Teacher's body found 59 years ago

Deborah Manning, whose body was found July 5, 1983, along a county road between Chaffee and Delta, Mo., isn't the only Southeast Missouri woman whose family is marking a tragic -- and mysterious -- anniversary today.

Bonnie Huffman, a pretty, bespectacled 20-year-old schoolteacher, disappeared the evening of July 2, 1954.

Her car was found the next day, parked in the middle of Route N six miles from her home. On July 5, 1954, her badly decomposed body was found two miles away in an overgrown ditch along Route N just north of Delta, the Southeast Missourian reported.

Huffman was found curled up with her neck broken and her jaw dislocated.

Although police do not believe there is any connection between the two cases, the similarities go beyond the date the victims' bodies were discovered.

Like Huffman, Manning is believed to have been dumped in a ditch.

Reports from the time suggest Manning, then 27, was alive but badly wounded when her attacker shoved her into a small ditch next to County Road 249. Bloodstains found at the scene indicate she managed to climb out of the ditch and made her way onto the road before she died.

Sexual assault is suspected as a motive in both cases.

Huffman's shirt was torn, and her underwear were missing, although her body was too badly decomposed to yield conclusive autopsy results, the Southeast Missourian reported.

Bonnie Huffman

Manning's body was found nude, with several stab wounds, and a detective with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department said she was known as the kind of person who would fight back if someone attempted to rape her.

"It was believed it was a sexual assault gone bad -- turned into a homicide," Lt. David James said. "...I think [her] sisters would tell you that Deborah Manning was a fighter, and if someone was trying to rape her, she would fight them."

Despite the similarities, James said the 29-year gap between the two cases makes any link unlikely.

He said investigators haven't dismissed the possibility that Manning's death could have been the work of a serial killer, and they occasionally communicate with other departments investigating similar cases.

So far, no evidence has turned up to suggest the murder was connected to any others.

"Just because you have similar homicides doesn't mean they're connected, because how many ways can you kill somebody and dump a body?" James said.

Still, investigators would like to close both cases, and they are asking anyone with information about Huffman, Manning or any other unsolved homicide to call the sheriff's department at 243-3551.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent addresses:

Route N, north of Delta, Mo.

County Road 249 between Chaffee and Delta, Mo.