It was a cold, clear night in January 2022. I had been to Philadelphia and was on my way home. As I passed the Pearl River Resort Casino, I saw several police cars on the right side of the road with their lights on. Nothing unusual for a Saturday night.As I got a little further down the highway, I passed a figure dressed in dark colored clothing walking alone on the right side of the road. Although they had on a jacket with a hoodie, I determined from the shape of their body it was likely a woman.
"0h my goodness," I thought. "It is so cold outside they are probably about to freeze", and then I thought about the lady in Meridian that froze to death under a bridge.
"I don't pick up hitch-hikers," I reminded myself, but as I got a little further down the road, I checked the temperature: 28 degrees. I wondered at what degree a person freezes to death, so I ask Siri.
At 50 degrees and under a human can get hypothermia and die, but under 32 is freezing.
I decided to turn my car around and check on them. At first I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't see them anywhere and I surmised that someone had picked them up, but a little further down the road there they were.
I had a dilemma. Should I pick them up or not. I decided if it was a girl I would give them a ride, and if not, I could at least see if there was someone I could call for them.
Although her head was shaved, I determined it was a girl, so I asked her why she was walking on such a cold night, and she said she had gone to sleep on the bathroom floor at the casino and they had kicked her out.
I told her to get in the car and asked her where she needed to go. She said Bogue Chitto and I asked where that was. Wiping tears from her eyes, she gave me some kind of vague directions and I decided I would not drive there that time of night, but instead would take her home with me.
I asked her name and she told me it was Cherokee Bell.My nephew Justin was there and so was my friend Arlie so I felt it would be safe to take her to the house.
Before I went to town, I had cooked a big pot of chicken-n-dumplings so when we got home, I fixed her a warm bowl of dumplings and she ate it like she was really hungry, and I knew the warmth was helping her defrost.
She asked if she could she have another bowl and I said, "Sure." Then she said, "You are the mother I never had."
If you know me, you know I like to talk so that opened up the conversation, and the first thing I wanted to know was why she was walking down the road on a freezing night and no one from her family had come to pick her up.
TERRY BELL, A RETAIL SUPERVISOR AT PEARL RIVER RESORT,
DIED FROM STAB WOUNDS DURING A FIGHT WITH HIS SISTER.
She then proceeded to tell me that she had manslaughter charges pending against her because she and her brother had been drinking one night and got into a fight. He was beating on her, so she stabbed him with a knife, and he died. After that she said her mother and the rest of her family would not have anything to do with her, and that she currently lived with her cousin.
I could tell from our conversation that she felt remorse about her brother so I told her, "We all make mistakes and God can forgive you and wipe the slate clean."
As we settled into more conversation, she asked me what I did for a living, and I told her I was an insurance agent.
Then she mentioned a nice woman she knew of that use to go and visit the prisoners at the Neshoba County jail, but her following words blew me out of the water.
"You remind me of that missing white woman.(she did not say which white woman). My cousin killed her, and I just think it is horrible to kill someone for money."
Although I felt some apprehension, I had two able bodied men at my house and one of them had a big gun, so I felt safe letting her spend the night on my couch.
I wanted to question her some more, but when I got up the next morning she was gone.
I called the Neshoba County Sheriff's department so see if they knew of a missing white woman and they said no.
I immediately started searching google for a missing white woman from Neshoba County but could not find anyone. Then I went to Facebook and searched for a missing white woman.
I pulled up a post of a woman missing from Kemper County, the next county over, named Molly Ruth Netherland."When I saw Molly's picture, she had short blonde hair like mine, and although she was older, I could see a resemblance. I felt in my gut this was the missing white woman Cherokee Bell was talking about.
I looked on a map and found Bogue Chitto (although Cherokee never said which cousin murdered the missing woman),and saw that it was not far from where Molly disappeared.
I surmised that if a person went from Bogue Chitto to Meridian they would likely take the back road, Highway 495 South, the road Molly disappeared on.
On Thursday, September 2, 2021, Seventy-Nine-year-old dementia patient, Molly Ruth Netherland, disappeared from her Kemper County home, never to be heard from again.
Molly was last seen around 6:30 pm sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of her Old Jackson Road home, enjoying a cool breeze, a quiet country view, and an Almond, chocolate-covered, vanilla, Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar. Next to her chair was a basket she put collectibles in, such as rocks and sticks.
Molly's sister, Ginger McKee, was busy inside finishing up the laundry. Around 7:15 Ginger went out on the porch to check on Molly, but Molly was gone. Ginger figured she had walked down the 1/2 mile long, winding, dirt driveway looking for sticks and stones and anything else she might find for her basket of collectibles.
Ginger waited and waited and when Molly did not return, she took her car and went to look for her, but could not find her so they called the Sheriff and reported her missing.
"The Sheriff's Department did everything they could possibly do to find her including Thermal cameras, a helicopter, Sonar, and search and rescue teams, all to no avail.
The best lead came from a tracking dog that followed her scent to the end of the driveway, right onto Old Jackson Road, and then South on Highway 495 toward Meridian.
According to Sheriff Moore the dog followed her scent for 15 miles, all the way to the Lauderdale County line. The tracking dog can track a person's scent whether they are on foot of in a vehicle. It is believed that she was picked up by someone in a vehicle.
Over the last week she had talked about going to Pascagoula, her former home place, to look for some papers. In her demented state she would have been confused and easily fooled.
Kim Turner, one of Molly's stepdaughters says, "Molly was always busy doing something and used to drive an Asbestos x-ray truck across the country doing x-rays. My dad, Gary Crawford was from Sandtown and when he passed in August of 2020 Molly didn't' want to be by herself so she moved to Kemper County to live with her sister Ginger."
Crystal Gale Crawford, another one of Molly's stepdaughters says, "Molly did not have any money or ID on her when she went missing. I took care of Molly and my father for a long time and continued to take care of Molly after my father, Gary Crawford passed away. I cry myself to sleep every night. If you find her, please mention the name Gary Crawford and tell her we love her."
It is hard enough to lose a loved one, but to have them missing and not know if they are dead or alive or where they are is sheer torture.
Molly is a white female with short, gray hair, 5'5", 125 lbs, blue eyes last seen wearing white jogging pants, a white shirt, crocks and a dark colored sweatshirt.
Whether Molly was the missing woman Cherokee Bell was talking about or someone else, her story led me to this sweet, wonderful woman who has been missing for too long, and needs to be found. Please pray for the family.
If you have information leading to Molly's whereabouts or info that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone that may have abducted or harmed her, you can leave tips with: Muddy Mississippi Justice at 601-745-6276 or 601-842-7461 or email us at MuddyMississippiJustice@gmail.com.
Also, you can reach The Kemper County Sheriff's Department: 601-743-2255 or Crime Stoppers: 855-485-8477.
There is a $5,000 dollar reward being offered.
