Margaret Fetterolf

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Offense Location:

Baltimore, Maryland

Reward:

up to $2,000

via Baltimore County

Not from STC, Conditions and restrictions apply

Summary:

On 9/12/1976 at 10:20 a.m. the body of a 15 to 30 year-old woman was found partially wrapped in a white sheet. She had been beaten, strangled & violently raped. Investigators determined she was assaulted & killed elsewhere. Her body then transported to the side of Dogwood Road near the back gate of a cemetery. It's possible that a Ford Econoline van may be linked to the case, one was seen near the location of the body an hour before it was found. It would be 45 yrs before she was identified.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On September 12, 1976 at 10:20 a.m. the body of a 15 to 30 year-old woman was found partially wrapped in a white sheet. She had been beaten, strangled & raped. The rape had caused bleeding that had seeped into her clothing. Investigators determined she was assaulted & killed elsewhere & had been transported to the side of Dogwood Road near the back gate of a cemetery. It is possible that a Ford Econoline van may be linked to the case, as one was seen near the location of the body an hour before it was found. An extremely large amount of a sedative drug, chlorpromazine, was found in the victim's stomach. Chlorpromazine is used to treat schizophrenia, which led to a theory linking the victim, or those responsible for her murder, to a mental institution. Additionally, the sheet that was wrapped around her body was consistent with those provided at inpatient institutions On September 15, 2021, after further DNA testing done with the assistance of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Bode Technology, and Othram, detectives identified the girl as 16 year old Margaret Fetterolf from Alexandria, Virginia. Fetterolf went missing in the late summer of 1975, and at the time of her disappearance was a student at Hayfield Secondary School. She was reported missing by her family one year before her body was found. An investigation continues into who was responsible for her sexual assault and murder.

Additional Details:

The victim was found wearing a turquoise-colored stone bead tied to a rawhide string as a necklace. Also in her possession were two brass keys (one believed to be for a house and the other for a "night latch") that were found attached to a safety pin in one of the pockets of a pair of tan-yellow jeans.[5][8] She wore a white and tan shirt, a white bra, and distinctive knee-high socks with multi-colored stripes. A single, light tan moccasin with twine laces and a rubber sole was found near the body; it is believed to have been worn by the victim. Other pieces of cloth were also found on the body. Two bandannas and a bag for grass seeds were found over her face. These had been fastened behind her neck in a square knot. One bandanna was blue and white, and the other was orange and white. The orange-and-white bandanna had holes cut in it to fit the locations of her eyes and nose. Besides the bag over her face, a piece of the grass seed bag was found in her throat. This was determined to have been the cause of her death, along with ligature strangulation. The bag read "Farm Bureau Association Grass Seed, Lexington, Mass." Additionally, her hands had been bound behind her back with some sort of "bandage" in noticeably high-quality knots. One of the keys which the victim carried was made in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and had "DB09212" stamped onto it. The grass seed bag was connected to a factory in Buffalo, New York. It had been sold exclusively in the Massachusetts cities of Waltham, Rochdale, Lowell, South Weymouth, and Greenfield. Years before the murder, production of this type of bag had been halted

Case Last Updated:

Mar 26, 2024