Recovered/Located IL - Mary Agnes Moroney, 2, Chicago, 15 May 1930

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

One of those "click-bait" articles, but at least it's about something worthwhile.

9 real-life horror stories of people who disappeared and were never found

[h=3]4) Mary Moroney (Illinois, 1930)[/h] Mary Moroney, just 2, is an example of a recurring motif in the Charley Project's archives: families desperate for cheap childcare during the Great Depression who simply trusted the wrong person. Moroney disappeared after her parents allowed her to spend a day with a woman who called herself Julia Otis. A woman purporting to be Otis's cousin later wrote to the family to say Otis was "love hungry" after the loss of a husband and child and that she would care for Mary. Mary has never been found and would be in her 80s today. She may still be alive and have no idea who she is.

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/31/7135439/real-life-horror-stories-disappearances

 

[Odyssey]

I just wanted to post this link because this news piece contains a picture of the original letter, which I believe Shamrock had said was lost by the FBI. There are also several family photos. I haven't read the article yet because I'm on my phone and it's too hard to zoom and navigate on such a small screen. Perhaps there is new information (to us, anyway) here?

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/...ticle/strange-kidnaping-of-mary-agnes-moroney

 

[Romulus]

Namus https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14705/0/

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Agnes_Moroney

 

[Austin023]

thanks for posting the link to the old 1937 article.

Yes, the original letter that is shown (in part) in the 1937 article is now thought to be lost, along with many other case files from the original 1930s era investigations.

If I recall, one witness who saw a woman fitting description of "Julia", with a small girl and an older woman at the department store said it was the older woman who was writing a note, dictated by the younger woman (Julia). Both notes received by the Moroney family in the weeks after the kidnapping were in the same hand, even though each was self-purported to be from first, Julia and the second, from a Mrs. Henderson, supposedly Julia's aunt----and note Julia had said a Mrs. Henderson had sent her to the Moroney home to see if she could be of help (which of course was a lie--no one by that name worked for the local social service agencies then).

But---I have wondered if perhaps there is some sort of truth to these names: Julia may had really been her first name, but the last name Otis is likely false. She seems almost to had improvised that name, as she was asked and seemed to be caught of guard, as Mrs. Moroney later described their initial meeting.

This case is so bizarre---heartbreaking and bizarre. It seems more like the kidnapping was only half-planned, with much of the actions being improvised on as she, Julia, went along. I do wonder if she actually left Chicago--at least as soon as was presumed. While the name Julia Otis is likely an alias, there seems to be at least some truth in her claims--she did take the girl to a store, a department store, as she said to the mother--and then failed to return. Yet, she takes the trouble--and the risk--to send not one, but two letters, days apart, to the Moroney family explaining--even if a lie--as to what she did with their daughter?? Not too many kidnappers do that unless if ransom is demanded. The letter even had a mark of the downtown department store on it! (Which was confirmed by a witness), so it appears little thought or care went into thoroughly covering their tracks....and yet, no trace was ever found of her or the baby girl Mary. Back then, in 1930, it was not too hard to take a small child, get fake documents for it and raise them. I think that might had been what happened in this case---some young girl grew up not ever knowing her true identity or origins. I do think "Julia" was indeed a well-off, well-educated woman and for whatever reason desired a child.

 

[Mysteries1974]

This case is so sad. It’s been 88 years since Mary Agnes Moroney was taken from her family by Julia Otis and it is still unknown as to what ever became of Mary after the kidnapping or if shes even alive. If she was alive she would be 90. I think she was kidnapped and was given a new name and lived under that name for her whole life until death. She could still be alive however. I hope this case is solved.

 

[PinkPrincessPoop]

I wish Shamrock was still around! If the living family members are still interested in finding out what ever happened to Mary, there are still some things that could be done. What are some physical characteristics of family members? That would be a big help, to see what the Moroney family looks like! Also do they have any traits that run in the family? Like blindness or an illness? I know these are still far-fetched, but it's information people could use if someone is like, "Hmmm, I wonder if this person I knew could be her? She looked like them and had the same condition" or whatever.

I also wonder if they have anything that could have DNA of Mary? Or maybe try to at least preserve some of her immediate family's DNA!

 

[Mysteries1974]

Yeah

 

[Jake479]

Genetic genealogy has solved a lot of murders and identified many Jane and John Does. I wonder if police have ever thought about using it to solve missing persons cases. If Mary grew up under a different name and had children, she may have descendants that are alive today. I wonder if a professional genealogist like Cece Moore or Barbara Rae-Venter could trace a family tree backwards to find Mary.

 

[Deleted member 285431]

Hi! I don't know if this has been looked into but I thought I would post it here. I just watched a youtube video on this case...it's so sad that she was taken and never reunited with her family again. I looked up the name Julia M. Otis and found a find me grave page that belongs to a woman with the same name. She was born in 1906 Chicago Illinois and died 1999 in Los Angeles California. Doing some quick math she would have been 24 when Mary Agnes was taken. It's reported that the woman "Julia Otis" was around 22 at the time when she took Mary Agnes. Please note that this was a quick google search and haven't looked further into it but I wanted to see if this has been looked at by other people on the site.

Link: Julia M. Otis (1906-1999) - Find A Grave Memorial

 

[Richard]

Mary Agnes Moroney

Mary, circa 1930; Catherine Moroney; Michael Moroney; Mary McClelland (all the photographs are from 1954)

• Missing Since 05/15/1930
• Missing From Chicago, Illinois
• Classification Non-Family Abduction
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 05/09/1928 (93)
• Age 2 years old
• Height and Weight Unknown
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Mary is left-handed. She has a scar on her abdomen from an umbilical hernia. Some accounts spell her last name "Maroney."

Details of Disappearance

Mary was last seen in Chicago, Illinois on May 15, 1930. She lived with her younger sister and her parents, Michael and Catherine Moroney, in the 5200 block of Wentworth Avenue. Catherine was pregnant and the family was destitute. Michael posted an advertisement in a social service column in the newspaper, seeking help for his family.

On May 14, a woman calling herself Julia Otis came to the family residence, said she was sent by a social worker named Mrs. Henderson, and offered to assist them. She spent some time with Mary's family and gave them groceries. She offered to take Mary to California with her for a few weeks, but Catherine refused.

Otis returned the next day with money and gifts for the family, including more food and some clothing for the baby Catherine was expecting. She offered to take Mary shopping for new clothing and shoes. Her parents permitted her to go. Otis left the residence with the child and walked down the street. Neither of them were ever seen again.

The following day, the Moroney family got a letter from Otis, saying she'd taken Mary to California and would take good care of her, and would return her to her family in two months. Two weeks later, a woman named Alice Henderson wrote to the Moroneys and claimed Otis was her cousin. She said Otis had taken Mary because she was "love hungry," her own husband and baby having died the year before.

Henderson didn't write the Moroneys again. Authorities stated the letters from her and Otis appeared to be in the same handwriting. Otis is described as being about 22 years old in 1930, well-dressed, with protruding teeth and a "cultured" voice. She never contacted Mary's family again and has never been identified.

Mary McClelland, a woman from California, claimed to be Mary Moroney in the 1950s. She had been adopted within a year of Moroney's kidnapping and bore a striking resemblance to Moroney's siblings. McClelland had a highly publicized "reunion" with Catherine and Michael in Chicago in 1952.

An anthropologist claimed to have proven by her teeth that she was a relative of the Moroney family, but McClelland didn't have the hernia scar Mary would probably have still had as an adult. McClelland's adoptive mother claimed she'd gotten her from her physician, who supported the story and said he'd delivered the baby himself on November 17, 1927, but neither of them produced any records to prove this.

Photographs of Catherine, Michael and McClelland are posted with this case summary. DNA testing later proved Mary McClelland was not Mary Moroney. She died in 2005.

Mary has five brothers and two sisters. Her family has never stopped looking for her.

Investigating Agency

• Chicago Police Department 312-746-9690

Source Information

• The Doe Network
• Time Magazine
• The Tucson Citizen
• The Long Beach Independent
• The San Antonio Light
• The Jefferson City Post-Tribune
• The Lima News
• Among the Missing : An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present
• Mary Agnes Moroney – The Charley Project

 

[TSL7584]

Missing 92 years
I found this post on FB from August 18, 2022 - I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this, but here it is. Log in or sign up to view
"Sharing as this is part of my family history. Mary Agnes Moroney was my father's sister (my aunt). Her kidnapping is the oldest unsolved case in the files of Chicago Missing Persons Bureau.

Throughout the years, our family (including my sister, brothers, and my cousin and I) have been contacted by local media and the Police regarded this story. I always find it interesting when the case resurfaces (as it has again), and we will forever remain hopeful."

 

[Quoththeraven]

• Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) 05 Sep 1952, Fri Page 19

Another clue: The 5 Sep 1952 Chicago Tribune, Fri, pg 19 "She (Mrs. McClelland) also does not have a red mark on her cheek which Mrs. Moroney said was a birthmark of her eldest daughter."

Photo of Anastasia Moroney, Mary's sister, seven years after the abduction.

 

[Quoththeraven]

I wonder why the parents were arrested a week later?

 

[Quoththeraven]

I also noted in one of the articles on the disappearance that Mary's mother stated she (Julia Otis) was sent over by a social worker, Mrs. Henderson. Further on in the article, it stated, "A few days later Mrs. Moroney received a second letter, this one in different handwriting from the other. It was signed, "Mrs. Alice Henderson," who described herself as an aunt of Mrs. Otis."

Michael J. Moroney was 26 (born 1899) when he married Catherine Rooney (born 1912) and she was 13. Their daughter, Mary Agnes, was born in 1928 when Catherine was 15.

Mary Agnes Moroney (1928-1930) - Find a Grave...

Catherine Moroney had married very young, at the age of thirteen and, by the age of seventeen, had two daughters, Mary Agnes, 2 and Anastasia, 11 months.[3] They lived at 5200 Wentworth Avenue.[1][3] They were very poor, as Michael only made US$15 per week, passing out handbills. A relative of...

www.findagrave.com

Catherine Margaret Rooney Moroney (1912-1962) -...

Kidnapped daughter link below https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94351693/jeanette-yvonne-burchard

www.findagrave.com

Michael Joseph Moroney (1899-1957) - Find a Grave...

www.findagrave.com

 

[youngsleuther]

what does this mean?

 

[youngsleuther]

I also noted in one of the articles on the disappearance that Mary's mother stated she (Julia Otis) was sent over by a social worker, Mrs. Henderson. Further on in the article, it stated, "A few days later Mrs. Moroney received a second letter, this one in different handwriting from the other. It was signed, "Mrs. Alice Henderson," who described herself as an aunt of Mrs. Otis."

Michael J. Moroney was 26 (born 1899) when he married Catherine Rooney (born 1912) and she was 13. Their daughter, Mary Agnes, was born in 1928 when Catherine was 15.

Mary Agnes Moroney (1928-1930) - Find a Grave...

Catherine Moroney had married very young, at the age of thirteen and, by the age of seventeen, had two daughters, Mary Agnes, 2 and Anastasia, 11 months.[3] They lived at 5200 Wentworth Avenue.[1][3] They were very poor, as Michael only made US$15 per week, passing out handbills. A relative of...

www.findagrave.com

Catherine Margaret Rooney Moroney (1912-1962) -...

Kidnapped daughter link below https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94351693/jeanette-yvonne-burchard

www.findagrave.com

Michael Joseph Moroney (1899-1957) - Find a Grave...

www.findagrave.com

it looks like the woman Julia Otis and Alice Henderson is the same just she is sending these letters to make her family assured and probably not make the family call the authorities

 

[Quoththeraven]

it looks like the woman Julia Otis and Alice Henderson is the same just she is sending these letters to make her family assured and probably not make the family call the authorities

Witnesses at the store stated that there were two people with the child, Julia Otis and an older woman. Julia was observed dictating to the older woman what she should write on the store's stationary.

I doubt it was actually a nurse (Julia Otis said she hired one to look after the child), nor was it another social worker, two people who obviously wouldn't participate in a kidnapping. It could have been her aunt, her mother, or someone she knew well. Whoever it was, they were a willing accomplice in the kidnapping and probably just as delusional as Julia Otis was.

News reports also said witnesses saw all three of them traveling together on a train heading west and also in a train station restroom, in Kansas, I believe.

 

[Quoththeraven]

View attachment 365736
what does this mean?

I took her saying "unrecognizable and fat as a butterball" as a lame delusional attempt to deflect the mother's attention from the seriousness of asking her if she could take the child to California by feeding the child so well that she wouldn't have to worry about the child starving at home because they were so poor.

'Julia Otis' was obviously delusional (I call it criminally insane) to think anyone would just give their child to her to take to another state. The mother should have picked up on that delusional comment and should have never have even let the child go to the store with 'Julia' the next day. I think the child even picked up on something being wrong with the woman since she balked at going with her, pulled away from the woman and started sobbing.

I think all the gifts from an obviously well-to-do person who misrepresented herself as an authority figure kind of clouded the mother's judgement. Of course, this is all my opinion. Maybe others have a different take on it.

I think there's a good chance that if one of the surviving family members submit DNA and upload it to a site like Ancestrydotcom they might get a hit in the event that Mary Moroney married in later years and had children and they submitted DNA themselves somewhere along the line. I do recall in a news article that the mother had a lock of hair from Mary. Maybe that was passed down and they could use that.

 

[youngsleuther]

Witnesses at the store stated that there were two people with the child, Julia Otis and an older woman. Julia was observed dictating to the older woman what she should write on the store's stationary.

I doubt it was actually a nurse (Julia Otis said she hired one to look after the child), nor was it another social worker, two people who obviously wouldn't participate in a kidnapping. It could have been her aunt, her mother, or someone she knew well. Whoever it was, they were a willing accomplice in the kidnapping and probably just as delusional as Julia Otis was.

News reports also said witnesses saw all three of them traveling together on a train heading west and also in a train station restroom, in Kansas, I believe.

can you link the sources?

 

[youngsleuther]

I wonder why the parents were arrested a week later?

View attachment 365634

released by sarasota herald tribune , May 21st , 1930