OH OH - Melvin Horst, 4, Orrville, 27 Dec 1928

Melvin Horst Missing since December 27, 1928 from Orrville, Ohio.

Melvin Horst
Missing since December 27, 1928 from Orrville, Wayne County, Ohio.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: 1924
Age at Time of Disappearance: 4 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: N/A
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair; blue eyes
The Doe Network: Case File 501DMOH

Circumstances of Disappearance
Melvin resided with his family near Vine Street and Paradise Street in Orrville, Ohio in 1928. He went to play with four neighborhood friends during the late afternoon hours of December 27, 1928.

Melvin was wearing a coat and a hat; he was also carrying a red toy truck he received as a recent holiday gift. His friends said that they played in a vacant lot off of Chestnut Street near the railroad tracks. The boys told authorities that Melvin announced it was late and he had to walk home sometime during the evening hours. He was apprximately one block from his family's house at the time. Melvin never arrived and has not been heard from again.

Melvin's parents, Raymond and Zola Horst, called him inside for dinner at approximately 4:30 PM. They became concerned when he did not respond and began looking for their son in their neighborhood. The Horsts summoned authorities by 7:00 PM and an extensive search was initiated by 8:30 PM that evening. Many of Orrville's 4,500 residents assisted in the process, which was led by Raymond's brother, Roy Horst, the Village Marshal. No sign of Melvin was uncovered.
Melvin's disappearance made nationwide headlines and the media followed his story closely at the time. He vanished during the United States' Prohibition era and a bootlegger and his son were arrested for Melvin's alleged abduction in 1929, one year after he was last seen. A friend of the accused parties told investigators that he saw them lure Melvin into their home on the day he disappeared. The family lived around the corner from the Horsts at the time. The bootlegger and his son were convicted of Melvin's abduction and spent three months in jail before authorities learned that their witness lied about the events. The men were found innocent of involvement in Melvin's case during a second trial shortly thereafter.

The witness who claimed the bootlegger and his son were responsible for Melvin's disappearance was subsequently arrested along with his own father in 1930. Both men confessed that they murdered Melvin inside of a garage after he caught them drinking whiskey. Neither of the suspects admitted being the actual murderer and it was later determined that their confessions were coerced by law enforcement officers. There have been no arrests in Horst's case since 1930.

Some people believed that Melvin had been abducted, murdered or died as the result of an accident. Others thought that one of Roy Horst's enemies attempted to scare the marshal by instigating his nephew's disappearance. No evidence has been located to support any of the theories. Authorities have stated that they never officially closed Melvin's case, but they doubted that any new information would lead them to his whereabouts. It is unlikely that any skeletal remains that may be located in the future could be identified as Melvin's body, as poor dental records were kept at the time he disappeared.

Orrville Police Department 330-684-5025

NCIC Number: N/A
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The Akron Beacon Journal

link
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/501dmoh.html

Very interesting case Richard. Even though dental records aren't available, if bones were ever found couldn't they extract DNA and match it with any surviving decendants of Melvin's family, if there are any?

I'm glad the Doe Network (and the old MPCCN) include these very very old cases. To me, if a body has never been found it is an open case and an unsolved disappearance, never to be forgotten. I think the MPCCN had a case of a woman missing since 1910. And I remember seeing a case of a little boy from New York in the 1930's. Have you seen any cases on these internet sites from the 1800's?

joellegirl said:

Very interesting case Richard. Even though dental records aren't available, if bones were ever found couldn't they extract DNA and match it with any surviving decendants of Melvin's family, if there are any?

I'm glad the Doe Network (and the old MPCCN) include these very very old cases. To me, if a body has never been found it is an open case and an unsolved disappearance, never to be forgotten. I think the MPCCN had a case of a woman missing since 1910. And I remember seeing a case of a little boy from New York in the 1930's. Have you seen any cases on these internet sites from the 1800's?

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Depending on the condition of any bones found after a long period of time, it might be still possible to obtain DNA from them. If so, then you would have to have a close relative to compare the DNA with. The result of such a test, however, would only prove that he was related to that person - it would not be positive proof of his identity. If something of the child were to still exist - like a lock of hair, or a baby tooth, then possibly an exact could be made.

I have not seen any cases from the 1800s featured in the various Missing Persons websites. You could go to the Doenetwork and select a search option which lists their cases chronologically by state and then see what the earliest ones are. I think that 1910 or the 1920s and 30s is about it, and there are only a few of them featured.

One case that I have always been fascinated with is the 23 September 1880 disappearance of David Lang. He literally disappeared in his front yard in view of his wife, two children, and a family friend. There was a large scale search for him, but he was never found.

Wow, I had never heard of the David Lang case until now. I just read the account, sounds like folklore more than anything, but very interesting indeed. Sometimes there are just no answers. As for the missing boy, there is little doubt that he is dead, probably on the very day he went missing. Perhaps he met with foul play or perhaps a more simple answer is the reality. There are too many kids who go missing in this country, and the government agencies don't even have an accurate tally on them, what a travesty. I only hope that more insight could be brought to all of these abducted children. We certainly don't see television documentaries on the missing kids on A&E or Discovery. We see resolved cases on Cold Case Files, but I feel there should be a documentary appearing weekly that would highlight Missing Children Cold Cases. There are certainly enough cases to fill up several years worth of programming. If you break it down to the average television show having between 23 and 26 new shows each season you could devote a half hour of every hour long show to one child, that would highlight 46- 52 cases each season. There are thousands of unresolved kidnappings each year, lets get something on television where someone might see them or no something! Unsolved Mysteries is only in reruns now, and they were seldom about missing kids. We need a forum for these children and their families. Just my two cents worth I guess.

Melvin Charles Horst
Missing since December 27, 1928 from Orrville, Wayne County, Ohio.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: 1924
Age at Time of Disappearance: 4 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; blue eyes
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3'1"; 49 lbs.
Marks, Scars: Burn scar on hip
Clothing: Melvin was wearing a checked sweater, a brown coat and a cap; he was also carrying a red toy truck he received as a recent holiday gift.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Melvin resided with his family near Vine Street and Paradise Street in Orrville, Ohio in 1928. He went to play with four neighborhood friends during the late afternoon hours of December 27, 1928.

His friends said that they played in a vacant lot off of Chestnut Street near the railroad tracks. The boys told authorities that Melvin announced it was late and he had to walk home sometime during the evening hours. He was apprximately one block from his family's house at the time. Melvin never arrived and has not been heard from again.

Melvin's parents, Raymond and Zola Horst, called him inside for dinner at approximately 4:30 PM. They became concerned when he did not respond and began looking for their son in their neighborhood. The Horsts summoned authorities by 7:00 PM and an extensive search was initiated by 8:30 PM that evening. Many of Orrville's 4,500 residents assisted in the process, which was led by Raymond's brother, Roy Horst, the Village Marshal. No sign of Melvin was uncovered.

Melvin's disappearance made nationwide headlines and the media followed his story closely at the time. He vanished during the United States' Prohibition era and a bootlegger and his son were arrested for Melvin's alleged abduction in 1929, one year after he was last seen. A friend of the accused parties told investigators that he saw them lure Melvin into their home on the day he disappeared. The family lived around the corner from the Horsts at the time. The bootlegger and his son were convicted of Melvin's abduction and spent three months in jail before authorities learned that their witness lied about the events. The men were found innocent of involvement in Melvin's case during a second trial shortly thereafter.

The witness who claimed the bootlegger and his son were responsible for Melvin's disappearance was subsequently arrested along with his own father in 1930. Both men confessed that they murdered Melvin inside of a garage after he caught them drinking whiskey. Neither of the suspects admitted being the actual murderer and it was later determined that their confessions were coerced by law enforcement officers. There have been no arrests in Horst's case since 1930.

Some people believed that Melvin had been abducted, murdered or died as the result of an accident. Others thought that one of Roy Horst's enemies attempted to scare the marshal by instigating his nephew's disappearance. No evidence has been located to support any of the theories.

Authorities have stated that they never officially closed Melvin's case, but they doubted that any new information would lead them to his whereabouts. It is unlikely that any skeletal remains that may be located in the future could be identified as Melvin's body, as poor dental records were kept at the time he disappeared.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Orrville Police Department
330-684-5025

Source Information:
The Akron Beacon Journal
The Charley Project
The Doe Network: Case File 501DMOH

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/501dmoh.html

Bumping this case up from the back of the vault...

The Lang case is an Urban Legend that probably evolved from a short story by Ambrose Bierce. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_vanishing#David_Lang_and_Oliver_Larch

Bumping up this very old, yet interesting cold case...

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/horst_melvin.html

Melvin has a chapter in the book The Killer in the Attic: and More True Tales of Crime and Disaster from Cleveland's Past.

iconoclast said:

The Lang case is an Urban Legend that probably evolved from a short story by Ambrose Bierce. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_vanishing#David_Lang_and_Oliver_Larch

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Ambrose Bierce, himself, mysteriously disappeared while on a visit to Mexico.

Actually, the David Lang case is sort of an urban legend, but it actually happened. The real missing man was named Orion Williamson and he vanished back in 1854. He was crossing a field in full view of everyone and just, poof, gone. The Ambrose Bierce story is based off that incident, actually. And then for some reason someone took the Williamson story, changed the name and date and place, and retold it.

The Williamson story sounds just impossible, frankly, and I would love to know what was going on there. He supposedly vanished in full view of his wife, child and a neighbor. Afterwards everyone in the area turned out to search the field. They linked hands and formed a line and walked across the field, step by step, kneeling down and picking at the ground with every step, and found nothing at all. Bloodhounds also turned up no results. They also dug up the field to the depth of several feet, looking for a hidden sinkhole or something, but underneath the soil was just solid bedrock.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/horst_melvin.html

My Charley page has more information on Melvin's disappearance. He was also profiled in John Stark Bellamy's crime book The Killer in the Attic.

meggilyweggily said:

...And then for some reason someone took the Williamson story, changed the name and date and place, and retold it.....

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A radio man named Frank Edwards told the David Lang story on his radio program some time in the 1940's. He was an excellent story teller who liked to feature stories which were mysterious but true. In the 1950's he wrote a book called "Stranger than Science" which included the David Lang story.

Unfortunately, he did not include many references as to where he got his information. I do not know whether the story he first got had the changes/enhancements that you mention, or whether Edwards made those changes to the story himself.

meggilyweggily said:

Actually, the David Lang case is sort of an urban legend, but it actually happened. The real missing man was named Orion Williamson and he vanished back in 1854. He was crossing a field in full view of everyone and just, poof, gone.

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Is there really solid evidence that this incident actually happened as described? I like mysteries and I'm not out to disprove anything but my impressions of mid-19th century journalism is that it wasn't exempt from humorous exaggerations or even the crafting of bona fide hoaxes on the part of even the most scrupulous of chroniclers. After all it was their role to entertain as well as inform the mostly illiterate populace.

Even when such stories were published by reputable newspapers getting to the original source documentation is usually extremely difficult not the least due to the fact that all a serious reporter had to do to be deemed credible was to affirm that his source was beyond reproach... and anonymous. Being a respected reporter does not necessarily preclude one from experiencing a sporadic burst of tongue-in-cheek mischievousness.

Now let's assume this really happened, some questions are worth pondering. How far were the witnesses standing from Williamson? Apart from falling into a hole (cave, underground stream, etc.) what can cause a man to disappear from an open field? Lightning may be a possibility, although rare there are cases of some animals being struck by lightning that were reduced to ashes. Spontaneous combustion (what the heck)? Quicksand? Snatched by an unknown and since vanished exceptionally large bird of prey species? Admittedly this a bit far fetched but these cases sometimes require one wander away from the beaten path, à la Charles Fort. Mirage? Maybe Williamson was not exactly where witnesses saw him but at a different nearby location, or simply further away than they estimated? There are many possibilities.

I do not know the answers to most of your questions, I just know that's what everyone said happened. And, apart from something like a sinkhole (a theory that was apparently ruled out when the field was dug up), it is simply not possible that a man can literally vanish into thin air like that. It seems to me there are three options here:

1. Something paranormal happened. This depends on whether or not you believe in the paranormal. I don't generally.
2. The witnesses are lying or mistaken. The problem with "lying" is that it seems that they could have come up with a more believable story than that, assuming they had harmed Williamson and wished to conceal this. The problem with "mistaken" is it seems awfully strange that three people, two of them adults, could all see the wrong thing at the same time.
3. The story was simply not true.

If you really wanted to you could be able to verify at least some of it. The name Orion Williamson can't be that common. He might have been the only one, even. If you looked through old records and could at least prove Orion Williamson existed, that would be something. And if you find a birth certificate, but no death certificate, that would be something.

meggilyweggily said:

I do not know the answers to most of your questions, I just know that's what everyone said happened.

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I'm sorry if it appeared as if I was asking the questions in the last paragraph of my post directly to you. I was just thinking aloud, so to speak. Like most people who have only casually heard about this incident I vaguely believed its origin was purely fictional, that someone had mistaken a novella for the account of an actual incident or something similar. When you posted that the event had actually happened I thought that perhaps you meant that there was documented evidence but now I understand you meant that the fictionalized account from Bierce was based on a reportedly true event.

And, apart from something like a sinkhole (a theory that was apparently ruled out when the field was dug up), it is simply not possible that a man can literally vanish into thin air like that. It seems to me there are three options here:

1. Something paranormal happened. This depends on whether or not you believe in the paranormal. I don't generally.

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IMHO the paranormal explanation should only be considered when every other possibility has been exhausted and so far in my life I have never come across a documented case where a paranormal explanation was the only option left. I have however seen cases where so many people wished that it was that other, more rational avenues were left unexplored until the passage of time made it very difficult to investigate such events other than from a historical perspective. The Orion Williamson story appears to be such a case.

2. The witnesses are lying or mistaken. The problem with "lying" is that it seems that they could have come up with a more believable story than that, assuming they had harmed Williamson and wished to conceal this. The problem with "mistaken" is it seems awfully strange that three people, two of them adults, could all see the wrong thing at the same time.

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It would be useful to have access to the original story, or story versions, as they appeared in newspapers at the time of the event and see who put these words in the mouth of the witnesses. I imagine the first step would be to locate the event geographically with a reasonable measure of certainty, and then determine an approximate timeline.

Most reports of the incident found online mention Selma, Alabama as the locale and July, 1854 as the date. They also mention that Ambrose Bierce was "intensely interested" in the event and surveyed the field, interviewed witnesses, etc., shortly after the event. The problem is that Bierce was only 12 years old at the time and living in Indiana. This is annoying but does not disprove the story, only contradicts the part of the story that puts Bierce on location.

So if it did happen in 1854 it's pretty safe to assume Bierce was not directly involved. Which begs two questions: what part of Bierce's David Lang story is based on his knowledge of the Orion Williamson case and what part of the present-day accounts of the Williamson event are actually based on the David Lang story? What would be very useful would be to have an account of the Williamson case that predates 1909 which is the year the David Lang story was published. For this I have some hope that the archives of the Selma-Times Journal have survived the near-destruction of Selma during the Civil War because so far it's the only reliable source I can think of. The paper, which is still in existence, has been published since 1827. Obviously their online archives don't go back that far, in fact they only cover the last 14 days. I will nevertheless inquire with them as to what can be obtained by other means.

3. The story was simply not true.

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Unfortunately that possibility has to be considered but it may be just as difficult to prove that it's a hoax than the other way around. Another possibility is that something did happen but not exactly as reported.

If you really wanted to you could be able to verify at least some of it. The name Orion Williamson can't be that common. He might have been the only one, even. If you looked through old records and could at least prove Orion Williamson existed, that would be something. And if you find a birth certificate, but no death certificate, that would be something.

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At first I thought that I did not "really want to" but now that my curiosity has been aroused I feel sort of hooked. It could be an interesting quest even if it will have to be done at a casual pace. I thank you for the suggestion, county records will indeed be one of my first virtual stops.

Newspaperarchive.com has a lot of 19th-century material and I did a search for "Orion Williamson" there but turned up nothing relevant.

The book I got the information from is called Among the Missing: an Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present by Jay Robert Nash. It's utterly fascinating. It's also out of print, but it's easy to get out of print books online.

The Nash book states Williamson vanished from Selma, Alabama in July 1854, in the presence of his wife (referred to only as "Mrs. Williamson"), their child (no name or sex given) and a neighbor, Armour Wren.

The Nash account of Williamson's disappearance mentions Ambrose Bierce's interest in the story, but doesn't say much about it, just that he interviewed some of the searchers and consulted with some scientists who proffered bonehead theories as to what might cause Williamson to vanish into thin air. The Nash account also states that in 1889, a traveling salesman was trapped in a hotel due to a snowstorm and wrote down an account of the Williamson disappearance because he had nothing else to do, but he changed the name to David Lang, the place to Gallatin, Tennessee, the date to September 1880, and the story stuck, except that it's not true and you can prove it: "No such person as David Lang ever existed in Gallatin, nor did any family named Lang during this period." Which is why I'm suggesting Step One would be to find out if any such person as Orion Williamson, or any Williamson family, was in Selma during the 1850s.

meggilyweggily said:

Newspaperarchive.com has a lot of 19th-century material and I did a search for "Orion Williamson" there but turned up nothing relevant.

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Me neither, in fact I couldn't find anyone with the given name "Orion" in any of the usual sources for online records pertaining to Dallas County but considering what I later found that's not surprising.

The book I got the information from is called Among the Missing: an Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present by Jay Robert Nash. It's utterly fascinating. It's also out of print, but it's easy to get out of print books online.

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Do you remember the approximate year of publication?

The Nash book states Williamson vanished from Selma, Alabama in July 1854, in the presence of his wife (referred to only as "Mrs. Williamson"), their child (no name or sex given) and a neighbor, Armour Wren.

The Nash account of Williamson's disappearance mentions Ambrose Bierce's interest in the story, but doesn't say much about it, just that he interviewed some of the searchers and consulted with some scientists who proffered bonehead theories as to what might cause Williamson to vanish into thin air.

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Okay, this is where I hit a knot. It seems that everything found online about the Williamson case originates from Bierce's narrative entitled The Difficulty of Crossing a Field which is Bierce's own account of the primary witness' account. Unfortunately I could not find the year of publication for the narrative but I confess that I did not dig very deep for it. Bierce was a well known journalist so this info must be listed somewhere.

For those of you who are interested Bierce's narrative can be found here:

http://www.online-literature.com/bierce/1995/http://


Like you said and contrary to what I thought Bierce was not the originator of the David Lang hoax.

The Nash account also states that in 1889, a traveling salesman was trapped in a hotel due to a snowstorm and wrote down an account of the Williamson disappearance because he had nothing else to do, but he changed the name to David Lang, the place to Gallatin, Tennessee, the date to September 1880, and the story stuck, except that it's not true and you can prove it:

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According to this site...

http://www.prairieghosts.com/bierce.html

...the traveling salesman's name was McHatten and he was from Cincinnati. The way Prairie Ghosts recounts the story McHatten "plagiarized" the Williamson story altering only names and locations when he was snowed in in Galatin and later sold the resulting text to a paper presenting it as an original. Unfortunately the site isn't clear as to whose story it was that McHatten had plagiarized, but chances are it was Bierce's.

If Bierce's narrative is the original source then one has to wonder how and when the victim acquired such an unlikely first name as "Orion" since nowhere in Bierce's story is Williamson's first name ever mentioned. He is simply Mr Williamson. I find it somewhat unlikely that a 19th century southern gentleman would bear a name befitting of Frank Zappa's offspring but you never know I guess. Biblical names were fashionable at the time -although this was more of a Yankee trend- so maybe Williamson's parents chose a Pagan god's name in a fit of eccentricity.

But whether or not Williamson was an Orion is not that important because Bierce cleary mentions two full names: Armour and James Wren. "Armour" also sounds odd but I found a number of people bearing that surname living in Dallas County at the time so chances are Armour must have been Wren's mother's maiden name, given to him as a first name. From an authentication point of view I think that the most significant line in Bierce's account is when he writes

"Mr. Wren's strange account of the matter, given under oath in the course of legal proceedings relating to the Williamson estate[...]"

If there was a legal proceeding then there has to be a paper trail yet for some reason it appears that no one has yet gone looking for it. It's hard to believe but I can't find any reference to any request for access to court records pertaining to Williamson's estate. No one said they exist, no one said they don't exist.

Now I'm really curious. Going after those records appears to me as the simplest way to prove or disprove that there is at least a possibility that the story could have happened.

"No such person as David Lang ever existed in Gallatin, nor did any family named Lang during this period." Which is why I'm suggesting Step One would be to find out if any such person as Orion Williamson, or any Williamson family, was in Selma during the 1850s.

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Indeed I will do just that. Even if those records aren't computerized it can't be that difficult or that costly to have someone there look them up.

I am also very curious now. Do let me know what you find out, if anything. If you find significant information this could be worth a magazine article or something. My copy of Among the Missing is copyright 1978. It has an appendix in the back that lists missing people in order of last name, and tells you what page to turn to for the account of that person. You can buy a used copy of the book from Amazon here. They're going for 23 cents right now.

It would be really cool if your research was able to either prove or disprove the story -- I mean, prove that Williamson disappeared under mysterious circumstances, that is, obviously you can't prove what actually happened to him, not at this late date.

An amateur researcher who was interested in the story of the Ax Man of New Orleans (an unsolved series of ax-murders in the early 1900s, mostly of Italian grocers) was able to debunk a major myth about the case through a public records search. Many accounts state the prime suspect was a Mafia enforcer named Joseph Mumfre, that the widow of one of the Ax Man's victims murdered Mumfre and the killings abruptly stopped afterwards. But this researcher was able to prove that no man named Joseph Mumfre, or any similar surname, had died of any cause anywhere in the whole US during that time frame, so the story about Mumfre being murdered by one of the widows had to have been false.

meggilyweggily said:

I am also very curious now. Do let me know what you find out, if anything. If you find significant information this could be worth a magazine article or something.

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Who knows but even if it only leads to some measure of clarification about either the incident itself or the individuals involved I think it would be worth it considering that this story has been around for so long without any attempt, as far as we know, to either debunk it once and for all or to prove that the historical basis, at least, is plausible.

I have sent an email to Selma's city clerk -whose last name happens to be Williams lol- asking for directions in my quest. Since it was Sunday I didn't expect a reply other than from a bot and that's what I got, saying Lois Williams will be in touch as soon as possible. You gotta love small towns

Will keep you up to date as it evolves.

With regards to the name "Orion" it occurred to me that it could in fact have been the much more likely "O'Ryan" and if O'Ryan was Williamson's mother's maiden name it's quite possible it would one of his given names. That made me think that perhaps Williamson was Catholic in which case the difficulty in finding records would make sense since the Catholic Church in some southern states was allowed to administer civil matters for their parishioners, which relieved the state of costly procedures by going straight to the diocese for census stats and such, but the Church wasn't obligated to keep the records public. Anyway I'll look up Catholic cemeteries in Dallas County and see if I can find any Williamsons and/or O'Ryans.

My copy of Among the Missing is copyright 1978. It has an appendix in the back that lists missing people in order of last name, and tells you what page to turn to for the account of that person. You can buy a used copy of the book from Amazon here. They're going for 23 cents right now.

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He he I think I can afford that.

It would be really cool if your research was able to either prove or disprove the story -- I mean, prove that Williamson disappeared under mysterious circumstances, that is, obviously you can't prove what actually happened to him, not at this late date.

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Obviously not but proving that he existed and that there were legal proceedings pertaining to his estate (Williamson sounds like he was a man of some means) in the 1850's would be a great start if we are to determine that the story has at least some tangible historical basis.

An amateur researcher who was interested in the story of the Ax Man of New Orleans (an unsolved series of ax-murders in the early 1900s, mostly of Italian grocers) was able to debunk a major myth about the case through a public records search. Many accounts state the prime suspect was a Mafia enforcer named Joseph Mumfre, that the widow of one of the Ax Man's victims murdered Mumfre and the killings abruptly stopped afterwards. But this researcher was able to prove that no man named Joseph Mumfre, or any similar surname, had died of any cause anywhere in the whole US during that time frame, so the story about Mumfre being murdered by one of the widows had to have been false.

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Well that's interesting because I actually believed that the Axe Man of New Orleans had been killed by a victim's family member myself. It's been years since I read that story though, I think I was still in college haunting the real crime section of the library. It's funny how we take these stories for granted until someone comes up and says "Hey, wait a sec!"