Mary Faye Hunter and Her Mysterious Death

Mary Faye Hunter was a quiet, intelligent young woman who lived in Decatur, Alabama. Although she was an adult, she stilled lived with her parents in 1967 sharing their modest home near the small downtown area. She maintained a quiet existence in the town she had always called home. The highlights of her week included walking to the beauty salon and playing the organ at her church. Mary Faye was employed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where she performed secretarial type work. It was here that one might say her eventual demise began.

Mary Faye would cross the Tennessee River Bridge Monday through Friday, carpooling with two men and one woman, to get to her job on Redstone Arsenal. This was a very exciting and unusual opportunity for a woman during this time in the United States. Mary Faye had landed a job in the up and coming space industry. She was unmarried and had no suitors on the horizon which had given her an chance that her married-with-children counterparts had to pass up in order to be the homemaker everyone expected women to become during that time period. Mary Faye was described as homely with a unique gait. She was born with a birth defect involving her hip. When surrounded by other women, she was not going to be the head turner of the group. She knew and accepted this knowing her worth did not lie solely in her beauty. Her beauty was in her abilities, intelligence, and smile. Never one to draw attention to herself in the typical, flirty way, she still eventually caught the eye of her married boss. What began as a normal work relationship developed into a full-fledged passion filled extramarital affair.

Mary Faye's boss was in a position he found mundane and a marriage that had long been stale. He lived a ho-hum existence that many men fall into. Going to work, supporting his family, coming home for dinner, possible frigid sexual relations with his sexually repressed wife, sleep, and then back up the next morning to do it all over again. He was teetering on depression but stuck on an exhausting rollercoaster he had no clue how to get off of. The first spark of any kind of happiness he had felt in a very long time came as he began to notice Mary Faye. At first, he didn't understand what he was feeling. She wasn't overtly sexual or flirty, only mildly attractive at best. As fate would have it, they began working longer hours together on in depth projects. It was during that time they both began to feel the butterflies that come with a new love. Mary Faye tried to ignore any tingling she had for her married boss and he had no intentions on betraying the marriage vows he exchanged with the mother of his children. Eventually, though they fought it, the star-crossed couple entered into a passionate affair.

It began with innocent crossing of paths. Next, there was planned secret meetings where they talked and laughed in intimate but yet to be sexual encounters. Then came a touch and a kiss - neither of which the virginal Mary Faye had ever experienced before. The fire she felt for him was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Finally, the relationship became a passionate extramarital affair. This was completely out of character for the plain and studious young woman who had always striven to be of high moral character, but their feelings were just too strong.

The first time Mary Faye made love to her boss was in the basement of her church. Late on a Thursday evening, she had walked from her modest home to the large church she attended a few blocks away. It was her normal schedule of events as she prepared each week to play the organ at the Sunday morning service. That night, her boss decided to surprise her in the chapel, knowing it was a chance for them to be alone. He watched as his secret love played the music with gusto and perfection. Once she completed her piece, he startled her with a standing ovation. Blushing, she walked the aisle to meet the man that made her light up with a single look. They sat on the front pew talking quietly and gazing into one another's eyes. He leaned in and kissed Mary Faye's lips with a passion that had never been behind any kiss he had ever given before. The two lovers decided to hide away to the basement where they made love for the first time. For Mary Faye, it was the very first time. Although she had never experienced the love of a man before, it was a natural and zealous encounter. Afterwards, the lovers reclined to a pile of choir robes that were draped on the basement floor. They discussed their feelings for one another and dreams of the future. This may have been the first time they had been physically intimate, but it would not be the last.

Over the next few months, the lovers met in secret as often as they could. Each time was as passionate and incredible as the first. They were truly falling madly in love, albeit forbidden. Although Mary Faye felt tremendous guilt for her sin and going against the teaching of her faith, her feelings for her lover were stronger than anything else she could feel. She felt a genuine happiness and was determined to never let that feeling go.

One day, as her mother was helping to alter a dress the organist was to wear to an important Sunday event, it became obvious to Mary Faye that her waistline was beginning to change. Fearful of what that could possibly mean, she retreated to her room and tried to recall when she had last had a menstrual cycle. It wasn't until that moment she realized she had not had a period in months. She knew nothing about ovulation and fertility and birth control. Until a few months ago, she had never had to worry about it. Now, she was worried - very, very worried. What would she do if she were with child? She was an unmarried woman in the sixties. She couldn't humiliate her family by having baby out of wedlock. Plus, her boyfriend was a married and a father. There would be no "shotgun" wedding to attempt to hide her indiscretion. Realizing the depth of the trouble she was in, Mary Faye crumbled onto her bed and sobbed as she contemplated how to tell her married lover that they had a baby on the way.

Later that week, the lovers met. He picked Mary Faye up in his car blocks from her home and drove her to a private location. Tears streamed down both of their faces as the consequences of their choices rattle them to their core. They were terrified but they still knew the love they had was true and enduring. That evening, they made love in his car. After, they discussed the options for the situation they were in. It was decided that she could not have the baby. Mary Faye had heard of an ambulance driver who could take care of a pregnancy at the local hotel. It would cost one hundred dollars. As he was dropping Mary Faye off near her home, he tearfully promised to bring her the money so that the product of their love could be terminated. The thought ripped him apart inside, as it did her, but they both agreed it must be done.

Mary Faye discreetly contacted the seedy ambulance driver and scheduled her backroom abortion. On the day of the procedure, she left the house under the guise of attending her weekly hair appointment. It would later come out that she never reached the beauty shop, but an onlooker recalled seeing a woman who matched her description getting into a sporty vehicle driven by a large man. The onlooker was correct. That sporty car took Mary Faye to a hotel across town. They entered the cold and musty room that contained a bed lined with towels and some medical tools on the bedside table. Mary Faye was ordered to remove her skirt, hose, and panties and to lie on the bed. She did as she was told as tears nervously and shamefully fell from her eyes. As the procedure began, the discomfort was almost too much to bear but she knew she had to endure. It was the only way. The ambulance driver, who had performed this countless times, began to swear. He couldn't get his tools to do the things they needed to do. It was like something was blocking his path. He increased the pressure again and again until something popped. The hip defect Mary Faye possessed had not been accounted for and it was the cause for the struggle. Mary Faye screamed as the tool punctured her internally. The ambulance driver knew he was in trouble. Panic filled the room he and his assistant discussed what to do next. They carried the bleeding Mary Faye wrapped in a sheet and placed her in the back of the car and began to speed toward the hospital. It occurred to the ambulance driver what the repercussions of taking her to get medical treatment would be. Cowardly and coldly, he slowed down and turned down Highway 67 - the opposite direction of the hospital. The assistant tried to reason with him and save this young girl's life. Mary Faye begged him to please take her to the hospital. She could feel herself fading away. The ambulance driver turned into a wooded fishing area on Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. There, they drug the lifeless body of an unconscious Mary Faye and left her to die - alone and helpless.

When Mary Faye failed to return to her parents' home, which never happened, the police were promptly called. A massive search ensued. Her parents waited diligently by the phone in hopes that their beloved daughter would call or that someone would be letting them know she had been found safe and sound. Weeks passed and the call never came. It wasn't until spring that their would be any sign of Mary Faye. When the waters of the Tennessee River receded, two young girls and their grandparents were walking the banks searching for arrowheads. That day, they discovered a decomposed body and promptly returned home to phone the police and inform them of what they had seen. After a recovery and investigation, it was determined that it was the body of Mary Faye.

No one knows for sure that this is what happened to Mary Faye, but it is the most common theory. The ambulance driver denies even knowing her and the assistant was too afraid to snitch on his rough and devious friend. Her married lover couldn't bear the thought of how he had contributed to the loss of Mary Faye and drunkenly committed suicide. She had very few friends and none of them seemed aware that their simple, quiet friend had become entangled in a scandalous love affair. The world will never know for sure what happened to Mary Faye Hunter, but the mystery surrounding her death will never be anything less than intriguing.