The mystery of what happened to a wealthy candy company heiress in Chicago is still unsolved after many years.
Helen Brach disappeared in February 1977. The case is full of strange details, like burned journals, stories of psychics, an empty grave, fake checks, a meat grinder, and a bright pink car.
Even with all the mystery, the biggest question remains: Where is Helen Brach’s body?
Helen married into the family that owned Brach’s candy. She was known as a quiet and unusual woman. She loved fancy cars and had them painted in the same colors as the Brach’s candy brand: pink and purple.
In February 1977, when she was 65, Helen went to a doctor’s appointment in Minnesota. Investigators learned that she took a taxi to the airport. Her housekeeper said he picked her up at the airport in Chicago later that day.
The housekeeper, said that he spent the weekend with Helen at her big house in a rich suburb of Chicago. He said the last time he saw her was when he took her back to the airport on Monday morning. She was supposedly going to fly to her condo in Florida.
But Helen never made it to Florida.
Friends who called her house that weekend said that Helen never answered the phone. Instead, the housekeeper gave them different and confusing stories.
The housekeeper’s behavior was also odd. He cleaned the maid’s room in Helen’s house, had one of her cars washed really well, and ordered a meat grinder. He also cashed six checks that were supposedly signed by Helen, totaling $13,000. But Helen’s accountant noticed that the signatures on the checks didn’t look like hers. The housekeeper claimed that Helen’s wrist was hurt by a heavy trunk, which made her signature look strange. But experts said that the signatures weren’t the housekeeper’s either, making the situation even more confusing.
The housekeeper had worked for Helen and her husband for 20 years. When Helen’s husband died in 1970, the housekeeper became her main helper.
But it wasn’t until almost two weeks later that the housekeeper told the police that Helen was missing.
Even though the housekeeper failed several lie detector tests, he wasn’t the only person who was suspected during the investigation.
Helen’s brother admitted that he and the housekeeper burned Helen’s journals and some notes she had written using “psychic forces.” The brother said he didn’t think Helen would have wanted anyone to see them.
Then there was a horse dealer named Richard Bailey. Helen had bought horses worth $300,000 from him, but the police later said the horses were worth much less.
The government accused Bailey and others of cheating wealthy customers who didn’t know much about horses. They would trick these people into buying horses that were worth very little.
Bailey was also accused of asking someone to kill Helen as part of a big scheme.
Bailey was found guilty of cheating Helen and other crimes. In 1994, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Although he wasn’t convicted of killing Helen, the judge said that the long sentence was because of Bailey’s involvement in the plan to kill her. Bailey was released from prison in 2019 and died in 2023 at the age of 93.
Helen was legally declared dead in May 1984.
Her money, which had grown to over $40 million, was given out according to her will. Her brother received a trust fund, and the housekeeper received a payment. The rest of her money went to charities that help animals.
The housekeeper died in 2011 at the age of 79.
Even though he was never charged in Helen’s death or disappearance, some police officers believed that he was responsible.
One former agent said that the housekeeper took the secret of what happened to Helen and her body to his grave.
Since Helen’s body was never found, her gravesite remains empty.
In 1990, the police dug up a body that they thought might have been hers, but it was later determined that it wasn’t. The case is still unsolved today.
