Marlene Oakes

Helen Marlene Major ( Oakes; December 7, 1954 – October 11, 1980), best known by her middle name and posthumously by her maiden name, was an American woman who was murdered by her estranged husband, William Alexander Major, in 1980.

In fact, Bill Major had previously been convicted of molesting two boys, in 1975.

Oakes then made plans to take her son and daughter from the household and flee.

Major reportedly told several individuals that he would murder Oakes if she was to end their relationship, and went into detail of the steps he would take to make her body unidentifiable.

Oakes had personally given St. Hillaire her diaries to ensure their survival.

Additionally, she had written that Major had agreed to sign divorce papers, provided that the abuse of their son was not made public.

Oakes wrote that if he changed his mind, she would tell her mother-in-law.

She also informed her sister about her plans for divorce and about Major's abuse toward Donald.

On October 11, 1980, Oakes and Major had an argument and St. Hillaire left the property to "cool off".

When he returned around midnight, the home was in disarray.

Major had dropped the two children off at a neighbor's residence but claimed to St. Hillaire that Oakes had left and abducted the children.

He gave several firearms to another neighbor and expressed the desire to move back to his native Rhode Island.

St. Hillaire learned about Major's lies two days later and knew that Oakes would not have abandoned her children willingly and alerted police.

There was no evidence Oakes had taken anything with her, except for her vehicle (now believed to have been disposed of in the Ohio River), yet her drivers license was left at the residence.

Major told Donald and LaLana that their mother had abandoned them due to involvement with drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

Authorities initially found the suggestion that Oakes left due to an unsatisfactory marriage somewhat plausible but searched the property with no results.

At the time, they did acknowledge the details she listed in her diary to be a motive for her disappearance, but no signs of foul play were found in the couple's trailer.

The diary itself was not considered strong enough evidence for a murder charge.

Her dental records were frequently submitted to respective agencies whenever a woman's body matching her description was found.

St. Hillaire and Major denied to police any involvement in the disappearance of Oakes.

Detectives asked Major to take a polygraph test, but he refused and moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island with his son and daughter.

While at work, he often brought one of the children with him and abused them often during employment.

A partial skull, lacking teeth, was discovered a mile from the Major residence by a hunter on November 29, 1981, but would not be identified for years after its discovery.

The cause of death was determined to be due to multiple gunshots and through examination the victim was determined to be a white female around 30 years old.

Evidence of dismemberment was also noted.

At the time, dental records were the primary means of identifying skeletal remains, yet the skull lacked teeth and could not be identified, despite early speculation it belonged to Marlene Oakes.

Eventually, traditional nuclear DNA testing was determined impossible due to the deteriorated condition of the bone.

Major remarried in 1981.

His second wife reported the sexual and physical abuse to police in 1984 after his children told her that he had threatened to kill the other sibling if one was to report him.

Days after being confronted, he threatened LaLana at gunpoint to "keep her mouth shut."

He was arrested and convicted in 1985.

He served 11 years of a 15-year sentence.

Donald and LaLana moved in with their maternal grandmother (Oakes' mother) following the conviction.

The victim's partial skull was located near the pair's home not long after her death, but it was not identified until 2001 after mitochondrial DNA testing confirmed the identity of the remains.

Oakes was known to have had an affair with a man named Glen St. Hillaire, a mutual acquaintance of she and her husband, William "Bill" Major; St. Hillaire was also employed, for a time, by Bill Major.

The couple had met the man after his truck had broken down, while driving from Ohio to Texas.

St. Hillaire later moved into a mobile home on the couple's property, and he and Oakes grew quite close during that time; Bill Major allegedly "encouraged" the relationship, suspiciously.

The couple had been married for nine years, but Bill Major himself was also rumored to be involved with another woman.

They had two children, Donald and LaLana.

Oakes, who kept a diary, wrote how (around the time of her murder) she had witnessed her husband sexually assaulting their son, Donald.