Family Renews Call For Help In Woman’s Disappearance After Nearly A Year, Family Concedes Foul Play May Be Involved

Family members of a woman missing since last May have broken their public silence by conceding that 74-yearold Hazel Martin may never be found alive.

“Up until now, I think we were waiting (for her return),” Paula Frazier, one of Martin’s four grandchildren, said Tuesday.

“But now, it’s been too long.”

Frazier said that two pillows and two bed sheets found last year during searches for Martin belonged to her grandmother. The items figure heavily, she said, in the family’s resignation that Martin is a victim of foul play.

Authorities have been waiting for the results of DNA testing on the bedding items before positively identifying them as belonging to Martin. There had been speculation that the items might be little more than debris from last year’s floods.

“The pillows are hers. The sheets are hers,” Frazier said. She said she and other family members recognized them.

Frazier said family members recently drafted a letter and are releasing it to local media in hopes of keeping the case in the public arena.

The letter revisits circumstances surrounding the May 17, 1996, disappearance and reminds people that a $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to resolution of the case.

“There is someone who saw something that night,” the letter states. “Maybe you witnessed or heard something.”

Martin was last seen at a Friday night card party at the Princeton Grange Hall. The next morning, a family member arrived at her home along state Highway 6 about 10 a.m. The drapes were drawn and the morning newspaper was stuck in the door. There was no sign of Martin and no sign of a struggle, but her purse and glasses were in the house.

“The only things missing were both sheets and both pillows,” the letter states.