After serving in the military, Paul Ferrell returned to his hometown of Gormania, West Virginia, to help his parents, Joe and Beverly, run their general store. He soon grew tired of the family business, however, and sought to serve his community in another capacity.

In January 1988, Ferrell became a Grant County Deputy Sheriff. One year after being sworn to serve and protect, he learned he would be serving time in prison.

The conviction of Paul Ferrell was a rarity, but it was not unprecedented. The former lawman was found guilty of murder even though the victim’s body was never found.

Casting further doubt on his guilt, in the eyes of many, were ex post facto allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, inconclusive DNA evidence, and a reported sighting of the victim one year after she was said to have been murdered.

Paul Ferrell

After coming home to Gormania, Paul Ferrell moved into a trailer just across the Maryland state line. He soon began a relationship with Cathy Bernard, a divorced mother of two.

Cathy believed the relationship had become serious but, unbeknownst to her, Ferrell also began having an affair with another, much younger, woman named Cathy in the fall of 1987.

Cathy Bernard

The thirty-one-year-old Ferrell described his relationship with nineteen-year-old Cathy Ford as an on-again, off-again affair and said the two were more friends than lovers.

From this point on, Cathy Bernard will no longer be referenced. “Cathy” will refer to Cathy Ford.

Cathy Ford

Cathy Ford lived in Gorman, Maryland, across the Potomac River and less than half-a-mile from Paul Ferrell’s home in West Virginia. She was also involved in a relationship and sought to keep her affair with Ferrell a secret from her boyfriend, Darvin Moon, a self-employed logger.

Cathy was a cook and waitress at Gorman’s Olde Mill Restaurant which was owned by her parents, Richard and Rosemarie. She was working at the restaurant on the afternoon of February 17, 1988, when she received a phone call at approximately 1:00. She told co-workers the caller said he was a Grant County, West Virginia, magistrate informing her the sheriff’s department was cracking down on bars and restaurants selling alcohol to minors. She said the man needed to speak to her and that she had to leave immediately.

Approximately an hour later, at 2:00 p.m., Cathy, returned to the restaurant to retrieve her purse. She told her fellow employees she had gone home and taken a shower. She was dressed in professional business attire and said she was going to meet the magistrate. Her parents were unavailable, and Cathy said she had to handle the matter promptly. She was last seen driving her father’s Bronco from the restaurant.

Cathy was last seen driving onto Route 50 in Grant County and then onto to Bismarck Road . . . the road on which Paul Ferrell lived.

That same day, two other area women received phone calls from a man claiming to be a magistrate. Both magistrates in Grant County, West Virginia, were female and Maryland did not have magistrates.

An Odd Phone Call

Six-and-a-half hours later, at 8:30 p.m., Paul Ferrell met friends at the local bowling alley. A woman had called several times asking for him. The number she had left was the Ford number and Ferrell says Cathy answered when he called. He went on to say she was crying and wanted to meet with him at his trailer. Ferrell said he did not want her at his home because it was a mess, and that Cathy instead agreed to meet him at the high school parking lot. He claims he waited there for twenty minutes, but she never arrived. Ferrell was unaware that Cathy’s parents had already reported her as missing.

On the following day, February 18, Ferrell says he spotted smoke coming from a wooded area near his trailer and went to investigate. Less than two-hundred yards from his home, he found Cathy’s charred Bronco. He says he did not tell anyone about the discovery because he feared Cathy’s body was inside and that he would be accused of killing her.

Ferrell’s Story

On March 8, three weeks after Cathy was last seen, her boyfriend Darvin Moon and her brother Rich found the car. Investigators searched the area, but they found no trace of Cathy or any evidence she had been there.

Fire and rust destroyed any fingerprints that may have been on the car. The area around the car had little fire damage, leading authorities to believe the vehicle had been burned elsewhere.

Car Found

But No Cathy

On March 19, police were granted a warrant to search Paul Ferrell’s trailer. After learning he had torn out and burned the carpet in his bedroom on the day Cathy was last seen, investigators tore out the newly laid carpet and found traces of blood on the floor. Additional blood traces were found on the wall and ceiling. The samples proved to be the blood of a woman; DNA testing showed similarities with the blood of Cathy’s parents but could not definitively prove it was Cathy’s blood. The blood appeared to have been covered up in an attempt to keep it from being found.

When questioned about the blood, Ferrell suggested that it may have been on the floor prior to his occupancy. Investigators, instead, believe the blood was Cathy’s and that she had been killed in Ferrell’s bedroom.

The Evidence Mounts 

Shortly after the charred car was found, an anonymous letter was mailed to the Olde Mill Restaurant, claiming Cathy had run away. The writer claimed to have sent the letter to let her parents to know she was safe. Enclosed was $200 to help pay for her ruined vehicle.

Ferrell initially denied writing the letter but admitted doing so after an FBI handwriting expert determined he was the author. Ferrell said he wrote the letter because he feared Cathy was dead and wanted to help her parents. He admitted it was a “stupid mistake.”

Police also determined Ferrell made over two-hundred crank phone sex calls to bookstores and libraries in several cities. He admitted to making the calls, but claimed they had nothing to do with Cathy. The now-disgraced former deputy said he made the lewd calls to satisfy his sexual desires because he could not afford to call the phone-sex lines.

The calls ceased when Cathy vanished, but Ferrell insists they are unrelated to her disappearance.

Lying Letter and Lewd Calls

Even though Cathy Ford’s body had not been found, Paul Ferrell was arrested and charged with her murder in September 1988. On February 4, 1989, nearly a year after she had gone missing, he was convicted of kidnapping, murder, and arson. He was sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years in prison.

Shortly after the trial, however, allegations surfaced of prosecutorial misconduct, or at the least prosecutorial pressure, which may have played a role in testimony against Ferrell. The allegations have led some to doubt that Ferrell, while clearly not a well person, is a killer.

 

Ferrell in Peril

Several women in Gormania received anonymous phone calls from a man asking her to meet him for sex at various locales. One of the women, Tamela Kitzmiller, said she believed she recognized the caller’s voice as Paul Ferrell’s, but she was not certain.

Tamela said that, prior to the trial, prosecutors told her they could prove it was Ferrell who had called her and instructed her not to elaborate on any doubts when she was testifying. Tamela says she did as she was told, testifying she was certain it was Ferrell who made the harassing calls to her, despite her doubt.

In addition, Tamela claims prosecutors told her that Ferrell was connected to a series of murders in Yellowstone Park, where he once worked. Multiple murders had occurred in the area during Ferrell’s employment with the Park Service, but he was never linked to any of them.

Tamela Kitzmiller

Some of the strongest evidence against Ferrell came from his neighbor, Kim Nelson, who could see his trailer from her home. She told prosecutors she had heard screams coming from the trailer on several occasions. She testified she heard banging, a gunshot, and a woman’s scream coming from the trailer on February 17, the day Cathy Ford was last seen.

After the trial, however, Kim claimed, “Words were put in my mouth”. She said screaming and gunshots were common in the area because of kids playing and people hunting. She also claimed that prior to the trial she signed a statement typed by prosecutors without reading it. The statement specified she heard the sounds on February 17; Kim claims she did not specify the day.

Kim Nelson

Paul Ferrell’s Neighbor

Grant County, West Virginia, prosecutor Dennis DiBenedetto denies forcing anyone to perjure themselves on the stand.

He believes the women were influenced by Ferrell’s family and friends to try to recant her statements.

Dennis DiBenedetto

Grant County Prosecutor

In December 1989, nearly two years after Cathy Ford was last seen, a couple who lived near her home town of Gorman, Maryland, were traveling through Tennessee. They stopped at a restaurant and believed a waitress resembled Cathy. The couple did not know Cathy personally, but they were familiar with her disappearance and had seen her pictures on television and in the newspaper. In addition, they believed she had waited on them a couple of times when they ate at the Olde Mill Restaurant. I could not find where in Tennessee the alleged sighting of Cathy occurred.

The traveling couple said the waitress appeared nervous when she saw them. Another waitress waited on the couple and asked where they were from; they answered Maryland.

After the waitress took their order, the couple say she went to the waitress they thought was Cathy and briefly spoke to her; the waitress they believed to be Cathy then promptly ran into the kitchen. When the couple asked their waitress about the incident, she claimed her cohort had become sick.

The Ford family does not believe the Tennessee waitress was Cathy. They are certain, if she were alive and able, that she would have contacted them at some point. I have not been able to find information regarding the police investigation of the sighting and whether they believed the waitress to have been Cathy.

No sightings of Cathy Ford have been confirmed in the thirty-six years since her disappearance.

Dead Woman Waitressing?

Paul Ferrell appealed his conviction, claiming there was insufficient evidence that Cathy Ford was dead, that an FBI agent’s testimony that his body language was indicative of guilt should not have been used at his trial, and that the jury was not properly instructed. He was released from prison in 1994, while the West Virginia Supreme Court reviewed his case. After two years of home confinement, his appeal was rejected on a 3-2 vote and he was returned to prison. The United States Supreme Court refused to consider his case.

In February 2001, however, Paul Ferrell’s sentence was commuted, making him eligible for parole, which he was granted in May 2004. He continues to maintain his innocence in the disappearance of Cathy Ford.

Ferrell Freed . . .

Temporarily

Catherine “Cathy” Denise Ford has been missing since February 17, 1988, when she was nineteen-years-old. She is believed deceased but is still officially listed as an endangered missing person.

At the time of her disappearance, Cathy was five-feet-nine-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-forty pounds. Her eyes and hair were brown, she had a discolored right arm and a birthmark under her right armpit. She worked as a waitress.

Cathy was last seen wearing stone-washed blue jeans, a black sweater, a black leather-coat and multiple jewelry items.

Cathy Ford would today be fifty-five-years-old. If you believe you have any information relating to her disappearance, or to the location of her remains, please contact the Garrett County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office at 301-334-1911.

Still No Body

Those who profess Paul Ferrell’s innocence suggest that Cathy’s boyfriend, Darvin Moon, may be responsible for her disappearance. Cathy allegedly chose several friends she feared him, but nothing implicated him in her disappearance.

Darvin Moon became an amateur poker player who was the runner-up of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 no-limit Texas Hold’em Main Event. He died in 2020 at age fifty-six.

Darvin Moon

SOURCES:

• Baltimore Sun
• Cumberland (MD) Times News
• JUSTIA US Law
• Unsolved Mysteries: Final Appeal