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‘Whole Again’: Family prepares to lay murder victim to rest after 35 years

Photo by Evan Bevins Mary Brown, left, and daughter Angela Kelly are shown in Brown’s residence on Dec. 4. The body of Leslie Diane Marty, Brown’s daughter and Kelly’s sister, will be laid to rest following a funeral on Tuesday. Marty was kidnapped and murdered in 1983 by ex-boyfriend Mark Hanna.

PARKERSBURG — Leslie Diane Marty will finally be laid to rest Tuesday.

The 20-year-old daughter, sister and mother disappeared in the summer of 1983 after being taken, at gunpoint, from her boyfriend’s apartment by her ex-boyfriend, Mark Hanna.

Nearly two years later Hanna was convicted of kidnapping Marty and sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. Thirteen years after that, he was convicted of her murder and received another life sentence, this one without mercy.

Through all that time, Marty’s mother, Mary Brown, and sister, Angela Kelly, never held a funeral.

“We just couldn’t go there,” said Brown, who still lives in the area.

Photo provided by Mary Brown Leslie Diane Marty

On Nov. 7, an FBI evidence recovery team, working with the Parkersburg Police Department and Washington County Sheriff’s Office, found Marty’s remains in the former Shell Chemical Employees Park, now Kraton Employees Park, off Washington Boulevard in Belpre. Earlier this year, Hanna reached out to Charleston television station WCHS and revealed the location to them in an interview. Police announced the recovery of the body on Dec. 3.

“We feel like we’re whole again,” Brown said in an interview at her home. “Our family is whole again.”

As part of the effort to care for Marty’s son, who was 5 when his mother disappeared, the family had her legally declared dead in 1991.

But it was harder to reach that conclusion in their hearts.

It wasn’t until about five years ago that Brown finally sold the house Leslie grew up in, on 45th Street in Parkersburg.

“That was our home. That’s the only place she would know to come to, if she was available,” Brown said. “It was after I sold the house … that I could tell people that I have two daughters and one of them is no longer with us.”

Kelly, who was 13 when her sister was taken and now lives in New Concord, Ohio, said she logically knew her sister was gone long ago, but it only fully sank in when police told her they recovered the remains. She recalled texting her husband to tell him the news.

“I hit send, and I sobbed,” Kelly said. “That was it. There was no possibility of her coming back.”

Although her daughter was convinced, Brown wanted the identity of the remains confirmed by an autopsy.

“I still needed the scientific proof that it was her before I would buy into another one of his antics,” she said.

Hanna had made overtures before about revealing where he’d hidden Marty’s body, but Brown said there were often strings attached.

“It’s just been basically on and off for 35 years,” she said. “He’ll say, yes, he’ll tell, but he wants this.”

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure has said authorities were reluctant to make any kind of deal with Hanna over the years, and Brown said she supported their decisions 100 percent.

“We don’t want him to have the chance of being out, to have the chance to do the same thing to someone else’s family member,” Brown said.

Former Wood County Prosecutor Harry Deitzler, who prosecuted the kidnapping case against Hanna and returned as a special assistant prosecutor for the murder trial, corresponded with Hanna semi-regularly for nearly 20 years. In their communications, he asked the man to reveal the burial site not to gain any sort of advantage for himself, but to provide some measure of closure for Marty’s family.

Hanna told Deitzler in the letters that he’d buried Marty in Washington County, but never provided the specific location.

On Tuesday, Brown, Kelly and other family and friends will gather to honor and remember Marty.

“She was an awesome sister,” Kelly said. Her son “was her world.”

“She would protect anybody,” Brown said. “And if she was your friend, she was your friend … regardless.

“I can only imagine what she would be doing now, if she was here,” Brown continued. “It would be something awesome.”

Marty was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Hanna, which is why the family is suggesting donations to the Family Crisis Intervention Center in her memory in lieu of flowers.

Family Crisis Intervention Center

“If you find yourself in a bad, dangerous relationship, contact the authorities … seek safety somewhere,” Kelly said.

“We hope that someone will be able to benefit from this,” Brown said.

***

Family Crisis Intervention Center

* 24 HOUR HOTLINE: 1-800-794-2335 or 304-428-2333 — provides information, referrals, crisis intervention, peer counseling and emotional support.

* TO DONATE: FCIC, P.O. Box 695, Parkersburg, WV 26101

* WEBSITE: http://www.fcichaven.org — if you visit the site and use it to contact the FCIC seeking help, be sure that it is with an email address only you can access.

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