A Mystery Deepens

Gormania is a tiny town in Grant County, West Virginia, high in the hills on the Maryland border, with a population of 124. Across the state line, a quarter of a mile away, is Gorman, Maryland. In February 1988 the two communities were at the centre of the disappearance of nineteen-year-old Catherine Denise Ford, known as Kathy. Kathy was the daughter of Richard C. Ford Jr., a Conrail freight yard worker, and Rosalie Ford. The family had moved from Wilmington, Delaware, in 1984 to buy the Old Mill Restaurant in Gorman. Her father kept his railway job during the week and commuted back at weekends to help run the restaurant. Kathy, one of four children and the twin sister of a brother, graduated from Southern High School in 1986 and worked as the cook. She was reliable, sensible and well liked, and had been dating Darwin Moon, a sawmill worker, for about three years. On the morning of February 17, 1988, Kathy took two telephone calls at the restaurant. The first caller said he was a magistrate at Mount Storm in Grant County and wanted her to meet him at his office at three o'clock about some cheques the restaurant had taken. A second caller said he was an undercover officer investigating a possible liquor-licensing inquiry into the family business. Kathy became agitated and told the staff to check identification for every beer sale. She told her mother, 'Mom, I have to go, I'll be back in an hour,' got into her silver Ford Bronco II and drove off. Witnesses saw her turn onto Bismarck Road in West Virginia and then she vanished in a cloud of dust. details of the account remain covered until revealed He had grown up locally, been a basketball player and Golden Gloves boxer at Southern High, served in the army as a military policeman, and helped his parents run a country store in Gormania. He lived in a rented trailer off Bismarck Road, close to the Stony River, and was dating Kathy Bernard, a local woman with two children. He also had an identical twin brother, David. Within days other women came forward. At least a dozen women aged nineteen to thirty-five had received similar calls from a man pretending to be a magistrate, a police officer, a doctor or a passing motorist, directing them to remote places in Maryland and West Virginia. Both Grant County magistrates were women, so the caller could not have been a real magistrate. Robin Titchnell refused to leave work; Rose Bosley, filling in at the Gormania post office, was warned that her mail carrier had broken down between Bismarck and Cherry Ridge Roads. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now When she could not reach enough people, he told her to keep volunteers away from Bismarck and Cherry Ridge Roads. details of the account remain covered until revealed She saw a man drive away in a light blue car, return half an hour later and leave again; on February 18 she saw the same man burning something behind the trailer. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now On March 2 the Fords received a letter postmarked Pittsburgh containing $200 in twenty-dollar bills. It said Kathy had left with a man because they had come into 'dangerous money', that the Bronco had to be got rid of, and that she would call when it was safe. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it On March 8 a party of neighbours, relatives and deputies, including Kathy's father, mother, brothers and Darwin Moon, searched near Mount Storm after reports of smoke or haze on the Stony River. They found the Bronco in remote woods near U.S. 50, a few feet from the river. It had been deliberately burned: the interior was gutted and the tyres had melted. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Beneath new carpet and fresh paint they found bloodstains on the floor, walls, mirrors and ceiling, and blood had dripped through the floorboards onto a joist. A cigarette butt of the brand Kathy smoked and a watch similar to hers were also found; the watch was near a small burn area behind the mobile home. Blood was found in the cargo area of his sheriff's cruiser as well. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Investigators also discovered that over a period of years he had made 206 calls to bookstores and libraries across the country, posing as a doctor and asking female staff to read pages 177 and 178 of the 1984 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, which dealt with anal sex. He later called it 'a phone sex type thing'. In November 1988 the Ford family held a private memorial. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The prosecution had no body. this part of the story is covered for now The defence argued that the nod meant nothing. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Kathy Ford's body has never been found, and the town remains divided over his guilt.