WARREN – Although investigators recently conducted interviews into the disappearance of a Bristol couple 20 years ago, no new information or leads were obtained, according to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s Major Tom Stewart said the investigation into the sudden and rather odd disappearance of John and Shelly Markley is still at a “roadblock.”

The couple was last seen by their family on the morning of Dec. 15, 1995, when they put their youngest son, 8, on the school bus. They have five children. When their oldest daughter, who was 15 at the time, returned home from school, they were nowhere to be found.

John was 36 at the time and Shelly was 31. Investigators found several odd things around the house: The clothes the couple intended to wear to a funeral for John’s twin sister were laid out. The funeral was held that day. A gun cabinet, usually locked, was open. Personal possessions like Shelly’s cigarettes, purse, credit cards and identification were left at the house. The coffee pot was left on.

A bank teller told investigators the Markleys went through the Cortland Bank’s Bloomfield branch 10:30 a.m. the day they disappeared and cashed a $1,000 check. The teller told police a slender, dark-haired man was in the cab of their 1990 Chevy pick-up truck. The checkbook was not recovered.

The truck was found a few days later in the parking lot of the former Stambaugh’s Hardware on Elm Road. Family members said the truck, which was dirty, looked like it had been driven off-road and that wasn’t something the Markleys usually did.

Hundreds of people searched hundreds of acres around the Greenville Road home, an air search was conducted and divers checked surrounding lakes and waterways, including Nelson Ledges Quarry, Mosquito Lake and Lake Milton.

The family tried psychics and appeared on the “Montel Williams” show and the “Maury Povich” show. Their story was televised on “Unsolved Mysteries.” As a result, family members searched waterways around Bowling Green.

In 1996, Stephen Durst, who was 45 at the time, was convicted of extorting the Markley family for $10,000 in exchange for information on their whereabouts. Durst was sentenced to four to 10 years by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew D. Logan, but Durst claimed he was not the man who called the Markleys several times demanding money for information. He was arrested after a police stakeout at a gas station where the caller was supposed to pick up a bag full of money. Instead, the bag was full of rags. Durst’s appeal of the conviction was dismissed in 1998.

Durst also failed several questions about the couple’s disappearance. His answers were marked as deceptive when he said he wasn’t involved in the disappearance and didn’t see them after they were reported missing.

A court granted family members custody of the Markleys’five children.

rfox@tribtoday.com