Who Killed Candy Clothier?

I first read the name Candace Clothier in 1987 in the 1969 issue of Master Detective. She has been a resident of my nightmares ever since.

Candace Clothier, a 16 year old girl from Philadelphia, PA, was found having been disposed of in almost the same manner as Tent Girl. She disappeared from her home in at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, 1968. Hundreds searched for the missing girl. She wasn't found until the early morning hours on April 13, 1968. Three fishermen discovered her body in Neshaminy Creek, Bucks County, PA. The body was tied up in a bag that had washed up on a small island.

I often wondered over the years if her case was truly connected to the Tent Girl. Long before I was born, the Northampton Township Chief of Police was convinced it was connected and traveled to Georgetown, Kentucky to review the possibilities right after the discovery of the Tent Girl.

His theory is detailed below in an excerpt from a 1969 issue of Master Detective.

Is the Crime Related to the Tent Girl Case?
A girl had been found dead under circumstances strikingly similar to the Tent Girl mystery. Anthony Fergione, a tall, dark and handsome police chief of Northampton Township, Pennsylvania, identified the victim in his case as Candace Clothier, a 16-year-old Philadelphia girl. Candy, a quiet, attractive, respectable girl, disappeared from her home about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, 1968. More than 300 firemen and policemen combed the area near her home looking for the missing girl. She was not seen alive again.

On April 13th, some fishermen found her body, nude except for a pair of panties, tied up in a black canvas bag, a small creek in rural Northampton Township. She had been dead about six weeks, but was quickly identified.

By late June, Chief Fergione and Philadelphia detectives interviewed more than 1,000 persons and administered more than 80 polygraph tests. But they were unable to make an arrest. "We just don't have anything conclusive," Fergione said.

Then Fergione learned of the Tent Girl case. For three days he pored through every report, slide or photograph he could get his hands on. He shuffled through so many files about the Tent Girl, he knew her almost as well as the Kentucky lawmen working the case. Then he reached a startling conclusion: The case was filled with what he called "overwhelming coincidences."

Chief Fergione gave up part of his vacation and drove with his wife to Kentucky early in July. There he conferred with Detective Cornett, and they compared their cases. Fergione notes these similarities: "Autopsy findings were the same in both cases-no cause of death; both showed a slight discoloration of the skin covering the skull in the same spot on the right side; both bodies were wrapped in cloth bags, tied with lengths of rope from top to bottom, and the feet tucked under the torso." The Philadelphia girl wore panties; the Tent Girl was completely nude.

Also, the bodies were hurled from main road arteries near creeks and were four to six weeks decomposed at the time of discovery. The physical descriptions of height, weight, body structure and hair coloring matched closely. In fact," Chief Fergione said, "the analysis of the bag material, we feel, will definitely link the cases, but we don't have any proof now." Circulars were dispatched to police departments across the country" "Wanted...information requested on origin, manufacturer and possible user" of the black canvas bag.

Following his Kentucky visit, Fergione took Musser's sketch of the Tent Girl to families of missing Philadelphia girls. Once again, police sensed they were on the right track and drawing closer to a successful solving of the slaying mystery. But both Chief Fergione and Kentucky's Detective Cornett were again doomed to disappointment.

None of the Philadelphia's missing girls could be identified as the Tent Girl. And with the final FBI tests in the Kentucky case proving inconclusive, no definite tie-up between the two brutal slayings was possible.

Fergione has long since passed away. Was I to pick up where he left off?

The Conclusion?
"I'm still convinced," said Fergoine, "that the extraordinary similarities in the two crimes link them some way."

I made an attempt in the Tent Girl flurry in 1998 to resolve the possible connection to Candace Clothier through media pleas.

"Help Solve A 30-Year-Old Murder"

Sadly I didn't receive anything immediately. I wrote to several officials and media sources in the state...nothing.

These things often take a long time to find anything and I keep enough irons in the fire to at least pretend to be a patient man. I have to treat my illness of impatience with a mega dose of multi-tasking.

A New Hope?
Then, out of the blue in December of 2002, I did get a letter from a man who went to school with Candace.

Hello,

I was a schoolmate of Candace Clothier back in 1968. I didn't know her, but we were in the same school at the same time. I remember the commotion her murder caused.

I'm now 50 years old and am curious about the outcome of her case. (I lost track of it back then.) I've just been searching the newspaper archives and have followed the case through June of '68.

I came across your website and was hoping you could tell me more about it. Has her murder ever been solved? Has it ever been determined if Candace's murder and the "Tent Girl" case are related?

I've started a little page of my own about the Clothier case, just to keep track of the information I'm digging up. You can find it at this Web site.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Charlie Connolly

This was GREAT...finally a tip to what I had been seeking for years! Charlie just created his Web site a couple of days before he contacted me. And I also found the area is also known for Amusement Parks. The man we consider the killer of Barbara Taylor (Tent Girl) was Earl Taylor. He was a carnival worker, hence the tent bag. Early Taylor passed away in 1987.

All of this information was not available in 1968, yet they then still considered the two cases possibly related based on the similarities in the two cases. One of the questions that Charlie had for me was if I knew if the case of Clothier had ever been solved. It has not as yet and the only information on the Internet about her up until now was information that I posted from the old Master Detective.

I was hoping for someone out there to come forward who might have known her. After almost five years someone finally did reply!

DNA?
I saw articles that Charlie had found locally as he built his page. The information I saw indicated that there was a hair found on the body of Candace Clothier -- thought to be a hair of her killer. In 1968 it was impossible to use DNA to identify anyone. I wondered what happened to the hair sample. So often in the past what was considered "useless" evidence was destroyed or simply vanished.

If we had the hair, we might be able to see if it was the hair of Earl Taylor through DNA. Remembering Anthony Fergione, in late 2002, I decided to write to the current Chief of Police in Northampton Township, Barry Pilla.

He responded immediately!

Mr. Matthews:
I'll provide a hardcopy of your email to our detectives and if necessary someone from either our detective team or the County District Attorney's Office may be in contact with you. Our office and the District Attorney's Office has an open and ongoing inquiry into the matter.

Chief Barry Pilla

NTPD

But that was the first and only note from those officials.

A Chilling Note
In the mean time Charlie Connely and I continued to compare notes. He contacted their old high school, Abraham Lincoln High School. Candy was in the Class of '69 and they had an online year book! They have a page dedicated to Candy either in the 1969 edition.

They included a chilling poem written by Candace shortly before her death - it almost sounds like a goodbye.

If life were merely passing by
I'd hold my breath and give a sigh
But that's not the true story I fear
This life of mine goes on for years
I'm tired of eating, drinking and sex
I just can't wait for the world that's next
If you're wondering where this next world is
It's the place where our God lives

-by Candace Clothier

Looking Back Again - And Again - And Again
I think this is a case that will dance across my mind for the rest of my life. I still have no idea whether or not the hair still exists. I suspect it does not -- otherwise I would have heard by now? I almost hate to inquire at times, fearing the worst.

I did get a copy of an autopsy report and ask my friend Robert Waters for his help. He came up with an article on June 1, 2008. "Who Killed Candy?"

I will always suspect a possible link between Candace and Tent Girl, but will there ever be enough evidence providing proof one way or another?

Candy is still on my mind, and she isn't going away -- our existence on Earth did not overlap but still somehow intertwined. I'll keep taking a run at this until I am unable to run. Every new technology offers a new route. Eventually, time will draw me to the scene of the crime and Candy's grave. The least I can do is to bring her flowers.

Will you be able to help me find the missing link? Pieces of this puzzle are out there -- I'm sure of that. Please post comments or contact me with anything you have. Yes, I'm pleading.

If you have any information on the topics I post, then please leave me a comment, email me at SleuthTheTruth@gmail.com or call my Tip Line at 206-279-9993.
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