Murder of Marcia King

Marcia Lenore Sossoman King ((1959-06-09)June 9, 1959 – (1981-04-22)April 22, 1981) was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation. Prior to her 2018 identification, King was informally known as "Buckskin Girl" and "Miami County Jane Doe". The first of these two names is in reference to the distinctive tasseled buckskin poncho she was wearing at the time of her discovery. Following the identification of her body, Marcia King's family erected a new headstone at her grave in Riverside Cemetery, inscribed with her actual name. The investigation into her murder is ongoing.

Discovery On April 24, 1981, three young men discovered the body of a young Caucasian woman in a ditch alongside Greenlee Road in Newton Township, Troy, Ohio. One of the three men, Greg Bridenbaugh, initially noticed the decedent's distinctive buckskin poncho. Informing one of his companions, Neal Hoffman, to take a look at the coat, Hoffman walked closer to the article of clothing before turning toward Bridenbaugh, stating: "Oh my God, there's a woman in that coat!" The young woman was lying in a fetal position, on her right side, and without shoes or socks. The men immediately reported their discovery to police.

Autopsy The decedent's body was autopsied on the afternoon of her discovery. The medical examination revealed she had suffered extensive blunt force trauma to the head and neck before she had been strangled to death approximately 48 hours before her body was discovered. Additionally, her liver was found to have been lacerated. She had not been subjected to any form of sexual assault. The woman had been between 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) and 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) in height, aged between eighteen and twenty-six, and weighed 125–130 pounds (57–59 kg). She had naturally reddish-brown hair, which was parted in the middle and braided into pigtails on both sides of her head. Her eyes were light brown in color, and she had freckles across her face. In addition, her nose was described as being "very pointed". The victim also had a ruddy complexion, indicating she had spent a lot of time outdoors in the final weeks or months of her life. The young woman had maintained a high level of personal hygiene. All her teeth, including her wisdom teeth, were in good condition and had no evidence of fillings or other dental work, except for one porcelain crown upon her upper-right incisor. The coroner also noted several scars upon her body, including a vertical scar beneath her chin, with other scars also visible upon one wrist, both arms, and one ankle.

Clothing The young woman was dressed in blue bell-bottom Wrangler jeans, a brown turtleneck pullover sweater with an orange crisscross design on the front, a white brassiere and a hoodless deerskin poncho with purple lining, which appeared to be handmade. She wore no shoes or socks. No form of identification was located upon her body or at the crime scene.

Initial investigation Because the decedent's body was found approximately 48 hours after her death, police were able to obtain her fingerprints and dental information. The dental charts and fingerprints of this decedent yielded no results matching her to any known missing person, and her fingerprints matched no police records, indicating she had no criminal record. Early police efforts to identify this decedent also involved the creation of a composite drawing of her face which was published in local newspapers and broadcast on television networks on April 28, 1981. This initial media publicity surrounding the murder generated approximately two hundred leads. Although all were investigated, all failed to bear fruit. The victim gradually became known as "Buckskin Girl" in reference to the distinctive tasseled buckskin jacket she was wearing when found. The failure to establish her identity hindered investigators' efforts to solve her murder. As her identity remained undiscovered, investigating authorities came to increasingly believe the reason Buckskin Girl remained unidentified had been due to the fact that she had been murdered far from her hometown. A retired investigator is also known to have expressed his belief the decedent was highly unlikely to have originated from the area where she was discovered. Authorities strongly believed Buckskin Girl had been murdered elsewhere and her body discarded beside the road shortly after her death. This conclusion was supported by the fact her bare feet were clean, showing no indication of her having walked upon a dirty surface, and because Interstate 75 is just five miles (8 km) from where her body was recovered, making the site a convenient and discreet location to discard a body. Police and the media later speculated that she may have been a teenage runaway or a possible victim of a serial killer known to have murdered several prostitutes in the region during the 1980s and 1990s. However, her body had not been subjected to any form of sexual assault, indicating she was unlikely to have been a sex worker. The investigation into Buckskin Girl's murder gradually became a cold case, although police and other officials continued to investigate her murder. Her clothing and other physical evidence recovered at the crime scene was retained, and a sample of her blood preserved.

Theories

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