Sins of the Mother
What happened to little Marlena Childress?
On Thursday, April 16th of 1987, four-year-old Marlena Childress was playing with her toys out in her family’s front yard.
Marlena lived in Union City, Tennessee, with her twenty-two-year-old mother, Pamela Bailey, along with her stepfather, Johnny, and her four-month-old half-brother, Damon.
Also attending the house that day was Marlena’s seven-year-old stepbrother, Jerry, who was present until he was picked up by his mother at around three in the afternoon.
At around 3:30pm, with Marlena still playing in the front yard, her mother washed dishes while watching her daughter through the large, double-hung kitchen window.
Pam looked down for mere moments, scrubbing and rinsing a few dishes, until she heard the screech of skidding car tires coming from the street outside. She looked up, and saw a red vehicle with Kentucky license plates, speeding down the street and away from her house.
At first, Pam simply shook her head, and returned to her work. Yet seconds later, she was hit with a terrifying realization.
She peered through the window again, then as a choking panic erupted in her chest, she rushed outside into her front yard to find that little Marlena – was nowhere to be seen.
Following a frenzied search of the surrounding area, Pamela rushed to contact the police.
She strongly suspected that her four-year-old daughter had just been abducted by someone driving a red car, with Kentucky license plates specific to McCracken County in the state’s far west.
Not just because it was seen speeding down the street, but because someone driving the exact same vehicle had approached her daughter at a nearby gas station, just hours before she went missing.
After surrendering to the kid’s demands, Pam had taken Marlena and her brother Jerry to a nearby gas station to pick up some candy.
After obtaining her sweet treats, and in her excitement to return home, little Marlena had run out of the store following her mother’s purchases, with the goal of being the first back to the car.
Pamela quickly followed her daughter out into the gas station’s forecourt, calling out to her as she went, only to find her staring up at a man she didn’t recognize.
The man leaned forward, towering over the frightened child, and began talking to her; but when confronted by Pamela, he excused himself, and walked away.
Pamela gently scolded little Marlena, and told her not to go rushing off like that in public places. Then, as her tearful daughter apologized, Pam traced the strange man’s path, and saw him climbing into the driver’s seat of a red car – with McCracken County plates.
Officers from the Union City Police Department rushed to apprehend their suspect, and tracked him down to his old Kentucky home.
He seemed surprised by their arrival, admitted to having talked to the little girl at the gas station back in Tennessee, and even consented to a brief search of his home to confirm Marlena wasn’t there.
Police all but ruled him out as a suspect, and after extensive interviews with Marlena’s stepfather, as well as her biological father, they too were cleared of suspicion.
The investigation continued for another six weeks, with police becoming more and more exasperated with the lack of progress.
Until one day, a deeply shocking confession rocked the local community.
On June 8th of 1987, Pam was talking with a private investigator named Stan Cavness.
Cavness had been hired at the behest of Pam’s family, who were frustrated with the tepid progress of investigating police; and one day, he and Pamela were conducting a tape-recorded interview.
Pamela began talking about the day Marlena went missing, and how her misbehavior was becoming increasingly unmanageable.
Marlena’s behavior got worse and worse, while Pam got more and more stressed.
Then finally, after a bout of near riotous misconduct, Pamela snapped, spun around, and struck her daughter on the back of the head.
She hit with such force, that little Marlena wobbled, took a tumble, then struck her head on the corner of a nearby table as she fell.
Pamela rushed to her daughter's aid, but was horrified to discover that smashing her temple against a pointed wooden corner – had suddenly and quite definitively – killed her.
Pamela continued her confession, fully aware she was being recorded, telling Cavness that once she realized Marlena was dead, she’d hidden her body in the trunk of her car.
She then drove said vehicle to the nearby town of Martin, where she contacted a family friend named P.L. Summers, and arranged to meet him at a bridge on Campground Road.
There, they carried the dead girl’s corpse from the trunk of Pam’s car, then tossed it into Obion River.
Investigator Stan Cavness - was stunned.
He asked Pamela to confirm that what she was saying was the truth. Then when she nodded, he informed her of his obligation to inform the police.
On the tape, a tearful Pamela states that she understands, then Cavness pushed a button, and the recording ends.
Cavness immediately contacted the Union City Police Department, with whom he’d already been working closely, and informed them of Pamela’s shocking confession.
She was subsequently arrested on charges of second-degree murder, and a team of highly trained police divers were sent to trawl the Obion for any trace of Marlena’s remains.
But this – is where the case becomes as vexing as it is chilling.
Tennessee’s Obion River is a relatively slow moving and meandering watercourse.
Heavy rains can temporarily increase its speed and water level, particularly in the winter and spring when rainfall increases; but in its natural state, much of the Obion consists of slow-moving waters, especially in the lower stretches, where it flows at a much more leisurely pace as it approaches the great Mississippi.
According to Pamela, she and her friend had tossed her late daughter’s body into the water during the wee small hours of April 17th; a time when most of the spring rains had come and gone.
This meant that, by early June, a team of divers would most certainly have been able to recover any human remains that were tossed into the Obion just two months prior.
But strangely, despite an intense search that spanned multiple days, not a single trace of Marlena’s body could be found.
Curious regarding the inconsistency in her story, homicide detectives visited Pamela whilst in custody, and asked her to confirm the location of the dumping site.
It was here – that Pamela once again shocked investigators – by recanting her entire confession.
Pamela explained that, just days prior to the taped conversation with Stan Cavness, she’d been released from a psychiatric hospital.
The stress of losing her daughter had been too much to bear, so after a brief stay under the care of medical professionals, she was released having been prescribed a cocktail of anti-depressants.
Pam then claimed that, not only had she been high as a kite during the taped conversation with Cavness, but he’d heavily intimidated her prior to its recording, having used the threat of the electric chair to coerce a confession.
Police then asked her what involvement, if any, her friend PL Summers had in her daughter’s disappearance. Pam made yet another astonishing claim.
Summers wasn’t her friend. He’d been her lifelong abuser. And it was HE that’d abducted and murdered little Marlena.
According to Pamela, Summers’s interest in her would wax and wane.
Sometimes he’d be a constant menace, demanding satisfaction whenever the mood took him. Other times, he’d leave her in peace for months on end.
But he always came back for more.
Then one day, after Summers called to arrange a ‘date’, she decided that enough was enough.
Summers stopped by, but instead of giving into him, Pamela fought off his advances, then threatened to call the police.
Summers’ response was to threaten Marlena’s life. Then a few weeks later, there’s a screech of tires while she’s washing dishes, and her little girl was gone.
A decidedly puzzled pair of homicide detectives then paid a visit to P.L. Summers at his home.
There, they informed him of the accusations. His reaction was incredulous.
Summers categorically denied Pamela’s shocking claim, and retorted by painting her as a liar of pathological proportions.
He stated he and Pamela had shared a brief dalliance, many years ago, and that he didn’t even know she HAD a daughter, let alone kidnapped and murdered her.
Police then asked Summers if he had an alibi for the day of Marlena’s abduction. He responded by listing several, all of which proved credible when cross-referenced by detectives.
Police had no choice but to rule Summers out as a potential suspect. But here’s where the story takes another unexpected turn.
Just months later, P.L. Summers was arrested on charges of molesting a nine-year-old boy.
An article from the Kentucky based ‘Paducah Sun’, dated September 30th of 1987, states that a 65-year-old man named P.L. Summers was arrested the previous afternoon, on charges of aggravated sexual battery.
What’s more, Summers was arrested after a traumatized child approached their parents.
He wasn’t caught at the scene, it wasn’t some kind of sting, Summers was visited at his home around four hours after the attack.
Unless the nine-year-old he was accused of molesting had a photographic memory, and a talent for articulating the finer details of a person’s appearance, it’s safe to say that the police considered him a suspect due to his history of child abuse.
As it turns out, there was some degree of truth to Pamela’s frightful claims, but the fate of her daughter remained a deeply troubling mystery.
Many police officers doubted Pam’s story. Others doubted her sanity.
But all agreed that without a body, or any other kind of solid evidence, the chance of getting a conviction was highly improbable.
Free to move on with her life, Pamela Bailey found she couldn’t continue living in Union City, and relocated to Mayfield, Kentucky, around forty miles northeast of her childhood home.
Two years later, sometime in early 1990, Pamela gave birth to a son she named Casey; and for twelve long years, they lived in peace and harmony.
Then, on April 22nd of 2002, just a few months after Casey’s twelfth birthday, Pamela told her young son she had a “surprise” for him, and asked him to put on a blindfold.
Casey did as he was told, before his mother led him out to their car, and helped her son into the passenger seat.
Six days prior marked the 15th anniversary of Marlena’s disappearance. She would’ve been nineteen years old had she still been alive.
Pamela drove her son all the way to the mystery destination she’d picked out, then carefully helped him from the passenger seat, and led him off into the unknown.
Casey kept asking if he could take off the blindfold yet. His mother told him “no”, that he had to wait until the right moment.
He felt grass, soft and spongy under the soles of his sneakers; then suddenly, his mother brought him to an abrupt halt, and told him to take off his blindfold.
When Casey did so, his first reaction was utter confusion.
He’d believed his mother was taking him somewhere exciting or fun, potentially as a belated birthday present.
Instead, she’d taken him - to a cemetery.
Casey looked around, wondering what in the world his mother was thinking, when he suddenly spotted a clue to the purpose of their visit.
Before him, a single word was etched into a small, child-sized gravestone. ‘Son’, it said.
Casey turned to see his mother brandishing a knife. He tried to run, but she grabbed his shirt, stabbing him once in the back of the neck, and twice through the flesh atop his shoulder.
Thankfully, Casey’s quick thinking and decisive action saved his life. His dynamic movement meant the stab wounds inflicted by his own mother – were only relatively minor.
He escaped, sought help, then fully recovered following a brief stay in hospital.
Pamela was once again arrested on charges of harming one of her own children, but when questioned, claimed she had no memory of the event, and must’ve blacked out for the duration.
She was subsequently charged with attempted murder, but after period of legal wrangling, ended up pleading no contest to charges of second-degree assault.
She received a ten-year prison sentence, but was released after serving just two-thirds of her time.
While she was in prison, police took the opportunity to reopen the investigation into the disappearance of Marlena Childress. But despite their best efforts, they were unable to make any solid progress in their investigation.
Some detectives remained firm in their position that Pam, who had already admitted to harming one of her children, was responsible for Marlena’s death.
Others weren’t so sure.
According to one former homicide detective, there was a potentially credible sighting of Marlena at a Memphis Hair Salon just six days after she went missing.
Two hairstylists claimed that a girl with a strong resemblance to Marlena was brought into their salon by two grown women, who also appeared to be the guardian of a similarly aged boy.
The women asked for the little girl’s hair to be styled, but during the cut, she little girl kept sobbing and saying she wanted her mother.
The stylists claimed the women referred to the girl as ‘Marlena’ but thought very little of the encounter until they saw the girl’s picture in a local newspaper.
At which point, they seemed convinced that little Marlena, and the sobbing child, were one and the same.
Following the reported sighting, Marlena’s maternal grandfather drove all the way to Memphis to personally verify the story.
LaWade Strickland tracked down one of the women that had reportedly brought Marlena for a haircut, but after she was questioned by police, it was determined the little girl had not been his missing granddaughter.
Yet in their haste to pursue more recent leads, investigators appear to have neglected what is arguably their strongest avenue of investigation – the man with the red car.
Despite having his name stricken from the list of potential suspects, the involvement of the mysterious driver with McCracken County plates has never been fully explored.
Not only was his vehicle spotted speeding away from the scene of Marlena’s abduction, but they just so happened to bump into one another in a gas station parking lot, just hours before.
Police seemed to have assumed that, since Marlena wasn’t sitting on the man’s couch, or at his kitchen table, she couldn’t possibly have been present in the home. Yet their search appears to have been skin deep.
The driver could’ve drugged Marlena to keep her quiet, before secreting her away in a discreet hiding place.
Alternatively, he could’ve handed Marlena off to an accomplice in the hours between speeding away from her home, and arriving back in McCracken County, on the other side of the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.
It’s entirely possible that Pamela was in cahoots with this mystery driver, and made a calculated decision to confuse and frustrate any subsequent investigation by claiming that she had been her daughter’s killer.
But if that was the case, why arrange for her daughter to be abducted in the first place?
If twenty-two-year-old Pam believed she was too young to be a full-time mother, she could’ve easily placed her daughter into adoptive care. But that would’ve come with a degree of stigma, a sense that she’d given up.
However, arrange for Marlena to go ‘missing’, especially if it happened during a brief lapse in her otherwise attentive care – that would leave Pam blameless.
But what if Pam had a little more to gain than just her freedom? What if she lied about her daughter’s fate in order to mask an immense personal gain.
What if Pamela Bailey – sold her child?
Between 1924 and 1960, a woman from Memphis named Georgia Tann stole and sold up to five-thousand different children.
Operating under the cover of her position at the Tennessee Children's Home Society, Tann arranged for the children to be adopted in exchange for vast sums of cash.
She performed no background checks on the people she sold children to, meaning there’s a good chance she deliberately sold children to people who would exploit their labor, or exploit their innocence.
Tann charged anywhere from seven hundred to ten-thousand dollars, and during a speech in 1944, had the audacity to accuse other adoption agencies of trafficking vulnerable children for profit.
Incredibly, one child stolen and sold by Georgia Tann grew up to a household name.
Born as Fred Phillips, the infant boy was sold to Kathleen and Richard Fliehr sometime in either 1949 or 1950, who went on to settle in the state of Minnesota, before renaming the boy ‘Richard’.
The boy grew up an athlete, and by the early nineteen seventies, was well on his way to becoming the styling, profiling, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling and dealing son of a gun...
...Rick ‘The Nature Boy’ Flair.
My point is, that even some of America’s most beloved public figures were once bought and sold as children.
Sadly, Georgia Tann died of uterine cancer three days before the state filed charges against her, and thus escaped justice. But there’s no evidence that the network she operated was effectively dismantled.
It’s estimated that Georgia Tann made somewhere in the region of $120,000 from the sale of orphaned children. Which in today’s money - is almost 1.2 million dollars.
An industry that profitable doesn’t just disappear overnight, and it seems far too much of a coincidence that Tann’s trafficking operation, and Marlena’s mysterious disappearance, occurred in the exact same state.
It makes very little sense that Pam Bailey would be working in cahoots with the driver of the red car, only to then swiftly report him to the police.
But what if the driver was a well-placed decoy, employed as part of a vast, and historic human trafficking network that’s existed for a hundred years?
What if she felt so guilty, and was so acutely aware of the evil that lurks in the shadows of our society, that her ultimate gift to her twelve-year-old son – was eternal, dreamless sleep?
So much of this story is inaccurate. Sounds like you put your own twist to it to make it a better story for your readers.