r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/Dr_Pepper_blood • 3d ago
Disappearance Missing In West Virginia: Who murdered Eric "Jay" Farley and what happened to his date Mazie Sigmon-Palmer in 1979?
This young lady has been missing since the year I was born. For decades her family went without concrete conclusions and many of them have since passed away without ever being able to receive those answers. Another family also hangs in the balance of who did what to this young couple during their date on July 14th, 1979.
Some early reports from the time paint a picture of who these two were before whatever happened to them that July.
Loved ones describe Mazie as having a trusting nature while also friendly and loving. In 1979 she was 24 years old (newer report said she was 25) and she was living with her parents in Sissonville West Virginia. She had actually just gone through a divorce at that young age, and I have never read or seen any mention of her ever having any children. Mazie had work experience working in nursing homes and had lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma in her lifetime.
She had reportedly gone on a couple previous dates in the weeks leading up to her disappearance with then 18 year old Eric "Jay" Farley that everyone seemed to call Jay and I will for the remainder of this write up.
According to Jay's loved ones he was a good kid who had just graduated with plans to join the military. According to his father though Mazie and Jay had been on a few dates they were not "going steady."
On July 14th Mazie and Jay were seen by several witnesses on their date that evening. They were first spotted together at the now defunct nightclub called, Roarin' 20's in Charleston West Virginia. At around 11 p.m that evening they caught a ride with Bill Cottrell to another nightclub just 2 miles away called the King's Inn.
According to Bill Cottrell when they arrived at the club and before exiting the vehicle Mazie had said to Jay "Oh....he's in there"...OR "Oh....he's here." It was not known or clear to Bill Cottrell who Mazie was referring to and she did not specify.
The couple was then witnessed going inside the King's Inn and sitting at a table on the ground floor with "a friend." Not sure if that is Bill Cottrell or another friend? At some point Mazie stood up and stated she was going up to the second floor to talk to someone and according to reports a few minutes later Jay followed behind her upstairs. Neither of the pair were ever seen alive by loved ones again.
Initially when Mazie and Jay didn't return home to their families the alarms were not immediately raised. Since Mazie's divorce and returning to live with her parents she was still an adult and had spent the night away before. Jay's family raised flags a little sooner after not hearing from him. It was unlike him to stay away from home that long especially without telling them.
Both families eventually filed a missing persons report but for a little while the cases weren't even connected and 2 different jurisdictions were investigating. Eventually a connection was made with the pairs disappearance and tracing the last time they were seen together.
Early on once the cases were connected (it took 6 months) they were listed as runaways. Perhaps they fled to be together it was speculated. A label passed out vigorously for missing teens back then was runaways...but not usually adults. The family of the pair didn't ever believe that.
The gears started to change a little in the investigation after more time had passed. Neither owned a vehicle or had taken any of their belongings and another factor was Jay wasn't even a licensed driver at the time. It started to make less sense that they had run away. For 5 years the families sat in limbo of the unknown. Probably even hoped the pair had been inlove and run off together.
In May of 1984 the Farley family finally got some answers. Remains were found by a security guard at the Fayette County Surface Mine about 30 miles and 45 minute drive from Charleston. The decomposed remains were found with his hands taped together behind his back. He had been shot and a single bullet was found under the remains. He was naked from the waist down. These remains would be identified as Eric Jay Farley. No trace of Mazie was found in the vicinity.
No one has answered for the seeming execution of a young man in 1979. The authorities state they in no way think Mazie killed or harmed Jay. She had no criminal record though she was known to hang around motorcycle gangs and drug activity in her past she did not partake in that herself.
So many of their family members have passed over the years and they just don't have answers. Maybe there is still someone out there that knows something. Maybe Mazie is a Doe somewhere else...or yet undiscovered. I hope that if any of their loved ones remain that there is still a chance this murder, and disappearance have a conclusion.
What happened to the couple after their date at King's Inn? Who was the target and where is Mazie?
Kanawha Sheriff's Office is investigating at 304-357-0200
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u/RollingGuy 3d ago
Obviously the ex-husband could be it, but also the fact that she was known to hang around gang and drug activity in the past?
Also why does she have 10 goddamn aliases listed on her Charleyproject?
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u/lucius79 3d ago
Yeah, I went looking for more information, given there's also a named person of interest, (i gather that suspect typically had male victims and Jays remains were naked from the waist down, wearing the same shirt he wore the night he disappeared) if this person is named, does that mean they've ruled out the ex? I haven't looked at this yet but found it via web sleuths: https://unresolved.me/mazie-mae-sigmonpalmer-jay-farley Seems like a bit of speculation that it might have been mazies past had something to do with it, apparently she was known to have been around the drug scene but not to have partaken in it herself.
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u/Stonegrown12 1d ago
Truly a sad case but the "Lil Darko" alias gave me a chuckle. I didn't realize she was was an early SoundCloud mumble rapper. Ahead of her time. Honorable mention goes to "Mae Boomer."
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u/Princessleiawastaken 2d ago
I don’t understand why it took 6 months for the missing persons cases to be connected. Surely their families would’ve told police they were last seen going out on a date with one another.
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u/jmpur 2d ago
Charley Project mentions a person of interest by the name of Mark Legg. I found this very interesting information about him on Websleuths (near the bottom of the first page, written by Sunshine 09, in 2022): https://websleuths.com/threads/wv-mazie-sigmon-palmer-25-sissonville-14-july-1979.397544/
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u/lucius79 3d ago
Yes well the obvious question is about the ex husband, we assume that's who she's talking about when she said he's here. I wonder the circumstances with the divorce, presumably the parents would have known if she was being harrased or if it was an amicable split. I'd assume thorough searches of a wide area around where the body was done, but possibly the killer (especially if it was the ex husband) wouldn't have dumped her in the same place. So strange that no one saw them leave the venue..
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u/Different_Funny_8237 3d ago
So did I understand correctly that she was either 24 or 25 at the time and divorced, and Jay was only 18? She was also known to hang out with drug users and gang members. Poor Jay picked the wrong girl to go on a few dates with that's for sure. She's either alive somewhere under an alias, or she too is a victim and her remains have yet to be found. Sad all the way around.
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u/Several-Cry-4267 1d ago
The aliases feel less like “she started a new life” evidence and more like the thing that may have made her almost impossible to identify if she was found early on.
Charley notes she may have used her sister’s DOB and had her sister’s birth certificate, while Doe Network still lists dentals and fingerprints as unavailable but DNA as available.
Which is a nightmare combination for a 1979 missing woman who had lived in several states and was moving through a scene where people knew her by different names.
I’m also wary of leaning too hard on Mark Legg or the ex-husband because the public record still says authorities haven’t tied Legg to the case, and the most concrete clue is still that Mazie recognised someone’s car, went upstairs to speak to someone and Jay followed.
That makes me think the answer is probably much closer to the King’s Inn’s 2nd floor than to the mine where Jay was eventually dumped.
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u/dingdongsnottor 3d ago
I wonder if her ex husband was ever questioned?