MA MA - Mary Brosley, 33, Palmer, 12 June 1970

hmg

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Name: Mary Gertrude Brosley

Age at Time of Disappearance: 33 years old

Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4", 84 pounds

Hair: Natural color was auburn/brown; frequently dyed hair very light blonde.

Eyes: Hazel

Distinguishing Markers: Hip was fractured in 1968 and replaced with metal plate, V-shaped scar on left cheek, tip of left little finger amputated/missing from prior injury.

Circumstance of Disappearance: Lived in Boston, but frequently took a bus to Palmer, MA (70 miles away) to see relatives. On the date of her disappearance she was in Palmer and told her family she would be taking bus back to Boston that day, but was never heard from again.


https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/13722/56/


I think with all the distinguishing characteristics there is a good chance for her to be identified if she passed on.
 
Does anyone know what relatives she was visiting, and if she lived with her mother and father or husband and child?
 
Ok, this is what I found out in "City Directories" Mass. listed on an ancestry site.

1961: Brosley,John (Mary) Tech Laboratory for Electronics r853 Beacon
1965: Mary C. Brosley 65 Capen D. Boston Mass. Husband John B. Brosley Student
(assuming the C. here means Christine which is one of the names she went by)
1966: Mary Brosley Female Boston MA, Spouse: John Brosley - Elec Tech
1971: Brosley Mary r95 Toplift Street (D)

The last one is the weird one since she went missing in June of 1970 unless this address was listed in her name and her husband John still lived there. Need to find out who the relatives were that she visited often in Palmer.
 
Namus is cross checking Mary with the victim found with Gustavus Carmichael, it will take awhile.
 
Mary's maiden name was likely Kelly, but I am not 100% sure.

Mass. has a strange marriage index, it shows the person's name, city, and year, but no date and it doesn't show who the person married.

I found John B Brosley with 2 marriage records in 1954, one in the city of Worcester and one in the city of Webster.

So then I searched for a Mary who was married in 1954 in Worcester, and I found a Mary Christine Kelly. Strangely, there were 2 marriage records under Mary Christine Kelly in 1954 also - one in Worcester and one in Sterling, I think.

I think the one in Worcester is likely her, but there is a chance that John's 1954 marriage was a prior one and had nothing to do with her.

So the relatives she was visiting could have been a Kelly family.
 
Received an e-mail back from NamUs, "they are unable to conclusively compare these two cases at this time".

Thanks Odyssey for the information above. I have not received a call back from the Palmer police dept. yet, and I haven't had the time to call them again, hopefully by the end of the week I will have a chance. That is a great find, thanks again.
 
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonherald/obituary.aspx?n=joseph-b-kelly&pid=131732122

Trying to get a grasp on the Kelly family. Not sure which family she would have come from since it looks like a big family from the South Boston area. Joseph's children were Nancy, Ellen, Judith and Diane, the name Judith caught my attention because Mary had used the name Judith as one of her aliases. Also this man had a sister named Mary Gertrude, in this particular obit its only listed as a sister named Gertrude, but in another obit I came across it lists his sisters name as Mary Gertrude (Kelly) Martin. There is family in Quincy as well as South Boston. I am only putting this here for easy reference, it may have nothing to do with Mary Brosley but you never know. I am going to check Joseph's other brothers, Howard, William, Richard and Paul next.
 
This probably has no bearing on anything, but I noticed that NamUs no longer says anything about visiting family members, they seem to have reworded it to:

Subject resided in Boston, MA with family, but frequently traveled by bus to Palmer, MA. On the date of her disappearance, subject reported that she was going to take a bus back to Boston from Palmer. She was never seen or heard from again.

The circumstances in the OP here were copied from NamUs when in 2012 when it still mentioned family members. I'm not sure when it changed, but I wonder why.
 
Mary's maiden name was likely Kelly, but I am not 100% sure.

Mass. has a strange marriage index, it shows the person's name, city, and year, but no date and it doesn't show who the person married.

I found John B Brosley with 2 marriage records in 1954, one in the city of Worcester and one in the city of Webster.

So then I searched for a Mary who was married in 1954 in Worcester, and I found a Mary Christine Kelly. Strangely, there were 2 marriage records under Mary Christine Kelly in 1954 also - one in Worcester and one in Sterling, I think.

I think the one in Worcester is likely her, but there is a chance that John's 1954 marriage was a prior one and had nothing to do with her.

So the relatives she was visiting could have been a Kelly family.

I've never used the marriage index, but is it possible that second entry is for Worcester County, not the city of Worcester? Palmer, Webster, and Sterling are all in Worcester county and all very near each other. So maybe one record listed under the town and one under the county?

Otherwise it seems really weird. I don't think you can get divorced fast enough in MA to have two weddings in the same year.

Also, Kelley is a very common name around here, and Boston Irish tend to all use the same cluster of first names, so it can be very tricky to figure out who's who and which family they go with.
 
I've never used the marriage index, but is it possible that second entry is for Worcester County, not the city of Worcester? Palmer, Webster, and Sterling are all in Worcester county and all very near each other. So maybe one record listed under the town and one under the county?

Otherwise it seems really weird. I don't think you can get divorced fast enough in MA to have two weddings in the same year.

Also, Kelley is a very common name around here, and Boston Irish tend to all use the same cluster of first names, so it can be very tricky to figure out who's who and which family they go with.

I'm not sure, the top of the column said City. I was thinking maybe it was the marriage licenses and not the actual marriage. Possibly they obtained a license and then had to obtain a new one because the first one had expired and they weren't married yet?
 
I'm not sure, the top of the column said City. I was thinking maybe it was the marriage licenses and not the actual marriage. Possibly they obtained a license and then had to obtain a new one because the first one had expired and they weren't married yet?

Oh, that could be.

Or maybe one is when the license is issued and the other is when it's returned after it's been signed and so forth?
 
Also, if my math and memory are correct, she was 17 in 1954, he was 31. She may have needed parental consent and been unable to get it, and had to go back once she turned 18. Not sure what the laws were then.

We don't have her exact date of birth so I'm not sure if she turned 18 sometime in 1954.
 
You are right, she was thirty-three when she went missing in 1970, so she would have been born in 1937. I did not realize he was so much older then she was.
 
Just bumping, she has been on my mind lately.

hello...new to WS but have always been intrigued and fascinated by cold cases, mysterious disappearances, unsolved anything especially from a different time. came across this one on NAMPN and came here to see what if anything is known about her and her disappearance. adds to the mystery but also the frustration when you read the all too common "little is known about..." in such cases. it's amazing how many people just seem to vanish without a trace, like they walked into another dimension or the earth swallowed them! eerie but compelling. anyway this is my "hello" and a bump for Mary. hope she is out there somewhere, alive and happy.
 
Newbie here. Although I've been a lurker for years, and admire you all and this site tremendously.

I happened to be looking through and noticed this case. The town of Palmer and the story hit me immediately. I know this case. I realized that I have heard this exact story, although the case seems to have very little details, I realized I knew this. I had to verify with a family member that my suspicions were correct. And they are. Mary's maiden name is McManus. I need to ask the family if it's okay that I post the details that they've told me about what they know about Mary's last day out in Palmer before I continue. All I know is that they have been hurting since that day in June 1970 and have never given up on her. It's one of those cases where you pray for information to give them peace, because they are such good people.
 
Hi...just came back to WS and found ur post from last year...would be very interested to hear what you know about this most perplexing case
 

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