Mary Ann Perez

[Steffromquebec73]

Hello! I haven't posted on this message board in a looong time!

Anyways, I watched a segment on TV the other day. It's about a woman named Mary Ann Perez from New-Orleans, who went out to a Country music bar one night in the late 70's and vanished. Her car was found in the bar's parking lot; her purse with all of her ID's and money were eventually found in a lake.

A few years after a woman called her daughter-in-law's house and told her that Mary Ann was still alive but that she wasn't allowed to come on the phone. Also, a killer in a prison in another state apparently confessed that he and his wife murdered her, but since her body was never found it's hard to put much credence on what that guy said.

This is one creepy segment! Has her family ever got to know what happened to Mary Ann??

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by Steffromquebec73

Hello! I haven't posted on this message board in a looong time!

Anyways, I watched a segment on TV the other day. It's about a woman named Mary Ann Perez from New-Orleans, who went out to a Country music bar one night in the late 70's and vanished. Her car was found in the bar's parking lot; her purse with all of her ID's and money were eventually found in a lake.

A few years after a woman called her daughter-in-law's house and told her that Mary Ann was still alive but that she wasn't allowed to come on the phone. Also, a killer in a prison in another state apparently confessed that he and his wife murdered her, but since her body was never found it's hard to put much credence on what that guy said.

This is one creepy segment! Has her family ever got to know what happened to Mary Ann??

Welcome back! I've never heard any further about what happened to Mary Ann Perez. The serial killer seemed to know quite a bit of info about her so I tend to think (even though serial killers sometimes have a tendency to confess to killing tons of people) that he is telling the truth. As to why her body was never found, I'm wondering if she could have regained consciousness, briefly, and wandered off where she later died and her body is still out there somewhere. Of course too bad they can't find out that "kook" who called her family and gave them false hope, imo, so they can throw the book at her.

[Blackout]

about to watch this one again

[Zlatko]

Sad case. I have a couple of things to say.

I find it very hard to believe that she's still alive regardless of what the anonymous caller said. One of her relatives suggested that she was being choked by the serial killer but managed to escape. As a result of being choked, she suffered from amnesia. That seems very unlikely. It's been about thirty years since she's disappeared and she still hasn't turned up. I do believe that the serial killer and his wife killed Mary Ann but her remains have yet to be found. Louisiana has a lot of swamp land, so her body could have been dumped somewhere like that.

[Mastermind]

I find it very hard to believe that she's still alive regardless of what the anonymous caller said. One of her relatives suggested that she was being choked by the serial killer but managed to escape. As a result of being choked, she suffered from amnesia. That seems very unlikely. It's been about thirty years since she's disappeared and she still hasn't turned up. I do believe that the serial killer and his wife killed Mary Ann but her remains have yet to be found. Louisiana has a lot of swamp land, so her body could have been dumped somewhere like that.

1. Till her body is found, the possibility of her being alive can't be ruled out.

2. Keep in mind that we are taking the word of a deranged serial killer, who he himself cannot fully identitfy her as the victim. Killing is no problem for him, how hard is it for him to lie? For all we know he may have thouht he could gets some leniency if he identifies a missing woman. It is quite possble that Mary was never Courtney's victim, period.

3. If Mary isn;t the victim of Courtney, there may be other possibilities to her disappearance. There are two scenrios were she could be alive.
a. She staged her own disappearance and is living in Mexico
b. She is suffereing from amnesia or some other mental handicap.
c. Some form of Stockholm Syndrome took place after a kidnapping and she has stayed with her abducter. (least likely scenario)

[Zlatko]

Originally Posted by Mastermind

1. Till her body is found, the possibility of her being alive can't be ruled out.

2. Keep in mind that we are taking the word of a deranged serial killer, who he himself cannot fully identitfy her as the victim. Killing is no problem for him, how hard is it for him to lie? For all we know he may have thouht he could gets some leniency if he identifies a missing woman. It is quite possble that Mary was never Courtney's victim, period.

3. If Mary isn;t the victim of Courtney, there may be other possibilities to her disappearance. There are two scenrios were she could be alive.
a. She staged her own disappearance and is living in Mexico
b. She is suffereing from amnesia or some other mental handicap.
c. Some form of Stockholm Syndrome took place after a kidnapping and she has stayed with her abducter. (least likely scenario)

1. This is true. But I still have my doubts.
2. One cannot just accept Courtney's word; I agree. But he did claim that he killed her and Perez hasn't been seen since. There's something to that. I don't think he would gain much from identifying her as his victim. If anything, he would receive further punishment.
3. If she did stage her own disappearance, we would have to find some motives. The UM segment didn't have any mention of her wanting to leave her family.

[mattc]

One of the things I remember most about this episode was how heartbreaking it was to watch one of her daughters, who seemed to be totally heartbroken about this, and kept saying she had hope up until the end. Very very sad and disturbing case... all b/c a hard-working, single mom just wanted to have a night out on the town with a friend. Makes you kind of sick really.

[Shahla]

In the segment the daughter says that between 10 and 11 Mary Ann called to say she will be home shortly. But instead another woman calls hours later (1.30 in the morning) to tell that Mary Ann has car trouble and will come home soon.
Nobody knows that female caller, there was no car trouble so obvious this was a lie.
Probably in an attempt to buy time:
1. in case the family would be worried already and report her missing.
2. so that they would have enough time to hide the body and out of the area before cops would drive around to search for Mary Ann
Another point about that late call is that the serial killer did not act alone. He had a participating wife. So therefor I do think they at least had Mary Ann for a couple of hours and the wife made the call.
Maybe Mary Ann said something about her family being worried if she would not show up. In an attempt to get away from this couple. That brought the couple to the idea of calling.

I do not think Mary Ann is alive today because:
1. I have never heard of a mother that let her daughter babysit, go out first, call home later to say she will be home soon and then decide to start a new life on her own. That doesn't sound logical to me.
2. both the killer and his wife claim that they lure Mary Ann into the car and later kill her. And they did know details about the case.

I also think the call years later about a captive Mary Ann sounds strange. Not genuine. It is highly unlikely to held a person captive for fifteen years. (Íf other people abducted her.) And if the words spoken by the female caller in the UM segment are accurate and correct reinacted then it is weird to say 'I don't understand why you don't want to help her' and immediately thereafter hanging up. It just does not ad up.

Another point: the body is never found and all other victims of David Courtney are. It is possible he had made more victims that he never spoke of because nobody asked him who have been never found.
And sometimes a body won't be found because wild animals spread parts of the body. I am sure there are more explanations.

For the family it would be good if they could bury her and have a place to lay flowers. For them I hope she will be found.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Shahla

I also think the call years later about a captive Mary Ann sounds strange. Not genuine. It is highly unlikely to held a person captive for fifteen years. (Íf other people abducted her.) And if the words spoken by the female caller in the UM segment are accurate and correct reinacted then it is weird to say 'I don't understand why you don't want to help her' and immediately thereafter hanging up. It just does not ad up.

Good post. I always thought these phone calls were so dumb. "I don't understand why you don't want to help her"....well maybe if you stayed on the line for more than two seconds you stupid b----!

I have to think she encountered some manner of foul play. She could have been murdered by the serial killer who confessed. I just don't buy that she is alive all these years later.

[Shahla]

Exactly, if you have just one chance to seek help for Mary Ann you do not say such a sentence and immediately hang up after that. This sounds more like a revenge call. Someone who had some beef with the direct family of Mary Ann. Someone they know by voice and that's why that person did not call them but another person in the family. If this had been a genuine call that person would try and try to get help. Would have given directions to where they were and other relevant details. Anything. Would have taken all the time she had to make that 'sneaky' call. No, this was done to hurt the family and for no other reason. It would be a good thing if they catch that person because this kind of calls should be punished.

Fifteen years is a too long time to be captive. I remember only one case where a person was held longer than that, for 24 years, and that was done by a familymember. Not a random person.

[icomeinpeace]

Originally Posted by Shahla

Exactly, if you have just one chance to seek help for Mary Ann you do not say such a sentence and immediately hang up after that. This sounds more like a revenge call. Someone who had some beef with the direct family of Mary Ann. Someone they know by voice and that's why that person did not call them but another person in the family. If this had been a genuine call that person would try and try to get help. Would have given directions to where they were and other relevant details. Anything. Would have taken all the time she had to make that 'sneaky' call. No, this was done to hurt the family and for no other reason. It would be a good thing if they catch that person because this kind of calls should be punished.

Fifteen years is a too long time to be captive. I remember only one case where a person was held longer than that, for 24 years, and that was done by a familymember. Not a random person.

I don't believe that Mary Ann is alive, either. I think the killer was telling the truth, and her body just hasn't been found for whatever reason. The call sounded like a crank call to me, kind of like that phone call saying that woman from Omaha was still alive, when really she'd died during an abortion.

However, it's not beyond the realm of possibility for someone to be kept captive, even by a stranger. Jaycee Dugard was kept for 18 years.

[Shahla]

You're right about the Jaycee Lee Dugard case. That was indeed more than 18 years. Bút, in all the cases where women are captive for that long they were used as sex slaves. They were abducted at a young age. As children or in their young adult lifes (18 or 19 years old) and in this case we talk about a grown older woman. Usually not the preferred age for that kind of predators. Another argument of which I think it is not possible she was held captive for that amount of time.

[Apostapler]

Yes, I believe that the guy that confessed to killing her did do it. Strange they didn't find the body but not that unusual, depending on where exactly it was left and the environment/predators/etc. Whoever made those phone calls had a cruel sense of humor.

[icomeinpeace]

Originally Posted by Apostapler

Yes, I believe that the guy that confessed to killing her did do it. Strange they didn't find the body but not that unusual, depending on where exactly it was left and the environment/predators/etc. Whoever made those phone calls had a cruel sense of humor.

Considering that the confessed killer and his wife were drunk or on drugs or whatever, it doesn't surprise me that the body wasn't found. And the phone call smacked of a crank call to me. Didn't the caller say something like, "Why aren't you trying to find her?" What purpose would that serve? Just to be cruel and make somebody feel guilty, is what I think.

[mattc]

Originally Posted by icomeinpeace

Considering that the confessed killer and his wife were drunk or on drugs or whatever, it doesn't surprise me that the body wasn't found. And the phone call smacked of a crank call to me. Didn't the caller say something like, "Why aren't you trying to find her?" What purpose would that serve? Just to be cruel and make somebody feel guilty, is what I think.

I agree; this is perhaps the most heartbreaking case ever profiled on UM,, at least for me. First of all, the children of Mary Ann seem so sweet and lovely, and it's horrible to think that they had to suffer without a mother all this time.

I think the thing that makes me lose hope that she might be found is that her purse was found weighted down with a brick in the lake. Obviously, she met with foul play because that would not have been done for any reason other than to hide evidence (and I'm positive Mary Ann did not intentionally run away).

The only question is: Did David Courtney do it, and did Mary Ann die? I am not sure he did it, b/c his details were sketchy (met a woman at a bar and she was tipsy)...that's very general. Plus the body wasn't found where he claimed it would be.

At the same time, I do think she is dead, and I wish that her body could be found so that her family could have some peace!!!

You have to wonder why this type of crap happens to such great people.