IN IN - Renee Bruhl, Patricia Blough & Ann Miller, Indiana Dunes SP, 2 July 1966

[Ibiz]

Very good article. I remember seeing a youtube video of that police officer digging around that cabin with a shovel. He didn't seem to have much help, and appeared to be in very poor physical shape. As another note, it didn't really seem to be a very good lead to follow anyway.

 

[Richard]

Renee Bruhl

• Case Classification: Endangered Missing

• Missing Since: July 2, 1966

• Location Last Seen: Indiana State Park in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana

Physical Description
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.

• Date of Birth: 1947

• Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old

• Race: Caucasian

• Gender: Female

• Height at Time of Disappearance: 5'9

• Weight at Time of Disappearance: 120-150 lbs

• Hair Color: Brown

• Eye Color: Hazel

• Alias(s) / Nickname(s): Bruhl's maiden name is "Slunecko."

• Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

• Dentals: Not available

• Fingerprints: Not available

• DNA: Not available

Clothing & Personal Items

• Clothing: Brown bathing suit with a pattern of green flowers and gold leaves

• Jewelry: Unknown

• Additional Personal Items: Unknown

• -----------------------------------------------

• 
  
  
  Patricia Blough
  Missing since July 2, 1966 from Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana
  Classification: Endangered Missing
  Vital Statistics
  
  • • Date Of Birth: 1947
    • Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
    • Height and Weight: 5'4"; 115 lbs.
    • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes.
    • Clothing: Bathing suit
    • AKA: Patty
    • ---------------------------------
    • 
      
      
      
      
      Ann Miller
      Missing since July 2, 1966 from Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana.
      Classification: Endangered Missing
      
      Vital Statistics
      • • Date Of Birth: 1945
        • Age at Time of Disappearance: 21 years old
        • Height and Weight: 5'2"
        • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes.
        • Clothing: A two-piece blue bathing suit with a red belt.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Renee Bruhl and two of her friends, Patricia Blough and Ann Miller, disappeared from the Indiana State Park in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana on July 2, 1966. The women arrived at the Indiana Dunes State Park at approximately 10:00 AM. Miller parked in the park's lot and the women hiked to a spot approximately 100 yards from the Lake Michigan shoreline. A couple reported seeing the women leave their belongings on the beach at approximately 12:00 and enter the lake together. The witnesses saw them speaking to an unidentified man operating a 14 - 16 foot-long white boat with a blue interior and and outboard motor sometime afterward. The couple reported their observations to a park ranger around dusk when they noticed that the women's belongings were still sitting unclaimed on the beach. The witnesses stated that the women went aboard the boat and headed west with the driver.

The park rangers soon learned that missing persons' reports had been filed for Blough, Miller and Bruhl over the weekend in Illinois by their families. The rangers began investigating the park and located Miller's Buick in the parking lot. Her car keys had been located with her belongings and some items of the women's clothing and other personal effects were still inside the vehicle. The park rangers contacted other law enforcement agencies, including the United States Coast Guard. A search for the missing women was initiated on July 5, three days after the women disappeared.

More witnesses began substantiating the initial reports that the women entered a white boat operated by an unidentified man. Later accounts described the male as in his early twenties with a tanned complexion and dark, wavy hair. He was wearing a beach jacket at the time. A visitor was filming home movies at the state park on July 2 and offered his reels to investigators. The search was immediately narrowed to two boats once authorities viewed the footage. One was a fiberglass 16 - 18-foot long trimaran runabout with a three-hulled design, which was operated by a man fitting the description of the unidentified driver. Three females matching the missing women were seen aboard the smaller boat in the footage. The second boat identified was a 26 - 28-foot Trojan cabin cruiser with three men aboard along with three women. The cabin cruiser was seen at approximately 15:00, three hours after the women entered the smaller vessel. Investigators believe that the women may have been dropped off on the beach by the driver of the smaller boat while he drove back to retrieve two male friends and the cabin cruiser. Blough, Miller and Bruhl were reportedly seen eating and walking along the sand dunes after this time. They were approached by another unidentified man, who accompanied them on to the cabin cruiser. Witnesses stated that the cabin cruiser was equipped with a radio / telephone antenna, but apparently did not have a name printed on its stern. This final sighting has never been confirmed, but is considered reliable by authorities. Investigators began researching the women's backgrounds in an attempt to discover if their disappearances were voluntary. Authorities found that there may have been problems in Bruhl's marriage, though her family denied it. All three women were horse enthusiasts, Blough and Miller met while boarding their horses at the same Illinois stable. Miller was employed as a horse exerciser at Oak Brook Polo Club at the time she vanished. She and Blough were associated with men who had criminal backgrounds in the horse market. Blough was reportedly having problems with 'horse syndicate people' in the spring and summer of 1966. Drowning was considered a possibility in the disappearances, but unlikely. The boats they were reportedly seen boarding on July 2, 1966 have never been located, nor have the unidentified men spotted on the vessels been seen again. The Indiana Dunes State Park where Blough, Miller and Bruhl were last seen is now called the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Investigating Agency(s)
If you have any information about this case please contact;

• Agency Name: Indiana State Police

• Agency Contact Person: Sgt. Jack Bedan

• Agency Phone Number: 317-232-8282

• Agency Case Number: 1-33919

• NamUs Case Number: MP #10766

Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
Information Source(s)

• The Indiana Dunes State Park Mystery

• Chicago Tribune

• The Doe Network: Renee Bruhl - 384DFIN

• NamUs

 

[MadMcGoo]

Reminds me of Pecos Jane Doe, found in Texas only a few days after these three disappeared - such baffling cases (IMO)

 

[MadMcGoo]

Current list of exclusions for Patricia:
UP8419 01/16/2001 Isle of Wight VA
UP4790 04/24/1981 Miami OH
UP5556 05/30/1976 Virginia Beach VA
UP6629 02/03/1991 Frederick VA
UP8579 01/25/1981 Hanover VA
UP12683 06/06/2014 Newport News VA
UP6642 08/07/1986 Chesterfield VA
UP6796 11/18/1985 Alleghany VA
UP6661 02/03/1991 Stafford VA
UP8493 12/06/1993 Fairfax VA
UP6249 11/14/1980 Rockingham VA
UP7097 03/18/1967 New Castle DE
UP5211 09/30/1968 Will IL

Current list of exclusions for Ann:
UP6629 02/03/1991 Frederick VA
UP6642 08/07/1986 Chesterfield VA
UP5211 09/30/1968 Will IL

No exclusions listed on NamUs for Renee

 

[spinnertette18]

I happened to listen to a Stuff You Should Know podcast last night – The Unsolved Indiana Dunes Disappearances. I was starting to fall asleep and missed a few parts despite my interest! (I have tried to replay it again today but it won’t for some reason.)


I was not in the Chicago area when this happened (I wasn’t born yet!) I moved to the area in the 80s and I did read about the Jayne family at some point. I had my horse at Jaynesway Stables in Bartlett for several months in the 90s. I met Frank Jr several times (front desk, walking through the barn, etc. He was associated with Richard Bailey.) I recalled the incidents that he was involved in some years earlier. Everyone was very nice to me but I was uneasy. There were workers there that I didn’t want to end up alone in the barn at night with them. I ended up moving my horse to a different barn so I could sleep better at night.



I don’t know what barns were like in the 50s, but these girls had horses and at least 1 was an exercise rider. You know everyone at the barn (farriers, stable hands, etc.) Barns have less than stellar people working at them, even today. They don’t make a lot of money, so who knows what Ann put up with at the barn? Maybe Silas got Ann pregnant? Maybe she threatened him to go public but decided he would help her with an abortion? It is very likely that people at the barn knew they were going to the Dunes for the 4th. It’s a holiday, people talk about what they are doing. I thought I heard them say that a guy that was driving the boat matched the description of the nephew of Silas. Ed Nefeld was a stable worker at his farm and he looked similar. Maybe friend Ed said he would drive his boat out and meet them to go boating (or to take them to the place to have it done.) The podcast said there were 8-9,000 people at the beach that day. There is so much going on, perfect time to pick them up and disappear with them, too much going on to pay attention to people coming and going. Lake Michigan is huge – 118 miles across, 307 miles long. Drive out towards the center of the lake 10-15 miles (you have 50+ miles in either direction now and eventually you will be far, far away from anyone. Unlikely that anyone else would be out that far. He could have drugged or shot them, then threw overboard. Maybe weights, too. Wouldn’t they be fish food? Start a small fire or just make sure the boat takes on water to sink it.


I saw this mentioned elsewhere:


…Nefeld put in an insurance claim two days after the women’s disappearance for a boat fitting the description of the one which picked them up. He allegedly told the insurance company that the boat had burned up in an accidental fire. I haven’t seen any documents backing up this claim, but if it’s proven true, knowing Silas Jayne’s love of dynamite hits, and taking into consideration the boat debris that washed up three miles west of where the women were last seen (“pieces of metal and Styrofoam, believed to have been parts of three boat seats, along with oil and gasoline cans and a piece of oil-soaked wood”) this has got to make any rational person question whether this points to a grisly fate for the young women.


It also mentioned that the name of the boat was scratched off and sandpaper and paint was found on the beach? If I was a cop, I would immediately think these 2 things are related. But they didn’t have the technology back then that we do now. Or, they just ignore it as they are told to do. Many cops were dirty back then. Like that sheriff who died, accidentally, that was going to dig up under one of the houses. Suddenly, there is no interest in doing that after he died.


Also, the podcast said there was a couple/family sitting next to the girls. It was the end of the day and they contacted the ranger as their stuff was all still sitting on the beach. News articles just say that their blanket, clothes, purses and keys were found in their car. How did they get there? Would the couple/ranger have packed up their stuff and found their car and put it in there? Police may not have been that thorough back then or did think he was doing them a favor and put their stuff in the car? .


I think it was Silas.

 

[Ozoner]

I happened to listen to a Stuff You Should Know podcast last night – The Unsolved Indiana Dunes Disappearances. I was starting to fall asleep and missed a few parts despite my interest! (I have tried to replay it again today but it won’t for some reason.)


I was not in the Chicago area when this happened (I wasn’t born yet!) I moved to the area in the 80s and I did read about the Jayne family at some point. I had my horse at Jaynesway Stables in Bartlett for several months in the 90s. I met Frank Jr several times (front desk, walking through the barn, etc. He was associated with Richard Bailey.) I recalled the incidents that he was involved in some years earlier. Everyone was very nice to me but I was uneasy. There were workers there that I didn’t want to end up alone in the barn at night with them. I ended up moving my horse to a different barn so I could sleep better at night.



I don’t know what barns were like in the 50s, but these girls had horses and at least 1 was an exercise rider. You know everyone at the barn (farriers, stable hands, etc.) Barns have less than stellar people working at them, even today. They don’t make a lot of money, so who knows what Ann put up with at the barn? Maybe Silas got Ann pregnant? Maybe she threatened him to go public but decided he would help her with an abortion? It is very likely that people at the barn knew they were going to the Dunes for the 4th. It’s a holiday, people talk about what they are doing. I thought I heard them say that a guy that was driving the boat matched the description of the nephew of Silas. Ed Nefeld was a stable worker at his farm and he looked similar. Maybe friend Ed said he would drive his boat out and meet them to go boating (or to take them to the place to have it done.) The podcast said there were 8-9,000 people at the beach that day. There is so much going on, perfect time to pick them up and disappear with them, too much going on to pay attention to people coming and going. Lake Michigan is huge – 118 miles across, 307 miles long. Drive out towards the center of the lake 10-15 miles (you have 50+ miles in either direction now and eventually you will be far, far away from anyone. Unlikely that anyone else would be out that far. He could have drugged or shot them, then threw overboard. Maybe weights, too. Wouldn’t they be fish food? Start a small fire or just make sure the boat takes on water to sink it.


I saw this mentioned elsewhere:


…Nefeld put in an insurance claim two days after the women’s disappearance for a boat fitting the description of the one which picked them up. He allegedly told the insurance company that the boat had burned up in an accidental fire. I haven’t seen any documents backing up this claim, but if it’s proven true, knowing Silas Jayne’s love of dynamite hits, and taking into consideration the boat debris that washed up three miles west of where the women were last seen (“pieces of metal and Styrofoam, believed to have been parts of three boat seats, along with oil and gasoline cans and a piece of oil-soaked wood”) this has got to make any rational person question whether this points to a grisly fate for the young women.


It also mentioned that the name of the boat was scratched off and sandpaper and paint was found on the beach? If I was a cop, I would immediately think these 2 things are related. But they didn’t have the technology back then that we do now. Or, they just ignore it as they are told to do. Many cops were dirty back then. Like that sheriff who died, accidentally, that was going to dig up under one of the houses. Suddenly, there is no interest in doing that after he died.


Also, the podcast said there was a couple/family sitting next to the girls. It was the end of the day and they contacted the ranger as their stuff was all still sitting on the beach. News articles just say that their blanket, clothes, purses and keys were found in their car. How did they get there? Would the couple/ranger have packed up their stuff and found their car and put it in there? Police may not have been that thorough back then or did think he was doing them a favor and put their stuff in the car? .


I think it was Silas.

I agree with you that it was Silas (through his lackey Ed Nefeld).

And Nefeld wouldn't have needed to go out 10-15 miles. 6 or 7 would've done it.

 

[Richard]

Renee Bruhl, Patricia Blough, Ann Miller
Missing since 2 July 1966

 

[PGHJW]

Was it ever revealed what all was seen on the home movies taken that day or if they still exist?

 

[Richard]

Was it ever revealed what all was seen on the home movies taken that day or if they still exist?

The home movies taken on 2 July 1966 were offered to and seen by police investigators in an attempt to determine what happened to the girls, and who might have abducted them. According to news reports, investigators were interested in two boats seen in those movies.

One was a Trimaran, which is a three hulled sailboat, which had one man on it, and the other was a small cabin cruiser which had three men and three women on it. See my first post in this thread for more detailed information.

I have never seen the movie or excerpts from it. Not certain if cold case investigators have a copy of it or stills from it in their files.

 

[Markybug]

These movies it seems could be key to this case ?

 

[Ozoner]

These movies it seems could be key to this case ?

Maybe if they can locate a clear shot of Nefeld with the women . . .but they're running out of time to prosecute. Nefeld doesn't have many years left. Silas Jayne is already dead, so that ship has sailed.

 

[Richard]

The home movie was certainly a part of the puzzle and it was seen and studied by investigators early on.

However, there were many other conflicting bits of information which entered into the search as well which placed the girls at various places on shore after the movie of the boats was taken.

Perhaps a new study of that movie film, using modern techniques such as facial recognition might help solve this old case.

 

[Markybug]

Is there any way the 3 women had a accident themselves? Very unlikely but would explain the lack of anything basically.

 

[Richard]

It has been 54 years since these three women went missing.

Patricia Blough, Renee Bruhl and Ann Miller

LINK:
The Indiana Dunes Mystery - The Disappearance of Ann Miller, Patricia Blough And Renee Bruhl

 

[Markybug]

The home movie was certainly a part of the puzzle and it was seen and studied by investigators early on.

However, there were many other conflicting bits of information which entered into the search as well which placed the girls at various places on shore after the movie of the boats was taken.

Perhaps a new study of that movie film, using modern techniques such as facial recognition might help solve this old case.

Is the video shot on the day ever been made public ?

 

[Ibiz]

With 6000 boats on the water and 9000 people on the beach, it dosen't seem likely that Silas and Nefeld would have bumped into the girls that day. Even if they all wanted to meet there; finding each other on that beach would have been darn near impossible.

I'm starting to think that the trio ether got on a boat with some bad character(s), or maybe they were involved in a boating accident where the driver may have survived and never reported it or perished in the crash as well.

Although the abortion theory is still quite possible too.

As far as the video if it exists, the fact that it was never released to the public is absolutely ludicrous.

 

[Dragonfyree]

Unfortunately, eye witness testimony is usually the worse. I believe it was a couple days before the news went out about them missing. So we're relying on people who are claiming to remember what women, they didn't know and who weren't doing anything memorable from several days before were doing.

It was a holiday weekend and there were probably hundreds of women who looked like them running around on the beach.

I agree that not releasing the supposed boat film footage is crazy. The owner of the boat they're talking about may not even know that they were looking for him, (especially if he was from out of state) and he might have been able to clear up who was on the boat with him instead of 50 years later, when he's probably dead and can never clear it up.

If they did run away to start new lives (the least plausible) the only way we will ever find out is if one of their descendants gives a DNA sample and it matches back to one of them. Although as screwed up as this case was handled, I wouldn't rely on them actually having their DNA.

 

[ufoboy72]

Where was Oba Chandler during this time? He would have been about 20 years old.

 

[Markybug]

Do the police still have the film footage from the day ?

 

[Ozoner]

Unfortunately, eye witness testimony is usually the worse. I believe it was a couple days before the news went out about them missing. So we're relying on people who are claiming to remember what women, they didn't know and who weren't doing anything memorable from several days before were doing.

It was a holiday weekend and there were probably hundreds of women who looked like them running around on the beach.

I agree that not releasing the supposed boat film footage is crazy. The owner of the boat they're talking about may not even know that they were looking for him, (especially if he was from out of state) and he might have been able to clear up who was on the boat with him instead of 50 years later, when he's probably dead and can never clear it up.

If they did run away to start new lives (the least plausible) the only way we will ever find out is if one of their descendants gives a DNA sample and it matches back to one of them. Although as screwed up as this case was handled, I wouldn't rely on them actually having their DNA.

The money is all on Ed Nefeld as the driver of the boat and the killer of the women. Most people think that Silas Jayne paid him to do it. Nefeld is older than dirt now, so the truth will probably die with him.