Anyone with information about Arthur Murray can call the Washington County Sheriff¿s Office at 240-313-2100.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series about missing persons in the Tri-State. The Herald-Mail contacted law enforcement agencies to obtain information about area residents who have been reported missing. Those profiled include Revell Jeeter of Harrisonville, Pa., whose story was published Sunday; Arthur Murray of Williamsport, whose story appears today; and Mary Jean Olshefski-Beatty of Bunker Hill, W.Va., and Melissa Moreland, who lived with her parents near Paw Paw, W.Va., whose stories will be published Tuesday. If there is a missing-persons case you would like to have profiled in The Herald-Mail, you may call the newspaper at 301-791-7281. Each case must have been reported to a law enforcement agency. When police began looking for Arthur Leonard Murray in April 1985, they found the man’s truck parked with the keys inside it, but no trace of the Williamsport resident. Murray, who was born in June 1925, has not been found in the nearly three decades that have passed. Over the years, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office has reinterviewed Murray’s family and acquaintances, conducted polygraph tests, submitted his information when unidentified remains have been found across the country and assigned new investigators to take fresh looks at the files. “There’s no doubt there is foul play involved,” said Lt. Mark M. Knight of the sheriff’s office’s criminal investigation unit. Murray’s estranged wife, Gloria V.J. Murray, reported him missing, telling authorities that one of the last times she saw him, he handed her a half-dozen yellow roses. She told police she believed that meant “goodbye.” A neighbor who saw Murray on April 2, 1985, on his Kemps Mill Road property said the man told him he was upset over domestic problems. Early in the investigation, there was some speculation that Murray was with a woman in West Virginia, Knight said. Nothing ever came of that theory, he said. Police entered into the National Crime Information Center system descriptions of Murray and the clothing he was wearing when last seen. His description — 5 feet 6 inches tall, 175 pounds, green eyes, brown hair, scar on the upper left arm — remains in the NCIC system today. In June 1986, West Virginia State Police in Charles Town, W.Va., found skeletal remains they thought could be Murray’s. However, those remains included teeth, and Murray reportedly had no teeth. Bodies investigated in the late 1980s, early 1990s, 2003 and 2005 did not match Murray’s description either, Knight said. Police records indicate Murray served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946, then re-enlisted in 1947, but was dishonorably discharged. Police subpoenaed Murray’s medical records and reached out to the doctor who did his cataracts surgery. Four people submitted to interviews in April 1992, but none offered new information about Murray’s whereabouts. A Herald-Mail story published April 8, 1992, coincided with the assignment of a new investigator, who reinterviewed neighbors. Murray’s wife and son submitted to polygraph tests, although Knight said they were not suspects, but rather an angle to clear. Knight said he believes if Murray took his own life, his body would have been found by now. He questions why no new information has emerged. Anyone with information about Murray can call the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 240-313-2100.
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