The Disappearance of Helen Brach

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HELEN BRACH

RUTH CANTON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HELEN BRACH

SAL MINEO

ADRIENNE SHELLY

DOMINIQUE DUNNE

LANA CLARKSON

ALFALFA

KARYN KUPCINET

CHRISTA HELM

BOB CRANE

Helen Marie Vorhees Brach

Helen Marie Vorhees was born on November 11, 1911, in the Appalachian hills of Southern Ohio. She grew up in a small farm in Unionport, and the family was not in any way affluent. She grew into a beautiful woman with striking red hair. Life in Ohio was not at all what Helen wanted for herself, but she made do with what she had. She was devoted to her family, who had since moved from Unionport to Hopedale, Ohio. In 1978, Helen married her high school sweetheart, and settled into her new role as a wife. The marriage did not last, and by the age of 21, she was divorced and looking for a new adventure.

She left Ohio soon after her marriage ended, and spent the next few years traveling and working different jobs to support herself. In 1958, she had made her way to Miami Beach, where she took a job as a coat-check girl in the Indian Creek Country Club. While working one day, she happened to meet Frank V. Brach, the owner of the multimillion dollar company E. J Brach & Sons. Brach and Helen hit it off, and the two started seeing each other more often. Helen, who was 38 years old at the time, didn’t seem to mind the age difference between her and her new beau. Brach was 60 years when he met Helen, and had been married twice before. He showered her with gifts and affection, something Helen couldn’t resist. After all those years of searching and waiting, she was finally able to live the life of glamor that she always wished for.

In 1951, the two got married. The couple spent their time traveling and attending posh parties, which Helen quite enjoyed. Soon after the wedding, the two built a home in Fisher Island, Florida. They also bought a house in Glenview, Illinois, so that they could be closer to their candy factories in Chicago. The 11-room house sat on seven acres of wooded area. The two spent most of their time in Florida, making trips to Chicago when business called.

Frank was an avid fan of horses, and he spent a considerable amount of time on the racetrack. He introduced Helen to the world of horse racing, and she quickly picked up the hobby. As a millionaire’s wife, Helen was able to enjoy the finer things in life, and even took the time to focus on charitable causes. An animal-lover, Helen wrote checks to a number of animal rights’ groups, and had a couple of dogs in the house. Always one to value her relationship with friends and family, Helen spent a lot of time on the phone. Not a day passed that she didn’t reach out to one of her friends, and she extended her generosity to many who knew her. In 1970, tragedy struck. Frank died, leaving 57-year-old Helen a widow. He also left his 20 million dollar estate to Helen, making her one of the wealthiest residents in Chicago.

She kept the houses they had bought, but chose to spend more time in the Glenview estate. As she became older, she started becoming a bit of an eccentric. She chose to wear red wigs, and started consulting a psychic. Her social life was still active, and she was always writing cards and notes to friends and family. She also kept a few diaries documenting the ins and outs of her daily life.

Disappearance

On February 17, 1977, after spending eight days at the facility, Helen left the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and planned to head home to Glenview. She had gone to the clinic for her routine physical examination, which was always intensive and thorough. The physician who examined her, Dr. Carl Anderson, recorded her height and weight, logging five-foot-five and 138 pounds on her chart. He told her that she was in good health for someone her age. Helen had complained that she was experiencing pain in her legs and feet, but the doctor could not find anything of immediate concern. He advised that she needed to lose 20 pounds, and that she work on improving her muscle tone by walking more and swimming. Satisfied that she was healthy, Helen promised to follow the doctor’s advice, and then left the clinic.

At around 9 a.m., she entered the Buckskin boutique, located next to the Mayo Clinic to pick up a few gifts for friends in Florida. She bought a soap dish and a jewelry box, and told the assistant, I'm in a hurry, my houseman is waiting, as she was ringing up the items. She paid with her American Express card and left the store. That was the last time anyone ever saw Helen Marie Vorhees Brach alive.

Jack Matlick

Two weeks after Helen left the Mayo Clinic, her handyman, Jack Matlick, reported her missing. He told authorities that he had picked up Helen at the O’Hare Airport on February 17, and driven her home. He stated that she had spent the weekend planning for her trip to Fort Lauderdale, where she was planning to stay until winter passed. He told police that on Monday 21, 1977, he had driven Helen back to O’Hare Airport, and that they had gotten there at 7:10 a.m. The last time he saw her was after he dropped her off at the curb at the Northwest Orient terminal. When asked why he had waited so long to report his boss missing, he stated that he had assumed that she was in Florida. Investigators, aware that Helen’s case was a potentially high profile one, immediately launched an investigation into her disappearance.

Investigators were suspicious about Matlick’s explanation, and they immediately looked into the handyman’s past. They found out that Matlick lived in a suburban Schaumburg farmhouse owned by Helen with his wife and three daughters. He lived rent-free, and was paid $1,000 per month for his services at the Glenview property. He had worked for Frank Brach for almost two decades, as a groundskeeper, handyman, and sometimes chauffer. Helen had retained his services after Frank’s death, and some speculated that the two had a more intimate relationship. Matlick denied this accusation. However, he later admitted to keeping a lock of Helen’s red hair. It wasn’t long before investigators found out that Matlick had spent 21 months in prison for stealing a car.

Investigators, suspicious of Matlick’s first statement, brought him down to the station for another interview. He told the investigators that he had picked up Helen from O’Hare at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 17, 1977. He then drove her home to the Glenview property, where she stayed for the entire weekend, packing up and preparing for her trip to Florida. No one could confirm Matlick’s story. When they spoke to friends, they mentioned that Helen was known to spend hours on the phone, and no one had heard from her since she allegedly arrived in Chicago. Flight attendants who were in the flight Helen was supposedly on never recalled seeing her. A few of Helen’s neighbors told police that when they had stopped by her home, Matlick was the one who had answered the door. He had told them that Helen was unavailable at the time. Investigators decided to look into Helen’s phone records for the weekend Matlick claimed she was home. There were 22 calls going in and out of the home. When they followed up on the calls, every person on the other end of the line stated that they had spoken to Matlick, who had informed them that Helen couldn’t come to the phone, and that she would call them back.

Matlick quickly became the prime suspect in Helen’s disappearance. When investigators went to the house, they found that one small room had been repainted, and the rug had been torn off. The workmen who had worked on that room told investigators that they had been hired by Matlick during the February 19-20 weekend. Matlick claimed that he had hired the workers at Helen’s request. However, none of the workmen ever recalled seeing Helen in the house that weekend. Investigators couldn’t find any evidence that Helen had purchased any tickets, and one of her friends, Carol Stevens, stated that Helen never told her about her plans to travel to Florida. Stevens always picked Helen from the airport, and she was never informed about the trip. Helen’s luggage and purse were also found at the Glenview home, and police weren’t buying that she traveled without them. Helen’s friends were not buying Matlick’s story about dropping Helen off at the airport at 7 a.m. According to them, Helen never went to the airport early. The first flight to Florida that day was at 9 a.m., making 7 a.m. too early for Helen to arrive at the airport. They also insisted that Helen preferred afternoon flights, and rarely flew in the morning.

With every interview he had with investigators, Matlick kept adding details that made him look more suspicious. He told police that during that weekend, Helen had issued a total of fifteen checks, with three intended for him. The checks made out to him totaled $6,000. When investigators took a closer look at the checks, it was determined that the signatures were forged. When confronted about it, Matlick claimed that Helen had injured her hand while packing her bags, and that she had opted to sign the checks with her other hand. He also admitted that he had taken money and some gold coins from Helen’s safety deposit box just two hours after he had dropped her off at the airport.

Investigators also questioned Helen’s brother, Charles Vorhees. Charles was a retired railroad inspector from Ohio. Since he was Helen’s only surviving relative, they knew he stood to benefit from her demise. According to Charles, Matlick had called him and told him about his sister’s disappearance. He had also asked him to come to Chicago. When Charles got to the Glenview estate, Matlick had shown him what appeared to be his sister’s diaries, and a note, supposedly form Helen, asking that the diaries be destroyed if anything happened to her. With Charles’ permission, Matlick burned the diaries in the furnace. Investigators wondered what was in the diaries. They also questioned Charles’ decision to allow Matlick to burn the diaries, but did not consider him a suspect.

Matlick kept digging himself into a hole, and things became worse for him when he failed two polygraph tests. The tests only had three questions: Did you drop Helen Brach off at O’Hare Airport? Do you know where she is? and Do you know what happened to her? Despite the mounting suspicion, investigators had no body, no crime scene, no witnesses, and no confession. They deemed that they did not have sufficient evidence to charge Matlick with any offense. Sergeant Joseph Baumann, the investigating officer on Helen’s case, was convinced that Matlick knew something about Helen’s disappearance that he was not sharing with police. Sgt.