The Mysterious Disappearance of a Yoga Celebrity Marcia Moore & HER SON 30 YEARS LATER...

During the winter of 1979, a well-known writer and yoga expert named Marcia Moore mysteriously vanished without a trace, leaving all her belongings behind as well as her husband. The discovery of her body 2 years later offered more questions than answers. Then, about 30 years later, another body was discovered, which turned out to belong to a man who had also gone missing in a strikingly similar case. Unbelievably, the man was Marcia’s son…

Marcia Moore was born on May 22nd, 1928 in in Cambridge, Massachusetts into a successful family. Her father, Robert L. Moore, founded the Sheraton Hotel chain, which today operates over 440 hotels around the world. One of her three brothers, Robin Moore, became a successful writer with multiple books rising to the top of Best-Seller lists. Two of them, The Green Berets and The French Connection, were adapted to film.

Marcia was also a talented writer but was also deeply into nature. She became an expert in the philosophy of yoga. Her senior thesis, written in 1960, was titled Astrology Today: A Socio-Psychological Survey. Marcia later become somewhat of a celebrity when a book about her was published called Youth, Yoga and Reincarnation by Jess Stearn. There were photos of Marcia in the book, demonstrating various yoga positions. Despite being nearly 40 at this time, she was in amazing shape and had incredible flexibility.

This was a person who let the stars guide her life. She was so deeply in sync with nature, many people believed she had psychic abilities. Unfortunately, she had problems finding a permanent relationship. Her first marriage to Simon Roof did last about thirteen years and produced 3 children, including a son named Christopher Roof. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in divorce as did the next one to Louis S. Acker. She was in her third marriage to Mark Douglas when Stearn’s book about her was published.

Around the time she began to get national notice, the country was ready for a healthier lifestyle, and Marcia Moore was one of the early pioneers of the exercise/diet era, which continued throughout the 80’s and even up until this day. She taught not only yoga, health and fitness, but also how to take complete control of one’s own mind. Marcia wrote several books including Diet, Sex, Yoga and Reincarnation, and Key to Immortality. She developed her own approach to reincarnation therapy, which she called "hypersentience"

Unfortunately, despite her belief that through the stars and deep meditation she could make all the right decisions, her marriages continued to fall apart and her third would also end in divorce. Years later, now in the 70’s, she would meet who would go on the become her fourth husband, a physician named Dr. Howard Alltounian. He was 40 years old, 9 years younger than Marcia, but they felt a special link and Marcia believed she had finally found the right man. They married in November of 1977.

It was around this time when Marcia, along with her husband, began to experiment with ketamine, a halluconogenic drug that Marcia believed could tap deep into one’s psyche if used correctly. Howard was on board with this as well and came to believe there was a national breakthrough waiting to happen for ketamine, which they began to call “the goddess Ketamine.” He was so confident that he quit his high paying position to concentrate full time on the drug. The two even chronicled their experiments with ketamine in a book titled Journeys Into the Bright World. They injected themselves daily with Ketamine. Eventually, Howard stopped as the effects were not working as well for him as they were with Marcia. Despite the urging by friends to quit Ketamine before she became completely addicted, she continued on with the drug.

By 1979, Marcia had become addicted and began to hide her extensive use of the drug from Howard. Still, from outward appearances, she seemed finally happy. She, now 50 years old, was still beautiful, in excellent shape, married and dedicated to her work. Then, on January 14th, 1979, on an extremely cold evening, Howard returned home from a movie to find their apartment empty. He had invited Marcia, but she declined, wanting to stay home and get some extra rest. Her belongings where still there, including her purse and wallet. Howard looked everywhere, including the local cemetery where she liked to take walks. She was nowhere to be found. By the next morning, he called the authorities and reported his wife missing.

During the initial investigation, there were few signs that anything criminal had occurred but also little to go on. One interesting discovery was her kimono on the floor – something completely out of character for the extremely neat Marcia. It could have been a kidnapping, but why were there no requests for a ransom? Suicide did not seem likely as, for one, she finally seemed completely happy and was about to start writing a new book the next day. Furthermore, her own beliefs dictated that suicide is the absolute worst way to die in terms of reincarnation, and only sets up a never-ending cycle of one miserable life after another. According to every one she knew, including family members, there was no way she would voluntarily just run away. Howard did tell police however, that she was beginning to develop a mental disorder to her drug use.

As a physician who now had very much familiarized him with Ketamine, he believed she may have simply fallen too far out of her mind due to the constant drug use for months on end and just started walking away. Although it isn’t a normal response to Ketamine, she had taken so much for so long that he thought it was a possibility – maybe even a probability. She had been taking it daily for 14-18 months and her entire purpose of taking the drug was to leave the body behind and just be at one with the universe. Perhaps something completely snapped in her mind and she completely lost it. But even if that were the case, where did she go?

Normally, in cases like this, the husband would be on of the first suspects. However, there was no body and no obvious motive, such as there would be in the sadly commonplace situation of murder for life insurance money. In fact, the money she did have was left to her three children, not Howard. Furthermore, Howard seemed completely devastated and no evidence could be found to suggest he had any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. Eventually, he had to try to return to work as a doctor to make ends meet, but struggled to find work due to the publicity around Marcia’s disappearance. He genuinely seemed to have nothing to gain from murdering his wife. Nevertheless, Marcia’s family continued to suspect him, a fact that even he understood, saying he would probably feel the same way if he was in their shoes.

The theories were abundant and detectives were being forced to consider the most bizarre of possibilities. Some people suggested that she reached a point where her consciousness was so strong she simply dematerialized. After two years, this theory seemed almost as good as any. Then, a property owner was pulling vines about 3 miles from Howard and Marcia’s apartment when he came across a human skull. Dental records confirmed – it was the skull the Marcia Moore. Nothing else related to Marcia was found in the area other than a few other of Marcia’s bones.

Could she have walked three miles in the freezing cold without any one noticing her? To get to the spot her skull was found, she would have had to walk across a freeway. It is also interesting that she just happened to end up an isolated spot a midst heavy vines encircled by large trees, which perfectly hid her body for two years. Some reports indicated there was a small hole was in the top of the skull, which normally would indicate a possible bullet hole. However, the official opinion seems to be that any holes or damage to to the skull were simply part of the deterioration that occurred over the previous two years.

It seems unlikely that Marcia, in an extremely drugged up state, walked 3 miles to a perfect spot to dump a body in the freezing cold, where she collapsed from an overdose and died. It’s also a possibility that she went to the spot before she took the Ketamine, looking for a perfect spot to be one with nature – then took the drugs and experienced an overdose. One possibility that has been suggested is that Marcia had an overdose and died at the apartment, and Howard disposed of the body in order to avoid any potential criminal charges. This does seem logical, but his theater alibi completely checked out. Surely, if she overdosed on drugs while he was at the movies, he wouldn’t be held accountable.

Ultimately, this case remains unsolved and shrouded in mystery. And things only get weirder from there. Another theory, one suggested by Marcia’s brother, is the wild possibility that she was murdered in some kind of a cult ritual, a theory that feels completely unlikely – at least it did, until in November of 2010, a male body was discovered by a hunter in the woods of Maine. The body went unidentified for years until September of 2021, when it was finally identified as the body of Christopher Roof, the son of Marcia Moore, who had disappeared in August of 2010. A tip from one of Chris’s students came in, suggesting the body they found might be that of Chris Roof, after she listened to a podcast describing the body. Without this tip, Christopher Roof would still be known as the Stacyville John Doe.

Christopher Roof

Of all of Marcia’s children, he was most like her – deeply spiritual, searching for meaning and focused on teaching his beliefs and philosophies. He wanted to head into nature by himself and live off the grid. His friends, colleagues and students felt he would never just disappear. Yet, he had seemed to vanish into thin air. Does this sound like a broken record? The two cases – even if they didn’t involve a mom and son – are strikingly similar. Just like his mom’s death, the circumstances surrounding his and how he ended up where he was found is a complete mystery.

With the knowledge of Chris’s tragic end, the cult ritual murder theory doesn’t seem as ridiculous, although I still find it unlikely. What actually happened to Marcia and Chris? Were their deaths completely coincidental or were they both murdered? For years, my opinion on what most likely happened is Howard’s original thought – the drugs caused her to completely snap and she wandered off and eventually had an accident or overdose and died, or just fell unconscious and froze to death. I’m still bothered by the fact that she happened to die in a spot where her body would not be discovered for two years, however and that no one came forward saying they saw her during the long walk. However, stranger things have happened. Since the body of Chris Roof was identified, the entire case became even more fascinating if that’s possible. Now, the son of Marcia, has also died under mysterious circumstances with no signs of foul play while on a spiritual search of some kind.

If you’re one who doesn’t believe in coincidences, something absolutely unthinkable had to have occurred to Marcia and Chris. The other possibility is they were in no way connected – perhaps Chris went to live off the grid in the woods and died from an accident of some kind while Marcia – well, pick a theory – no one knows what actually happened. Let me know what you think of this fascinating true crime case, what happened to Marcia Moore? And what happened to Christopher Roof? Thank you for checking out this week’s video and if you are interested in historical videos including true crime, space exploration, mountaineering, wars, politics and much more, please hit the subscribe button to learn more stuff that happened.