Murder of Marcia King

In February 2020, the Miami County Sheriff's Office announced they had been able to further reconstruct King's whereabouts, and relationships, in the two weeks prior to her murder, adding that as advances in technology now mean nuclear DNA samples can be retrieved from hair samples missing the actual root, they remained confident hair samples discovered at the crime scene and submitted to a renowned Californian paleogeneticist could yield a nuclear DNA profile of either her murderer, or an individual she had been in the company of very shortly before her death. Addressing these latest developments, Miami County Sheriff Dave Duchalk stated: "We always have hopes to bring justice for homicide victims and their families. We never have, nor will we ever forget, and will continually work the case and, as new technologies are developed, will review our evidence to learn if it is worth re-submitting."

Prior to her 2018 identification, King was informally known as "Buckskin Girl" and "Miami County Jane Doe". The first of these two names is in reference to the distinctive tasseled buckskin poncho she was wearing at the time of her discovery.

On April 9, 2018, the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory announced they had identified the decedent as 21-year-old Marcia Lenore King of Little Rock, Arkansas. Her identification had been achieved via DNA analysis conducted by the DNA Doe Project, with assistance from the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory and Full Genomes Corporation. This organization had been contacted by Dr Murray in 2017, and was able to successfully match a sample of King's DNA to a sample submitted for comparison by a first cousin. Her family declined to release a press statement, requesting that their confidentiality be respected.

In July 2018, the Miami County Sheriff's Office announced they had received further information regarding King's actual whereabouts shortly prior to her death. This information included eyewitness accounts placing her in Louisville, Kentucky, approximately 14 days before her death. Six eyewitnesses have also corroborated accounts of King also being in Arkansas shortly before her murder. It is believed the reason she had traveled to Ohio may have been due to her suspected involvement with the religious organization The Way.

On July 20, 2018, a memorial service for King was held at a chapel in Troy, Ohio. This service was officiated by the Reverend Gregory Simmons. Her new headstone was unveiled at this service. Marcia's father, John, had died on January 5, 2018. Her brother, Daniel King, and half-brother, Jonathan Sossoman, had also died by the time King's identity was discovered. Marcia's stepmother and eight other surviving family members replaced the headstone simply reading "Jane Doe" with a headstone bearing her actual name at this service, which was attended by over fifty local residents. Describing King's personality, her stepmother described her as a "very trusting" young woman, before informing all present: "Words don't describe the feelings we have for all of you, how you have loved her and taken her in your arms."

A 2016 isotope analysis of the decedent's hair and fingernails revealed Buckskin Girl had spent approximately four months in areas within the Southwestern and/or Southeastern United States, as opposed to Ohio, prior to her murder, although forensic palynology had revealed she had most likely originated from either the Northeastern United States or Canada, or had spent a significant amount of time in these regions in the year prior to her murder.

In April 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released two versions of an updated forensic facial reconstruction of the victim and added her case to their website, depicting her with and without her braided pigtails. These images were extensively distributed via online media, although initially, no significant leads developed.

In 2016, the Miami County Sheriff's Office approved forensic palynology testing upon the victim's clothing in their efforts to identify her and her murderer(s). This testing was conducted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. The results of this testing suggested Buckskin Girl had either originated within the Northeastern United States, or had spent a significant amount of time in this region in the year prior to her murder. Her clothing also contained high levels of soot from exposure to vehicular traffic and/or industrial activity, supporting investigators' initial suspicions she may have been a habitual hitchhiker. In addition, the pollen recovered from her external clothing suggested that, shortly before her murder, she had been in an arid climate such as the Western United States, or northern Mexico.

In 2001, the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory generated a DNA profile of Buckskin Girl, this data was entered into the newly established National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database in 2008, through which her fingerprints, dental and DNA information were made nationally accessible to law enforcement. This data was able to conclusively rule out any possibility of 226 missing teenage girls and young women as Buckskin Girl. In 2009, a mitochondrial DNA sample was submitted to the FBI for inclusion within the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

In 1991, a newly established task force convened in London, Ohio. This task force was dedicated to the investigation of these unsolved homicides, which had occurred in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois and composed of investigators from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies.

In 1985, investigators tentatively linked the murder of Buckskin Girl to a nationwide series of murders of caucasian women—several of whom were sex workers or erotic dancers—known as the Redhead Murders. However, this theory was eventually disproven.

Some investigators also speculated that Buckskin Girl may have been the first of numerous young women murdered by a suspected unidentified serial killer who perpetrated his known murders between 1985 and 2004—many of which were of known or suspected sex workers. This serial killer was suspected to have murdered between seven and ten other young women. All the victims of this suspected serial killer had been murdered via bludgeoning or strangulation, and items of clothing or jewelry were missing from each crime scene.

On April 24, 1981, three young men discovered the body of a young Caucasian woman in a ditch alongside Greenlee Road in Newton Township, Troy, Ohio. One of the three men, Greg Bridenbaugh, initially noticed the decedent's distinctive buckskin poncho. Informing one of his companions, Neal Hoffman, to take a look at the coat, Hoffman walked closer to the article of clothing before turning toward Bridenbaugh, stating: "Oh my God, there's a woman in that coat!" The young woman was lying in a fetal position, on her right side, and without shoes or socks. The men immediately reported their discovery to the police.

Because the decedent's body was found approximately 48 hours after her death, police were able to obtain her fingerprints and dental information. The dental charts and fingerprints of this decedent yielded no results matching her to any known missing person, and her fingerprints matched no police records, indicating she had no criminal record. Early police efforts to identify this decedent also involved the creation of a composite drawing of her face which was published in local newspapers and broadcast on television networks on April 28, 1981. This initial media publicity surrounding the murder generated approximately two hundred leads. Although all were investigated, all failed to bear fruit.

Initially, investigators speculated regarding a potential connection between this decedent and the murder of a 27-year-old woman two months earlier, in February 1981, although police never officially linked these two murders.

With advances in technology and the increasing use of DNA analysis in criminal investigations, investigators were able to extract the decedent's DNA from the blood sample preserved in 1981. This DNA sample was added to the growing number of law enforcement databases.

Authorities strongly believed Buckskin Girl had been murdered elsewhere and her body discarded beside the road shortly after her death. This conclusion was supported by the fact her bare feet were clean, showing no indication of her having walked upon a dirty surface, and because Interstate 75 is just five miles (8 km) from where her body was recovered, making the site a convenient and discreet location to discard a body. Police and the media later speculated that she may have been a teenage runaway or a possible victim of a serial killer known to have murdered several prostitutes in the region during the 1980s and 1990s. However, her body had not been subjected to any form of sexual assault, indicating she was unlikely to have been a sex worker.

King had last been seen by her family in 1980. She had never officially been reported as a missing person, although her family had continued to search for her. It is believed King had frequently hitchhiked as a means of transportation, as investigators had long theorized prior to her identification. She is also known to have had ties with both Pittsburgh and Louisville, Kentucky.

Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King) ((1959-06-09)June 9, 1959 – (1981-04-22)April 22, 1981) was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for 36 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.