Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how the story ends. The Golden State Killer is arrested and Michelle McNamara, who spent nearly a decade trying to identify him, doesn’t live to see it. The story isn’t about the ending, although it is profound and deeply moving. The story is about how many people had to lay their trauma raw to see a killer brought to justice.

I’ve heard it said that an interest in True Crime is much like rubbernecking. Someone had to experience the worst we can imagine (murder, rape, the loss of a loved one) for our entertainment. And I’m sure there are those that enjoy the genre just for the pure shock and gore of it. But I like to believe my fellow Murderinos have so much more empathy than that.

True Crime fans resonate with stories. And many of those stories are of trauma. Traumas that people have been brave enough to share with us. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark shares these tough stories better than any docuseries I’ve seen.

First, it starts with Patton Oswald and his bravery sharing the sudden loss of his wife Michelle. He allows the film makers access to intimate parts of his life with real life texts, voice messages, videos. Even the 911 call the morning of Michelle’s death is shared. All this comes together to bring Michelle to life. Her voice is so present in the episodes it’s easy to forget she wasn’t a part of the making of the series. As such, when the timeline builds to the day she dies, it hits us so much harder when she’s gone.

Next, there are the survivors bravely sharing the details of their horrific attacks by the Golden State Killer. These attacks happened in the 1970s, when sexual assault was not discussed the way it is today. Many of these survivors share that they weren’t able to talk about what happened to them with their friends or family members, but they share with us now. One couple (Gay and Bob Hardwick) share how they were attacked together. Bob was tied up with dishes on his back while his then girlfriend Gay was assaulted in the other room. In a later episode, Bob remarks that they are the only couple that stayed together after their attack.

And then there were the family members of those that didn’t survive, who suffered unimaginable loss at the hands of the killer. Over forty years later you can still see that this trauma still effects them daily.

Those who worked on the case share with us how it has haunted them for decades. Their determination to find the perpetrator has consumed their lives. Some were citizen detectives much like Michelle who couldn’t separate themselves from the pursuit. Others had retired and couldn’t stop thinking about the one that got away.

Lastly there are Michelle’s friends and colleagues Billy Jensen, Paul Holes, Paul Haynes and more, many of whom had come to love her through this common goal of finding The Golden State Killer. They worked side by side in her life and after her passing carried on her legacy. They shared how their grief lead them to be more determined than ever to catch the killer. Paul Holes continued his tireless efforts to find a DNA match and Paul Hayes and Billy Jensen picked up Michelle’s book to make sure that her life’s work was completed.

The survivors and everyone touched by this case and by Michelle open up about their hurt and grief in a way we can resonate with, showing us that the traumas we have experienced in our lives are valid. That there are people going through something similar and they can relate. There are people who have gone through worse and have survived. We are not alone.

Facts Of The Case

It was April 16th, 1987. The Secret Of My Success starring Michael J. Fox was the number one film in the box office that week, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship was the number one song, and Jelly Shoes were all the rage. Four-year-old Marlena Childress of Union City Tennessee was wearing a pink pair when she went missing that Thursday afternoon.

Marlena Childress - 1987Source: NAMUS.gov — Marlena Childress - 1987
Source: NAMUS.gov

Pamela Lynn Bailey, Marlena’s mother, contacted Union City police around 4:15pm to report her daughter missing, claiming that the last time she saw her daughter she was playing in the front yard of their modest red-brick home on North Division Street. At around 3pm, Pamela heard what sounded like breaks squealing, and was worried a car had hit her daughter. She said she had seen what looked like an older two-door red car from her kitchen window, and Marlena speaking to the driver inside before she heard the sound. When she ran outside to see what had happened, her daughter was gone. Marlena’s step brother and a local store owner from down the street both claimed to have seen the same red car with either Kentucky or Illinois plates.

A city and state-wide search were conducted immediately with nearly a thousand people volunteering to search. Posters were distributed describing Marlena’s blue/hazel eyes, brown, straight hair, and pierced ears. She was roughly 48 inches tall and 38 pounds, wearing light purple pants and a white top with those pink jelly shoes. She was also described as having stainless steel or silver caps on her front top and bottom teeth. Pam’s father LaWade Strickland quickly offered up a $10,000 reward for Marlena’s return and suggested in a letter to the editor of the Grayson County News-Gazette that Marlena may have been sold to a couple wanting a child after she was abducted.

The next week, police searched for two women in Memphis (roughly 120 miles from Union City) where they believed they had a lead on Marlena’s whereabouts. A woman claimed to have seen Marlena at a hair salon with one woman in her 30s and one in her 50s. The girl was calling for her mother, and when the concerned woman asked the young child her name, she thought the girl said “Marlena.” The girl was wearing different clothes than Marlena had been wearing when she was last seen, and the woman did not notice that the child had any caps on her teeth. The lead was investigated, but nothing came from it.

A little over a month after Marlena went missing, Pam Bailey was admitted to the hospital for depression and stress. During that time, Pam’s family hired a private investigator to help find out what happened to Marlena. In a startling twist, on June 8th, the private investigator received a confession from Pam Bailey shortly after she left the hospital that she had in fact killed Marlena. She said that she had hit the child in a fit of rage, accidentally knocking her into a table, and causing her to die. She said she then enlisted a man she had known for years from Martin Tennessee to help her dispose of the body in the Obion River.

Pam BaileySource: The Jackson Sun (Jackson, Tennessee) · 10 Apr 1988 — Pam Bailey
Source: The Jackson Sun (Jackson, Tennessee) · 10 Apr 1988

Authorities spent nearly a week dragging the north fork of the Obion River searching for Marlena’s body. A bone and a stained cloth were found about 4 miles downstream from where Pam claimed to have dumped the body. These items were sent to Nashville for testing, but no body was ever found. Pam was charged with second-degree murder and held on a $100,000 bond.

The man from Martin that Pam claimed helped her dispose of the body, P.L. Summers (who we will come back to later) denied in a press conference any involvement in Marlena’s disappearance. He sited that he went home after work on the day of the disappearance, and that his wife could attest to that fact. He did admit that he and his wife Ruth knew Pam Bailey, but hadn’t seen her in years. Summers was not charged for his alleged involvement.

On June 23rd, Pam recanted her confession claiming that she was “psychologically coerced” by the private investigator hired by her family. She mentioned that the confession came just days after her release from the hospital and that the meds she had been given changed her mood. Pam claimed that a man from Martin Tennessee (sound familiar?!) who sexually abused her as a child, asked her for sex in April, and when she refused, he kidnapped Marlena. While her lawyer Wayne Emmons declined to name the man Pam believed kidnapped her daughter, P.L. Summers took it upon himself to release another statement that he was not involved. Pam said she followed the kidnapper when he took Marlena to the same bridge she had earlier claimed she and Summers had dumped the body off of and and Summers said he could not have been in that area at that time.

Pam was later examined by a psychiatrist in Nashville and was declared sane and competent to stand trial. In exchange for waiving her right to a preliminary trial, Pam’s charge was reduced from murder to manslaughter. Authorities likely realized that without a body or physical evidence, the case would be hard to prosecute with the only evidence being Pam’s recanted confession. During this time, Pam’s father LaWade added more money to the reward, bringing the total reward up to $50,000. Pam, later free on bond, moved to Mayfield Kentucky to live with her parents.

On October 7th, 1987 a grand jury declined to indict Pam Bailey and no one has been charged since.

Almost exactly 15 years after Marlena Childress’ disappearance, on April 22nd, 2002, Pam Bailey stabbed her 12 year old son Casey Bailey. Police said she blindfolded her son, took him to a rural cemetery in Mayfield Kentucky, and stabbed him three times in the neck and shoulder. The boy was able to escape and residents across from the cemetery called to report the stabbing. Pam was arrested the next morning at a gas station and charged with attempted murder. Casey was released from the hospital into the custody of his father on April 23rd.

Pam Bailey entered an Alfred plea for 2nd degree assault. An an Alfred plea is a guilty plea where the defendant does not have to admit to guilt, but agrees that there is likely enough evidence for a conviction. Pam served a little less than the 10 year sentence she received at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley. Casey’s father, John Bailey, filed for divorce from Pam Bailey and received custody of Casey and his older brother. However, in later years, he advocated for the overturning of her conviction, citing that he did not think the case was properly investigated. In 2012, Union City police agreed to a forthcoming cold case investigation into Marlena Childress’ disappearance in light of Pam’s later charges.

Another person that later faced charges was P.L. Summers. In September of 1987, the same year that Marlena disappeared, Summers was charged with aggravated sexual battery for fondling a 9-year-old child in his backyard. Authorities claimed that this case had no connection with Marlena’s disappearance.

Couch Detective’s Thoughts

Marlena Childress - Age Progression (29)Source: NAMUS.gov — Marlena Childress - Age Progression (29)
Source: NAMUS.gov

In light of Pam Bailey’s later conviction, it’s hard to imagine that she was not in some way involved in Marlena’s disappearance. P.L. Summer’s later conviction for child molestation and Pam’s claim that he had abused her as a child bring some validity to the theory that he may have been involved. Citing his wife as an alibi brings in to question whether his wife would have been truthful about where he was that afternoon.

Whether Pam willingly gave Marlena to Summers or Summers took Marlena after pressuring Pam, with Pam’s ever-changing stories, it’s hard to tell what she really did and didn’t know. It is also possible that she was wholly a victim of losing her child, and this caused her so much stress that she later snapped and stabbed Casey. There have been many possible sightings of Marlena since her disappearance in 1987, but none have ever been confirmed.

Without knowing Marlena’s whereabouts, it’s hard to say whether or not her mother and/or P.L. Summers were involved, but it seems plausible that both parties knew more than they were letting on.

If you have any information on the disappearance of Marlena Childress, please contact the Obion County Sheriff's Department at 731-885-5832.