On Wednesday, July 14, 1976, a local high school teacher and two of his family members were wandering through the old abandoned cemetery on Scofieldtown Road. The grounds were known as a potters field: a place for the poor, unclaimed, and unidentified. They were out looking for historical grave markers, near the UConn Stamford campus.
When they smelled something foul, they followed the scent and came upon the sight of an arm protruding from the ground. The grave dirt was fresh and not deep or long enough to cover the body of the woman lying there. The three called police to the scene.
Unfortunately, her body had started decomposing to the point where she did not have a recognizable face. She was initially reported as an unknown woman. When a local mother heard about the case, she requested her daughter’s dental records and jewelry description be compared to the body.
The woman was quickly found to be that of Margo Ellen Olson, a 24-year old waitress who had recently moved out of Stamford to nearby Norwalk. Her body had likely been in the shallow dirt as long as two weeks prior. The medical examiner removed an arrowhead from her chest, just over two inches long. She was killed by a large hunting bow that shot her twice in the heart.
The investigation found that Margo was possibly missing since July 2 or 3, when she left for the holiday weekend. Within two weeks, Margo’s friends and family had given all the information they had about her history and timeline leading up to the holiday.
Eventually, police reported their theory that she was killed on July 3, by someone who knew Stamford well enough to know the cemetery grounds were there–and abandoned. It was determined that Margo was tied to a tree and shot with the arrows. Sometime later, someone returned to the scene, cutting her away from the tree and burying her in the shallow sandy soil.
On July 25, local newspapers reported that the police had identified a suspect based on reports that Margo had previously made to police. She reported being fearful of her life from someone who she once considered a friend, but had assaulted her.
Margo’s boyfriend, Howard “Howie” Carter, was troublesome. He had been known to hit her, and she was helping him sell drugs. Howie had connections to the mob. Howie was also a black man dating a white woman.
Given his history, Howie was considered a suspect early on in the investigation. Since the crime scene did not have any other significant evidence, it was taking the police time to investigate. On September 28, 1976, less than three months after Margo’s murder, Howie was fatally shot while trying to rob a liquor store in Stamford.
While Margo’s case remains unsolved, suspicions continue to fall on Howie Carter. Author JoeAnn Hart, an acquaintance of Margo’s in 1976, has continued the investigation. She believes that because Howie sold drugs for crooked cops and mobsters, there is a good chance there’s more to the story.
Anyone who knows anything about how Margo may have ended up in the potter’s field, or remembers seeing her leading up to the holiday weekend in July 1976, should reach out to Stamford Police Department.
The Bridgeport Post