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In 1968, 25-year-old Mary Alice Pultz Jenkins vanished from her life in Winchester, Virginia.
Married with a two-year-old son and grieving the recent loss of her six-month-old daughter, Jenkins disappeared without a trace one day while her husband was at work and her sister was babysitting.
Despite years of searching, her family never found her or heard from her again.
They believed she had run off with her sister's ex-husband.
Late last year, a Florida homicide investigator contacted Jenkins' family.
A woman's body, discovered in a shallow grave in 1985 by construction workers on a beach near St. Augustine, had been identified through genetic genealogy.
DNA samples from Jenkins' family confirmed the match in January.
Almost 56 years after her disappearance, Jenkins was found.
The medical examiner had ruled her death a homicide in 1985, though the cause could not be determined due to the body's decomposition.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s office has now officially reopened the investigation.
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| Crime scene where she was found in 1985 |
Jenkins' family often wondered if she was still alive, discussing her disappearance at family reunions.
In 1981, the man she had fled with was arrested for murder in Georgia and later sentenced to death.
Authorities now suspect he might have killed her.
Sadly, Jenkins would have turned 81 last month.
Her younger sister, Pat Allamong, who provided the DNA sample that matched the body in Florida, was shocked to learn her sister's fate.
"That’s an awful way to die," she said.
Allamong had been babysitting Jenkins' toddler, "Little Norman," on the day her sister disappeared.
Norman Jenkins, now 58, said he never knew his mother.
The news of her death has deeply affected him, leaving him unable to work or sleep.
Mary Pultz Jenkins was identified thanks to Othram, a forensic lab outside Houston.
Othram specializes in genome sequencing to help solve cold cases by creating DNA profiles of victims and suspects.
The lab compares these profiles to public DNA databases to find possible relatives.
Once relatives are identified, police secure their DNA to match with the unknown person, providing crucial leads in unsolved homicides.
The case was revived when Sgt. Gene Tolbert of the St. Johns County sheriff’s office attended a genetic genealogy seminar in 2022.
He immediately remembered the unidentified remains found on Crescent Beach in 1985.
The body was "completely skeletonized," with no direct evidence of the cause of death.
The medical examiner identified the victim as a white woman aged 30-50, with signs of previous brain surgery and multiple healed fractures.
In 2023, Tolbert sent some bones to Othram, which provided leads that led him to Allamong in Virginia.
The DNA match with her older sister confirmed the victim's identity as Mary Jenkins.
Jenkins' family had no idea what had happened to her.
She had been working as a waitress and enjoyed dancing before she disappeared.
It was known in the family that she left with John Thomas "Tommy" Fugitt, who was divorced from Jenkins' sister Betty.
Fugitt was later convicted of murder in Georgia and died in prison in 1995.
Authorities now wonder if Fugitt could have killed Jenkins.
Jenkins' son, Norman, grew up thinking his mother had abandoned him.
The discovery that she had been murdered suggests she might have wanted to return but was unable to.
"She probably ran off with the wrong guy," Norman said. "If she had an attitude, like me, she probably fought back."
Anyone with information about Mary Alice Pultz Jenkins' death is urged to contact the St. Johns County sheriff at 1-888-277-TIPS (8477) or email [email protected].
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