Thursday marks one year since one of the most sensational murder cases in Kanawha County history unfolded in the sleepy town of Chesapeake. It was April 25, 2012 when Chesapeake Police Chief Jack Ice got a frantic call from the son of shoe salesman Charlie March.
“I was on my way to the attorney general’s office and I immediately turned around and headed back toward Chesapeake and I met him at the scene. He was distraught,” recalled Ice. “He escorted me to the area behind his father’s residence and we looked at the grim discovery there.”
The discovery was the remains of Kathy Goble. The likeable employee of Kelly’s Mens Shop had been missing for almost two years to the day. Turned out she had been murdered by her co-worker Charlie March, dismembered, and buried in a shallow grave behind his home.
“In my 31 years with the State Police I visited many scenes and it was just about as gruesome as any I have witnessed in my 31 years,” Ice recalled.
March would eventually confess to the killing and get a life prison sentence when he pleaded guilty. Most were shocked to learn the mild-mannered and well-known shoe salesman was a cold blooded killer. Ice was among them.
“I knew him very well; I was a customer of his at Kelly’s Mens Shop. I purchased many, many pairs of shoes from him over the years,” Ice said. “Two weeks before that I had sat down with him face to face and purchased a new pair of shoes. Little did I know then what he was involved with.”
Ice said the whole case seems to live up to the old adage, “You can’t see the forest for the trees and you never really know about your next door neighbor.”