During the early morning hours of Oct. 1, 2006, a young married mother of two from Wheeling, W. Va., disappeared from a friend’s house in Martins Ferry, Ohio, and has not been seen since. The only person who may have answers in the case is now dead, leading family members to wonder whether their loved one’s disappearance will ever be solved.
In the months leading up to her disappearance, 24-year-old Kristen Anderson had experienced a nightmarish series of confrontational, sometimes violent, altercations with her estranged husband, James Anderson. According to Kristen’s brother, Ed Edwards, James demanded full control of his wife’s life. He was known to use password protection to block her from using the family computer and would often limit the time she could spend with friends or family members.
The incidents grew in severity over time, resulting in Kristen finally moving out of her home in September 2006 and into a friend’s apartment. Nonetheless, the move did not come without its own problems. Whenever Kristen had left in the past, James had threatened to turn her in for abusing her children, a charge her family says was a threat without any merit.
When James found out where Kristen was, he showed up at the apartment every day and pleaded to no avail for his wife to return home. Kristen was through with the abuse and fed up with his lies.
At around 1:00 a.m. on Oct. 1, James showed up for what would be the final confrontation with his wife. What happened between them remains unclear; however, at approximately 2:00 a.m., Kristen’s roommate heard them involved in a loud verbal exchange. A short time later, Kristen’s 5-year-old son woke up crying for his mother. The roommate went downstairs to check on him, and Kristen was nowhere to be found, but her personal effects — purse, wallet and cigarettes — were still lying on the counter. The only thing missing was her cell phone.
Kristen’s mother, Mary Dailey, tried to file a missing person report with police later that morning, but the police department said that it had not been 24 hours since Kristen had been seen, so they couldn’t do anything about it. Undeterred, Mary knew something was wrong. She was well aware of the abusive situation her daughter had been in with James, so she contacted Ohio news station WTRF. They in turn tried to get the police involved, but they were also told that 24 hours would have to pass before anything could be done.
When police finally brought James in for questioning, he was inconsistent in his version of events, but with no evidence and little information to go on, police were forced to let him go.
Convinced James was responsible for Kristen’s disappearance, the family questioned him and his story kept changing the more times he told it. In one instance, he said he went to the apartment at 11:30 p.m., and then in another he would say 12:30 a.m. In one breath he would say they argued and then in another he would say they got along well and just "talked."
The stories he told didn’t add up, and Mary decided to do some investigating of her own. When she talked to the manager at the apartment complex, she learned they had surveillance camera tapes from the night Kristen disappeared. Mary immediately contacted the police, and when they obtained the footage, they discovered it contained chilling evidence: James Anderson carrying a bag of clothes out of the apartment and throwing them into his car. It then showed him carrying Kristen’s lifeless body out of the apartment and throwing her into his trunk.
Shortly after the video was shown, Kristen’s family members spoke with her 5-year-old son, who claimed he was at his dad’s house the morning following his mom’s disappearance. He said when he walked into the living room, he saw his mother sitting on the couch, but she did not talk to him. He also said she felt cold when he touched her.
While the police determined their next move, Kristen’s uncle decided to question James again. James once again told a completely different story, claiming he had given Kristen $500 and sent her to Florida. Kristen’s uncle was unconvinced but left with plans of returning later.
When Kristen’s uncle returned, he knew something was wrong. One of James’ friends was standing in the front yard, obviously shaken. When Kristen’s uncle went into the house, he discovered James had taken a shotgun and shot himself in the head, but not before allegedly bragging to his friend that he had murdered his wife and that her body would never be found.
Shortly after James’ death, police interviewed a prostitute from Wheeling who told them that James had offered to pay her to help him dispose of evidence, including his wife’s body. He allegedly said that he had a garage that he owned in East Wheeling and that he needed help burying his wife in cement next to the garage.
Police did, in fact, find that James Anderson owned a garage and that there was a fresh patch of cement next to the building, but cadaver dogs did not pick up any scent and the cement was left undisturbed. The dogs did, however, pick up a scent on a shovel found in James’ van, but according to the family it was not impounded and later towed to a junkyard.
One nagging circumstance continues to bother Kristen’s brother, Ed: He saw a large metal barrel beside his sister’s house next to the river before she went missing, and the barrel disappeared shortly thereafter. He now wonders if James could have put his sister in the barrel and dumped it in the Ohio River.
Anyone with information in Kristen Anderson’s disappearance should contact the Martins Ferry Police Department at +1-740-633-2121.