On June 25, 1983, members of an informal club with an interest in ham radio, along with their families, were enjoying an afternoon picnic in a remote wooded area of the Helena National Forest in the Elkhorn Mountains, a part of the Rocky Mountains, near Clancy, in southwestern Montana, approximately fifteen miles south of the city of Helena. Among those at the gathering were Kim and Nancy Marshall and their three children of nearby Alhambra.
Less than one-hundred yards from where the group was congregated, several children, including the Marshall’s four-year-old daughter, Nyleen, were playing along the banks of the shallow Maupin Creek. After getting into a squabble with two other kids, Nyleen left the group to play on her own.
Several children saw a man wearing either a blue or purple jogging suit speaking to Nyleen at approximately 4:00. One boy heard the man, who had earlier asked two other children if they knew how to play “Follow the Shadow,” asking Nyleen if she knew how to play the game. The boy then saw Nyleen walking with the man close behind her until they went out of his view.
Nyleen has not since been seen.
Nyleen Marshall
For ten days, police and nearly 2,800 volunteers combed the vast rugged terrain. Search dogs were brought in, mines were examined and ponds drained, but all these measures produced no trace of the missing girl.
Mother Nature also hindered efforts as a rain storm washed away potential clues.
Searching For Nyleen
No significant leads surfaced in Nyleen’s disappearance until November 27, 1985, two-and-a-half years later, when the year-old Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received an anonymous phone call from a man who claimed he had Nyleen Marshall.
Two months later, Child Find of America, a missing children’s organization in New York, received a typewritten letter believed to be from the same man. Authorities saythe letter included details about Nyleen’s disappearance which had not been released to the public. In both the phone call and letter, the man said he loved her, was raising her, and had no intention of returning her.
Nyleen Marshall’s middle name is Kay. One excerpt from the letter read in part “I picked “Kay” up on the road in the Elkhorn Park area between Helena and Boulder [the park is roughly halfway between the two cities]. She was crying and frightened and as I held her she was shaking and I decided that I would keep her and love her. I took her home with me. . . Her hair is short and curly now and she has really grown. She is about 45 inches and around 50 pounds. She has all four of her permanent upper and two of her lower incisors at this time. She takes a bath and brushes her teeth every day . . . She eats well. Her favorite meal is pizza and Cherry.”
The man said he lived off investment incomes, worked from home, and home-schooled the girl. He also mentioned they frequently traveled, writing, “I teach her at home and she likes to go with me when I travel . . . she would gladly recount to you trips to San Francisco, New York, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago, Puerto Rico or Canada . . . we were even in Britain for a month last year and she loved it.” The reported sightings of Nyleen from across America would be consistent with her abductor’s traveling.
The man said he was taking good care of the child, but he made references to things he was having her do which would constitute sexual abuse. The first paragraph below is an example.
Letter Sent To The
National Center For Missing And Exploited Children
Over the following six months Child Find of America received another two phone calls and two more letters from the man. The last phone call was made on May 9, 1986, from a phone both; in the last letter, mailed in June, the man said his parents and younger sister had been killed in a car accident when his sister was nine-years-old.
All the letters were postmarked from the Madison, Wisconsin, area and the FBI determined all of the phone calls were made from phone booths in the city surrounding communities. They traced one to a phone booth near a pharmacy in Edgerton, thirty miles southeast of Madison. FBI agents kept the phone booth and several others in the surrounding area under surveillance for several months, but the man did not use any of them and never called again.
The Edgerton, Wisconsin, Pharmacy From Where
One Of The Phone Calls Was Made
Several people reported seeing a girl they believed to be Nyleen in a Janesville, Wisconsin, restaurant, ten miles south of Edgerton, in 1986, but those sightings could not be confirmed.
Unconfirmed Sightings Of Nyleen In Wisconsin
In June 1990, Nyleen’s uncle viewed the composite sketches of a man and a woman wanted for child abduction in the eastern United States. The uncle, who had been part of the search team after Nyleen disappeared, believes he saw the same man and woman on the first day of the search for his niece, seven years earlier.
Police say it is not unusual for a perpetrator to remain at the crime scene, get lost in a crowd, and see what develops. This couple has never been identified.
Suspects In Another Abduction
Were They Part Of The Search Party For Nyleen?
Five months later, in November, Nyleen’s case was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries. Following the broadcast, police in Port Roberts, Washington, twenty miles from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, received reports saying an area girl resembled an age-enhanced image of Nyleen. The girl was living with her single father under the name Mary Anne Kelly. School records showed she was twelve-years-old, consistent with Nyleen’s age.
A Computer-Aged Image of Nyleen
Leads to Reports Of Her Being Seen
The girl was a kidnapped victim, but she was not Nyleen Marshall. She was instead Monica Bonilla, missing from Burbank, California.
Guillermo Bonilla had absconded with his then four-year-old daughter in 1982 while he and Monica’s mother Rosemary were in divorce proceedings.
The Girl Is Not Nyleen
But Is Another Kidnapped Child
Because of a case of mistaken identity, Christmas 1990 was a most joyous occasion for Rosemary, as she and Monica were reunited after over eight years. Monica did not know that she had a half-brother, Dorian.
Dorian, Rosemary, And Monica Reunited
Ten months later, in August 1991, forty-two-year-old Richard Wilson, who was on probation for the 1984 sexual abuse of a minor, confessed to murdering Nyleen Marshall and a woman from Great Falls, Montana, whose name he said he did not know. He directed investigators to where he said he had buried the Great Falls woman, but they found no trace of any remains. He also claimed he had buried Nyleen in the Elkhorn Mountains, but when he took them to where he said her remains were, investigators again found nothing.
Wilson had a history of mental illness and later recanted his “confessions.” Investigators concluded he had no involvement in Nyleen’s disappearance and do not believe he killed anyone from Great Falls.
I could not find a photo of Richard Wilson.
Confession Dismissed
In 1998, seven years after the false confession and fifteen years after Nyleen Marshall disappeared, a nurse in New Orleans learned of the case and contacted police about an odd incident which had occurred two years earlier. A man and a woman had come to the hospital to admit the woman for childbirth. When the hospital inquired about their medical history and background, the couple became nervous and promptly left the facility.
The woman was located and determined to be nineteen-years-old, which would have been Nyleen Marshall’s age at the time. She said her name was Helena, also the name of Montana’s capital which was near where Nyleen had lived and vanished. The woman was found to be living in Oklahoma City, one of the cities the man claiming to be Nyleen’s abductor said they had visited.
The woman said she was orphaned while young. Though she remembered little from her childhood, she believed her mother may have called her Nyleen.
“Helena” agreed to have blood drawn and compared to Nyleen’s biological father. The tests determined she was not Nyleen Marshall.
Again, Not Nyleen
On July 21, 1999, the body of an unidentified woman was discovered in southeastern Wisconsin near the town of Raymond in Racine County. The woman, thought to have been murdered and dumped there either that day or the day before, was believed to have been between eighteen and thirty-five-years-old.
The Racine County Jane Doe, AKA Crystal Rae, appeared to have been tortured for a good portion of her life. An autopsy showed she succumbed from multiple injuries, including burns and beatings, and had endured weeks of neglect and abuse, which had increased in the days before her death. She had visible bruises and cuts across her body, a fractured nose, and a “cauliflower ear” deformity, likely the result of years of abuse. She was malnourished, several of her teeth were missing or decayed, and her front incisors protruded. A check with the records of area doctors and dentists failed to produce her identity.
The Jane Doe’s remains were exhumed in 2013 for further study. In 2016 it was announced that chemical isotope testing on samples of her hair and bone suggested she may originally have been from or had spent several years of her early life in portions of southern Canada, Alaska, or the northwestern United States, including Montana.
The letters and phone calls from the man claiming to have abducted Nyleen Marshall were received from Wisconsin in the 1980s. This other possible Montana-Wisconsin connection fueled speculation that the Racine County Jane Doe could be Nyleen.
In addition, Nyleen would have been twenty-years-old in 1999, within the age range of the Jane Doe and the letters from her alleged abductor indicating he was sexually abusing her as far back as the mid-1980s were consistent with the autopsy findings.
The Racine County Jane Doe
Skeptics noted the Racine County Jane Doe had hazel-brown eyes while Nyleen Marshall had blue eyes. Proponents countered that the unknown woman’s eye color may not have been accurately determined because of the condition of her body and that the eye color of young children sometimes changes as they get older. This change, however, usually occurs before the age of three; Nyleen was four when she disappeared.
Below is a rendering of the Racine County Jane Doe at an earlier age to a photograph of Nyleen. Experts say they have similar facial features.
A Resemblance Between
The Racine County Jane Doe And Nyleen Marshall
The images of the Racine County Jane Doe and of Nyleen Marshall were superimposed over one another. In the first image, the nose and the shape of Jane Doe are lined up to Nyleen’s image. In the second (middle) image, the eyes are lined up, showing the lengthening and growth of the nose and mouth with age. The superimposed images showed a resemblance.
Like the Oklahoma City woman, the possibility of the Racine County Jane Doe being Nyleen Marshall seemed promising.
Photoshopped Images Show A Further Resemblance
In November 2019, however, Crystal Rae, AKA the Racine County Jane Doe, was positively identified as Peggy Johnson.
Here is the link to the write-up I did on the Racine County Jane Doe.
Peggy Johnson
Is The Racine County Jane Doe
In 2018, the Find Nyleen Marshall Facebook page reported businesses in Indianford, Janesville, and Edgerton, all towns in southern Wisconsin within twelve miles of one another, received hand written letters similar to this one, postmarked from Cincinnati, Ohio, without a return address. The letters all had computer-aged images of Nyleen. The age-enhanced image of her on this is card shows her at approximately age thirty-three.
The letters being received in the latter two towns are of particular note because of their previous connections to the Nyleen Marshall case. Edgerton is the town from which the man claiming to be Nyleen’s abductor had made a phone call, and several alleged sightings of Nyleen were reported in Janesville.
It is not known who mailed the letters.
Postcards Mailed
Over forty years after vanishing during a picnic in the Montana mountains, Nyleen Marshall remains missing. If she perished in the terrain full of dense forests nestled between mine shafts and rocky cliffs, the likelihood of finding her remains after so long a time is remote.
Clad only in shorts and a T-shirt, Nyleen could have succumbed to the elements if she wandered away from her group and became lost in the mountains, but because she was barefoot when last seen, she probably could not have gone far. Searchers believe they would have found her if she had strayed away or if she was attacked by an animal.
Some, however, believe Nyleen could have perished in the terrain because lost and frightened children often curl up and hide without answering people’s calls, and because the underbrush in the area was so thick that the searchers could have walked past her without seeing her.
Most involved in the investigation, however, believe Nyleen Marshall was kidnapped, and that foul play is involved. Others, however, emphasize that, at four-years-old, she may have no memory of being Nyleen and could have been raised believing her abductor was her natural parent.
What Happened To Nyleen?
Nyleen Kay Marshall has been missing since June 25, 1983. At the time of her disappearance she was four-years-old, three-feet-two-inches tall, and weighed approximately thirty pounds. She had blue eyes, brown hair, and a chipped upper left baby tooth. She also had a small mole above her left eyebrow and noticeable hair on her lower back.
Nyleen Marshall would today be forty-five-years-old. If you have any information about her disappearance, please contact the Jefferson County Montana Sheriff’s Office at 406-225-4075.
Computer-Aged Image Of Nyleen Marshall
At the time Nyleen vanished, Nancy and Kim Marshall had recently wed. Kim legally adopted Nyleen, her six-year-old brother, Nathan, and two-year-old sister, Noreen.
Nancy was divorced from the children’s father, Bill Briscoe. I found nothing suggesting that he has ever been a suspect in her disappearance.
Nathan, Nyleen, And Noreen
Some reports on Internet thread’s about Nyleen’s case state her stepfather Kim was, at one time, suspected of having involvement in her disappearance. These claims say he was involved in shady activities, the nature of which were unspecified but seemed to suggest drugs, and that a since burned-down wooden cabin near where Nyleen was last seen was later discovered to be used for drug-smuggling.
None of the mainstream articles I found on Nyleen’s disappearance, both currently and from Newspapers.com however, make any mention of Kim ever being suspected of having involvement or of being involved with drugs or any other nefarious activities.
Kim Marshall
Nyleen’s Stepfather
Kim and Nancy Marshall moved to Japan several years after Nyleen’s disappearance. After Kim accepted a job transfer to Mexico in 1995, Nancy traveled there to search for a place to live. She was found dead in her hotel room on July 24.
Kim says the private investigators he hired determined the door to Nancy’s room at Mexico City’s upscale Radison Paraiso Hotel was kicked down. In the bathroom, Nancy was found hanging from a shower rod with her hands bound behind her back. An autopsy found she had been bruised and beaten. Her money and several valuables stored in the hotel safe had not been taken, but her watch, wedding ring, and a bottle of perfume were missing.
Despite the private investigators’ finding overwhelming evidence indicating murder, Mexican authorities ruled Nancy Marshall’s death a suicide and would not allow United States officials to investigate. The ruling was later changed to “undetermined/under investigation.”
Kim Marshall dropped his effort to have Nancy’s death further investigated so that her remains could be returned to him for burial. She was laid to rest in Texas.
Nancy’s death is not believed to be related to Nyleen’s disappearance.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64824182/nancy_fay-marshall
Nancy Marshall
Nyleen’s Mother
SOURCES:
- Billings Gazette
- Charley Project
- Doe Network
- Kalispell Daily
- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
- Unsolved Mysteries
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