Dry Paper in a Soaking Bag: The Will That Couldn't Sink

Dry Paper in a Soaking Bag: The Will That Couldn't Sink

Dry paper inside a soaking leather bag: a eight-page will, crisp in a zip-lock, waited 28 years at the bottom of Marsh Fork Reservoir until birdwatcher Crystal Roberts found it on October 14, 2019. The document named Clifford Phillips as sole beneficiary of the thirty-acre parcel that should have belonged to Carol Hunter - so how did a sealed, water-protected will end up contradicting the estate that passed in 1991?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from Carol Hunter's inheritance in June 1991 to her disappearance in October 1991, the sudden probate filing on October 15, 1991, and the later unraveling triggered by a transposed digit on a notary stamp discovered decades later. How did a forged will move through the Harwick County Clerk’s office and what did the dry document in a soaked bag reveal about who actually profited?

Person: Carol Hunter Date: October 9, 1991 (disappearance) Location: Marsh Fork Reservoir, Harwick County Event: Will filed at Harwick County Clerk on October 15, 1991 Status: Original legitimate will four pages; filed forged will eight pages

- Crystal Roberts found a leather handbag wedged between limestone slabs on October 14, 2019. - The zip-lock bag inside the soaked purse contained a dry, un-smudged eight-page will. - Carol Hunter inherited thirty acres, mineral rights and reservoir access in June 1991, appraised at roughly $400,000. - Clifford Phillips, age 41 in 1991, was named sole beneficiary on the will filed October 15, 1991 and sold the land 18 months later for $380,000. - Detective Owen Marsh worked the missing persons case for six weeks before it stalled in December 1991.

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