Merle Mackey, has been arrested by authorities for the murder of his wife Evelyn nearly 35 years ago. He is currently being held without bond in Levy County while he awaits trial. Hernando County Sheriff’s Office reached out to the TNT television show, Cold Justice, who ultimately agreed to help out in February 2015. On May 1st, Episode 12 “A Trip to Nowhere” was aired, based on the missing persons case of Evelyn Mackey.
On November 5th, 1981, Evelyn Mackey prepared breakfast for her 14 year old daughter Kelly (Carpenter) at their home in Brooksville. Her husband Merle drove Kelly to school, but Kelly never saw her mother again. Merle told Kelly that her mother had gone to care for a sick relative out of state, but that relative had no knowledge of the visit. Following Evelyn’s disappearance, Merle took Kelly to live with her biological father. Kelly recounted asking her stepfather repeatedly what happened to her mother, never receiving a solid answer. Currently, detectives believe that Merle murdered his wife that day, possibly in Levy County.
On January 5th, 1982, Kelly and her uncle Charles (Evelyn’s brother) filed a missing persons report. For over a year and a half, Merle was interviewed about his missing wife and provided varying accounts. At the time, friends, relatives, co-workers were also interviewed as well as Merle’s subsequent ex-wives. The fact that the story from Merle was not consistent provided a red flag to present day investigators trying to solve this case once and for all.
Detective Loydgren joined the Hernando County cold case unit in September of 2014. He has been working diligently on the case since that time. TNT provided the resources he needed to get this case solved. The TNT show tends to avoid missing persons cases but, the disappearance of Evelyn Mackey met two other criteria: there was a strong suspect and it was close to being solved. They picked up the tab for travel to Texas to interview Merle and provided extra manpower for investigations. “They helped us tremendously with going through all of the old witnesses,” explained Det. Loydgren, Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
When Loydgren and his partner Randy Williamson interviewed Merle in Texas, he made admissions that ultimately led to his arrest. Those statements brought the investigation to Levy County, where they worked with detectives there. The case was presented to a grand jury in Levy County who came back with an indictment of first degree murder. Details regarding the link to Levy County were not divulged since the case is ongoing. With the help of US Marshalls, Merle was arrested in New Mexico.
The whereabouts of Evelyn’s body is still an unknown. Despite this, authorities believe they can get a conviction. “I think that’s up to an actual jury… When the entire case is presented from A to Z going back… 30 years, of Merle giving varying stories. There is a lot of very strong circumstantial evidence to be presented. I don’t believe the state attorney’s office would have… gone forward with obtaining an indictment if they didn’t believe they had a strong case,” stated Sgt. Phillip Lakin. However, one must keep in mind that the accused does not have the opportunity to present evidence in his defense or cross-examine witnesses during the grand jury phase. Therefore a majority of cases presented to a grand jury are indicted. The prosecutor also tends to use the grand jury as a tool in order to determine how a jury would react to the case and to refine the case against the accused.
Since his wife’s disappearance, Merle was remarried several times. He made a habit out of exploiting women for financial gain. While in Texas his main source of income was collecting donations for people posed as disabled veterans, which he then pocketed. He ran this scam within a 100 mile radius of Dallas, Texas. After speaking with detectives in March 2015, Merle moved to New Mexico, where he continued the scam. “After we interviewed him and the airing of the show, it made life a lot more difficult for him, so he had to branch out a little so to speak,” explained Det. Loydgren.
There are 21 total cold cases in Hernando County. Of Evelyn Mackey’s case Detective Loydgren stated, “There’s still a lot to be done with the case, but so far so good.”
“You never give up hope,” stated Kelly Carpenter, Evelyn’s daughter.
