For eighteen months in 1860-61, St. Joseph, Missouri, fifty miles north of Kansas City, served as the starting point of the Pony Express, the delivery service using relays of horse riders to transport letters and newspapers over 1,600 miles to the western United States.

In 1986, during the Pony Express Quasquicentennial, the first in a series of strange letters surfaced around St. Joseph, none of which had to do with the famed mail service. All were unsigned; some were mailed while others were found in public venues.

The writer in all the letters claimed to have witnessed a sinister occurrence: the murder of a local woman, nineteen-year-old Micki Jo West, who had disappeared on September 11, 1979, exactly seven years before the first letter was found.

Micki West

Micki West worked as a nurse’s aide at the St. Joseph State Hospital. She grew up in Atchison, Kansas, twenty-five miles to the southwest, and had recently returned to the Midwest with her husband Calvin after a short-lived Pony Express-like migration to California. Shortly after coming home, they separated, and Micki moved in with her mother, Burnita, and stepfather, Robert Wolfing, in St. Joseph.

Micki West Returns To The Midwest

Micki and Calvin’s nineteen-year-old sister Ruth West were the best of friends. Ruth and her thirty-year-old boyfriend, Marvin Irvin, had followed Micki and Calvin on their brief westward excursion and had married in Ventura, eighty miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Micki remained closed to Ruth even after separating from Calvin.

Micki And Ruth

Marvin Irvin had been a St. Joseph policeman in 1970 before being fired for drug use after only six months. The St. Joseph native was soon frequently on the other side of the law.

On April 17, 1971, Irvin was fined $50 after pulling a gun on a bar patron in Hiawatha, Kansas. In 1973, he was convicted of assault; in April of the following year, he was in potentially deeper hot water after being accused of abducting a fifteen-year-old girl from St. Joseph’s Skaggs Drug Store and raping her across the Kansas state line. The charges, however, were dropped after the girl opted not to testify against him.

Marvin Irvin

1966 Photo

Soon thereafter, Irvin became involved with and impregnated Ruth. Court records show that at the time, he had been married at least three times, had fathered at least three children out of wedlock, and been sued twice for child support.

In August 1979, shortly after returning from California to St. Joseph and only a few months after marrying Irvin, Ruth, having endured multiple instances of emotional abuse and an alleged instance of physical abuse, began divorce proceedings. After an angered Irvin threatened to kidnap their four-year-old son, they secretly took residence in Elwood Kansas’ Pony Express Motel, five miles southwest of St. Joseph.

Irvin Enraged . . .

Knowing she had encouraged Ruth to leave him, much of Irvin’s ire was toward Micki. His anger escalated after she repeatedly refused to tell him where Ruth was. Micki told Ruth she had received several threatening phone calls which they suspected had been made by Irvin.

. . . Particularly At Micki . . .  

Micki, scheduled to work on the morning of September 11, 1979, was seen in her nurse’s uniform at approximately 6:00 a.m. walking the four blocks from her mom’s home to the bus stop, but she did not arrive for work.

. . . Who Soon Disappears

That afternoon, Irvin and two friends broke down the Pony Express Motel door and forcibly took them to Irvin’s home where they were confined for several hours before Ruth, carrying her son, climbed out a window while the men had let their guard down. She filed a kidnapping complaint against Irvin, unaware of Micki’s disappearance earlier that morning.

Ruth had told her mother and sister of where she had taken shelter. They, along with the couple who had aided her relocation, insisted they had not told Irvin of her whereabouts.

Ruth Escapes

The only other person Ruth had told was the missing Micki. Her family and friends believe she was physically forced by Irvin to reveal where Ruth was hiding and suspected he was responsible for Micki’s disappearance.

Did Irvin Accost Micki?

Irvin denied involvement, saying he and a friend were driving around town in the early morning hours of September 11 when Micki was last seen. His friend initially corroborated the claim, but he recanted when questioned again several days later.

Irvin agreed to take two polygraph tests in relation to Micki’s disappearance; he passed one while the results of the other were inconclusive.

Irvin Is Suspected By Micki’s Family

Irvin’s accomplices admitted helping him break into Ruth’s motel room and taking her to Irvin’s home, but they denied any involvement in Micki’s disappearance. I could not find what punishments were levied in relation to Ruth’s abduction, but Irvin was not put behind bars.

In October 1979, one month after Micki West had vanished, Ruth’s divorce from Marvin Irvin was finalized.

Ruth Divorces Irvin

On the afternoon of September 11, several hours after Micki was last seen, the St. Joseph Police Department received a letter mailed from Des Moines, Iowa, one-hundred-seventy-five miles to the northeast. The wording was composed using letters cut out from magazines, contained a Latin quotation, and made biblical references to Psalms 6 and 11:5 which tell of God hating those who love violence.

The odd letter was not believed related to Micki West’s disappearance until another similarly composed letter was soon received by a local newspaper. The writer claimed to have been paid $20 by Marvin Irvin to murder Micki, whose body had been placed in a well.  A third letter mailed to the paper named Irvin as the killer but provided no elaboration. All three notes were unsigned.

St. Joseph Gazette articles from September 1987 and September 1988, near the anniversary of Micki West’s disappearance, each say St. Joseph police were mailed two more similar letters, one in 1982 and the other in 1983.

Irvin Is Accused OF Murder By An Anonymous Writer

Marvin Irvin had emerged as the prime suspect in the disappearance of his former sister-in law, but police considered Micki’s former husband Calvin a suspect as well. Burnita told them her daughter and son-in-law fought frequently and that he had threatened to throw her down the stairs shortly before they separated.

Calvin, however, was confirmed at work when Micki was last seen and was cleared of involvement.

Micki’s Estranged Husband, Calvin, Was Cleared

In 1983, St. Joseph police received another anonymous letter. This one, typewritten and postmarked from Santa Ana, California, made no mention of Marvin Irvin.

The writer claimed that Micki West may be living in nearby Newport Beach under the name Deborah Kowal. Police were intrigued, not only because the letter came from California, where Micki had lived for several months shortly before her disappearance, but also because the writer said the woman was working in a local hospital, as Micki had.

The woman bore a resemblance to Micki, but she was confirmed not to be the missing Missourian.

Micki Had Not Returned To California

Nothing more of substance suggesting what happened to Micki West surfaced until the seven-year anniversary of her disappearance when the first of another series of letters was found in Overland Park, Kansas, part of suburban Kansas City, sixty miles south of St. Joseph.

On September 11, 1986, a delivery man found on the Oak Park Mall floor a white envelope containing an unsigned letter addressed to the St. Joseph Police Department. Written in blue ink on a green stenographer’s pad, the letter was devoid of punctuation and the penmanship was of misshapen letters scribed in a shaky, spidery manner, indicative of the writer trying to disguise his handwriting, possibly by using his opposite hand.

This letter’s contents returned the focus of the investigation into Micki West’s disappearance back to the prime suspect. It read “I need your help. I was with Marvin Irvin and he killed Micki Jo West and hid the body “. . . “I can kill myself now” . . .  “Please help.”

Part Of The First Letter

In an Oak Park Mall hallway three weeks later, on October 2, a security guard found a similar letter written on similar paper in a similar envelope. Its contents were also largely the same as the first letter, as the writer again claimed to have seen Micki being killed by Irvin.

This letter was not addressed to anyone specifically; it was delivered to the Overland Park Police Department and later sent to the St. Joseph Police Department.

The Second Letter

Seven weeks later, over the Thanksgiving weekend, three more similar notes surfaced in St. Joseph. The first two were found on the same day, one in a shopping mall and the second at a local truck stop. A janitor discovered the third note in the same shopping mall the following day. These letters were addressed to the St. Joseph Police.

The writer again fingered Marvin Irvin as Micki’s killer and expressed guilt and remorse in not preventing the act. Irvin, however, again passed a polygraph test in connection with her disappearance.

More Letters Mailed

Shortly over a year later, on January 13, 1988, another letter was found propped against a movie theater ticket booth at a Kansas City mall-theater. The writer again said he witnessed Micki’s murder but was not involved in the act; he added he had no interest in the reward offered.

Eight months later, a letter was mailed to Kansas City KCTV television station reporter Thurman Mitchell, whose first and last names were both misspelled.  Like the most recent string of letters, these were also unsigned and had been composed using a lettering stencil and a pencil.

The Writer Mails The Media

In the letter addressed to Mitchell, the writer said he would show him, and only him, where Micki’s remains were buried. The reporter’s on-air appeal asking the writer to contact him was unsuccessful.

Thurman Mitchell

KCTV Television Reporter

Three more stenciled letters were found with similar messages over the following three years. All were either mailed to or left at St. Joseph television station KQTV. In these letters, the writer claimed Micki West had been buried near two other bodies.

One of the Last Letters

The final note was signed “MIKMJW” likely meaning “Marvin Irvin Killed Micki Jo West.”

The FBI determined all the letters were written by the same person and were legitimate from the details the author provided, some of which had not been released to the public. They concluded the author had been close to Micki and was intimidated by Marvin Irvin.

Is The Killer’s Identity Written In Code?

A 1988 St. Joseph Gazette article says the writer states in all the letters that he would come forward if Micki’s father, Arden Locke, a reserve St. Joseph police officer, dropped his $10,000 reward for information leading to Micki’s whereabouts.

Authorities speculated the letters could have been written by Micki’s father in an effort to reignite publicity in her disappearance and because he had been publicly critical of their investigation, but nothing was found suggesting Arden had authored the letters.

Arden Locke

Micki’s Father

In 1988, Marvin Irvin moved to Iowa where he lived for the following two years in Ames in the central part of the state and in the small central to west-central towns of Jefferson, Boone, and Denison while working for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, as a laborer, and as a truck driver. He also was briefly married again and was soon in trouble again.

On March 30, Irvin fired several gunshots over the head of Janet Huegerich, a woman he was dating. A high speed chase across five counties ended with Irvin having his teeth broken with a nightstick as he resisted arrest. He pled guilty to two weapons charges and was given five years’ probation in August, but that did not stop him from again running afoul of the law.

In May 1989, Irvin beat up Janet at a convenience store near Des Moines. He was sentenced to a year in prison after violating his probation but was released from the Oakdale State Prison after serving less than six months.

Irvin then returned to St. Joseph around May 1990 where he married again; this bride had previously been named a witness in a paternity suit against him.

Within months, the prime suspect in the decade-old disappearance of Micki West became a suspect in the disappearances of two other St. Joseph women.

Unmarvelous Marvin

Thirty-one-year-old Patricia Rose was last seen leaving St. Joseph’s Brew’s Bluetown Tavern,  where she had gone for a quick break from her job as a meat-cutter at the local Montfort Pork, on September 17, 1990, while thirty-three-year-old Crystal Simmons disappeared on October 29 after she and a man were seen leaving another downtown bar, J&J’s Tavern.

Shortly thereafter, a Missouri Department of Corrections investigator informed St. Joseph police that an inmate at the state prison in Cameron had received a letter from Irvin’s sister, Mary, saying her brother had come home in blood-drenched clothes and with a woman’s wristwatch the evening Patricia disappeared. The letter was determined to have been written two days after Crystal’s disappearance.

Soon found in the Cameron inmates’ belongings was another letter from Mary Irvin in which she wrote her brother had come to her house asking for a shovel to cover a “mistake” that was in his truck’s trunk. This letter was dated a few days after Patricia Rose’s disappearance.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Irvin’s home after a J&J’s Tavern bartender, who initially appeared fearful of Irvin, ultimately identified him as the man seen leaving the bar with Crystal. Inside the home, police found a hammer, bloody cowboy boots, bloody underwear, and jewelry belonging to both women. The interior of Irvin’s pickup on the property was also covered in blood, confirmed by DNA testing as Patricia’s. Crystal’s blood was found in another car on the property.

Patricia Rose and Crystal Simmons

On November 11, 1990, hunters found Patricia Rose’s skeletal remains in a backyard cornfield near Marvin Irvin’s childhood home in rural Highland, Kansas, roughly thirty miles northwest of St. Joseph. Investigators unearthed Crystal Simmons’ remains approximately four-hundred yards away the following day. Autopsies showed that both women had died of blunt force trauma.

The hammer found in Irvin’s home was determined to have been the weapon used to kill both women.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118967317/patricia-diane-rose

The Women’s Bodies Are Found

Map From St. Joseph Gazette

Marvin Irvin was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. To avoid a possible death sentence, he pled guilty in October 1991. He received two life terms in prison.

One month later Irvin was charged with the kidnapping and murder of the still missing Micki West after a former girlfriend told police he had admitted to the crime and had threatened to do the same to her if she left him. Irvin’s former Iowa wife said he had also confessed the murder to her. Both women said he had told them, as Micki’s family and friends had suspected, that he had killed Micki in a fit of rage after she refused to tell him where Ruth was staying.

To avoid another possible death sentence, the former cop copped another plea, this time to second degree murder under the condition he tell the court how he had murdered Micki and where he had buried her body.

Irvin Pleads Guilty

Irvin said he drove by Micki as she was walking toward the bus stop to ride to work. They began arguing and she took a hammer out of her purse and threw it at him. Irvin said he then beat her with the hammer to the point of incapacitation and placed her in his car with the intention, he claimed, of taking her to the hospital for treatment. As he was doing so, however, he says he became enraged and grabbed a knife he had under his car seat and stabbed her four times after she made derogatory racial remarks, including calling his son a “black bastard.” He said he then took the bloodied Micki to the property formerly owned by his family and ordered her into the cornfield where he shot her twice in the head and killing her with a twelve-gauge shotgun he also had in his car.

Irvin Admits Murdering Micki . . .

Irvin’s former Iowa wife said another of his former girlfriends helped him dispose of Micki’s body. After she was given immunity from prosecution, the former girlfriend confirmed the claim, saying Irvin had come to her home admitting to the crime, and that she had seen Micki’s body in his truck’s backseat, covered with a blanket.

The former girlfriend said an enraged Irvin forced her to accompany him to his former family farm where he shot the already-dead Micki two more times before burying her.

Irwin himself said Micki was buried near where Patricia Rose’s body had been found, but a search of the whole area did not unearth additional remains. Investigators say he appeared insincere and was enjoying toying with them. They suspect he may have initially buried Micki in the field but later moved her remains to another unknown locale.

. . . But Her Body Is Not Found

Micki had told family and friends she was carrying a hammer for protection because she feared Irvin was following her. Investigators believe the hammer found in Irvin’s home which he used to murder Patricia Rose and Crystal Simmons was Micki’s hammer and was probably used to murder her as well.

The Hammer Micki Had Carried For Protection

 May Have Been Used To Murder Her

St. Joseph police now believe that Marvin Irvin himself wrote all of the letters as a means of taunting them.

Now seventy-five-years-old, Irvin is serving his three consecutive life sentences at the Jefferson City, Missouri, Correctional Center. He will be eligible for parole after serving fifty years each for the first two murders, those of Patricia Rose and Crystal Simmons. At that time, he will be one-hundred-forty-two-years-old.

Irvin Incarcerated

Although Marvin Irvin has been convicted of the murder of Micki West, her remains have not been found. At the time of her disappearance from St. Joseph, Missouri, on September 11, 1979, she was nineteen-years-old, five-feet-six inches tall, and weighed one-hundred-forty pounds. Her eyes and hair were brown and she wore eyeglasses which had “Micki” printed on the right lens side.  When last seen, she was wearing a white hospital uniform, white shoes, a khaki coat, and was carrying a white purse.

Micki Jo West would today be sixty-five-years-old. If you have information on her disappearance or the location of her remains, please contact the St. Joseph, Missouri, Police Department at 816-271-4701.

Micki Is Still Missing

In 2016, forty-seven-year-old Chris Punzo was sentenced to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2010 first degree felony assault of a St. Joseph police officer.

Punzo was wanted on federal charges for a parole violation relating to a weapons offense and state charges of distribution and delivery of dangerous drugs. He was arrested following a three-hour standoff ending with a Special Response team raiding his home and wounding him after he fired several shots at the police.

The previous occupant of the residence was Marvin Irvin.

Chris Punzo

When questioned by police in April 1981, convicted murderer Sandra Hemme claimed Micki West had been murdered by members of a cult performing a ritualistic sacrifice and that they had removed organs from her body before burying her along the bank of the Missouri River near Elwood, Kansas, just west of St. Joseph. Police dismissed Hemme’s account after searching the area and finding no evidence of a human body or any human organs.

Hemme had previously been a patient at the Saint Joseph State Hospital where Micki worked. She had a history of mental illness and had attempted suicide multiple times dating to when she was a teenager.

Sandra Hemme

Hemme had pled guilty to the November 12, 1980, murder of thirty-one-year-old St. Joseph librarian Pat Jeschke, who had been found by her mother nude in her apartment with a chord tied around her neck and a pillow covering her face. An autopsy determined she had been strangled to death.

Hemme said Pat had picked her up while she was hitchhiking and taken her to her apartment to use the phone. Afterwards, Hemme said an argument ensued over drugs and money culminating with her, in an intoxicated state, killing Pat.

Investigators, while believing Hemme had committed murder, were skeptical of her explanation, as nothing was found suggesting Pat had ever been involved with drugs.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127417820/patricia_kay-jeschke

Pat Jeschke

Hemme later recanted her confession and was granted a new trial in 1985 in which she was found guilty. In June 2024, her conviction for the 1981 murder of Pat Jeschke was overturned and she was released from prison the following month after serving over forty-three years.

Sandra Hemme holds the distinction of the longest prison tenure for a now officially designated wrongfully convicted American woman.

Hemme Is Freed

SOURCES:

• Charley Project
• Des Moines Register
• Doe Network
• Kansas City Star
• Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World
• Macon ( Missouri) Chronicle-Herald
• NamUs
• Oxygen True Crime
• Saline Journal
• Joseph Gazette
• Joseph News-Press
• Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat
• Unsolved Mysteries