Marcia Sossaman King:1981, Troy, Ohio

 

  On April 24th, 1981 a young man, Greg Bridenbaugh, was moving house. He had two friends who were helping him move. Many of us remember moving a few times in our twenties to different apartments or rental houses. If you can rope in a few friends to help then you certainly feel pretty lucky.

  On one of the trips he noticed an interesting buckskin jacket in the ditch off Greenlee Road. He didn’t initially go closer to look at it. They had more loads to move into his new place. Later, after another load of belongings had been moved in, Greg went to take a look at the jacket. He discovered that it wasn’t just a discarded buckskin jacket. A young woman, wearing that distinctive pullover buckskin jacket, was curled up in a fetal position. He determined that she was deceased.

   Greg Bidenbaugh needed to call the police but didn’t have a phone installed yet in his new place.  He was a fire fighter and used his radio to call in the discovery. 

   First responders arrived quickly. “Buckskin Jane Doe” was officially pronounced deceased. 

   The young woman with braided red-brown hair had been strangled and beaten. An autopsy would determine that she also had a lacerated liver. Was that from the beating? Was she thrown from a car or a truck? She was found not too far from Interstate 75 and State Road 55. Had she been traveling with her killer? What was she strangled with? 

  She was nicknamed for the unusual and probably handmade buckskin pullover poncho she wore. It had fringe details and it laced up at the front. The buckskin poncho had a deep purple lining. She was also wearing bell bottom jeans and a brown turtleneck sweater. She went unidentified for 37 years. 

   Recently, Buckskin Jane Doe was finally identified as Marcia L. Sossaman King of Arkansas. She was born on June 9th, 1959. 

  Her parents were Bonnie Jean Bryant Sossaman and John Wesley “Jack” Sossaman. Her parents divorced and her mother married George James King in 1960. Marcia and her brother took on the King last name then.  They grew up in Arkansas, in the North Little Rock area. 

   The details surrounding her murder in Ohio are still unknown. Was she just traveling through? Was she hitchhiking? Was she traveling with someone she knew? It was estimated that she disappeared from Arkansas in 1980. Where was she in the months between her disappearance and her death? 

  What evidence was preserved in her case? Could she be a victim of Ralph Richard Howell? He was a serial killer in Ohio who was never identified or captured before his death in a car accident in 1985. He delivered newspapers in bulk to newsstands and shopping centers all over Ohio. He typically strangled his victims with cord or rope that was used to bind the bundles of newspapers. His victims appeared in those same papers year after year as he continued to kill young women in Ohio and Northern Kentucky. One victim got away, and told the police. Howell was questioned and charged but did not face serious time in jail. He continued his crimes. In 2018, DNA connected him to the murder of Cheryl Thompson. 

   Marcia Sossaman King had red hair.  Is her murder related to the Red Headed Murders? Jerry Leon Johns of Cleveland, Tennessee was matched through DNA as the murderer of Tina Marie McKenney Farmer. Tina went missing from Indiana in 1985. Jerry Leon Johns died in prison in 2015. 

  

   Who killed Marcia Sossaman King? We still don’t know. Where was she going? Who had she been with? 

   In January of 2018, Marcia’s biological father, John W. Sossaman, passed away before her remains were identified. He never knew where his daughter had ended up. Maybe he held out hope that she was still alive somewhere. 

   Greg Bridenbaugh, who had discovered Marcia in the ditch back in 1981, was there when investigators announced that they had found the identity of “Buckskin Doe”.  He had served as a firefighter for decades and he never forgot that young victim in the buckskin poncho. 

   Marcia Lenore Sossaman King is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.  She has been there all these years but finally has her name back at least. 

   Her killer may be Jerry Leon Johns. He grew up in Michigan and is buried in Flat Rock. He was a trucker and in Knoxville, TN, in 1985 attempted to strangle a woman with torn strips of her own shirt. Linda Schacke pretended to be dead and nearly did die. She lived to put Jerry Leon Johns in prison. He was questioned about many other murders. He died in 2015 in prison. In 2019, he was connected by DNA to the murder of Tina Marie McKenney Farmer. He took Tina Marie McKenney Farmer from Indianapolis and strangled and dumped her body off I-75 near Jellico, TN. 

   I think he also killed Jane Louise Allan and Tracy Sue Walker as well. Tracy was found incredibly close to Tina Farmer although they were murdered about 6 years apart. 

   Rest in peace Marcia. 

If you have information about Marcia Sossaman King please submit a tip to: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Doe-24