Case File 008: Two Girls, One Ride Home — The WVU Coed Murders
Mared Malarik & Karen Ferrell — Morgantown, West Virginia, 1970
On the evening of January 18th, 1970, two West Virginia University freshmen — Mared Malarik and Karen Ferrell — caught a showing of Oliver! at the Metropolitan Theatre in downtown Morgantown. Afterward, looking to catch a ride back to their dorm at Westchester Hall, they got into a cream-colored sedan.
Witnesses noted something strange even in the moment: neither girl looked back.
It was the last time anyone would see them alive.
Written Off as Runaways
For weeks, the case was written off as a runaway situation — an assumption that cost investigators critical time. It wasn't until a young boy found Mared's waterlogged purse in March, and a series of chilling, anonymous letters arrived from Cumberland, Maryland, that the case took a darker turn.
Those letters led investigators to a wooded property south of Morgantown, where, eighty-eight days after the girls disappeared, members of the West Virginia National Guard uncovered two makeshift graves.
What They Found
Both women had been decapitated. Their heads have never been found — not then, and not during a renewed search effort as recently as 2022.
Six Years of Nothing
Six years passed with no arrest, until a man named Eugene Paul Clawson, sitting in a New Jersey jail cell on unrelated charges, confessed in extraordinary detail to the murders. Four months later, he recanted — claiming he'd fabricated the entire account from a magazine article.
He was tried anyway. Convicted. Had that conviction overturned on appeal. Convicted again in a second trial. He died in prison in 2014, still maintaining his innocence.
A Case That Still Isn't Closed
More than fifty years later, researchers who spent years combing back through the case — including the authors of a 2021 book on the murders — remain unconvinced Clawson acted alone, or that he was involved at all. The letters' author was never identified. The girls' skulls remain missing. And the question of who really killed Mared Malarik and Karen Ferrell is, for many who've studied this case closely, still open.
Listen to the Full Episode
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ijRLzps6T7gCmig9X3Apc?si=KKmavXm9TNu4g2dbF-0E9A
Visual Companion
Want to see the case timeline, the letters' description, and archival photos referenced in this episode? Check the Bramble & Bone Journal Spread on YouTube — search Bramble and Bone Podcast.
Sources & Further Reading
NBC News/Dateline — "West Virginia murders: Mared Malarik and Karen Ferrell"
CBS News — "Karen Ferrell, Mared Malarik murdered in West Virginia: investigators get high-tech help with evidence"
WV MetroNews — "Renewed effort to find remains of WVU coeds murdered in 1970"
The Dominion Post — "Renewed investigation begins on murdered coeds case: 'We want full disclosure'" by Jim Bissett
The Dominion Post — "'The overlooked confession': Morgantown man thinks he knows who killed two WVU coeds in 1970"
The Dominion Post — "WVU Coed Murders: How one set of parents turned grief into grace"
Oxygen — "Investigators Return To 1970 Crime Scene Of Decapitated University Students Popularized By True Crime Podcast"
Cumberland Times-News — "New true-crime book has ties to Cumberland"
The Times West Virginian — "Exploring new possibilities in decades-old murders"
Fuller, Geoffrey C., and S. James McLaughlin. The WVU Coed Murders: Who Killed Mared and Karen? (2021)
Mared & Karen: The WVU Coed Murders podcast, Kromatic Media (2017)
West Virginia State Police & Cumberland Times-News archival case coverage, 1970–2022
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