Essie Margarette Hiett

• Missing Since 02/13/1978
• Missing From Oroville, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 11/18/1930 (95)
• Age 47 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5, 130 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A green blouse with a female's face imprinted on the front, a tan naugahyde jacket, white pants, pantyhose, white shoes, a Timex watch with a white metal extension band and a blue face, sterling silver earrings, and a white gold wedding ring set, which included an engagement ring with five imbedded stones and a wedding band with six imbedded stones; the total weight of the gems in the set is one karat.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Brown 1975 Oldsmobile Toronado (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Graying brown hair, green eyes. Hiett has pierced ears. She has a half-moon-shaped scar on her right temple near her hairline and has surgical scars on both of her legs as the result of a varicose vein removal operation. She wears a full set of dentures and wears eyeglasses with photo gray lenses. Her nickname is are Marge. She may use the alias names Margarette Bassart, Margie Mann and/or Margarette Steele.

Details of Disappearance

Hiett worked as a waitress and bartender at a card room downtown Oroville, California. After leaving work on February 13, 1978, she stopped at Rusty Jack's Bar to tell her friends goodbye because she and her husband were about to take a trip out of state to visit relatives. She was last seen leaving Rusty Jack's Bar, driving her brown 1975 Oldsmobile Toronado.

Hiett apparently never arrived home. She disappeared between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. and has never been heard from again. An hour and a half later, her vehicle was found wrecked and abandoned in a ditch along Palermo-Honeycut Road, less than a mile from her home.

Her jacket, still wet from the rain, was inside the car. Her purse was missing. Her clothes and personal belongings were scattered on the ground at the scene of the crash, and her pants were under a wheel, as if someone had tried to use them to gain traction in the mud. One of her shoes was floating in a nearby pond. There was no sign of her.

In 2015, authorities announced Marvin Gail Owens was a possible suspect in Hiett's case. Early that year he was charged with the murder of his wife, Deborah Owens, who disappeared in November 1978 and was never located. A photo of Marvin is posted with this case summary. In mid-March 2015, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, admitting he "snapped" and strangled Deborah to death. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Deborah and Hiett disappeared in the same year and had mutual friends, which is what lead the police to think Marvin could have been involved in both cases. He was eventually ruled out as a suspect in Hiett's case. Investigators do have another person of interest in Hiett's disappearance, however.

None of Hiett's credit cards were ever used after her disappearance. She has never been found and her case remains unsolved.