Something Wicked (Part 1)

Something Wicked This Way Comes was written by Ray Bradbury in 1963. It tells the story of teenaged boys, who are enticed by a traveling carnival that comes to their town. It's a nightmarish experience, and both of the boys must learn to combat their own fear, and make it out of the fantasy Mr. Dark has created for them. Mr. Dark seemingly holds the power to grant the deepest desires of his patrons, and that draws his victims to him, allowing him to take over their lives and their bodies. In the end, the hero not only survives, but is able to save others. The novel was born in the imagination of a young boy, enthralled by a magician in a traveling carnival show. Far too often, and for reasons we will never understand, life imitates art, people go missing. Lifeless bodies are found in deserted places, or never found at all. What happens when something wicked comes your way? Would you know what to do?

Daisy Bell Marshall

Daisy Bell Marshall was forty-six years old the June day in 1993, when she was last seen alive. Daisy was five feet, six inches of blonde-topped feisty. Her blue eyes shined at the mention of her loved ones, and one could immediately see the storm clouds in her eyes when she was angry. Daisy was a bartender at Scraper's Lounge, but she suddenly quit her job the day before her disappearance, and flowers were delivered to Scraper's Lounge with a card that simply said, "Daisy," She promised she would be by that day to pick them up, but she never showed. When Daisy didn't show for a Father's Day celebration, her daughter immediately knew something was wrong, and reported her mother missing. A search of her Jacobsville Apartments home found that Daisy had seemingly vanished, without her purse, keys, medication, jewelry, and her beloved black Chevrolet Corvette.

Attention and suspicion quickly turned to Gary Head, Daisy's ex-husband. The couple had divorced in January 1993, after a three-year marriage. Head had nowhere to go by April of the same year, and Daisy allowed him to move back in with her, but with no romantic or intimate involvement. The arrangement was one of convenience, a financial remedy, and nothing more. Head was questioned by Evansville police, and his story was that he took a nap at two in the afternoon. When he woke up thirty minutes later, Daisy Bell Marshall had simply disappeared.

Gary Head did his own disappearing act in July of 1993, resurfacing in Orlando, Florida, where he was arrested for the murder of Daisy Bell Marshall. Investigators found that Head approached a co-worker, with an offer to pay him $30,000 to kill Daisy, in the spring of the same year Daisy disappeared. Head explained to his co-worker that he could not tolerate the fact that Daisy received most of the assets in the divorce, and he wanted her dead. He even went so far as to discuss ways to dispose of her body.

Gary Head faced trial in 1999 for the murder of Daisy Marshall. The entire courtroom debacle led to a mistrial when evidentiary issues surfaced. A second trial followed immediately and ended in an acquittal. The case was poorly presented by the prosecution, and lacked witnesses, physical evidence, and a body. Defense attorneys for Head argued that he was a loving and attentive husband and it was Daisy, not he, that was the aggressor. She was portrayed to the jury as hot-headed, and emotionally abusive to her husband. The defense further argued that she probably wasn't even dead, and there was no body to prove otherwise. The jury, unbelievably, agreed. Gary Head walked out of court a free man.

Although search parties were organized and carried out, even calling in to action helicopters to search the Warrick County stripper pits, Daisy Bell Marshall has never been found.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Daisy Bell Marshall, please contact the Evansville Police Department at (812) 436-7979, reference case number 93-14085.