KS Mary Henley, 25, Wichita, June 5, 1951

[Quoththeraven]

Are the known locations near military bases? Looking at the years, was Mr. Henley in the service?

Excellent genealogy work, @Quoththeraven !

jmho ymmv lrr

He was in the military. Or, possibly just had a draft card. Fold 3 doesn't show any enlistment. Note that on the 1940 census, he was 20, she was 14. Also, of note is that she was named Mary Bell on two of the below documents, (not Mary Belle), both on the draft card (on Ancestry.com), dated 16 Oct 1940 and also on the April 9, 1940 census.

Sources below from Ancestry.com.

 

[Laughing]

Census enumerators are busy, and usually record what they're told -- so losing the E of Belle is no surprise.

Same for the draft card.

Hmm, the 1950 Census lists a child uder the age of 2 -- so where is Mr. Henley by this time?

What happened to the 3 children after her disappearance?

A head-scratcher, for certain.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[RBC69]

One thing I find interesting is that the police said they had contact with her in 1951 but when the daughter tried to check it out they wouldn't let her. I wonder if now that answer would be different or if there's ways to find out what that "contact" was about. That could give some clue at least.

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Mary Belle Henley was just added to The Doe Network:

4523DFKS - Mary Belle Henley

 

[longthymelurker]

Mary Belle Henley was just added to The Doe Network:

4523DFKS - Mary Belle Henley

Do you think that the police found her and she didn’t want to be found?

 

[SimsGuy67]

Submitting the Pyre Case possibility to Doe Network, on the off chance Mary's dental records are available.

 

[SimsGuy67]

Now on The Charley Project:

Mary Belle Henley – The Charley Project

Mary Belle Henley​

• 
• 
• 

Henley, circa 1951

• Missing Since06/05/1951
• Missing FromWichita, Kansas
• ClassificationMissing
• SexFemale
• RaceWhite
• Date of Birth03/08/1926 (97)
• Age25 years old
• Height and Weight5'8 - 5'9, 125 - 135 pounds
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Henley may use the middle name Beth. Her maiden name is Davis. She has a mole on her chin.

Details of Disappearance​

Henley married when she was in her teens had three children. In 1951 she left the children with her mother in Cookville, Tennessee, the city where she'd been raised, and moved to Wichita to be with a "gentleman friend". His name was supposedly Houston West and he supposedly worked for Boeing.
After moving to Wichita, Henley wrote to her children a few times on stationery from the now-demolished Royce Hotel there. Eventually the letters stopped. In her last letter to her family, Henley asked them to mail her some summer clothes. They did, but a few weeks later the unclaimed package of clothing was sent back.
Henley's family never heard from her again. The police had contact with her in Wichita on June 5, 1951; this is the last indication of her whereabouts. Her case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency​

• Wichita Police Department 316-268-4407

Source Information​

• NamUs
• The Wichita Beacon

 

[Quoththeraven]

Do you think that the police found her and she didn’t want to be found?

The police had contact with her in Wichita on June 5, 1951; this is the last indication of her whereabouts.

This case is indicative of the 1956 Ann Caldwell missing person case. They both left home, they both had police contact and the police won't comment when the 'missing' person is found. The police also can't reveal their specific location. The missing person then 'disappears' again. This tells me they didn't want to be found and they both made sure they weren't 'found' again.

Similar scenarios were posed on Quora and several former police officer's responses support my opinion.

If I were to just move away and not tell anyone, would they be able to locate me? Could they call the police and say I was missing or cou...

Answer (1 of 8): Assuming you were an adult person, you are free to do just this from a legal standpoint. A moral standpoint is different. They will call the police and report you as a missing person if they care about you and haven't heard from or seen you for some time out of concern for your o...

www.quora.com

 

[SophieRose]

This case is indicative of the 1956 Ann Caldwell missing person case. They both left home, they both had police contact and the police won't comment when the 'missing' person is found. The police also can't reveal their specific location. The missing person then 'disappears' again. This tells me they didn't want to be found and they both made sure they weren't 'found' again.

Similar scenarios were posed on Quora and several former police officer's responses support my opinion.

If I were to just move away and not tell anyone, would they be able to locate me? Could they call the police and say I was missing or cou...

Answer (1 of 8): Assuming you were an adult person, you are free to do just this from a legal standpoint. A moral standpoint is different. They will call the police and report you as a missing person if they care about you and haven't heard from or seen you for some time out of concern for your o...

www.quora.com

There was a case in the early 2000s where a woman disappeared, family reported her missing, her car was found in a shopping center or mall parking lot. Eventually LE found her staying in a motel in another state. She asked them not to tell her family (husband and grown children) of her location. Police can't do anything because she has the right to her privacy. A few days later she committed suicide by taking an overdose and walking into the ocean.

 

[SimsGuy67]

There was a case in the early 2000s where a woman disappeared, family reported her missing, her car was found in a shopping center or mall parking lot. Eventually LE found her staying in a motel in another state. She asked them not to tell her family (husband and grown children) of her location. Police can't do anything because she has the right to her privacy. A few days later she committed suicide by taking an overdose and walking into the ocean.

Reasons similar but not exactly like this are why I feel cases like Mary and Ann should remain reported. Mary and Ann may have left on their own and had contact with police, but how can we know they were safe after, as there were little to no possible sightings after this.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Reasons similar but not exactly like this are why I feel cases like Mary and Ann should remain reported. Mary and Ann may have left on their own and had contact with police, but how can we know they were safe after, as there were little to no possible sightings after this.

We don't know whether they were safe after their police contact. Just for the fact that the police refused to divulge any information after the contacts tells me the 'missing' persons were exercising their right to privacy and the police were following SOP in these types of cases. When does their 'missing' status ever end?

The way I look at it is that their 'missing' status ended once they had contact with the police.

 

[SimsGuy67]

We don't know whether they were safe after their police contact. Just for the fact that the police refused to divulge any information after the contacts tells me the 'missing' persons were exercising their right to privacy and the police were following SOP in these types of cases. When does their 'missing' status ever end?

The way I look at it is that their 'missing' status ended once they had contact with the police.

Either way, a report is still filed as her family were still unconvinced Mary was safe. We also have no idea what the nature of this contact with police was, so we can't assume she didn't want to be found. She kept contact with her family after her arrival in Wichita, and then it just stopped.

In my view, Mary's missing status will only end if/when she's removed from NamUs.

 

[alb1on]

The partner she moved to Wichita with, Houston West, is interesting. I see comments that Boeing has no record of him. This is possibly wrong (or at least misleading - they may not have records but he may have existed under that name). Ancestry has a WW2 Draft Card for Richard Huson West, born 1923 and listed as working at Boeing Aircraft Plant #2 in Seattle in 1941. Whilst this may be coincidence it is also possible that he continued to be employed by Boeing and moved to their Wichita operation. I suspect this is coincidence based on other records for Mr Huson West, but such coincidences deserve mention.

 

[Quoththeraven]

The partner she moved to Wichita with, Houston West, is interesting. I see comments that Boeing has no record of him. This is possibly wrong (or at least misleading - they may not have records but he may have existed under that name). Ancestry has a WW2 Draft Card for Richard Huson West, born 1923 and listed as working at Boeing Aircraft Plant #2 in Seattle in 1941. Whilst this may be coincidence it is also possible that he continued to be employed by Boeing and moved to their Wichita operation. I suspect this is coincidence based on other records for Mr Huson West, but such coincidences deserve mention.

I agree that Boeing may have had an employee named Richard West. And it appears that Boeing Aircraft Company was continually in transition from Seattle to Wichita. Also, Boeing had many classified positions that required a security clearance and the Korean War was going on. The last thing Boeing needed were inquiries into their employees involved in a scandal. "No one by that name works here" may have been the standard reply to all inquiries. Maybe the police contact in 1951 was in regard to her and this Boeing employee and they couldn't release any information. Maybe the police contact was about possible child abandonment and they couldn't comment on that. We'll never know unless the police release more information.

It's also possible that Boeing's transitional employees had to stay at the Royce Hotel at 116 N Water St in Wichita until housing was found for them. Also, there were newspaper want ads for maids at the hotel all throughout 1951. Having used hotel stationery to correspond with her family, she may have even worked there for a short time. Since her last known contact ended with the Wichita Police Department, any new leads would start there. They may hold the key to solving this case.

Boeing, Wichita History 1948-1952 Boeing B-47
Plant II was reactivated in March 1948 for modernizing and modifying B-29s and B-50s, and when B-47 production began six months later, 1,400 people were on the payroll. Employment rose through the years until it passed 35,000 in 1957.
In all, 1,390 B-47s were produced at Wichita. Engineering responsibility for the program was transferred to Wichita from Seattle in 1951, and two years later the Kansas facility was named second source for B-52 Stratofortress production. Tooling-up and production of the B-52 were conducted concurrently with manufacture of the B-47 until the latter program ended in 1956.

https://wingsoverkansas.com/legacy/a375/

 

[SimsGuy67]

LE is now aware of Mary and Blackhawk Jane Doe. The also examined Mary's photo, and agreed that Mary may have had an overbite. Here's a quote from the email I got:

"But the photo of Mary does suggest a protrusion of the maxillary jaw. This may be due to not aligning the jaws properly."

They also deemed the 3D reconstruction of Blackhawk Jane Doe inaccurate, saying the teeth on the recon looks nothing like the real teeth. The only recon we can trust to be accurate is the October 1952 sketch. Here's another quote:

"The recon image of the UPs maxillary teeth is in no way similar to the actual photo of the teeth at autopsy. There are no differences in the size of the teeth as seen in the recon."

This also suggests photos of Blackhawk Jane Doe's skull are available. I'm really interested in seeing them, as then maybe we can get a more accurate recon. I understand why they're not publicly available though.

 

[Diane Redfern]

Mary Henley

Mary Belle Henley, age 25, was last known to be in Wichita, Kansas in June 1951. Mary, who had been married since her teens and had three children, left the children with her mother in Cookville, T…

whereaboutsstillunknown.wordpress.com

I think is key to know if Houston West ever existed... if he was in the hotel too, I imagined he had to show an ID. I know it's almost impossible now to check those details, but it would be great to interview the hotel's employees. Also, if Houston West was an alias, LE may have something about him, perphaps not in Kansas.
This case reminds me of Betty Roberts, who vanished in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1959. She left her home in North Carolina with a man named Charles Wegman, from Houston, Texas. Eventually, her sister discovered he was using an alias...

Betty Marie Roberts – The Charley Project