Two Girls Murdered in New Jersey
- joearubenstein
- Jun 21, 2022
- 1 min read
June 21, 1962 - The dead bodies of two teenaged girls who had been badly beaten were discovered this afternoon in a densely wooded area about a mile from Morristown, N.J. The victims were identified as Noreen Buckley, 17, and Margaret Ann Kennedy, 16, both of Morris Plains. The girls’ parents had reported them missing at 1 a.m. today. The police said the two were last seen while shopping in Morristown about 8 p.m. Wednesday night. According to the police, the Kennedy girl telephoned her father at 10:30 last night and told him she was going to a party. It was the last time anyone heard from either of the two friends. Police said they had questioned 50 teenagers, including a youth who was seen with the girls on their shopping trip. The youth was said to reside near the area where the bodies were found. The body of Miss Buckley was discovered by three boys walking on a dirt road. The body was lying on the road. The boys called the police, who discovered a second body about 300 yards into the woods. The police reported that both bodies had been battered at the back of the head. Both girls were students at the Bayley-Ellard Roman Catholic Regional High School in Madison, N.J.
I remember the day Thies two young women were killed. I was in first or second grade with my Mom shopping at stores around the Green. She said Hi to those girls when they passed us going the opposite direction. When she learned of this crime the next day, she racked her brain to try to remember if they were with other kids at the time. We knew the family because it was a small town and our families (mine and the Buckleys) knew each other pretty well. Little Morris Plains was traumatized for quite a while.