Marjorie Croude McKinley Chillingworth, 56, was last seen the evening of June 14, 1955, after attending a dinner with her husband, Circuit Judge Curtis Chillingworth. The couple left the gathering about 10:00 p.m. and returned to their waterfront home on Dyer Road in Manalapan. Neither was seen again.

The next morning a carpenter found the house open and empty. When Curtis failed to appear at a morning court hearing, authorities searched the property and found a shattered porch light, drops of blood leading toward the beach, and used spools of adhesive tape—one inside the home and another on the beach. The Chillingworths’ swimsuits were left dry, money remained in the house, and Curtis’s car and keys were still at the residence. No trace of Marjorie was found despite extensive searching, and both Marjorie and Curtis were declared legally dead in 1957.

Investigations later connected the disappearances to local corruption; accounts presented in court implicated municipal judge Joseph Alexander Peel Jr. and tied the crime to Floyd “Lucky” Holzapfel and George David “Bobby” Lincoln. Testimony described the couple being taken by boat, restrained with tape, weighted, and thrown into the ocean alive.

If anyone knew the Chillingworths, their routines, or saw anything unusual in Manalapan on the night of June 14, 1955, please share what is known.