Marjorie Croude McKinley Chillingworth, a 56-year-old woman from the West Palm Beach, Florida area, was last seen on the evening of June 14, 1955, after attending a dinner with her husband, Circuit Judge Curtis Chillingworth. The couple left the gathering at about 10:00 p.m. and headed back to their waterfront home on Dyer Road in Manalapan. They were not seen or heard from again after that night.
Concern escalated the next morning when a carpenter arrived around 8:00 a.m. to begin a playground project the Chillingworths had arranged for their grandchildren and found the home strangely empty with the door left open. When Curtis also failed to appear for a scheduled morning court hearing in West Palm Beach, authorities went to the residence and began searching the property.
Investigators found troubling signs: a shattered porch light, drops of blood leading along the walkway toward the beach, and used spools of adhesive tape—one located inside the home and another on the beach—suggesting restraint and a forced removal rather than a voluntary disappearance.
Other details deepened the sense that something abrupt and violent had happened. Their swimsuits were reportedly left behind and dry, making an early-morning swim or accidental drowning seem unlikely. Money was still present and Curtis’s car remained at the home with the keys still in the ignition—facts that argued against a simple robbery. Despite extensive searching, no trace of Marjorie was found in the days and months that followed, and the case lingered as a haunting absence for their family and community. In 1957, Marjorie and Curtis were declared legally dead.
Over time, the investigation focused on corruption within local judicial and criminal circles and the possibility that the Chillingworths were targeted deliberately. According to later accounts presented in court, municipal judge Joseph Alexander Peel Jr.—described as corrupt and facing serious professional jeopardy—was implicated as the person who ordered the killings. Investigators ultimately tied the crime to Floyd “Lucky” Holzapfel and George David “Bobby” Lincoln, with statements indicating the couple were abducted from their home, taken out on a boat, restrained with tape, weighted, and thrown into the ocean alive.
The case is widely treated as solved in a legal sense, even though Marjorie’s remains have never been recovered. Holzapfel pleaded guilty to the murders and, in exchange for testimony, described the method used to kill the couple; his death sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Lincoln received immunity for his cooperation and testimony. Peel was convicted in connection with the crimes and served years in prison, later maintaining he did not order the murders while acknowledging awareness of them, according to reported accounts. Marjorie’s disappearance, while recorded as a missing-person case, is therefore understood by investigators and historians as a homicide in which recovery was made impossible by the chosen method of disposal.
What remains most painful is the human reality beneath the headlines: a woman who went home after an ordinary evening and never returned to the life and family she loved. The absence of physical remains has left a particular kind of grief—one that denies loved ones the certainty and closure that a recovery can bring—while the record of what likely happened underscores the cruelty and calculation involved.Last Seen: Jun 14, 1955
