Case Details
- Photo URLs:
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- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 12/27/1974
- Missing From:
- Missing From Youngstown, Ohio
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Female
- Race:
- Race White
- Date of Birth:
- Date of Birth 06/24/1953 (71)
- Age:
- Age 21 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 5’5 – 5’8, 120 – 140 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Clothing/Jewelry Description A green leather jacket, a black shirt, a blue tie, blue jeans and tan shoes.
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown/green eyes. Coughlin may wear eyeglasses or contact lenses. Her hair was cut short at the time of her disappearance.
- Details of Disappearance:
- On December 27, 1974, Mary Coughlin disappeared from Youngstown, Ohio. She was last seen supposedly going to a health spa, but never met her boyfriend later that night as planned.
Her family, who were very close, last saw her on Christmas Day. Her niece doubts she actually went to the spa, as the signature on the spa’s sign-in sheet didn’t look like hers.
Coughlin’s car, a 1968 Ford Fairlane (license plate H4482G), was also missing. Only a suitcase, hairdryer, and bathing suit were gone from her apartment. She’d recently received a $3,400 settlement from a car accident.
Four days later, a woman tried to withdraw money from Coughlin’s bank account, but her signature didn’t match and the teller didn’t recognize her as Coughlin. This woman claimed to have gotten the bank book from two men involved in the local drug scene, Robert Shughart and Howard Rodriguez. Shughart was already a suspect in several murders.
Police questioned Shughart and Rodriguez, but they denied involvement. Shughart claimed Rodriguez stole Coughlin’s things from a drug party. They were released. Police believe Coughlin might have known them through her former boyfriend, a heroin user, who had introduced her to the drug scene.
Police didn’t charge the woman who tried to use Coughlin’s bank account, hoping she might provide more information. There were also reports of a screaming woman being forced into a truck near some quarries the night Coughlin disappeared, but it couldn’t be confirmed as her.
Authorities believe Coughlin was likely robbed and murdered, her body disposed of in a quarry near the Pennsylvania border, though searches haven’t found anything.
Coughlin, an aspiring actress, was declared legally dead in 1985. Her case remains unsolved.
- Agency:
- Youngstown Police Department 330-742-6921
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 12/27/1974