In July 1974, 17-year-old Mary Sue Kitts was last seen in Fresno, California. For three years, she was considered a runaway, but her disappearance was later discovered to be a homicide. Kitts was the girlfriend of Roger Allen, the son of Clarence Ray Allen, a career criminal who ran a security guard business as a front for his burglary enterprise. Kitts became entangled in Allen's criminal activities, which ultimately led to her death.
The events that sealed Kitts's fate began in June 1974, when Clarence Ray Allen orchestrated the burglary of Fran's Market, a local supermarket. Allen involved his son Roger, as well as associates Carl Mayfield and Charles Jones, in the plot. To facilitate the crime, Allen arranged for the market owner's son, Bryon Schletewitz, to be distracted at a swimming party at Allen's home, where his keys to the market were stolen. While Schletewitz was on a date with Mary Sue Kitts, a date arranged by Allen, Allen and his accomplices used the stolen keys to burglarize the market, stealing $500 in cash and over $10,000 in money orders.
Following the burglary, Kitts confessed her involvement in cashing the stolen money orders to Bryon Schletewitz, implicating the Allen family in the crime. When Schletewitz confronted Roger Allen, he admitted his and his father's guilt. Upon learning that Kitts had informed on him, Clarence Ray Allen ordered her murder to silence her. An accomplice, Eugene "Lee" Furrow, was tasked with killing Kitts, with Allen threatening to kill Furrow if he did not comply. Furrow strangled Kitts to death. Her body was then weighted with stones and thrown into the Friant-Kern Canal; it has never been recovered.
The investigation into Kitts's disappearance remained cold until a 1977 arrest of Clarence Ray Allen in connection with an armed robbery. This led authorities to link him to the murder of Mary Sue Kitts. Lee Furrow confessed to the murder and implicated Allen. In 1978, Clarence Ray Allen was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, and conspiracy to commit murder and received a life sentence. Furrow pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony. While in prison, Allen orchestrated the murders of several witnesses who had testified against him in the Kitts trial, including Bryon Schletewitz. For these crimes, Allen was eventually sentenced to death and was executed by lethal injection on January 17, 2006. The murder conviction of Mary Sue Kitts remains the only one in Fresno County history to be secured without a body.Last Seen: Jul 1, 1974
