Published: October 08, 2008 01:00 pm            

Marler Mystery 10 years old

Family believes missing girl probably dead

WHITLEY CITY — On October 8, 1998, Abigail Marler dropped off her 15-year-old daughter Crystal on Strunk Ridge Road near a friend’s home at approximately 4 p.m. That was the last time she saw her daughter.

A lot has changed in the 10 years since Crystal’s disappearance — Abby herself having been killed in a car accident in June 2007 — but the question of what happened to Crystal remains a constant for her family and friends.

This week the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued a new plea for information regarding Crystal’s whereabouts.

When last seen, she was 5’6” tall and weighed 95 pounds with black hair and eyes. She would now be 25 years old.

Last spring the case received renewed attention when Crystal’s story was featured on WYMT’s Mountain Cold Case series in April. According to Lorella Wood, grandmother to Crystal’s half-brother Jonathan, the segment produced some leads but nothing definitive.

McCreary County Sheriff Gus Skinner last week told The Record that he and Deputy Lowell Dolen have been working with Kentucky State Police Detective Billy Correll on cold cases like Crystal’s.

“We’re still trying to handle it as a missing person investigation,” the sheriff said.

While her family doesn’t know definitively what happened to Crystal, they do believe that she is dead. Wood said she has felt that way almost from the beginning.

“Someone would have heard from her by now,” Wood said. “But I don’t think Abby ever gave up hope.”

Approximately five years ago, Abby’s coworkers did raise money to put a memorial stone in the family plot at Carter Cemetery. Sue Marler, Abby’s mother and Crystal’s grandmother, acknowledges that Abby would visit the monument often.

“She wouldn’t tell me; she would just go,” Mrs. Marler said. “I think it gave her peace of mind.”

Mrs. Marler said she too believes that Crystal is no longer living as she has been visited in dreams by both her daughter and granddaughter.

“Where Crystal is, I don’t know but the people that did it are here in the county walking around — free as a bird,” Sue Marler said. “You hear everything in the world but the truth. She was beautiful and my first grandchild. I would just like for it to come to a point of closure. Maybe

something will come out of this. Anything is better than nothing.”

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to call the Kentucky State Police at 606-878-6622 or the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office at 376-2322.

        

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