feb 13, 1978 - Essie Margarette Hiett DISAPPEARANCE

Description:

Essie Hiette, 47, who may use the nicknames Marge or Steele, is officially missing from downtown Oroville, Butte County, CA. She was last seen very early in the morning of Monday, February 13, 1978. At about 1am she left the Card Room at 1949 Montgomery St in Oroville, where she worked as a card dealer. She then went to Rusty Jack's, a bar on Oro Dam Blvd. While there she told friends about how she planned to catch a flight to Seattle that morning, as she and her husband had planned a vacation to visit their children. A friend of hers told LE that Essie had only had one or two drinks before she left Rusty Jack's at about 1:50am. She has never been seen or heard from again.

At about 3:30am, 1hr 40min later, a female nurse discovered what was later determined to be Essie's car on the side of Palermo-Honcut Rd, just north of the Honcut city limits, crashed into a guard rail. Soon after, the nurse reportedly was almost run off the road about a mile north of the accident scene by a northbound vehicle. Authorities later located the vehicle's driver and passengers and interviewed them; according to their testimony, they had "taken back road to Oroville in order to avoid a drunken driving arrest." They reportedly did not see Essie's car. Authorities determined that the vehicle and its occupants were not involved in Essie's crash or disappearance.

Authorities determined that Essie crashed her car — a 1975 brown-over-tan Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo — as she was apparently headed south toward her home in Honcut. "The car was then driven 165 ft down the road to a point behind a second guard rail," then was "backed off the side of the road into the mud." It had rained all that night.

Essie's home on Ahart Rd was within view of, and/or about a half mile from, the accident scene, and there were other residences in the area. Authorities stated that, "We assume that she got stuck in the mud when she attempted to turn her car around. Why she was trying to turn around is anyone's guess. I also understand she was very close to an intersection where she could have turned easily."

Essie's white pants were found under the left front wheel of her car. There were two drops of blood on the knee area of one of the pant legs. LE believed the placement of her pants were a possible attempt to gain traction of her front-wheel-drive vehicle; however, why she chose to use her pants inside of, for example, her jacket, is unknown.

The jacket was found inside the car, soaking wet. One of Essie's shoes was also inside the car, while the other was floating in a nearby pond. Her purse and car keys were not at the scene and were never recovered. Her purse reportedly contained $20 to $30, credit cards, and papers; it was determined that the credit cards were never used after her disappearance.

An intensive search immediately began, including a CHP helicopter, divers, and Search&Rescue units. It was reported that on the first day of her disappearance, the units spent six hours "searching fields and orchards and dragging or probing ponds to locate her." However, they found no clues.

There was no evidence that Essie was forced off of the road. While it was initially reported that there was no evidence of the presence of a second person at the scene, a later newspaper mentioned a fingerprint being lifted from her car. Authorities believe that Essie was kidnapped and met with foul play.

A few weeks after Essie's disappearance, authorities received a tip through the Secret Witness program regarding checking the "alligator ponds" 3-4mi from the accident scene at the east end of Cox Lane. Divers searched the area on February 19, 1978, but found nothing. The information from the tip was not substantial, and authorities believed that it was probably just the caller's speculation.

Essie is a white female with green eyes and short brown hair that was beginning to gray. At the time of her disappearance she was 47 years old, 5'5, and 130 lbs. She had pierced ears and wears glasses with "photo grey lenses." She wears full dentures, has small surgical scars on her legs from vericose vein removal, and has a half moon-shaped scar on her right temple in the hairline area. Her date of birth is November 18, 1930; if alive today, she would be 94 years old.

When she was last seen, Essie was wearing her glasses; white shoes that were found at the scene; a tan Naugahyde jacket also found at the scene; a green blouse with a full-face picture of a female imprinted on the front; pantyhose; and white pants found at the scene. She was also wearing sterling silver earrings; a Timex watch with a blue face and a white metal extension band; and a white gold wedding ring set, which included an engagement ring with five embedded stones and a wedding band with six embedded stones; the total weight of the set is one karat.

Essie is classified as Endangered Missing on the Charley Project and Doe Network. Foul play has been suspected in her disappearance from the onset of the investigation.

Gerald and Charlene Gallego, a serial killer couple, were briefly suspected in Essie's case when their crimes came to light; however, they were ruled out when their fingerprints didn't match the one found on Essie's car.

In 2015, authorities announced that a man named Marvin Gail Owens was a possible suspect in Essie's case, as that year Owens was charged with the murder of his wife Deborah, who disappeared in November 1978 and was never located. Deborah and Essie disappeared in the same year and had mutual friends, leading LE to think Marvin could have been involved in Essie's case. However, he was eventually ruled out as a suspect.

According to the Charley Project, investigators do have another person of interest in Essie's disappearance, though further details are not publicly available.

While not listed among the original/most "official" list of victims that fit the Bad Samaritan's MO, I personally find it to match, so, despite having first found out about this disappearance by going through a Database, I have tagged this as a Bad Samaritan case.

Essie's NamUs case was created on February 16, 2013 and last updated on October 25, 2021. Her Doe Network profile, which was added prior to 2011, was last updated May 18, 2022, while her Charley Project page was last updated January 8, 2016.

Essie's dental records are not available — she wore full dentures — but her fingerprints and DNA are. She has two UID exclusions, both of which were found in Virginia in the 1980s. Anyone with information regarding Essie's disappearance is urged to contact the Butte County Sheriff's Department at (530) 538-7434. The agency case number is 78-11872.

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WRITE-UP COMPLETION DATE: April 2025

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