumberland, Maryland on April 6th, red quote, gentlemen, I have some information on the whereabouts

Starting point is 00:16:34 of the bodies of the two missing West Virginia University co-eds, Married Mallorick and Karen Farrell. Follow directions very closely to the Nth degree and you cannot fail to find them. Proceed 25 miles directly south from the southern line of Morgan Town. This will bring you to a wooded forest land. Enter into the forest exactly one mile. There are the bodies. 25 plus 1 equals 26 miles total. We'll reveal myself when the bodies are located, sincerely, and the letter was signed with a triangle. So this is obviously very very creepy and it appears that this person is kind of towing with police or playing some sort of game.

Starting point is 00:17:25 Well, yeah, because they're like, I will turn myself in after you find them. So it's like they're fully, fully ready to be caught for this, but they want to, they want to play a little bit. They're making a map essentially of where the bodies are. Like, why would they want to do that? Yeah, and this just feels really reminiscent of other cases that took place in the 70s. IE, you know, the zodiac. Yeah, I was going to say the same one. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:49 Obviously. Yeah, so a very, very eerie letter to read, especially because as well, this person, you know, assuming this is true at this point, this person would have had to have figured this out exactly when they placed the bodies there. I mean, they're saying exactly one mile, proceed 25 miles like all these clues are so eerily precise. Yeah, but the strange thing here is that when law enforcement did follow these directions exactly,

Starting point is 00:18:18 they found nothing. Crazy. Confounded and frustrated, obviously, they awaited further instruction. And then, a second letter arrived, dated April 10th, and also postmarked from Cumberland, Maryland. And this letter read, quote, gentlemen, I saw the article in this morning's newspaper concerning my previous letter on the missing two cohets.

Starting point is 00:18:42 If you reread my first letter carefully, you will see the directions were specific, direct south from the city, meaning the southern limit of Morgantown, West Virginia. Straight south, 25 miles, you will come to a forest, Woodland. Enter in one mile south. Fanding out, you will locate the bodies of the girls covered over with brush.

Starting point is 00:19:07 Look carefully. The animals are now on the move. Do trust that this will help you out with exact location. We'll still identify myself when the bodies are located. Crazy. I mean, just the fact that he's reinstating his first letter as if they don't still have it to review. Exactly, yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:24 Like, guys, it's here, trust me. Yeah, you have one letter, and then when they don't find the bodies, this guy's like, hey, listen, you're not doing this correctly. So this letter was also signed with a triangle. Amid growing public pressure and outcry against the lack of information being released to the public, the governor of West Virginia at the time, Arch Moore, who we talked about earlier, and who had himself attended West Virginia University, sent in state police, as well as the National Guard to assist local police in this investigation.

Starting point is 00:19:58 Over 100 members of the National Guard, alongside police, some of them off duty, began an aggressive search of the circumference around which the purses were found, and the area indicated by the anonymous letters. On April 16th, 1970, a woman in Taylor County, West Virginia, almost 30 miles or 48 kilometers from Morgantown, found Meredith's driver's license in her front yard, which is another indication that the murder was teasing law enforcement with clues. I mean, just for that idea to just pop up in your front yard after all this time, is you just flinging stuff out the window?

Starting point is 00:20:36 Yeah, I mean, it appears that he is. So then, on April 18th, 1970, almost three months to the day that the girls disappeared. Their bodies were discovered in the woods and a gruesome scene that no one from the investigation would ever forget. Before that quick break, Heath told us that on April 18, 1970, so almost three months to the day that the girls disappeared, their bodies were found in the woods. So while investigators followed the directions from the very mysterious letters meticulously, and it did lead them to Woodland, it did not lead them to the remains of Karen Farrell and Married Mallorick.

Starting point is 00:21:36 As the letter indicated, they were found in the woods south of Morgantown. But instead of being 26 miles or 41 kilometers from Morgantown, the bodies were discovered only 11 miles or 17 kilometers from the city. They had been discarded in a makeshift grave in a heavily wooded area, off of Whearton Mine Road, which is an access road leading to a mine, and near where the girls' purses were found on Route 119. It was a shocking discovery. One of the two state troopers who made the discovery reportedly gasped out loud and said,

Starting point is 00:22:16 oh my god, upon seeing them. The area had been dug up to bury the bodies, and then hastily covered back up with dirt, brush, and rocks, and so hastily that one of the girls' feet was sticking out of the ground. Karen and Married were badly decomposed, and it was believed that they had been fed on by animals that were attracted from the landfill nearby. Their bodies were found overlapping, like one was facing up and one was facing down. And they were still wearing the clothing from the night that they had gone missing.

Starting point is 00:22:53 Married was wearing a bell-bottom jeans, and Karen was wearing a brown sweater and striped cool-ots, and both girls were sporting faux fur coats. But when they went missing, they were both wearing necklaces. However, when they were found, they were missing. So it's believed that the killer likely took them as maybe some kind of trophy. And the most shocking detail of all in this case. The girl's heads had been cut off. The bodies were in such an advanced state of decomposition that they were difficult to identify, but after analysis from fingerprint experts and forensic pathologists, the bodies were confirmed to be that of Karen Farrell and Married Malarick. But interestingly enough,

Starting point is 00:23:38 there was no sign of sexual assault, and the medical examiner could not determine a cause of death. Karen's and Married's families, friends, school, and hometowns reeled from the news. When word spread throughout Kennelon, that Meredith's body had been found, a local government meeting was halted by the mayor who imposed a moment of silence for her. But then, a third letter arrived to Morgantown Police.

Starting point is 00:24:05 A letter dated April 21st, three days after the girls' bodies were found, and also postmarked from Cumberland, Maryland again, red quote. The heads can be found from the position of the bodies by striking out 10 degrees southwest from the first head, and approximately 10 degrees southeast for the second, roughly one mile. You are already 7 tenths of that mile. They are within the mine entrance, if you can call it an entrance considering its condition. They are buried not over one foot in depth. The ones responsible for the murder scattered some of the girls' personal effects over the general area,

Starting point is 00:24:47 creating a pattern of confusion, making it difficult for you to pinpoint any exact location. My first two letters triggered your intensive search. Don't give up now. It was signed again with a triangle. It's just so weird because like, the bodies were found like 14 miles off from what he said. So why are your directions going to be correct this time?

Starting point is 00:25:12 And also another thing so creepy that he's saying that their heads are in the entrance of a mine. And then also to say the one's responsible for the murders, that's him saying, oh by the way that was not me. Yeah, it's weird that he penned it as like, okay, I wasn't the one who did this, but also you're giving these exact directions, supposedly, but it's also like, you're trying to be some sort of like mastermind

Starting point is 00:25:40 in this whole situation, but bro, like you got your directions wrong, that's not even like if you're trying to be like this cool mastermind it didn't work exactly well actually then a fourth letter did arrive but this time it was sent to marid's parents which was just so cruel and you know because they're trying to grieve this is almost

Starting point is 00:26:01 like taunting a grieving family and this is what it said i have sent three letters to the Morkin Town State Police Department concerning your daughter, Merid and Karen. The first and second were taken with some seriousness and instituted a search which was successful in locating two bodies, minus the heads,

Starting point is 00:26:21 which were needed for other purposes. All of a sudden, the police have been complaining about an error in the mileage stated in my second letter. After one has driven in an oval pattern for 26 miles under the weather condition of January and under the involved circumstances, it is possible to make about an 18 mile error in the precise location of the bodies. Nevertheless, they were found south of Morgantown as stated in the letter even to that which was called a logging lane or old mine road. In my opinion, both the same. So now he's saying, oh yeah, I did mess up on the exact location, but I was pretty close. Yeah, and under the circumstances, I really can't be blamed for that.

Starting point is 00:27:13 But anyway, so fear completely descended on the campus of West Virginia University when a rumor circulated that the girls' murder had a key to every room in the dorms and it pulled care and and married from their rooms that's kind of an interesting theory because we know that they were trying to hitchhike back to the dorms so how would they be pulled from their room i have no idea

Starting point is 00:27:40 i mean you know it's a rumor, and it's probably one that people made up on campus to air people. Yeah, sorry to interrupt you. I mean, this doesn't help anybody. No, it doesn't. It really does not. So please focus their investigation on the author of the four ominous letters, believing them to be the culprit of this horrific crime. Despite what you say, dude. Yeah, so what they uncovered instead was a strange ruse from a religious cult. Using handwriting analysis, the letters with slanted, feminine cursive were traced back to a man in Cumberland, Maryland. You don't say?

Starting point is 00:28:19 Yeah, as the post-mark stated. So Cumberland is a small town situated in the Allegheny Mountains, and, fun fact, it was also once the home to George Washington. Reverend Richard Warren Hoover was the leader of a small religious cult called the quote, psychic science church, which had about 30 members. Referred to as a quote, hippie assemblage, the group claimed to be able to solve crimes with pre-science and trances. When he was apprehended and questioned, Richard claimed that the letters about Karen and Meredith were spoken to him by a spirit from the 1600s.

Starting point is 00:28:56 He claimed that through a seance, he ascertained the perpetrators to be two men, a black man from West Virginia who stood about five feet seven inches tall in a white man with blue eyes and blonde hair. The men supposedly killed the girls in a ritualistic sacrifice. Reaching the conclusion that Richard was simply out to swindle the reward money, please basically discounted the theory that the letters were at all related to this crime. It's basically discounted the theory that the letters were all related to this crime. Unfortunately, so much of their time and resources were spent on pursuing that theory that the investigation was now behind. And they failed to follow up with other persons of interest, whom they had taken out of consideration

Starting point is 00:29:37 because of these letters. Man, that is just such a crazy twist to the case. Yeah, and also just is really shitty. Yeah, I mean terrible, this dude sucks. So there were believed to be three people involved of the writing of the letters, and all of them were cleared of suspicion in the case of the murderers. So obviously this was quite a disappointing

Starting point is 00:30:00 development to the investigation. I mean, law enforcement now had no leads and no suspects. Joseph Lauretta, who was a local county prosecutor, said very frustratedly, quote, at the moment, we have no specific suspects. We have no idea where the girls were killed. We don't know how they were killed,

Starting point is 00:30:20 or even why they were killed. So basically, there was no movement in the case for six more years. Then, in inmate at a New Jersey prison, claimed that he had information about the murders and he was ready to talk. The man was 36-year-old Eugene Paul Klossin, who hailed from Pointe-Marie in Pennsylvania,

Starting point is 00:30:46 which is just about a 20-minute drive from Morgantown, so he's pretty local to that area. Eugene was in the early stages of serving a 30-year sentence for the 1974 kidnapping and rape of a 13-year-old girl whom he held at Knife Point. On January 13th, 1976, Eugene confessed to the murders of Karen Farrell and Marin Malarick in his Camden, New Jersey prison, claiming he felt guilty and that he was having nightmares about what he had done. One police officer said of him, quote, the guy has got a rap sheet five pages long. But the crime he committed to end up in prison, like I said, was 1974, so it was four years later,

Starting point is 00:31:31 meaning he could have committed this crime, but did he commit it, or is this a false confession? Well, Eugene started with Grand Theft Auto at just 17 years old. At 20, he was arrested for assaulting and sodomizing an 11-year-old boy. After he served time for that charge, he allegedly trapped a 15-year-old boy in his car and assaulted him, but this was never proven. After he confessed to the murders of Karen and Married, he led the police to an abandoned mineshaft near where he grew up in Point Marion and explain that

Starting point is 00:32:05 he had discarded their heads there. Investigators scoured the area but found no sign of remains, although they did find errant strands of hair and various animal nests. It is really eerie though that he, sorry to use that word again, but that he is saying that he discarded their heads in a mine, which is what the letters also said, so that's just a really weird thing to say. Yeah, but also what's really creepy is that they found strands of hair in animal mess out in the woods.

Starting point is 00:32:37 So creepy. So anyway, his confession was so graphic and brutal that the officers called him a quote animal. According to Eugene, he had driven Karen and Meredith to a secluded location at Gunpoint where he had sexually assaulted them, but remember, they had not been sexually assaulted. He then shot them in the head and beheaded them using a machete. A machete was actually found at the home of a relative of Eugene's, but it was never proven to have any connection to the slaying.

Starting point is 00:33:08 Later, authorities traveled back to New Jersey to see him again in February, pressing him on details about his confession. And after a few days, he also wrote a letter explaining what he had done. The motion for a trial moved at an incredibly swift pace, and by November, Eugene found himself convicted of yet another heinous crime, the murders of Karen and Married. On Thursday, November 4, 1976, Eugene was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison after just six hours of jury deliberation. His lawyer argued, quote, the confession cannot be relied upon because parts have proven

Starting point is 00:33:51 false. Six years after this crime was committed, he can remember it was a Sunday, it was snowing, and he can spell one girl's name, but he can't remember where he put the bodies. The state isn't trying to prove that Eugene Paul Klossin committed this crime. They're trying to fit him into the crime. So shocked at the verdict, even though Eugene is the one that confessed,

Starting point is 00:34:19 he reportedly muttered, but I'm not guilty. He later explained, quote, I made the confession because I had been sitting in the jail for two years, and it was December 1975. I read an article in two different magazines concerning the Co-Ed murders, and I felt that if I, you know, if I could make the officials in West Virginia believe I was guilty, and I could get indicted for it and brought down here, West Virginia. Due to the fact that the charges down here were bigger than the ones I had in Jersey, Jersey would drop charges against me, and then when I got down here, I felt

Starting point is 00:34:54 to prove my innocence, and then I wouldn't have no more time. That's why I did it. Wow, you're stupid. I mean, that makes no sense. It just doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry. You think your other crime's just gonna go away by, and then you're gonna prove you're innocent, and then they're like, oh, you're good to go free. You're free now. Sorry, Eugene, not how it works.

Starting point is 00:35:15 But his roommate at the sex offender prison in which Eugene was housed at, argued with this hesitation, claiming that Eugene had mentioned the murders to him multiple times before said articles even were released. Based on the fact that an attorney was not present at the time of his original confession, Eugene was granted a retrial in 1977. And on September 23, 1980, his conviction was officially overturned. With each new legal motion in the case, the friends and families of the victims were traumatized all over again.

Starting point is 00:35:54 Meredith's own father said in an interview leading up to the retrial quote, �That is over and done with a long time ago. We did what we could, and it's over. Karen's mom Bess said that she had to find a way to forgive in order to be able to move on. On October 27, 1981, a second murder trial against Eugene Paul Klauson began. But to Eugene's despair, a jury unanimously convicted him of first degree murder once again. He's continued to proclaim his innocence, but at 78 years old, he remains in prison to this day. So, who really

Starting point is 00:36:32 killed Karen Farrell and Married Malarick on that freezing January night over 53 years ago? The short answer is that no one knows. While police have investigated over 30 people in connection with the crime, no one has ever been named an official suspect, except for Eugene Paul Klossin. One person who consistently comes up in connection with the murders is a man named William Bernard Hacker Sr. This is a theory that even the creators of the book and podcasts about the case believe revealing after eight episodes that they themselves think that William is in fact the real killer. And just in case anybody is wondering, both of these men are white, so as we know, they

Starting point is 00:37:16 were both seen leaving in that car with a white man. So that's a connection, you know, although that's not that unique or special, but that does mean a little something here, I guess. But more on William, so in 1970, when the murders took place, William Bernard Hacker Sr. was living near Baltimore, Maryland, but had grown up in West Virginia and had already committed murders there. In December of 1970, William was arrested for the decapitation of a man in Moundsville, West Virginia, which is just like an hour and a half away from Morgantown, and William knew this area very well. I mean, he'd even worked in a mine nearby, and particularly a mine near where Karen and Merritt were discovered. And this also makes a lot of sense because we know that the girls were not sexually assaulted, so it seems like he is a throw killer if he's willing to kill a man

Starting point is 00:38:15 and possibly two girls by cutting off their heads and no sexual assault. Well, this part's really weird because it really seemed like unsolved decapitations seemed to follow this guy around his entire life because multiple murders involving decapitations happened between 1921 and 1952 around where he was living at those times and all of those remained unsolved. those times, and all of those remained unsolved. He was finally caught killing two people in 1952, so 18 years before Karen and Merid were killed, and he was sent to prison for this. And during the 14 years that he served in prison, there were no unsolved murders in the

Starting point is 00:38:59 area in which the victims were decapitated. Then in 1966, the year he was somehow, by the way, released from prison for the double murder, another murder and decapitation occurred. Between 1967 and 1970, when the girls, and then subsequently the man he was caught killing were murdered, three more unsolved murders with decapitations occurred in the area.

Starting point is 00:39:27 For an already sparsely populated and densely wooded state, this is a very shocking statistic to boast. William Bernard Hacker Sr. has since passed away, so it will be difficult to pin any murders to him, but those who are haunted by the grizzly murders are still hoping for answers. If you have any information regarding the murders of Karen Farrell and Meredith Mallorick, please call the Morgan Town Police Tip Line at 304-284-7520. 7520. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into.

Starting point is 00:40:19 I don't know about you guys, but my money is on William Bernard Hacker, senior. I mean, I feel like, yeah, that's what feels right. I mean, just the... But just because that feels right to me does not mean, you know, obviously... We're just speculating here. We're just speculating. I just think it's crazy that, like I said, I mean, decapitation seemed to follow him around. And I mean, that's just, it's a specific way to murder somebody or a specific way to dispose

Starting point is 00:40:44 of somebody. Yeah, and then for them to stop during that time that he was in prison and then, you know, begin again after he gets out of prison, pretty insane, right? Yeah, absolutely crazy. So we would love to hear what you guys think about this case.

Starting point is 00:40:58 Please don't forget to share it because technically is unsolved. I mean, obviously somebody is in prison for these murders, but he apparently falsely confessed. So we would love to, you know, try to spread this story out more, which is why we're covering it. So if you guys want to post about it, that would be awesome. If you want to see photos from this case and our other cases that we cover, head on over to our social media accounts for an Instagram at going West Podcast, Twitter at going WestPod, Twitter at Going West Pod, and we're also on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:41:27 Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you

Going West: True Crime - The WVU Coed Murders // 275

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