When her family moved a few miles farther north, to the Torresdale section of the city, she continued to attend Lincoln and kept in touch with her friends in Mayfair.

Candy, as her friends called her, was 16 in 1968, and was in the 11th grade at school. In March of that year, she was looking forward to the summer vacation in three months.

On Saturday night, March 9th, 1968, she left her house in Torresdale, to visit with her boyfriend at the gas station where he worked in Mayfair.

A Similar Case

Maps

She never arrived.

A five week nightmare was in store for her family.

There was no sign of Candace Clothier. No clues were found as to her whereabouts. No ideas as to what happened to her. Until five weeks later...

When they first arrived, it was still dark. They noticed something on the shore of an island just downstream. But being there for the trout, the men did not bother to investigate.

Around 7:00 am, it started to get light and the men saw that the object on the island was some kind of big bag, and decided to look inside.

What they saw sent them running to the police. It was a human body.

Body Found at Arrow

The body was quite decomposed. So much so, that at first it could not be determined to be male or female. Apparently, the person had been dead for some time. Partly because of the poor condition of the body, there were no obvious signs as to the cause of death. Police took the body to a nearby hospital for an autopsy.

The body had been found nude except for panties and a "stocking" wrapped around her head. The "stocking" proved to really be a yellow sweater. The similarity of the sweater to one that Candace had worn the night she disappeared led police to the Clothier family. The next day, Elmer Clothier, her father, and Susan, her sister, identified the body. Later, a dental check with the family dentist confirmed her identity.

For the next few days, neighboring police departments and Boy Scouts joined in to search the creek and shoreline for clues. In the next days, some of her clothes were found. A piece of her underclothes was found upstream, between the bridge she was found near and the "Chain Bridge", the next bridge upstream.

It was suggested that her body was dumped off the "Chain Bridge", because none of her clothes were found upsteam from there. This bridge carries Rte. 232 across the Neshaminy Creek and is about 1½ miles upstream from where the body was found.

The water level of the creek, for the 5 weeks she was missing, was examined in the hopes of determining how far the body could have drifted.

The autopsy had been inconclusive as to the cause of her death. There were no signs of stab or bullet wounds. There was no sign of strangulation. She was tested for traces of poison, drugs and alcohol. Yet there were no conclusions.

The body had a fracture of the collarbone and a rib. The coroner determined that these were caused after her death. Probably from being dropped off a bridge or as the water carried it downstream.

It was suggested that there was a struggle because a few strands of hair were found in her hand. After ten days of analysis, it was reported that while 5 of the 6 hairs were Candy's (4-5 inches long and dark brown), ONE of the six was 13 inches long, light brown and of a different texture. It was probably from her attacker.

Around 8pm, she left her house saying goodbye to her sister. Elmer and Evelyn, her parents, had already left for a night out.

It is supposed that Candy walked across the supermarket parking lot down the street from her house. It was a shortcut to the avenue. It was dark, and the supermarket would be closed on Saturday night, but just on the other side of the lot was the bus stop. Then the Rte. 66 bus would carry her all the way to Levick St. and the boyfriend.

The boyfriend claimed Candy never showed up. After some questioning, the police decided the boy was not involved in her disappearance.

One theory has it that Candy never even got on the bus. Drivers were questioned and none reported her boarding their bus. This theory holds that she never made it through the parking lot. That she was abducted in the dark supermarket lot, no more than a few hundred feet from her home.

Then, one evening in August, 1968, five months after her disappearance, Elmer, at the age of 49, died.

He was a Phila. fireman. That night he drove to the fire station for his regular shift, and died in his car outside the station. Rescue workers from his own company tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at Frankford Hospital.

Investigator Eugene McNulty with the Medical Examiner's Office said the death did not appear to be suspicious, but appeared to be from natural causes. He did not know whether there would be an autopsy.

April 4^th, 1968 - Eight days before Candy's body was found, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.

June 5^th, 1968 - Just three weeks after she was found, Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Candace's murder has taken investigators as far as Hawaii, to give a lie-detector test to an inmate, and to an interview with infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy.

March 2003 - This case remains unsolved.