Later that day, Margaret then received a phone call from the same man, who revealed his name was John Marshall.
John wanted Margaret to babysit his son four hours a day for five days a week. He was offering forty dollars a week and asked for Margaret to begin working the following Monday.
The fourteen-year-old was ecstatic about this opportunity to finally begin making some money for herself. And, come the following Monday, she followed John’s instructions to a tee.
John had told Margaret to take a bus from Burlington to Mount Holly and get off at the stop nearest to the intersection of High and Mill streets. Then, John said his wife would pick Margaret up in a red Volkswagen.
So, on June 24, Margaret headed to the Burlington bus stop– which was just one block away from her home– with her younger brother, Joseph.
The bus arrived at about 8:45 a.m., and as Margaret boarded the bus, Joseph waved goodbye. He had no idea that would be the last time he ever saw his sister.
Some passengers who rode the same bus that morning remembered Margaret smiling from ear to ear. Unfortunately, though, no one remembered what stop the young girl got off at.
And later that afternoon, Margaret never returned home. Her parents began to worry and phoned the number that John Marshall had left with the family.
But, to their horror, the number actually belonged to a payphone located outside of a supermarket in Lumberton, New Jersey.
So, after conducting their own unsuccessful search, the Foxs reported Margaret missing at 12:30 a.m. Then, four days later, Mrs. Fox received a short but freaky ransom call.
“Ten thousand dollars might be a lot of bread, but your daughter’s life is the buttered topping,” the caller said.