| Description |
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Name: Katherine Ann (Golemboski) Jones
Last Seen: September 27, 1974
Race: White
Age: 54
Height: 5'
Weight: 104 +/-
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Incident #: C3-31584
Uniscope: CFL 208
Article by Chris Crawford OBlack, DuBois Courier Express 4/28/1989
Clearfield County woman's disappearance still a mystery
By CRIS CRAWFORD OBLACK
CLEARFIELD -- On Sept. 27, 1974, Katherine A. Jones of Clearfield County disappeared allegedly with a man to whom she reportedly said she was engaged ... and has never returned.
Jones, 29 at the time, left her four children from a previous marriage with a friend for safe keeping while she was away. According to that friend, Kathy Jones was a "good mother. It's funny she would leave her kids." The children never heard from their mother.
Now, 15 years later, the case remains open, especially for Sgt. Edward Cipollini of the Clearfield barracks, Pennsylvania State Police.
Cipollini does not believe Kathy Jones ever left the Smoke Run area of Bigler Township that autumn day in 1974.
"It has always been in the back of my mind that she was murdered," the sergeant said. "I realize, however, that without a body, a murder is a difficult thing to prove." The sergeant was crime supervisor at the barracks when the incident took place.
Cipollini said that last time anyone saw Jones alive was Sept. 27, 1974. She was not reported missing however, until Oct. 14, 1974 - 2 ½ weeks later.
Cipollini said, according to Jones' family, she never mentioned leaving the area to get married. At the time of the initial investigation, however, family members told police they had received a note believed to have been from Kathy, saying she had left her children (from a previous marriage) with a family in Smoke Run because she had left to get married. The note also stated that Kathy would return in October for her four children. Family members told police they did no know who Kathy had been dating or with whom she had left the area.
When police officers recontacted Kathy's family in April 1975, the family said they had no new information. However, when police spoke with them again in May, family members said they received a Western Union telegram from New Jersey, although they did not detail its contents.
Kathy's friend, with whom she had left her children, told police she, too, had received a telegram from Kathy, but that she had thrown it away.
Cipollini said until that time, police thought Kathy Jones was a routine missing person case. "But when we found out months later that an alleged telegram arrived shortly after her disappearance, the case was no longer 'routine.'"
Police also talked with an acquaintance of Kathy's during the investigation. The woman told law enforcement officers that Kathy came to her home Sept. 27, but never mentioned leaving town. The woman noted that Kathy did appear happy that day. She said a man with dark hair and a Mustache driving a red Volkswagen pulled up to her house. Kathy put clothes from her car into his and the two drove away.
Sgt. Cipollini said officers interviewed numerous friends of Kathy's, including a former boy-friend. "We even used dogs from New York state to search for Kathy's body," the sergeant said. Those investigative methods turned up nothing.
The investigation intensified in August 1976 when previously interviewed acquaintance made a startling admission. She told police she had sent the two telegrams... one to Kathy's family, the other to Kathy's friend in charge of the children.
She said she had sent the telegrams because, "Kathy had asked me to," saying she would explain the reasons later.
"Things just don't add up," Cipollini said. "That's why I rally think she was murdered." Going one step further, Cipollini said he will now try for a grand jury investigation into Katherine Jones case.
Taken from: DuBois Courier Express 4/28/1989 |
