The Chair on the Ice: Hollins' Missing Page and a Body in the Sluice

On January 9, 2019, Kimberly Stevens discovers a white kitchen chair positioned on the ice of Alderman Pond, near a historical site where Marsha Crawford's body was found in 1911. The chair, facing the shore and situated above a hole in the ice, raises questions about its origin, especially since there are no tracks in the snow leading to it. This area, known locally as Marsha's Pond, has a dark history tied to Crawford, who disappeared on January 11, 1911, and was later found dead in the water, fully dressed.

The investigation into Crawford's death was marked by peculiarities, including a missing page from the inquest ledger that would have contained crucial coroner findings. George Crawford, Marsha's husband, later requested that the inquest be reclassified to avoid further suffering for the family, implying that others were responsible for her death. This request, along with the missing ice harvest ledger page from January 1911, suggests a deliberate effort to obscure the circumstances surrounding her death.

Robert McCarthy, a retired teacher, dedicates ten months to researching the case and uncovers George Crawford's letter, which hints at the involvement of others in his wife's death. Despite his findings, no legal conclusions are drawn, and the mystery remains unresolved. The chair's reappearance each January, along with the historical context of Marsha's death, continues to evoke intrigue and speculation in the community, as no one has claimed responsibility for placing it there.

The Chair on the Ice: Hollins' Missing Page and a Body in the Sluice

Cold curiosity: a white kitchen chair sat upright on Alderman Pond above a four-foot hole of black water, the same spot where, 108 years earlier, a woman's body was pulled fully dressed - and two official records from January 1911 show precise, deliberate erasures. Who removed the coroner's conclusions and the ice-harvest page, and why would a community hide what happened at the western sluice?

In this episode, we lay out the facts the town left behind: the chair on the ice, the century-old death of Marcia Crawford, the torn fourth page of the inquest, and the missing January 1911 page from the ice-harvest ledger. What do those two silences say about who stood at the sluice that winter morning?

Person: Marcia Crawford Date: January 12, 1911 (body found); January 11, 1911 (reported missing) Location: Alderman Pond (western sluice gate), Hollins Township Event: Body recovered fully dressed with ice broken in a circle around her Investigator: Robert McCarthy (compiled 43 pages of notes, Feb-Nov 2019)

- Temperature recorded when Kimberly Stevens found the chair: 7 degrees Fahrenheit on January 9, 2019. - Time Marcia Crawford's body was found: at 6:00 a.m, on January 12, 1911, by mill assistant Frank Nulty. - The inquest filing was made on January 14, 1911, with the category written as "Weather Incident - Property." - The fourth page of the inquest, which would have held the coroner's findings, is torn out with the thumbnail fold still visible. - The ice-harvest ledger's January 1911 page is missing despite intact binding and stitching, and the ledger had recorded thirty years of uninterrupted entries.

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