Will body be found? (Wednesday, November 22, 2006) Denise Morris

The first people who rented  the otherwise peaceful Hurley

home in deCordova Bend Estates in 2000 didn’t stay very long.

“I heard they complained of funny smells and strange ‘goings

on’ in the house,” current leasing agent Joe Vernon said. “They

wouldn’t say what it was.” The home Tuesday was cordoned

off by sheriff’s investigators who believe the body of Marian

Hurley may be buried beneath 12 inches of cement. Jackhammering

was begun Tuesday, while forensic archaeologists stood by waiting to

conduct the delicate excavation.

The patio, some neighbors told investigators in 1999, was poured

one night shortly after Marian Hurley went missing, investigators

said. But other neighbors said the patio was installed while she

still lived at the home, detective Gay Johnson said.

“We do know that a permit was not requested

from the homeowners association, so the timing cannot be verified,”

Johnson said.

The missing person case was closed in 1999 when then-sheriff Allen

Hardin believed Marian Hurley to be alive.

“He said she was in a crack house in Abilene,” an investigator

on the case, Belinda Rogers, said. “He said it was so bad law enforcement

wouldn’t go in. I knew that wasn’t true. There’s not a crack

house so bad that law enforcement would not go in.”

But through a second almost ghostly occurrence last week, the

case was thrown back open.

An air conditioner repairman saw something suspicious in an air vent.

“He thought it was blood, and he called the sheriff’s office to report

it,” investigator Bill Wiley said.

Tests showed the substance was neither blood nor any anything

else “suspicious.” But the investigation led to the reopening

of the Marian Hurley “missing person” case.

The repairman knew nothing of the history of the family who

once lived there, Wiley said. “We look at these cold cases

and hope we can get a break,” Wiley said. “The repairman gave

us that break. And it was detective Jim Scroggins who had the

foresight to jump on this opportunity.”  

Scroggins investigated the air conditioner report, and while

there, discussed the cold case with the current residents leasing the

home.

“They were very open to us investigating the case,” sheriff Gene

Mayo said. “We had planned to work on this after the first of the

year, but this was an ideal time because they gave us permission.”

A Ground Penetrating Radar was brought to the home Monday.

It indicated a cavity under the patio about 5 feet in length and 2-1/2

to 3 feet below the surface. The size was consistent with a possible

burial site, investigators said.

When the 45-year-old mother of two little girls was first reported

missing by concerned family members, investigators

said her husband insisted she was visiting relatives out of

state.

“He told different people

different stories,” Johnson  said. “He moved out of the house, and out of state, with

his daughters soon after.”

The victim’s brother and sister-in-law in Montana created a Web site in her honor.

Their feelings are indicated with their update:

“It is thought that Marian Hurley met with foul play.

According to Texas State Law, without a body, the authorities

can basically do nothing. Her family and friends are at wit’s

end trying to find some type of closure.”

Captain Bruce Espin said nothing is known yet.

“We need to find the body first. All we have is the reading

of the void under the slab.”

Hood County News
1501 S. Morgan -:- P.O. Box 879
Granbury, Texas 76048
(817) 573-7066 -:- FAX (817) 279-8371

We welcome your feedback. Please email comments concerning the website to rcraig@hcnews.com
Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@hcnews.com
Copyright © 2001, Hood County News and HCN Online Services.
All rights reserved. Please click here for full copyright terms and restrictions.



 

CASE UPDATE -- 22-NOV-2006

To open article in Adobe Reader format use links:
11.22.06pg1.pdf & 11.22.06pg2.pdf