Micki Jo West, a 19 year-old nurse's aide, disappeared from the St. Joseph Missouri State Hospital where she worked on September 11, 1979. She never made it to her normal bus stop and was never heard from again.

In 1991, Marvin Lee Irvin, a former police officer, confessed to West's murder. She had been a friend of his first wife. He stated he had stabbed and shot her to death, then buried her.

According to the Charley Project: Micki Jo West is still missing. Marvin Lee Irvin was charged with the murders of two other women, after he led the police to their bodies in a Kansas cornfield. However, after searching the same field, Jo West's body was never found. They did convict Irvin on two counts of murder, and he's serving life.

Micki Jo West
 

Missing Since: September 11, 1979 from St. Joseph, Missouri
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age: 19 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair. West wears eyeglasses. She may spell her name "Mikki."

Details of Disappearance

West was last seen as leaving St. Joseph State Hospital in St. Joseph, Missouri, on September 11, 1979. She worked as a nurse's aide there. She never made it to the bus stop and has never been heard from again. Prior to her disappearance, West had been threatened.

In 1991, Marvin Lee Irvin, a former police officer, confessed to West's murder. She had been a friend of his first wife. Irvin had been investigated as a suspect shortly after West's disappearance and her family believed he was involved, but he passed a polygraph and there was little evidence to implicate him.

Police later admitted they made mistakes in the investigation, such as failing to search Irvin's vehicle. He stated he had stabbed her four times in the chest as she sat in his car, then buried her body in a cornfield in Highland, Kansas. Irvin also confessed to killing two other women in 1990 and burying them in the same field. A search turned up the bodies of his other victims, but there was no sign of West.

Irvin pleaded guilty to the other two homicides and is serving a sentence of life in prison. He has never been charged in West's case; it remains unsolved.

Martin Lee Irvin

SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: PC

MO: Shot/bludgeoned women during arguments.

DISPOSITION: 100-year. minimum on plea to three counts, 1991.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers