IN IN - Three missing women, Indiana Dunes State Park Mystery, 2 July 1966 - Page 6

GracieLu · #**126** 06-03-2012, 11:34 AM

Wow, I live pretty close to where this happened but never heard of it before. Take my little one to the dunes/lake michigan all summer long.... going to do some research about this case. very interesting and very sad!

Cincinnati Kid · #**127** 06-04-2012, 01:28 PM

I first learned of this incident by reading an article in a detective magazine back in the 1980's. The story was also contained in a book that came out some years ago about unsolved Chicago area murders and disappearances. I can recall that weekend and remember that July 4th came on a Monday.

Had this disappearance taken place in more recent years, there would be intensive coverage by cable news networks and it would have no doubt been reported on newscasts by the major networks and network morning shows would probably have had family members on to talk about it. I do wonder what kind of coverage it received in such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune and for how long?

Although it took place over 45 years ago, I think there are still some who know what happened to these women and who was responsible.

Richard · #**128** 06-21-2012, 01:53 PM

You are right about news coverage in the 1960's. It did tend to be more locally isolated when it came to crime reporting - even the disappearance of three women from a public beach.

Your best bet for researching this story would be to start with newspapers in the Gary, Indiana area because Gary is the closest big city to the Indiana Dunes Park.

Probably the first newspaper to check for stories would be the Post Tribune. It is a local newspaper from Gary, Indiana covering local, regional and national news and events.

Because this is an older story, you might have to do some microfilm searching.

LINK toa listing of Gary, Indiana area newspapers:

http://www.allyoucanread.com/gary-newspaper-in/

Cincinnati Kid · #**129** 06-21-2012, 05:34 PM

There are some articles on the disappearance in the Chicago Tribune that begin right after it took place up into the fall and into 1967. However, there is a cost to do view those on-line from that newspaper.

MaryLiz · #**130** 07-04-2012, 09:35 PM

Bumping for Patricia Blough, Ann Miller and Renee Bruhl, two days after the 46th anniversary of their disappearance.

Cincinnati Kid · #**131** 07-05-2012, 07:47 AM

Nice of you to do that. This particular case continues to be looked at on this website so the interest is there. Just amazing how three young ladies could have vanished like they did. I feel there is someone still around who knows what happened.

Richard · #**132** 07-05-2012, 11:04 PM

Does anyone know if any young men went missing or were reported missing around the same time as these girls?

MaryLiz · #**133** 07-08-2012, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

Nice of you to do that. This particular case continues to be looked at on this website so the interest is there. Just amazing how three young ladies could have vanished like they did. I feel there is someone still around who knows what happened.

Thanks, I do think of them often, especially around July 2nd. I agree with you 100%. I totally believe there is more than one person still alive who knows what happened to them. I just wish they would come forward.

Richard · #**134** 07-09-2012, 02:25 PM

This is a fascinating case with a lot of information - some pertinent and some probably not.

Of primary interest is the description and motion pictures of the smaller motorboat, its driver, and the three girls in that boat.

Of secondary interest is the information about and photos of the larger cabin cruiser.

While a name on the stern sounds important, the more important information would be the letters and numbers on each side near the bow. These are registration numbers - just like car plates, except that they never change. Retrieving those registration numbers from the film would make boat and owner identification very easy, even today. I was personally able to retrieve historical information relating to the various owners and sales of my own boat dating back to 1971.

The girls were wearing swim suits and probably nothing else, since they swam out to the small boat and since they left their belongings on the beach untouched and in the parked car. This fact, and the fact that they were photographed on board the smaller boat would make it pretty easy to analyze photos of the larger boat to determine whether or not they and the small boat's driver were in fact aboard the larger boat later in the day.

While there is much intrigue and mystery woven into this story, some possibly important (and easy to ascertain) facts are missing. What was the weather like that day? What was the state of the waves? Were there any distress signals copied by the Coast Guard or other ships/boats that day? What specific wreckage was located later during the search? Were any boats reported missing or stolen that day or within a few days of the girls' disappearance. Any other persons reported missing?

Sometimes the most likely solution to the problem is the least interesting. In looking at the available facts (realizing that some important ones are missing) one could conclude that the small boat and its driver and passengers perished during a high speed collision with a wave, or simply flipped in a quick manuever.

A Tri-Hull runabout was a boat built primarily for speed and they sported rather high power outboards for the size of the boat. An 85 Horsepower engine could generate a lot of power and speed, and they require a lot of gasoline on board.

The driver may well have been showing off for his guests after they departed the beach area. A top skimming boat like a tri-hull is not very stable in high winds or heavy seas and a collision with a wave, or buoy, or floating piece of debris would be disastrous. One cannot assume that a body would ever reach the shore if they were a long way out on Lake Michigan.

Cincinnati Kid · #**135** 07-09-2012, 06:04 PM

Richard -

Your post offers quite a bit to consider and you are to be thanked for all that you provided. May I just ask a couple of questions?

In the reports on this story, two boats have been mentioned in connection with the three women. One has been described as a 16-18 foot fiberglass trimaran runabout. The other was a 26-28 foot Trojan cabin cruiser. Some say the three girls first entered the smaller boat that had one man on it. Later, they are reported to have gone aboard the larger craft that had three men on it. There is a belief that they spent some time back on the beach in the time between being on the boats. I assume you mean the driver of the smaller boat may have been showing off at a high speed and flipped it. If that is the case, how could they have later been seen aboard the larger craft? Also, I can understand how one or even two bodies going into Lake Michigan may not be found, but what about six (three women and the reported three men)? I would also think there would be wreckage of some kind seen in the hours and even days after an accident.

The approximate weather in that area could be found by checking microfilm of area newspapers from that weekend. I tend to think it was warm weather (mid-70's up into the 80's) with sunny or partly sunny skies. Good enough for a number of people to be on the beach and in boats on that day.

STANDREID · #**136** 07-09-2012, 07:12 PM

That is a well traveled area so could that many floating bodies and accompanying debris go unseen for days/weeks? In my estimation, the simplest solution as to their fate is that they were murdered and their weighted bodies were dropped into the lake.

Richard · #**137** 07-11-2012, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

Richard -

Your post offers quite a bit to consider and you are to be thanked for all that you provided. May I just ask a couple of questions?

In the reports on this story, two boats have been mentioned in connection with the three women. One has been described as a 16-18 foot fiberglass trimaran runabout. The other was a 26-28 foot Trojan cabin cruiser. Some say the three girls first entered the smaller boat that had one man on it. Later, they are reported to have gone aboard the larger craft that had three men on it. There is a belief that they spent some time back on the beach in the time between being on the boats. I assume you mean the driver of the smaller boat may have been showing off at a high speed and flipped it. If that is the case, how could they have later been seen aboard the larger craft? Also, I can understand how one or even two bodies going into Lake Michigan may not be found, but what about six (three women and the reported three men)? I would also think there would be wreckage of some kind seen in the hours and even days after an accident.

The approximate weather in that area could be found by checking microfilm of area newspapers from that weekend. I tend to think it was warm weather (mid-70's up into the 80's) with sunny or partly sunny skies. Good enough for a number of people to be on the beach and in boats on that day.

There was a movie, according to case summary information, which showed that there were different two boats which were near the beach at two different time. However, it has never been conclusively proven that the girls were on both boats. It has been Speculated, but not proven.

In my previous post, I suggested that that film footage be analyzed to determine if, in fact, the three girls who boarded the smaller runabout were the same three girls seen on the Cabin Cruiser some hours later. They would probably be wearing the same swim suits on both boats. For that matter, can it be determined that the small boat operator was one of the men filmed on the larger boat?

There is a lot of conflicting information and witness testimony, but as the police indicated, they tended to believe the initial witnesses as most reliable. Those witnesses stated on the day that the girls disappeared that the girls left their stuff on the beach, swam out to and boarded the smaller craft, and NEVER RETURNED for their stuff. These first witnesses did NOT state that they saw the girls on the larger boat.

Several days later, someone else claimed to have seen the three girls ashore between alleged boat rides. Did that witness actually know the women? Did he actually see the same three women? And could he say positively (several days after the fact) that it was at say 2PM instead of 11 AM?

IF these women were murdered, it wouldn't make any sense to cruise around with them for several hours, parading them in front of so many witnesses on the beach. And IF there was some accident in the open water - out of sight of witnesses - it would more likely be in a fast moving surface skimmer than on a larger, more stable platform. If a small boat were to flip or collide with something, it would be more difficult to get out an emergency message than if a larger boat came into distress.

My point about the weather is that while it might be a nice day on the beach, the weather affects boating significantly if the waves are high or if there is rain or lightning. The rougher the weather and water, the more likely chance of a boating accident.

Knowing the weather, winds, currents, etc would have provided the Coast Guard with necessary information to search for possible victims - but they would have to know that there had been a boating accident before they would begin such a search. In fact, I think that any searching was conducted in and around the park itself.

In regard to a possible accident and missing persons, Lake Michigan is not a small body of water. There may have been a lot of boats near shore, but simply heading north away from the beach would quickly take a boat well out of the sight from shore or other boats.

Again, analyzing the film could provide significant clues toward solving this case. Every boat is required to display its registration numbers and letters on both sides of its bow, and knowing those numbers would allow an investigator to determine who owned the boat at the time - and every subsequent owner as well.

Marilynilpa · #**138** 07-12-2012, 12:40 AM

Richard, as always you have stated your point well. I had never thought much about the possibility of a boat accident until your earlier post and then this last post.

If this is what happened then we also have a missing male. I'll do a quick search (if you haven't already) to see if we have a male missing since 7/2/66, or a male UID that might match up.

I think the smaller boat is key to this mystery. It is too bad no identifying numbers could be seen on the smaller boat.

Marilynilpa · #**139** 07-12-2012, 01:17 AM

A quick check of missing men doesn't seem to have anything related to the time frame of July 1966. Tomorrow I'll check more thoroughly and use a larger time frame.

There are a lot of UIDs, so that might take a while to go through them all.

kemo · #**140** 07-12-2012, 02:24 PM

Bodies are normally buoyant at the time of death. A person who has minimal body fat (more likely a man) might sink. A body put into water, unless there is relatively high body fat, will eventually sink as the lungs fill up with water. Drowning victims are more likely to sink faster than victims of other causes of death because it involves at least partial filling of the lungs with water.

At some point after death, depending on many factors, most bodies will float to the surface because of gases in the abdominal cavity that form as part of the decomposition process cause the body to inflate. Bodies will tend to float for days before they decay sufficiently to sink again. The speed will depend on many variables.

Bodies can drift toward shore and be found there but in areas with relatively high small boat traffic they are usually found by others in small boats. I live near a large lake and virtually every drowning victim is found by another boater within about 5 days. I doubt that anyone could claim with absolute certainty that if 4 people died in a small boat "mishap" on the southern coast of Lake Michigan at the time, at least one body would have been found, but I bet it would have been extremely likely.

Realistically, I give Indiana/Illinois Law enforcement credit to have made the connection had a guy alone in a Tri Hull disappeared on the same day as the three women.

The buoyancy of death bodies is surprising. Anyone who follows true crime might recall cases where bodies that were weighted down with concrete still floated to the surface. (The Oba Chandler case in Tampa comes to mind). If the guy in the Tri hull did it, he was prepared with three very effective weights.

Something that isn't clear is what, if any effort was made to locate either boat or its owner. I would think there would not have been that many of either boat out on the lake that day and, with reasonable publicity, the owners would have come forward if they had nothing to hide.

I can see a sexual predator using a "fun" boat like a Tri Hull to lure one or more women into his boat and out to where he could have his way. It seems far less likely that three men would do it together in a cabin cruiser. Cabin Cruisers are far more distinctive and much more likely to be recognized and realistically, when have three men worked together on a sexual assault? It is usually a solo effort with the rare 2 man team.

Richard · #**141** 07-12-2012, 06:56 PM

Whether these three women were murdered or perished in a boating accident, I feel that the key person of interest would be the Tri Hull driver.

He may have owned, rented, borrowed, or even stolen the boat. Checking out reports of missing boats would have been a good idea.

As one can see by looking at the index of various Missing Persons sites, there are fewer listed cases for each year, as you look back in time. This does not mean that people were not reported as missing at the time, but that fewer of those cases have made it to the internet websites.

Perhaps scanning on the Social Security Death index for dates of death on or shortly after 2 July 1966 would develop some possibilities for further research. For instance, perhaps the driver of the Tri Hull runabout died in a mishap and only his body was found... Probably a long shot, but a possibility.

kemo · #**142** 07-12-2012, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard

Whether these three women were murdered or perished in a boating accident, I feel that the key person of interest would be the Tri Hull driver.

He may have owned, rented, borrowed, or even stolen the boat. Checking out reports of missing boats would have been a good idea.

As one can see by looking at the index of various Missing Persons sites, there are fewer listed cases for each year, as you look back in time. This does not mean that people were not reported as missing at the time, but that fewer of those cases have made it to the internet websites.

Perhaps scanning on the Social Security Death index for dates of death on or shortly after 2 July 1966 would develop some possibilities for further research. For instance, perhaps the driver of the Tri Hull runabout died in a mishap and only his body was found... Probably a long shot, but a possibility.

If LE and Coast Guard in the Illinois/Indiana shore of Lake Michigan were looking for a Tri Hull in connection with the three missing women AND processing a wreaked/sunk/missing /stolen Tri Hull in the same general area, you'd think they would consider the possibility of same kind of connection.
It has occurred to me that had the owner survived some sort of mishap and the three women didn't, he might deny anyone else was onboard to avoid liability. That still wouldn't explain why no bodies were recovered. I think the guy took them so far out, they submitted to his control, them he killed them and dumped their bodies with sufficient weight that they never resurfaced.
.

Richard · #**143** 07-12-2012, 10:15 PM

A Tri Hull runabout of this size would very likely have been trailered to a launching ramp and put into the lake. The trailer and the towing vehicle would then have been parked.

Another scenario to consider is that the Tri Hull driver could have taken the three women back to the loading ramp with a promise to drive them back to the beach area of the park. Wearing only their swimsuits, and without another reasonable way to get back, they might readily have gone with him in his vehicle.

From the boat ramp, he could have driven them anywhere.

Cincinnati Kid · #**144** 07-14-2012, 08:56 AM

I think it would be very difficult for one individual to keep control over the three women. Of course, he could have just quickly shot each, but in terms of holding the three captive, that might be a tall order unless he had assistance from others - such as some on a second boat.

You do wonder if the man on the boat was known to one or all of the three women. You would think they would be more cautious than to go out on the water with someone they didn't know.

kemo · #**145** 07-14-2012, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

I think it would be very difficult for one individual to keep control over the three women. Of course, he could have just quickly shot each, but in terms of holding the three captive, that might be a tall order unless he had assistance from others - such as some on a second boat.

You do wonder if the man on the boat was known to one or all of the three women. You would think they would be more cautious than to go out on the water with someone they didn't know.

Read up on the Oba Chandler case in Tampa . He lured three women out on his boat and ended up raping and killing them. I could see three women feeling safty in numbers going off with a guy in a boat they didn't know. I can imagine different ways he could control them. Way out in a boat, they would be pretty vulnerable. A weapon might do it. I can think of a number of case where one man was able to restrain three women. A common way would be to threaten them with a knife or gun and have one tie up the other two. Three women should be able ato take on one guy if they were able to co-ordinate their attack, but he would probably have the advantage of surprise.

Marilynilpa · #**146** 07-15-2012, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kemo

Read up on the Oba Chandler case in Tampa . He lured three women out on his boat and ended up raping and killing them. I could see three women feeling safty in numbers going off with a guy in a boat they didn't know. I can imagine different ways he could control them. Way out in a boat, they would be pretty vulnerable. A weapon might do it. I can think of a number of case where one man was able to restrain three women. A common way would be to threaten them with a knife or gun and have one tie up the other two. Three women should be able ato take on one guy if they were able to co-ordinate their attack, but he would probably have the advantage of surprise.

Nice post, kemo, and I agree with you 100%. Three women going off with one man would feel pretty safe. After all, they would be on a boat out in the open - what could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, we know the answer to that with Oba Chandler.

I have wondered why no bodies have been found, but in a prior post someone mentioned that the women could have been taken out of the park in the boat - after all, wouldn't the boat have been towed on a trailer?

Maybe the women weren't killed on the boat, just subdued/drugged and taken away in the boat to who knows where. That would explain the lack of bodies after all this time.

I also wonder about Richard's idea that maybe there had been a boating accident that resulted accidentally in the deaths of these women.

It is terrible to think about three women vanishing without a trace.

Bargle · #**147** 07-15-2012, 09:01 AM

Some things I see against the boating accident idea.
None of the bodies have surfaced. One body not surfacing isn't unreasonable, but all 3? Not even parts? Maybe if the boat driver survived the accident and recovered and hid the bodies. I wish we had someone knowledgeable about circumstances where bodies have stayed submerged. I know it can happen, but how?
If the boat driver had been killed as well, he would have been reported missing at some point. If the boat had been trailered to the lake, he would left behind a vehicle with trailer. If he lived on the lake, surely someone would have noticed him missing after a while. Mail and perhaps, newspapers piling up at his home, even if he lived alone.

Marilynilpa · #**148** 07-15-2012, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaryLiz

Bumping for Patricia Blough, Ann Miller and Renee Bruhl, two days after the 46th anniversary of their disappearance.

It's good to see you back!

Marilynilpa · #**149** 07-15-2012, 12:25 PM

I'm re-posting the link to an article about Dick Wylie and his "abortion" theory:

http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-new-t...,2189234.story

I have a lot of questions about this theory.

First of all, Wylie names Ralph Largo, Jr. as being the driver of the smaller boat the three girls were seen on.

How the heck does Wylie know that? Sure, Largo might fit the description of the boat driver, but so do thousands of other guys. It was a fairly generic description.

Wylie mentions that Largo was at the beach that day. I don't know if that's true, but if so, big deal. So were about 9,000 other folks, according to what I've read.

Does anyone know if such an abortion boat/boats ever operated in Lake Michigan? I've tried a variety of search options and could't find anything.

I seriously question this abortion boat scenario, and Wylie's "facts."

If anyone has read Wylie's book, I'd love to hear your opinions.

kemo · #**150** 07-15-2012, 01:49 PM

In the mid 1960's the mother of a friend of mine died from an illegal abortion. It was an all too common occurrence. Her death was typical of these death. It was a result of an infection that occurred a few days later and was not properly treated. Few women died during the abortion, it generally came later and could have been avoided if had the women gone to an emergency room. Instead, out of fear, they either did nothing or returned to the "non-doctor" who performed the abortion.

The illegal abortion industry thrived in an "under the radar" way like the illegal drug industry does today. Any woman who "needed" an abortion could easily arrange one and, depending on what you could pay, the quality of the medical care "varied". I suspect that this is the explanation of a certain number of "missing women" from the pre Roe vs. Wade era. (Anyone want to return to the "good old days"?)