MIAMI COUNTY, Ohio – It’s been one year since authorities in Ohio identified the murder victim in a 37-year cold case as Marcia King, a resident of North Little Rock.
King had also been called ‘The Buckskin Girl’ due to the unmistakable jacket she was wearing when her body was found along a rural Ohio highway in 1981.
“This case has really just been about technology; it’s been a complete mystery,” Chief Deputy Steve Lord of the Miami (OH) County Sheriff’s Office said by phone on Wednesday.
Authorities announced King’s identity in April 2018, following confirmation through extensive research and forensic evidence.
Since then, investigators have been able to build a timeline that put King in the Little Rock area about two weeks before her death.
Lord says detectives have spoken to at least six people in Arkansas in connection to the case.
“We’ve had a lot of success of getting people identified and getting information.”
According to the timeline that investigators have established so far, it’s believed King boarded a bus in the Little Rock area on April 6, 1981, traveling to Louisville, Kentucky.
Detectives say they have evidence that puts her in Louisville on April 10.
They believe she was killed on April 22 and officers found her body on April 24.
“Primarily, her mode of transportation was hitchhiking,” Lord says.
“Trying to track her and keep an accurate timeline has been challenging.”
Lord also revealed that it’s believed King was heavily involved with a religious organization called The Way International Ministries, which is headquartered in Ohio.
A 1995 news article by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette featured a Little Rock-based chapter of The Way and highlighted a woman who compared The Way to a cult.
Lord says The Way has been cooperative in King’s murder investigation.
