Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 76: Help Wanted: Lured By A Killer // Dark Summer Series

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

We're looking at two cases of people who believed they were answering help wanted ads for summer jobs and were never seen again. The cases of Margaret Ellen Fox and The Jack Family. TW: missing children Check out our merch here: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/stickers  This episode is brought to you by Miracle Made. Go to TryMiracle.com/HSP to try Miracle Made sheets today! And, whether you’re buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today you can save over 40%. AND if you use our promo HSP at checkout you’ll get 3 FREE TOWELS and SAVE an extra 20%!   Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to ad-free listening and bonus content. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. We have a newsletter now! Be sure to sign up for updates and more.

Margaret Ellen Fox was just 14 years old when she decided to look for a job in the summer of 1974. School had recently gotten out in her New Jersey community, where she and her 11-year-old cousin, Lynn Park, had an idea. They were going to take out an ad in the local paper to let the community know they were babysitters and they were looking for families to help. So the freckly-faced tween asked her parents if they could place the ad. They reluctantly agreed. They were nervous for her. But they also knew that she was responsible and was looking for more independence. Plus, their small suburb of Burlington, New Jersey

was safe and quiet. They basically knew all the neighbors. She could take out the ad, but it would have to be as short as possible and get the message across quickly. These ads and papers charged per word after all. And so, in the June 18th edition of their local paper, Margaret and Lynn placed

an ad that read, quote, experienced teen girls, love kids, work at your house, call, and then two phone numbers were listed. I'm sure many of us have been in that situation. I know I have. When you're growing up, the summer can be a great time to make some money, which can give you a little bit of independence. And for Margaret, who was the only girl in a family of five children, she was ready for that. But that newspaper would have been distributed to hundreds, if not thousands of families across New Jersey,

not just in the Fox family's neighborhood. You could never really be sure who was picking up the paper, flipping through the ad section and deciding to call. And so how could Margaret have known that placing that ad for a summer job would be the worst decision she would ever make? It's that feeling. When the energy in the room shifts, when the air gets sucked out of a moment and everything starts to feel wrong. It's the

instinct between fight or flight. When your brain is trying to make sense of what it's seeing, it's when your heart starts pounding. This is Heart Starts Pounding and I'm your host, Kaylyn Moore. In today's episode, I want to tell you two stories of people who were searching, like so many of us have, for a summer job and the horror that ensued. Our first is Margaret's about her search for a babysitting job and our second is about a man who found himself in a bar one night sitting next to a stranger who offered him some work for the summer. But before we jump in let me say if you're

new here welcome to our community for the darkly curious. I put out new episodes of horrors, hauntings and mysteries every Wednesday around 7pm pacific here in the United States and that's 12pm on Thursdays AEST for those of you listening in Sydney or Melbourne or elsewhere on the east coast of Australia. If you'd like to listen ad free, you can subscribe for just $5 a month on Apple podcasts or join our Patreon. You'll also get an exclusive monthly bonus episode. I just covered secret societies, including a modern day not so secret one that at least pretends like it's not running the world. And like every bonus episode, ideas are submitted by all patrons and voted on

by the High Council. If you want to know more about subscription rewards like merch, check out the Patreon link in the show description. And if you want to sample a subscription, check out the free Patreon and Apple Podcast trials. But no matter how or where you're listening, I'm glad you're here. Now we're going to take a quick break and when we get back we're going to dive into Margaret's story. This episode is brought to you by Miracle Made. I like the summer. I like being hot and laying in the sun like a cat until it's time to go to sleep.

And then I want to be in a freezer which unfortunately is not what my century-old house feels like. That's why I love my MiracleMade sheets. MiracleMade sheets help keep your temperature regulated all night long, which is one of the biggest factors in sleep quality. So even if my room isn't the perfect frigid temperature, I can still feel cooler. They also use silver-infused fabrics, which were inspired by NASA, that prevent up to 99.7% of bacteria growth which is so important in the summer because I'm always covered in sweat and bug spray and sunscreen and I feel like it sticks to me even when I shower and

my sheets still get all gunked up but not anymore thanks to Miracle Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash HSP to try Miracle Made Sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today you can save over 40%. And if you use our promo HSP at checkout, you'll get 3 free towels and save an extra 20%. Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund.

Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash HSP and use the code HSP to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash HSP to treat yourself. Thanks to Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. It's strange in today's world to hear that two girls so young were allowed to advertise

their babysitting services in a newspaper. I mean, Lynn was just 11. She was barely out of elementary school. I'm honestly surprised she was even allowed to babysit, let alone advertise her services publicly. And even though Margaret was 14, she still looked like a kid with her crooked smile that wasn't yet full of adult teeth and her freckly face. She was only five foot two. And as I reread the ad they took out, my stomach knots up a little. Experienced teen girls.

But this was the 70s. It was a different time and ads like this were surprisingly not that uncommon. The next morning, Lynn got a phone call on her house phone. When she picked up, a man was on the other end of the line. He said that his name was John Marshall and he had a five-year-old son who would need a sitter in the mornings in Mount Holly, about seven miles away.

Lynn was excited her ad had worked so quickly and she ran to ask her mother if she could do the job, holding her hand over the receiver so the man on the other end couldn't hear her begging. But Lynn's mother had her reservations. She didn't want her daughter working for someone so far away, so she thought it would be better to find someone in their community,

ideally that Lynn could walk to. Call it luck or call it a mother's instinct. But she told Lynn no. Not long after Lynn hung up the phone, two doors down at Margaret's house, the landline rang. Margaret held her ear to the phone to hear the same man's voice on the other end of the line. He told Margaret the same deal.

He had a five-year-old son, and starting June 21st, he and his wife would need help in the mornings. Margaret asked her mother, who seemed skeptical about the job, and insisted she ask her father. Her father reluctantly agreed, and so Margaret confirmed the details with John Marshall. He said he would need her in the mornings from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.

He would pay her $40 a week, that's $250 today, and buy her a one-way fare back home. He or his wife would be able to drop her off after her shift by 2.30 p.m. He also had a pool she would be allowed to use, so make sure to bring your suit, he insisted. To meet up, he suggested Margaret take a bus to Mount Holly where she would get off at the corner of High and Mill Street. There, John's wife would be waiting in a red Volkswagen. Margaret wrote down all of the details on a piece of paper near the phone. Later that night, the phone rang again though. This time, Margaret's dad answered. Once again, it was John This time Margaret's dad answered. Once again it was John Marshall.

Margaret's dad listened as John explained that his mother-in-law had just passed away suddenly and they were going to need to push Margaret's start date to June 24th. Margaret's father said he would let her know and he hung up the phone. On June 24th, Margaret's younger brother Joe walked her to the bus near their home. He was the youngest of the five children, all boys except for Margaret. Call us when you get there please, Margaret's mother shouted as the two left the house and Margaret shouted back that she would. Joe watched as Margaret clutched her bag and got on the public bus.

She must've looked so small compared to all of the adults getting on to commute to work. The ride to Mount Holly would be just 20 minutes and she boarded the bus around 8.40 a.m. wearing a blue blouse, hexagonal glasses she always wore and flared maroon jeans with a yellow patch on one of the knees. Her swimsuit was in her bag,

along with a kit for her glasses. It was everything she would need for the day. Back at home, Margaret's mother got the house in order as she awaited her daughter's call. She was expected to arrive at the Marshalls by 9, 10-ish. But when she glanced at the clock, it was already 9.30. Her daughter's day was supposed to be starting, but she hadn't yet called.

Well, perhaps the bus got delayed, or she had trouble finding the Marshalls red Volkswagen. So her mother went back to doing her chores, but more and more time passed. And still, no call came in from Margaret. By 2.30 p.m., Mrs. Fox anxiously awaited by her front door for her daughter's return. She was going to let her have it for not calling that morning. It nearly gave her a heart attack. But Margaret never showed up. 2.45, 3 p.m., 3.30, still no sign of Margaret.

The whole family was now worried. So Mr. Fox went over to the phone where their daughter had left a note with information. It included the number for the marshals, as well as instructions on how to meet John at the bus stop. Mrs. Fox dial included the number for the Marshalls as well as instructions on how to meet John at the bus stop. Mrs. Fox dialed the number and a woman picked up on the other end. Hello? She asked on the other line, confused. Ah, that must be Mrs. Marshall, Mrs. Fox thought. Hi, this is Margaret's mom. I'm just calling to see if she's still at your house the woman informed her that she was not in fact, Mrs. Marshall and

Margaret was not there But what she neglected to tell mrs. Fox was that the phone number she called did not belong to a personal residence The woman had been walking past a payphone near a grocery store that had started ringing and answered it. The number was for a public phone. The Fox family started tearing through their phone book calling anyone with the last name Marshall. But each person was equally as confused by their call and had never heard of Margaret. Mr. Fox then mobilized his four sons to start a search party,

and together they roamed the streets in Mount Holly looking for Margaret. By midnight, they called the police and a case file was officially opened on Margaret as a missing person. The man assigned to the case was an investigator named Leonard Burr and he started his investigation by peppering the town with photos of Margaret and trying to track down anyone who was on the bus with her the morning

of the 24th. To do that he just got on the bus the following morning and started asking people if they knew anything. And that's how he finds two women that remembered seeing Margaret on the bus. One woman was sitting behind her the morning she disappeared. Her son had pulled on Margaret's long brown hair, but it didn't upset Margaret. Instead, she was smiley and chatted with the woman

for a moment before getting off at the Mount Holly stop. Another witness told investigator Burr that she watched as Margaret got off at the stop and then began talking to a young man with a red sports car. This was good information, so Burr thanked the woman and then started looking in the Mount Holly area for that red sports car. The man was eventually found to be a 20-year-old who lived in the area. He told police that Margaret approached him to ask if he was John Marshall,

but he told her that he wasn't and she went on her way. He was cleared of any wrongdoing, though it doesn't seem like he gave much info as to where Margaret went after she spoke with him. Mr. Fox remembered what the voice of John Marshall sounded like on the phone when he called to push Margaret's start date. Mr. Fox said, quote,

"'There was no accent, but no emotion either. He knew exactly what the devil he was saying. He was very convincing. It just never entered my mind that anything was wrong." And overall, he said that the man was calm, precise, and had a military level of diction that almost had a slight British affect. But still, he somehow sounded like a Jersey local. This is such a specific description of someone's voice. The police made a note of what Mr. Fox said

about the man's voice, but they still had other leads they were chasing down. See, they felt like the man had used his real name. So other men named John Marshall started to be questioned, and all of those lead nowhere. But then, one day, an officer goes back to the grocery store where the payphone was. And when he's inside, he's talking to the employees

about what they saw. And all of a sudden, the owner comes out and introduces himself to the officer as John Marshall. And the officer gets this horrible feeling deep in his stomach. What if the perpetrator walked into the grocery store, read the owner's name tag, and then just used that name on the phone? What if they were chasing their own tails? This John Marshall had an alibi and was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing. Police officers must have felt like they hit a dead end. But that is when the phone starts ringing at the Fox residence. On June 28th, four days after their daughter's disappearance, Margaret's family receives

an alarming call. It was recorded at the behest of the FBI, and they believe that the man on the other end of the call was the man responsible for Margaret's disappearance. And in the recording, he's asking the family for ransom for Margaret's return. I'm gonna play you a small portion of the call so you can hear what he sounds like compared to the description that Margaret's father gave. Remember, sounds like a Jersey local, maybe vaguely British and military-like diction.

And as you listen, I want you to think about if it sounds like anyone you've ever come into contact with, even if it was years ago. Here's the recording. $10,000 might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the butter topping. Who is it? Ten thousand dollars might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the buttered topping. Ten thousand dollars might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the buttered topping. On the call, the man states that ten thousand dollars might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life

is the buttered topping. In my opinion, just from what Margaret's father said, it doesn't really match the description of the voice. It sounds like a Jersey local, but he's missing the diction. And the FBI pretty much agreed. Initially, this information was not released to the press until weeks later because the FBI was not sure if the lead was real. Mind you, the call came in after the media had already latched onto this case, and there are

sickos out there who would make this kind of phone call just to play with the family. this kind of phone call just to play with the family. But it was ultimately decided by law enforcement after close examination that this probably was John Marshall's voice. After this call, the Foxes went to the bank and withdrew their life savings in order to pay the ransom. However, the caller never called back

with any further instructions. Instead, the next day they receive a letter with the same strange message. $10,000 might be a lot of bread, but your daughter's life is the buttered topping. Again, this letter was never followed up with any instructions on how to pay the ransom. And this time, it was signed as if it was from the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small homegrown American terrorist organization, the same one that was responsible

for the highly publicized kidnapping of Patty Hearst four months prior. The group was not active in New Jersey at the time. So it's most likely that again, this was just some sicko messing with the family. I know the police thought this was potentially John asking for the money, but I don't know why he would ask a willing family for ransom and then never try to collect it. The letter was kept for handwriting analysis though, tried to collect it. The letter was kept for handwriting analysis though, and there was another big clue found within it. Authorities lifted a fingerprint off of the envelope.

As girls in the area read Margaret's story, something struck a chord with them. Some of them had also seen a man in an orange-reddish Volkswagen driving around the Mount Holly area asking them if they were babysitters. He gave them a lot of the same details about the babysitting job and occasionally he even used the name John Marshall. In August of 1974, police released a sketch of this man described by the girls, who they said was a white male between the ages of 35 and 40, about five feet, 10 inches tall, and 200 to 230 pounds. He was said to have blue eyes, light blonde

or reddish hair worn in a crew cut, graying with very noticeable, even white teeth. It's important to note here that at the time, there was not much communication across police precincts, and even though the FBI was now involved with the case, they described having to beg other counties for information regarding Margaret. So even after the detailed description of what he looked like, the specific car to look for and an incredible description of the man's voice, not many other leads come in. And by the end of the 70s, the case was cold.

Today the investigation would have probably gone a lot differently. We have DNA, we have databases where we can search owners of specific cars. And I'm not saying this to excuse any of the flaccid investigation that occurred. I think I'm just saying it to make myself feel better that something like this wouldn't happen today, even though it very well could. Over the years there have been a few false leads that haven't really gone anywhere, like a man who confessed in 1976 to abducting Margaret, but ultimately was playing a hoax. Like I said, there's sickos out there.

There was also a body found in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 1991 that matched Margaret's description down to the clothes she was wearing. But ultimately, it was ruled to not be her, though I haven't been able to find a concrete reason why. Other remains were confirmed with DNA to not be Margaret, but it was never said why the Monmouth County remains weren't her. The case is still open, and a new officer, Michael DeLisio, thinks there's one lead from around the time

of the investigation that needs to be pursued further. There was someone from the case file that wasn't pursued all that hard in the 1970s, but in hindsight, looks like he could have had something to do with the disappearance after a short break. In 1978, police investigated a 66-year-old Mount Holly sex offender who was charged with lewdness and assault on a minor in 1975.

This man was a former soldier who worked at the Military Academy until the 1940s when he was found out for his previous conviction of sexual contact with a minor. Because of his military service, this man had an almost British sounding accent, it was reported, which hearkened back to the way Mr. Fox described the voice on the phone. He even drove a red Volkswagen. But despite all of this,

he was eventually cleared by the Burlington County Police Department and FBI. When investigators went to check on him, he had moved to another area and had begun a job as a radio DJ. He produced logs that showed he was on the radio at the time of Margaret's disappearance. His fingerprints also weren't on the ransom note.

Investigator Leonard Burr and Burlington PD considered him involved, but the investigation stopped pursuing him because of FBI direction. I will note that there are some discrepancies in the description of the man who was driving around asking for babysitters and sometimes using the name John Marshall and this man. This man was also described as being 40, the top of the age of the man who was described. Delicio thinks that this man might have something to do

with Margaret's disappearance and that he should have been investigated further. The ransom note was most likely not from John Marshall, so it wouldn't matter if his fingerprints weren't on it. As for the radio logs, well, are there any witnesses that can prove he was on the radio that day? Who oversaw the logs? Did he just sign in himself? It's disappointing to hear that this was never looked into.

As for Margaret's family, her parents have since passed away, but her younger brother who walked her to the bus on the day she disappeared is still alive. He said that over time, he lost hope that she would miraculously appear one day or call him. Police have told him that she's never used her social security number for anything, never opened a bank account or applied for a job, and it's not likely she just ran away. Margaret vanished without a trace that day, and now, what little remains of the case is locked in a file inside a police precinct, including the ad for the two little girls who just wanted a little bit of work that summer.

Our next story brings us up to the northern part of British Columbia in Canada, 15 years after Margaret's disappearance. The summer air had just cooled off from the sun going down as a man pushed through the door of a local dive bar. It was August 1, 1989, and the man's name was Ronnie Jack. He was a 26-year-old father of two who lived in the area. The bar was nestled in a bright purple strip mall containing a grocery mart and liquor store.

It was tacky and stood out in the Canadian suburbs that it sat in, but it was only four blocks from Ronnie's house, so it would do. This part of British Columbia was in between rural and suburban. Homes weren't packed in tightly together like they were in some suburbs. Even the duplex that the Jacks lived in. A majority of the people here worked laborious jobs in forestry and oil refining. The area was also home to

various First Nation people, which Ronnie and his family were a part of. Ronnie had a few reasons that he may have wanted to drink that night. Things had not been going too well in his life. He had two young sons, a nine-year-old and a four-year-old that he and his wife were having trouble caring for. Currently, the family was on welfare, and it was hard to feed two growing boys on what they were given.

Ronnie wasn't working at the time, but he liked to work, and he was looking for a job. He had recently worked at a sawmill, but it hurt his back, and that was making keeping a job hard. But he was determined to find something else that he was physically capable of doing to help his family. That night, as he sat under the dark bar under the neon signs, a stranger approached him. He was the opposite of Ronnie in every way. His red hair and pale skin contrasted Ronnie's black hair and tan skin. The stranger was big and burly like a lumberjack. He towered over Rani. But the two got to talking.

When all of a sudden the stranger said something that seemed to answer Rani's prayers, he said that he had a job for Rani if he wanted it. There were actually a couple of open jobs at the logging ranch he worked at about 40 kilometers away. There was probably something there for his wife as well. Ronnie looked embarrassed. I don't have a car, he said.

Oh, that's no problem. I can drive you all. Ronnie told him that he had two sons that would need to be watched, and the stranger told him that he was in luck. There was child care available at the work site. Who was this person sent to solve all of Ronnie's problems? An angel? When do you need us to start? Ronnie asked, and the stranger said

he could bring them over to the site now, actually, if they wanted to just go. The sun had set hours ago, and his children were asleep in their beds. But Ronnie and the stranger went to his home where he told his wife what was happening. They woke up the boys and they all started packing. Somewhere else in British Columbia,

a phone rang out in a pitch black house. An older woman got out of bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes. As she did, she caught a glimpse of her clock. 1.30 a.m. Hello? She asked. On the other end of the line was her son, Ronnie.

He told her about the job and the kind stranger who offered it to him. He let her know that they'd be back in around 10 days and he would call her then. And with that, the family grabbed their bags and jumped into the kind stranger's dark pickup truck out in their driveway. They peeled off into the night, bringing a new beginning for Ronnie call his mother. The stranger's pickup truck never arrived in the Jacks driveway to drop them off. Friends and family started to worry, but no one was able to get in touch with Ronnie or

his wife Doreen. And by August 25th, they were reported as missing people. As police start investigating this case, their hearts sink. Because to get to the site where the Jacks were told they would be working, they would have to travel on Highway 16, which at the time was referred to as the Highway of Tears. The Highway of Tears refers to a 719 kilometer portion of Highway 16 that stretches from Prince George, where the Jacks were, all the way west to the ocean. A disproportionate amount of indigenous people, mostly women, have been murdered along this road,

starting in 1970 and continuing to today. Bad actors, including three serial killers, have seemed to have been drawn to the area because of the soft soil along the road which makes it easy to bury bodies, and the surrounding forest is home to carnivorous animals that would eat discarded human remains. Just three months after the Jack family disappeared, an 18-year-old girl named Marnie Blanchard would be abducted from outside a cabaret club in Prince George, the same area as the Jacks, and murdered by a serial killer named Brian Peter Arp. But many of these cases were ending inconclusively with not many police resources being allocated. Media

outlets hardly covered these disappearances at all and many of them remain unsolved even today. The Jacks were not an exception to this. Though the police got involved immediately, there were no leads found. All they had was a description of the stranger given by witnesses and so an eerie sketch of a man was drawn and distributed. He was 35-40 years old with reddish brown hair that went down past his ears and a beard. He was described as being 6 foot to 6'6 and between 200 and 275 pounds wearing a baseball cap, a red checkered work shirt, faded blue jeans, a waist-length blue nylon jacket, and work boots with leather fringes over the toes.

No leads came in from this very descriptive picture though. Police did ground and area searches and even asked around at different logging camps to see if they were hiring. But none of them were. So they put the case down and for the next seven years they didn't touch it. But then something happened that made them pick it back up. One early morning in January of 1996, a man called the police in Vanderhoef, near where the Jacks job was supposed to be, and he spoke to them for 10 seconds before hanging up. All he got out was, quote, the Jack family are buried in the south end of ranch. It was unclear exactly what ranch he was referring to, that part is garbled in the recording,

but was this the man who did it? Did he feel guilty and call the police? How did he know where the Jacks were buried? Soon, the newspapers were running articles from investigators begging the caller to call back. They even threatened to release the phone call publicly if the caller didn't call back, but he never did. Two months later, the audio was sent to the University

of British Columbia for analysis, while the police traced the call back to a house in Stony Creek. It was later discovered that there was a house party taking place at the time of the call. I mean, the call was placed at 8.30 in the morning, so I guess the party had gone on long enough into the next day, though that seems a little strange.

Was this some sick party dare? It's unclear if this caller was ever identified. Police did start searching ranches in the area using ground penetrating radar, and most recently a ranch on the Sycoos's First Nation Reserve was searched, but nothing was found to indicate the Jacks were there. And so, to the people of Prince George, the Jacks vanished into thin air. No trace of them has ever been recovered. It's particularly upsetting because, again, like in Margaret's case, there were so many identifying characteristics

of the last person they were seen with. I refuse to believe that there were so many 6'6 redheaded men in Prince George that they couldn't identify this man. They had the description of his car as well. There is the chance that, sure, the job was maybe real and the family was perhaps in a car wreck. Maybe their car plummeted into a body of water on the drive there. But for none of the sites in the area to have been hiring at the time is really suspicious. And I keep going back to the Highway of Tears. Dozens of people who looked just like the Jacks have disappeared without a trace on that road.

A few have been found, but usually it's just their remains. If you have any information about the Jacks, Crime Stoppers is still collecting information on the family's whereabouts. They haven't given up yet. I'll also put information on how to get in touch with the people looking into both Margaret and the Jacks' cases in the episode description. If you're a Patreon High Council member, I'll be going through more research and photos and videos from the case in this week's episode of Footnotes. That will come out tomorrow. But that's all I have for this

week. Next week is the last episode in our Dark Summer series and we're going out in style with one of my favorite types of episodes, Summer Urban Legends. So make sure to meet me back here for that episode. Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kaelyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Additional research by Marissa Dao. Sound Design and produced by me, Kailyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Additional research by Marissa Dow. Sound design and mix by Preet Sri Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grace and Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding tale or a case request? Check out heartstartspounding.com.

Until next time, stay curious.