The Ghost Address: Brass Placard, Two Women, One Laundry Killer

The Ghost Address: Brass Placard, Two Women, One Laundry Killer

A brass Belford Fire Marshal placard, stamped March 1923, is found arranged in the arm of a dead laundry intake clerk - and the lot number on it traces to an address that hasn't existed since 1918. Who placed an official, carefully unbolted placard with a corpse, and why lead investigators toward a ghost address?

In this episode, we follow the discovery and the records trail that links a missing woman to a vanished building and the inspector who signed the ledger entry. What does a transcription, a lot number, and a four-bolt placard reveal about the person who removed it?

Person: Rhonda Thompson
Date: May 9-10, 1923 (time of death)
Location: Delivery lane behind Harwick Street laundries, Belford, Ohio
Inspector: Douglas Fenn
Case: Placard traced to lot number for 414 Harwick Street

- The body of Rhonda Thompson was found on a Tuesday morning at 7:15 after lying in the lane for four to five days.
- The brass placard read "Belford Fire Marshal, Inspected and Approved, March 1923" with a genuine die and seal.
- The lot number on the placard traced to 414 Harwick Street, an address removed after a 1918 partial collapse.
- Inspector Douglas Fenn had initialed a correction form entering 414 Harwick Street into the inspection ledger during the March 1923 cycle.
- Rhonda Thompson had worked the intake counter at Caldwell Commercial Laundry on Harwick Street for eleven years and was last seen alive on May 8, 1923.

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