Murder investigations rarely unfold in real life the way they do on television or in the movies. On TV, crime solvers use exotic technology to foil sophisticated culprits, all in a time frame designed to keep our attention.
Actual murder investigations are typically more mundane. The vast majority of serious crimes in West Virginia are solved for one or more of four reasons: there are witnesses, the criminal tells somebody who then tells the police, the person confesses to the crime, or the crime is videotaped.
The disappearance and murder of Kathy Goble had none of those elements. Goble, the long-time employee of Kelley’s Mens Shop in Charleston, went missing two years ago this week. Police found her car along I-64, but there was no sign of her.
It was as though Goble simply vanished.
She had not, of course. People don’t just vanish. If they skip town to get away from somebody or something, they usually turn up. If they are murdered, the body is almost always discovered.
But there was nothing on Goble for two years… until Wednesday.
Kanawha County authorities say Charlie March’s son had become suspicious about his father. March acted odd whenever anyone got near a particular area in the backyard of his Chesapeake home.
Wednesday, when March was at work, the son went digging. He found what turned out to be human remains. He called the police, who quickly picked up March at Kelley’s, where he had worked alongside Goble for years.
March made it easy for the police. He admitted to strangling Goble with his bare hands, dismembering her body and burying the remains behind his house. March told authorities he doesn’t want an attorney and he’s ready to plead guilty.
The news of March’s arrest stunned the family, his co-workers at Kelley’s and many of the well-heeled in Charleston who had bought their shoes from March. Attorney Harvey Peyton recalled March as friendly and unassuming.
Apparently, March was never a suspect, though he was interviewed three times. And for two years March went about his work as usual, discussing the finer points of shoes with his high-end clients. All the while he was surrounded by reminders of Goble, whether at Kelley’s or at home where the terrible truth was buried just outside his back door.
How does someone live like that?
Researchers say many criminals have anti-social personality disorders, which leave them with no regard for the difference between right and wrong; they have a moral dead spot.
Clinical psychologist Stanton Samenow, author of Inside the Criminal Mind, says he’s always amazed that, almost without exception, criminals regard themselves as good human beings. Therefore, it is possible for some offenders to commit a terrible crime, but still find a way to perceive themselves as a decent human being, thus allowing them to function on a daily basis.
Along with the question of how Charlie March lived with the horrible secret for two years, is why he committed the crime in the first place. He has led investigators to believe that he had an intimate relationship with Goble, but police are still trying to confirm that.
If there was a relationship, it appears to have been well hidden. Billy Herrald, a spokesman for the Goble family, told me on Talkline Thursday, “They were, of course, co-workers, so you have that relationship, but no one knows of anything other than that.”
Now, even after the fate of Kathy Goble is finally revealed, there is much her family still does not know about how and why she was murdered. Charlie March’s announced decision to plead guilty indicates he has already resigned himself to his fate.
If March has retained any modicum of decency, he can give the family, and perhaps even himself, some peace by telling the truth about what happened.