Brothers want closure in disappearance of mother, sister Updated Jul 9, 2019
This photo of Janet Shuglie was taken shortly before she married Frank. She would be 70 this year. Josh and Chris Shuglie were 5 and 7, respectively, when their mother and sister seemingly vanished from Somerset County 34 years ago. Janet Shuglie and her daughter, Marissa, left the Coleman Motel along North Center Avenue in Somerset Township on June 30, 1985, after Shuglie and her husband, Francis “Frank” Shuglie, had a fight that morning, according to police reports at the time. After failing to get a ride at a local car dealership, they walked south toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike Interchange. “They vanished off the face of the earth,” Trooper Larry Williams, a state police criminal investigator, told the Daily American at the time.
Last week, police revealed that Janet Shuglie’s class ring was discovered 20 years ago and subsequently turned over to police. Police did not reveal where the ring was discovered.
Frank Shuglie reported his wife missing on July 3, 1985. A month later, he reportedly offered two Pittsburgh men $2,000 each and round-trip tickets to Hawaii in exchange for killing his wife, maiming or killing her aunt and uncle, and kidnapping his daughter. He told police he believed her aunt and uncle were hiding the pair. Frank Shuglie was convicted of five counts of criminal solicitation in a nonjury trial the following year. Josh Shuglie said he remembers his parents arguing on the day his mother and sister disappeared. “I think she spit in his face and he slapped her,” he said. After he turned 18, Josh Shuglie tried to solve the case himself. While attending Penn State University, he was able to track down his sister’s Social Security number, and he inquired about whether it had been used. It had not. He also contacted a psychic. About 10 years ago, Josh Shuglie wrote a book about his mother’s disappearance. He said that while he thought his family could be in witness protection, he now believes they were murdered. He added that while he understands crimes of passion, he does not understand why anyone would would murder a 10-year-old girl. Josh Shuglie occasionally talks to his father. About an hour before Shuglie’s interview with the Daily American Monday, his father showed up at his house, he said.
“I told him this is all over the news — you need to be on the forefront if you don’t have anything to hide,” he said. “He pretty much said let sleeping dogs lie.”Josh Shuglie said he believes that his sister is sometimes forgotten as most of the focus is on his mother. He said he has snapshots of his sister in his mind but does not remember a lot about her. “My sister was innocent,” he said. “Where is she?” Josh Shuglie said that he and his brother do not have a good relationship with their mother’s family. He said they were left out of recent news conferences. “They never mention my brother and I,” he said. Josh Shuglie said he did not know that a ring was discovered however, the state police did take his DNA to enter into a national missing persons database.
Chris Shuglie said he also thought that his family could be in witness protection. He also thought that perhaps his sister is alive somewhere. “The problem is not knowing,” he said.
Josh Shuglie said he wants to know what happened, no matter the answer. He said his brother doesn’t talk much about the case. “The past is the past,” he said. “If you live in the past, you are destined to relive it.” The Shuglies grew up in foster care because of their father’s arrest and conviction. He said that despite his troubled childhood, he didn’t fall through the cracks.
“I didn’t become a drug addict,” he said. “I just soldiered on, I guess. Most people use what happened in their life as an excuse. I don’t.” Josh Shuglie urged anyone with information to contact police. He believes that whoever was behind his family’s disappearance may have had help. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 724-832-3288.
Brothers want closure in disappearance of mother, sister
Josh wrote the book "Blind Living" here is the summary for the book : My story is a tale about a young boy thrown into foster care when his father goes to prison. He is five when this occurs. Coincidentally, his father is incarcerated for the disappearance of his mother and sister. When the boy is fourteen, he is finally told the real reason why his father is in prison. During this period he is bounced around from one abusive foster home to another until the age of eighteen, when he is emancipated. He enrolls in college and lives in the fast lane, wanting to feel normal and accepted, but he never can let go of that unanswered question. What happened to his mother and sister? After sixteen years his father is released from incarceration. The boy is now a young man at twenty-one years old. His father is no help in finding answers to his questions, and they have a tumultuous relationship. The young man is forced to live with him or be homeless, for he has no other family. He searches for the answer, however heartbreaking, or has to submit to the fact that in life there may be unanswered questions and that the reality may be that to move ahead one must let go of the past.
