COLD CASE: It was May 8, 1938, the day Marjory West went missing in Marshburg.
On May 9, 1938, The Era headline read, “Bradford child lost in woods.”
“Marjory West, 4, wanders from picnic party; 200 men join in search. Use powerful lights,” the headline continued.
“Two hundred men pressed their search early this morning for four-year-old Marjory West, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S.M. West of 5 Cornen street, who is lost in the heavily wooded mountains south of Marshburg, between White Gravel and Morrison.
“The child, it is believed, wandered away from a family picnic while picking flowers. Mr. West, an oilfield worker, reported to local police Marjory was last seen at 3 p.m. at White Gravel, which is located on a fire road near Marshburg. Unconfirmed reports said the child had been gathering flowers with her mother.
“State police at Kane and Warren were notified late this afternoon of the child’s absence. Searching parties were organized immediately and set out to hunt for the girl. Sixty members of the C.C.C. camp at Red Bridge, near Morrison, soldiers of Company K, Bradford National Guard Unit, and large numbers of local Legionnaires, Elks, Moose and K of C entered the woods to spread a dragnet for the child.
“At 1 o’clock this morning, two trucks of the Bradford Electric company, equipped with powerful lights and carrying additional Legionnaires and Elks, set out to penetrate as far as possible into the area near Marshburg. All available flashlights in the city were pressed into service.”
The next day’s paper told of 800 searchers. A report came in from West Virginia of a child resembling the missing tot seen with in a man in a car there. That was later proven unrelated.
And May 11, 1938, a larger headline, and still no sign of the child. It was estimated that 15 square miles had been searched, to no avail.
The governor sent in state police to help. The Legion offered a reward.
Yet despite the efforts of thousands, no trace of the child was ever found. It remains one of the oldest unsolved cases in the records of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
