John Navickas, Jr., age 8 or 9 (Birthday is July 7, 1938 or 1939. His age varies as either 9 or 10 depending on the newspaper story) of 9854 S. Ingleside Avenue, Chicago, IL, went missing after going out to play on Friday, July 2, 1948 at 0945. John had been staying at the home of his grandparents, Jacob and Mary Freemont at 945 W. 35th Place, Chicago, IL, so that his mother, Florence, could work in order to earn money for an operation for his father, John. His intention was to visit the Union Stockyards, 4 blocks south, to see the animals. The stockyards were located in an area bounded by Halsted on the east, South Racine Avenue on the west, 39th Street as the northern boundary and 47th Street as the southern boundary. He was seen at 1530, at the intersection of S Racine Avenue and W. 41st Street, wile asking a man for directions to get back to his grandparents' home.
At first, the family thought he might have been kidnapped and set out to collect money with which to pay a ransom demand. On July 10, the FBI enters the case. The police searched the stock yards, dragged the Chicago River, and looked into abandoned buildings and sewers to no avail. The case goes cold until a day before the first anniversary of the disappearance when on July 1, 1949, Constance Czajka, a neighbor of John's grandparents, reports seeing him at the intersection of S. Halsted Street and W. Root Street. He purportedly was in a farm truck with "Ottawa Ranch" painted on the side. There is an Ottawa, IL, and La Salle county officials there are contacted but did not know of any such outfit.
In an article in the Chicago Tribune, of January 10, 1953, police were investigating the relationship between Navickas and a youth named Frank Gudis, 14, 5504 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. Gudis was present with Navickas when he left the home of his grandparents. Gudis told Mary Freemont that he would take Navickas to the stockyards. Neighbors later reported that they saw Navickas leave with an older boy who they didn't recognize. At the time of the investigation, Gudis claimed that he did not get permission to go to the stockyards, and went swimming with a Ronald Sreniawski, now 15, 3541 S. Morgan Street, Chicago. Frank Gudis had been picked up in Guadelupe, California on December 17, 1952 on suspicion of several rape and knife attacks in Chicago. Nothing ever came of the investigation, and Gudis was sent to a state school for boys as an incorrigible.
The families belief was that he was abducted by a farmer or rancher, and was alive. As of July 2, 1954 his parents and sister, Judith (Judy) DOB; 2-1942, had relocated to Riverside, California for the health of the father. Grandmother, Mary Freemont, worked at scrubbing floors to earn enough money to buy the home from the Navickas and lived there in the hope that he would someday return there. The Tribune would mention Johnny Navickas every few years, either on an anniversary, or in conjunction with other unsolved cases. He was last mentioned in a 1970 article about the disappearance of Edward and Stephania Andrews. Eventually the grandparents would join the family in California. Eventually his mother came to the belief that he was dead.
