CA CA - Mimi Boomhower, 48, Los Angeles, 18 Aug 1949

I think the purse was meant to show Mimi committed suicide, that's why the credit card wasn't touched. Walked into the water, left her belongings on beach. The best way to avoid an investigation would be to show no crime was committed.

http://www.stevehodel.com/faq/FAQ04.pdf

PDF has articles scanned. There is a picture of the white purse. Purse on page 3 of 13. (FWIW, I'm not buying into the black dahlia connection but that's just me).

I do find it interesting that Mimi disappeared on the 6th anniversary of her Husband's death and that she was having financial difficulties also.

http://books.google.com/books?id=qw...IQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q="Mimi boomhower"&f=false

Page 319.

In this book it is written that she told her business manager C. Manaugh that she was going to meet a gentleman at 7 PM at her home and that Mr. Manaugh believed that this man might have been a perspective buyer for the home.

In this book it is written that the purse was to have been found not to have had any particles of sand.

(there is another picture of the purse in this book linked directly above).

There are couple of pages missing of course that probably conclude Mimi's entry in the above book and it looks like the next chapter deals with Spangler (she also has a thread on here).

http://books.google.com/books?id=wK...EQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q="Mimi boomhower"&f=false

Another book. page 416.

Identifies Mimi's address as 701 Nimes Road, LA. Id's her deceased husband as N. E. Boomhower deceased 1943.

This book Id's person who found purse in phonebooth and gives his address as well.

(this book also compares Mimi to black dahlia but I brought it here for the details included)

The gambler that Mimi was seen with at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel the week or so prior to her disappearance is ID'ed in the PDF above IIRC.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...bcqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HWUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5953,2589814

Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Aug 16, 1959

This article gives her estate value after her declaration of death.

Just some additional reading info for anyone interested.

Her home was in Bel-Air. That's a very wealthy neighborhood. It sounds like she did whatever she could to keep up appearances. I wonder if she got involved in some sort of shady financial dealings (loans, etc) that she just couldn't pay back?

It sounds like the investigators had a good idea of what her jewelry looked like. I wish they would have released pictures of it. I wonder if it's been pawned? Finding the jewelry might have been a major clue in her disappearance.

According to a previous post, Mimi Boomhower was a widow, her husband having died in 1943. Does anyone have any further information about him? Was he a serviceman who was killed in World War II? If not, what was his occupation and how did he die?

Novis Boomhower or Novice E. Boomhower:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...UQ1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=yvADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4891,6693220

Widow's Sister: Mrs. Olga L. Herman, Hewlitt, LI
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...cABQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h1UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4901,137120

Creole

Thanks. Seems Mr. Boomhower was a "Linoleum tycoon". Does anyone today even know what linoleum was? But back then it was probably the state of the art in floor covering.

She seems to have squandered most of her fortune. I wonder if some lothario had bled her dry then killed her so she wouldn't turn him in.

Robin Hood said:

I think the purse was meant to show Mimi committed suicide, that's why the credit card wasn't touched. Walked into the water, left her belongings on beach. The best way to avoid an investigation would be to show no crime was committed.

Click to expand...

I agree and the fact that her body was never found is an indication that suicide wasn't what happened.

No proof but I think a reasonable assumption; the people who left the purse did actually find it on the beach as they said and they had nothing to do with the murder. They probably had some reason not to get involved, for example, they were married but not to each other and weren't supposed to be there.

Mimi Boomhower
Missing since August 18, 1949 from Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics

• • Date Of Birth: circa 1901
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 48 years old
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Plump build.
  • Clothing: She was wearing $25,000 worth of jewelry � a diamond breast pin, a diamond-encrusted bracelet and two diamond rings. She always wore big diamonds.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Boomhower last talked to a friend from her home in Los Angeles, California on August 18, 1949. The friend had telephoned between 7 and 8 p. m. to discuss an approaching social event. After the call, Boomhower changed her dress and tossed the discarded garment on her bed. She left her car in the garage and an uneaten salad on the dining room table. Then she disappeared.

Mrs. Boomhower's white handbag was found in a telephone booth at a supermarket in Los Angeles five days after she disappeared. Scrawled in ink on a side of the purse was this message: Police Dept.�we found this at beach Thursday night." . That was the night of her disappearance. In the purse were a credit card, driver's license, car keys, compact and lipstick. The purse showed no evidence of exposure to sand or salt water.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Los Angeles Police Department
Cold Cases Unit
213-485-2505
213-485-2129

Source Information:
1959 Independent-Press-Telegram-Southland-Magazine
The Doe Network: Case File 2157DFCA

When a rich person disappears/is murdered, the first motive I think of is money. According to Charley Project (Mimi Boomhower – The Charley Project):

"She'd also taken out a $5,000 home equity loan and additional loans. She had put her house on the market earlier that year and was willing to sell it at a loss. However, her attorney stated she was not bankrupt and she was not depressed about her financial issues.
A judge declared Boomhower legally dead just eleven days after her disappearance; California state law usually required a person to be missing at least ninety days, but judge waived this rule so Boomhower's attorney could administer her estate.
In November 1949, however, the judge reversed his ruling. Boomhower was eventually declared legally dead a second time seven years after her disappearance; by then, debts and legal fees had reduced her estate's value by more than two-thirds."

I wonder if her attorney got some benefits from his client's disappearance. And I found very suspicious the first decision of the judge... I don't understand why he did that to reverse his ruling some months later.

I have the impression that she ran away with some wealthy man who promised her many things or actually committed suicide. It's very strange that a woman like her disappears just like that, whatever it is, she's already reunited with her ex-husband...
rest in peace

It seems very coincidental that police found a book entitled 'She Faded into Thin Air' on her table.

It is interesting that the various articles and newspaper coverage has so little on her background. I am fairly sure that she was born Emily Luhan in Manhattan in 1897, and so was 52 rather than 48 when she went missing. This came firstly from trees on Ancestry but seems confirmed by census records for the family which also show a sister Olga, as mentioned in the newspaper clippings. She was the daughter of a doctor. It seems most likely that she married Boomhower in 1928 in New Jersey.

Emily Edith Ann “Mimi” Luhan Boomhower
BIRTH3 Jun 1896
Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA
DEATH18 Aug 1949 (aged 53)
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Burial Details Unknown

Emily "Mimi" Luhan Boomhower was a well-known socialite, who frequented Hollywood nightclubs and was seen at all the prestigious events throughout town. Mimi had inherited her late husband's fortune and lived in their 10 room, Spanish style mansion in the middle of Bel-Air.

A big game hunter, who took Mimi on safaris with him, Novice Boomhower was a linoleum magnate, who had died six years earlier. Mimi Boomhower disappeared from her Bel-Air home on 8/18/1949.

When police arrived for a welfare check, the lights were on and a salad was left out on the dining table. One of Mimi's dresses was laid out on her bed. Her car was still in the garage and there was no sign of a robbery. Boomhower's white calfskin handbag was found in a telephone booth at a supermarket on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles on August 25, a week after she disappeared. On the side of the purse someone had written a message in ink: "Police Dept. - we found this at beach Thursday night." Thursday was the day of Boomhower's disappearance.

Mimi was eventually declared dead and her body has never been found. May she Rest In Peace.




LINK:

The above article about Mimi's disappearance has always puzzled me. The headline hints that she was a victim of a "Knife Slayer", and yet no where have I seen any evidence that any knife or known killer was involved in her disappearance.

The article references another unsolved case of that time frame involving a murder victim named Kern.

Has anyone seen more information regarding possible connections between the Boomhower disappearance and other possible linked cases? Any specifics as to why investigators might have thought that she was the victim of a "Knife Slayer"?