BECKLEY, W.Va — A joint news conference between the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department and the West Virginia State Police Tuesday morning revealed a break in the 1977 Margaret “Margie” Dodd case.
On September 7, 1977, Dodd was heading to her Shady Spring home from her job at Cardinal Bank in the Raleigh Mall. She traveled her usual route but pulled into the Amoco Service Station in Beaver. That’s when another vehicle pulled in behind hers. The first call to police came at around 8:45 p.m. when residents living around the service station could hear a woman screaming. Another report said they had seen a man forcing a screaming woman into the vehicle behind hers. Police responded quickly but were unable to locate the vehicle or any trace of Dodd.
The case went with little evidence until 1993 when personal belongings were recovered on Bolt Mountain near the Wyoming County line. Items such as an engagement ring were recovered, but due to years of exposure the items were unable to be tested for DNA. Cpt. Larry Lilly of the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department said despite this, there was still a way to test the remains.
“We ended up finding some mitochondrial DNA had been obtained from these remains several years ago,” Lilly explained. “We were able to find a brother of Margaret and have those remains compared with his DNA.”
Last week, the department received confirmation from the lab the collected DNA closely matches her brother’s. Cpt. Lilly said this confirms the remains belonged to Dodd. West Virginia State Police Sgt. R.A. Daniel said the technology to reach this connection did not exist when the remains were discovered in 1993.
“The only thing we had were some dental x-rays,” Daniel said. “They weren’t even good enough to make a positive ID. Things have really changed and come a long way since then.”
While authorities have reached a milestone in the case, there is still a lot of work to do. Both departments strongly encourage anybody with any memory of Dodd or the night she went missing to call them. Lilly says any and all information is important to the investigation.
“This should breath some new life into it,” Lilly said. “Hopefully with that information the people that were in this area back then may bring something forward that they haven’t thought of.”
Dodd was 27-years-old at the time of her abduction. She is survived by a husband and three brothers. Anyone with any information is urged to contact the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department or the West Virginia State Police.