Missing Woman Remains a Mystery by LELAND DEBUSK News Editor

Every day, Bozeman, Mont. resident Richard Monahan and his wife Barbara think of Richard’s sister Marian Hurley. They wonder where she is.
The 45-year-old deCordova Bend Estates woman has been missing for over 1½ years.
Investigators wonder too where Hurley is. They and her family fear the mother of two has met with foul play.
“She’s missing and we’re out of leads at this point,” said Texas Ranger Joe Hutson.
"We are at an absolute standstill," Barbara Monahan said. "We have heard absolutely nothing. We talk about it every day. We don’t know what to do. It’s just something we can’t let go."
A second brother of Hurley’s, Donald Monahan, lives in Ventura, Calif. He has heard nothing either from his sister, Mrs. Monahan said.
Hutson and Hardin are looking to the public for more clues in Hurley’s disappearance. So are Hurley’s relatives.
"We would appreciate any help the public can give us," Mrs. Monahan said. "Absolutely, as a family, we will not give up."
In the last two weeks, deputies have been using cadaver dogs to examine places in southeast Hood County where they believe Hurley’s body may be found, Hardin stated.
Hurley disappeared from that area in mid-September 1999. She left behind a husband and two young daughters, ages 3 and 6. Friends and family members haven’t heard from her since.
Wil Hurley, her husband, told investigators that on Sunday, Sept. 19, his wife drove up to Three Oaks Golf Course, a par-3 golf course the couple owned on Fall Creek Highway. Mrs. Hurley dropped off their daughters and said she was leaving, he stated. His wife then got into a mysterious white car and left, Hurley told investigators.
Hurley never reported his wife missing, said sheriff’s department investigators. It wasn’t until a week later that a friend of the Hurleys notified authorities. The friend had become concerned about Mrs. Hurley’s whereabouts, said deputies.
Deputies learned that the family had gone camping to the deCordova Dam Park on Saturday, Sept. 18, 1999. That was the day before Mr. Hurley said his wife left in the white car.
The oldest girl told investigators that when she went to bed at the park, her mother was there. When she woke up the next morning, her mother was gone. She said her father told them that her mother wasn’t going to live with them anymore, stated officers. The girl’s story conflicted with the story Wil Hurley gave about his wife’s leaving, investigators said.
Those close to the Hurleys said the couple had a rocky marriage.
Hurley’s brothers, sisters-in-law and friends don’t think that Hurley would run away from her family. Family members said Hurley would have called them because she had no place to go.
Donald Monahan has stated he and his sister talked frequently on long distance before her disappearance. If she had left her husband, she would have called him in the meantime, he stated.
The Hurleys lived on Mojave Drive in deCordova Bend Estates. A neighbor and good friend of Mrs. Hurley stated the Hurleys had just remodeled their home and were expecting new furniture at the time of her disappearance. The neighbor couldn’t believe Hurley would disappear without contacting her to check on her children.
At one point in the investigation, investigators had the number 8 tee box at Three Oaks dug up. They theorized her body might have been there. Deputies said they found the body of a large dog under the tee box, but not Hurley. Officers stated they didn’t know why the dog had been buried there.
Since Mrs. Hurley disappeared, there has been no use of her ATM or credit cards either, say investigators. Family and friends don’t think that Hurley ran off with another man. Former sheriff’s department investigator Belinda Rogers, who has worked on the case, doesn’t believe either that Hurley committed suicide. She loved her daughters too much, Rogers believed.
The Hurleys were married in California before moving to Hood County about 10 years ago. Wil Hurley took a job at Comanche Peak nuclear plant, said family members.
Since his wife’s disappearance, Wil Hurley and his daughters have moved to Russellville, Ark., where he apparently works at a nuclear plant.
Hurley’s brothers and their wives came to Hood County last April to learn more about her disappearance, but nothing led to their sister.
At one point, officers investigated reports that Hurley may have run away to a drug house in Abilene, but those leads have led to nothing, Hardin said.
Richard Monahan has said he doesn’t believe his sister would have been involved with drugs and drug users in Abilene. She’s too intelligent and educated a woman to be involved with people like that, he said.
Hutson stated he traveled to Russellville, Ark last summer to interview Wil Hurley, but was unable too. He declined to comment on why the interview wasn’t conducted.
Investigators have searched deCordova Dam Park with cadaver dogs several times for signs of Hurley’s body, Hutson said. They’ve also searched Three Oaks Golf Course several times using search dogs, he added. One dog used was a FBI agent’s dog, said Hardin.
Locations in the Fall Creek area, as well as roadside sites, have been searched after investigators received calls of locations that appeared to be gravesites, Hardin stated.

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