Who was George Brody?

[MagicRose99]

Does anybody know why I can't see the attachments even when I'm logged in? After I log in, I just get repeated messages that I am not logged in.

Also, according to , make sure you're going into www.websleuths.com/forums - since the server change, the www is needed in the addy to keep people logged in.

 

[Annasmom]

Also, according to , make sure you're going into www.websleuths.com/forums - since the server change, the www is needed in the addy to keep people logged in.

Thanks so much. It works now.

 

[MagicRose99]

Thanks so much. It works now.

Wonderful! I know how annoying that can be! :blowkiss:

 

[raf]

Hi KivaSupporter this your find could be interesting also... maybe you can search if you can find more abt this G Brady...
I also found another record, but I know not if could be interesting...
George Broda, single, labourer, born in Italy the 10 august 1900, imm. 1915( no 1914 and the first name was Giuseppe and not George; he changed the first name) resident in Merced, CA, laborer.. I found the WWI draft registration card and the nearest realtive was Carlo Broda father, waiter: in 1920 George Broda was in Merced, CA, alone, roomer (he declared born in California: no true; also no immigration year declaring... just if he was born in California)... no further record... missing.... I cannot read the eye's color in the WWI card, someone can help... ??? the size seeming to match enough, but the eye's color is important... thanks, raf

update: George Broda died in 1922 Merced, CA

 

[SideKick]

I have always thought that George Brody was European. When you study his face esp in the portrait from Marguriet Kilroy. Firstly, his ears jut out, I am NO expert by anymeans however, alot of European men have slight jut out ears. His hair part is on his right, which I find uncommon on a man. I am sure that this is also a Euro trait or he was left handed? He dressed as they said in those days, 'dapper', he had a nice suit, good shirt and tie, poeuff in his pocket. Even tho he had changed somewhat in his facial features as he grew older, he does not strike me as an American born male. German, Yugoslavian, Croation perhaps... Jewish...
Just throwing this out there.

 

[Annasmom]

I have always thought that George Brody was European. When you study his face esp in the portrait from Marguriet Kilroy. Firstly, his ears jut out, I am NO expert by anymeans however, alot of European men have slight jut out ears. His hair part is on his right, which I find uncommon on a man. I am sure that this is also a Euro trait or he was left handed? He dressed as they said in those days, 'dapper', he had a nice suit, good shirt and tie, poeuff in his pocket. Even tho he had changed somewhat in his facial features as he grew older, he does not strike me as an American born male. German, Yugoslavian, Croation perhaps... Jewish...
Just throwing this out there.

With respect, I still am a hundred per cent sure that he was American born or MAYBE Canadian (though we have no indication that was the case) and I do not believe he was Jewish. I heard him drone on hour after hour on many occasions without a single trace of a foreign accent of any kind, and with no reference whatsoever to Judaism or anything having to do with any part of the world other than the U.S. I have never known a European-born person to speak without an occasional word slip, no matter how good their English was. Also, recently I noticed in his letters that Brody didn't put a slash through his numeral sevens, which they do almost everywhere except here and sometimes in England.

 

[SideKick]

With respect, I still am a hundred per cent sure that he was American born or MAYBE Canadian (though we have no indication that was the case) and I do not believe he was Jewish. I heard him drone on hour after hour on many occasions without a single trace of a foreign accent of any kind, and with no reference whatsoever to Judaism or anything having to do with any part of the world other than the U.S. I have never known a European-born person to speak without an occasional word slip, no matter how good their English was. Also, recently I noticed in his letters that Brody didn't put a slash through his numeral sevens, which they do almost everywhere except here and sometimes in England.

Thanks Annasmom. His parents may have orginated from Euro, but then again many families orginate from Europe. I think you may be right tho he's no doubt from somewhere in the USA! I stll believe Pennsylvannia or Mass.. Now the Canadian aspect is interesting!

 

[raf]

Hi all!
Continuing the search, and because now I'm more pretty sure that George Brody name was a alias, I made another search, because I wish understand better the historical context of numerology in Oakland area, because -step on step- maybe we can know more....
after the numerologist in Los Angeles ( Frank Householder in my previous post) also in Alameda town- very near Oakland - it was some numerology lover.
This article is of 15 May 1923 abt a George SYKES

and in Berkeley also was a Sekis, a prophet... Joshua Sikes in Berkeley aka John Sikes (in Los Angeles)

in the
21 april 1918
and
23 april 1918

It are also other articles abt this prophet so much pro-germanians
maybe GB was involved also...
regards, raf

 

[raf]

well, abt the SYKES....

I found other documents, and I can say that Joshua SYKES/SIKES had a son named Arthur Russell SYKES/SIKES..

I believe that Arthur Russell SYKES/SIKES and George SYKES of numerology are same man... the family lived in 1920 to Oakland.. the Joshua church was in Berkeley

Arthur Russel Sikes was born in Detroit, Michigan the 27 sep 1896... I find the WWI draft registration card and nearest relative was the mother Emma B Sykes in Oakland... I found the WWII draft registration card in Salem Oregon database... the surname is SIKES this time.... resident in 2323 Alameda ave, Alameda town, Alameda, CA... employed in Goof Island -Oakland, CA.. married at Isabella C Sikes....
he died in nov 1980..... in Salem, Oregon

Seeming that it are many coincidences with Joshua SYKES religion and our GB philosophy... sometimes I said that GB seeming to me a preacher, no a Leo of zodiac... and some bad thing he had in the life ... because he was very secretive.....
I'm convinced abt this...
Well Joshua Sykes the prophet spent some year in the jail for many bad things ( also espionage) as a well the him assistants.... died in the 1929 for pneumonia in Denver, CO.. lefting $50,000 to wife.. but from what I know he also was a women lover... it was born in Norfolk, Virginia from England parents.. in the 1923 when he was 63/4 old declaring himself 34 old by strange counts!!!

I read many articles abt the this SYKES religion and philosophy... and frankly seeming very near to GB ideas... also the pro-germanians philosophy and many bad things abt the boys and girls of Berkeley and Oakland that the peoples went to policy and also destroyed the church of Joshua Sykes...

I suspect that GB was a son of Joshua Sykes and Emma B Sykes or some assistant of church; he had this children: Frances V Sikes born abt 1895 in Ohio , Arthur Russell Sykes born the 27 sept 1896 in Detroit, Michigan and Marshal G Sikes born in 1899 in Detroit, Michigan...

raf

 

[momto3kids]

I found George Brody listed in an orphanage in 1930 in PA. He had 3 siblings with him. They were placed in St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Orphanage.

I know it is hard to see...but the siblings are Anna, John, Mary. George was 9 at the time the census was taken. (April 7th) Where Orphanage Road is written along the side...the "a" in orphanage is where GEORGE is listed.

The kids were born in Ohio. The parents were born in Czechoslovakia.

 

[Joe Ford]

I found George Brody listed in an orphanage in 1930 in PA. He had 3 siblings with him. They were placed in St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Orphanage.

I know it is hard to see...but the siblings are Anna, John, Mary. George was 9 at the time the census was taken. (April 7th) Where Orphanage Road is written along the side...the "a" in orphanage is where GEORGE is listed.

The kids were born in Ohio. The parents were born in Czechoslovakia.

Good job researching. This lead seems plausible. If the census is correct, and George Brody was 9 years old in 1930, it would give him the birth year of 1921. That would make him 52 in 1973. To me he appeared to be at least ten years older than that. But...maybe?

 

[Annasmom]

I woke up with this thought yesterday and thought I'd toss it out there to see if anyone else thinks it is worth looking into.

George Baroody.

It requires only the extraction of an "a" and an "o" (Biblical scholars will know what that means, Alpha and Omega) and is the sort of thing his ancestors might have had shortened if they went through Ellis Island.

 

[raf]

Hi all!
In this days I searched more, checking any GB on ancestry.com... I was a bit frustrated, but for a strange case I found a GB that was not on ancestry.com census or other database.....

I found a article of 10 oct 1931 on Syracuse Herald, where is mentioned a George Brody, of Hartford CT.... no age

what is strange that this George Brody is no in 1930 census...
what I found is a Harry Aaron Brody ( the original surname was Brode and he changed in Brody) born the 15 August 1900 in New Jersey ( maybe Pittsgrove town); tall medium, blue eyes, dark hairs... seeming to match.... by WWI draft registration card... profession: salesman in 1920 census of Hartford, CT... I cannot find more of this person, no in Hartford old directories as a well in 1930 census...
I found the 1910 census in NJ: father Salomon ( sometimes Samuel and as also Simon) and Rebecca mother... and children....

1910 United States Federal Census about Samuel Brode
Name: Samuel Brode
Age in 1910: 48
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1862
Birthplace: Russia
Relation to Head of House: Head
Father's Birth Place: Russia
Mother's Birth Place: Russia
Spouse's Name: Rebecca
Home in 1910: Pittsgrove, Salem, New Jersey
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Gender: Male
Year of Immigration: 1882
Neighbors: View others on page

Household Members: Name Age
Samuel Brode
48
Rebecca Brode
42
Rose Brode
18
Leuis Brode
16
Sarah Brode
13
Harry Brode
9


My idea is that our probable GB picker ( of 1941 article) appearing in 1936 Oakland, CA... so he missing in other place... I checked all GB, but frankly of this George Brody on 1931 Syracuse Herald article I never found some data... and in effects he is not in the database, but in Hartford was a Harry Brody( ex Brode) salesman, russian heritage ( "Vodka!" said GB... I believe that only people of russian heritage can use the vodka instead of bourbon), born the 15 aug 1900, resident in 1920 in Hartford, matching physical data and after... no more data... but the Syracuse Herald article speak of a george Brody of Hartford CT...
some suggestion?
All the best,
raf

 

[Julessleuther]

Hi! Look at this guy--he has the same ears and nose!


http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200604842S

 

[KivaSupporter]

Hi! Look at this guy--he has the same ears and nose!
http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200604842S

I agree. There is a resemblance.


http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t6433.html
Young mother, lover still missing after 40 years

Forty years ago, Jackie Rains-Kracman and Melvin Uphoff vanished. The two families met for the first time recently in Columbus seeking to ease the lingering pain and, perhaps, find a clue that had been overlooked in the case. What follows is the story of the disappearances and the families' gathering.

By MEGAN STROMBERG, Special to the Telegram

COLUMBUS - Even though she was 9-years-old the last time she saw her sister, Becky Leslie was so certain the woman she locked eyes with at Wal-Mart in 1999 was her sister that it sent her into a panic attack.

When Leslie, a Wal-Mart employee, returned from helping another checker, the woman in jean capris and a pink blouse was gone.

Her co-workers said she probably just saw an angel.

Leslie disagrees. She is adamant the woman was her older sister, Jacquelyn Ann "Jackie" Rains-Kracman, who never returned after telling her family she was leaving with a girlfriend for a wedding in Glenwood, Iowa, on Sept. 24, 1965. Everything was the same, the part in her hair, the mole above the right side of her lip, her deep brown eyes.

"I kick myself for not talking to her right away," Leslie said.

The only woman to marry in Glenwood that day has said she doesn't know anyone by that name. Nor does she recognize the name of Jackie's friend, Sally, who was supposed to take her to the wedding.

Sally returned home.

Nineteen-year-old Jackie never has.

She disappeared without a trace.

Law enforcement officials - from the Butler County Sheriff's Office to the FBI and CIA - have told her they never found any sign of foul play. The Rains family thinks Sally may know why Jackie was leaving, or where she was truly planning to go. They do not think she was involved in her disappearance. They have asked her for help, but they still don't have answers.

One of Jackie's younger sisters still can't forget how her sister was packing two very large suitcases for the trip. Something didn't seem right.

"She was packing everything. I asked her 'Why?' She said she needed to put these clothes somewhere," Sharon Henggeler recalled during a recent family interview.

Henggeler, now of Omaha, was just a year younger than Jackie. She remembers the day clearly.

The Rains' children were still helping their parents unpack things in their Columbus home. The family had just moved across town. Jackie, meanwhile, had already been married and given birth to a boy and a girl. A few weeks earlier, her husband had filed for divorce on Sept. 11. She was now living with Sally.

Henggeler remembers helping her father move the washing machine when a friend stopped by, asking her to go riding around. She agreed, asking if they could stop by and visit her sister, Jackie, before she left for the wedding in Iowa. The family agrees the "wedding trip" was just a story.

That's when Jackie was still packing her suitcases.

"It made me feel uneasy. Months before she said when her ship came in, she would be leaving," Henggeler recalled. When she asked Jackie what she meant by that, Henggeler was told "she would be leaving" and would go where it was sunny and warm.

Henggeler asked her sister who would care for her children, then 2 and 6 months old. Jackie said she was not going to take them cross country.

After saying goodbye to Jackie, Henggeler and her friend drove around Columbus. She remembers seeing her sister and three of her friends drive by, headed south over the viaduct. Her sister, she said, was crouched down in the backseat, as if to hide she was in the vehicle.

Still, Henggeler said the three friends Jackie was with refuse to say where they took her.

The family does not suspect them.

"I've never understood. If the three people who saw her last, if they did nothing criminal, why won't they say where they took her?" Henggeler wondered recently during a gathering with her siblings, Jackie's son and grandsons and another family.

But they do want some answers.

So does Melvin Uphoff's family.

Even though their dad went missing 40 years ago, at a time when two of the kids barely knew them, his children want answers. They wonder, is he dead? Did he leave with Jackie?

Did the couple start a new life together? Has someone in the area kept them abreast of their family's lives?

Rumors were rampant around the tiny community of Rising City when the couple disappeared. The Rains's say they had heard their sister was having an affair with 30-year-old Uphoff, who managed the co-op where Jackie's husband worked.

His wife at the time, Myrna, confirms there were rumors.

She and Melvin had been married for nearly a decade and had already welcomed four children to their home when Jackie's husband came to the door with the news.

"Her husband came to the door and said they were having an affair," the quiet woman remembered.

That was three months before the couple disappeared.

When confronted with the news by Myrna and his mother, Melvin denied the allegations.

Myrna said he was "OK" for about a month, but then began acting differently.

On Oct. 24, 1965, Myrna, Melvin and their four children, ages 10, 8, 2 and 6 months, spent the day together in Shelby. They went roller-skating and had stayed at a hotel before returning home to Rising City.

Myrna remembers it clearly.

She was getting baby Marché ready for bed when Melvin came in the room and said he was going back to Shelby for a beer. He asked if Myrna wanted to go with him. She asked why he was returning there, when the family had just left the town. Myrna declined his offer.

That was 11:30 p.m.

Melvin left in a 1954 blue and white Oldsmobile.

That was the last time she saw her first husband. He didn't give any indication of never returning.

He didn't take any clothes. The only thing Myrna discovered missing was Melvin's coin collection.

The car, his coin collection, Melvin. None of the three has been found.

When Melvin didn't show up for work, Myrna went to his parents and said he didn't come home the night before. They told her to "go back into town and be quiet."

That was Monday. When Myrna asked the next day if they should report him missing, his dad and uncle finally filed a report Tuesday evening.

The family suspects the delay was because the elder family members were trying to protect Myrna and her children.

Meanwhile, Jackie was not reported missing until 1994. Her parents told her eight siblings not to mention anything to anyone. Four of the children recall never mentioning Jackie's absence, not even to their aunts, uncles or cousins. If anyone asked, they were told to say she had moved.

But Leslie recalls what one aunt said.

"She said she saw a woman at a rest stop. She said she sounded like Jackie."

They're tired of being quiet. They feel they have a right to have answers. So do Jackie's children. Her daughter, Denise, contacted the Rains family when she was 18. They had a picnic with Denise and her brother, Todd. The relationships have continued to grow since the reunion.

"How do you start a process like that with people you've never known," Todd said, adding that he could have met some of them on the street over the years.

When asked what he thinks happened, Todd hesitated before answering.

"It's more of a Š in the heart, I wish I knew, but Š " he trailed off. "I guess I have been moving along with my life and hoping after 40 years somebody would come and approach me and say, 'Hey, I'm your mom.'"

He admits that he hoped for that news before Jackie's parents died.

"You don't know. You don't know if they've come in touch with you," Todd said in a firm voice that commanded attention from his aunts and uncles gathered in the room.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but Leslie says she saw a white car at her mother's funeral. A man and a woman sat inside, watching from a distance. That same car appeared at her father's funeral. She admits it could be a coincidence, but she wants to believe more.

Melvin's family, meanwhile has seen some oddities as well.

Former Butler County Sheriff Leo Meister attended a family funeral, looking for Melvin to show up in 1973. He didn't.

The family still has questions. Why did Melvin's missing person's file contain only about 50 copies of a "Wanted" poster distributed in 1967 for non-payment of child support. Why haven't family members been asked about the days prior to his disappearance.

His family is so desperate for answers that his oldest son, Michele Sells of Bellwood, has placed ads in The Banner-Press newspaper.

The latest 4x3 inch ad appeared Sept. 1 along with a picture of Melvin and read:

"We are still looking for any information on the disappearance of this man. Age 30. Now 70. Disappeared Oct. 24, 1965, from Rising City, Nebraska. Left in a blue and white 1954 Oldsmobile. Please send information to Michele Sells."

Sells came to the interview with a black Rubbermaid tote full of a 4-inch white binder, a 2-inch black binder and several spiral notebooks. Court records, hand-written notes, letters from law enforcement, news clippings and other things appeared as Sells searched through the file. Along with the paper files, Sells also arrived with a videotape of her father made from an old 8 mm film. On the tape, Jackie and her family appeared. They had stopped by the Uphoff house. Myrna doesn't remember why. When asked, she said she was not friends with Jackie.

The room fell silent as the two families watched a few minutes of the tape, in which Jackie sat in a white blouse. Her husband sat nearby, holding baby Denise.

"We want an answer," Melvin's youngest, Marché said.

"Even if they don't want to be found, it would be nice to know if they're alive," Todd said.

Rising City residents have told Melvin's family they think he tried to contact them two years after disappearing. Sells said a man phoned the family's old phone number, asking for Myrna. When told she didn't live there, the man hung up.

Just seconds later, the phone rang at a family member's home.

"They said it sounded like they were calling from a pay phone," Sells said. Eventually, the operator interrupted and told the caller to insert more coins for the call.

Sells has also been in contact with law enforcement officers locally and nationally. She continues to ask Meister for answers and has also contacted FBI and CIA agents. However, both families say they are told no crime was committed. Sells has even contacted professional locators, with no luck.

Myrna even spent a number of years searching for answers. For a number of years, she traveled to David City to ask Meister for answers.

"I was in a state of shock," she said about her husband's disappearance. Six months later, Myrna moved to Shelby with her children so they could be closer to her extended family. "I knew I had to be mother, I knew I had to be a dad, knew I had to clothe and feed them."

Forty years later, she admits she has moved on and is comfortable with the search Sells has waged.

"I don't want him back," Myrna said.

Melvin's children say they aren't searching for a relationship with their father. They just want answers.

Both families are certain that if the couple disappeared today, whether willingly or otherwise, technology would facilitate a more comprehensive search. Media coverage, alone, would shine light on the cases.

"It would have been reported right away," Henggeler said.

Over the years, Todd has maintained a relationship with his father, Dennis. Todd recalls a conversation Dennis had with a state trooper in March of this year.

"I saw his eyes. He misses her, but he doesn't know where she's at," Todd said. "His eyes were like he was telling me, I wish I could tell you where she was at."

Both families see news reports of missing couples and young adults and their pain is revisited all over, they said.

"My heart goes to them and I pray they find them," Marché Augustine said, adding that it hurts, even though she wouldn't know the sound of her father's voice if she heard it. Throughout the interview, she switched between calling him by his first name and referring to him as her father.

She recalls that while eating in a cafe with her mother a few years ago, she saw a man that caught her attention.

"I asked mom, 'Isn't that Melvin over there?'"

Henggeler admits she can't watch news reports about missing people who are found.

"I just cry," she said amidst tears.

Several times throughout the families' meeting, she cried.

"You hang on to hope. You think maybe someday you'll get a knock on the door, and it will be her or a brother or sister who have come to say 'We found her,'" Henggeler said.

"You have to have faith in God to have the strength to get through it."

Still, Henggeler asked how long questions can go unanswered.

"How long can a soul survive not knowing?"

The Rains's parents died not knowing the truth about their daughter.

John Rains of Columbus said if he could ask his late wife the answer, he would.

"They know now," he said about his parents.

Henggeler said if Jackie had returned home 15 or 20 years after disappearing, she would have "read her the riot act." Now, though, she just wants to hug her.

"Every Mother's Day, mom thought she would come back," Leslie said about her oldest sister.

Leslie said she believes her sister is still alive and she wants her to know she still loves and cares for her. She says the truth will happen eventually.

"God only knows when that will be," she said.

Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. Robert Frank, director of the state's Cold Case Division, confirmed his office is again looking into Jackie and Melvin's cases. He said he is working in conjunction with the Butler County Sheriff's Department.

"We're still investigating it and running down new leads," Frank said.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Hecker said he originally directed both families to Frank because of the resources at the department's disposal. He will be meeting with Frank at the end of the month to discuss the case.

Former Butler County Sheriff Leo Meister, who was in office at the time of the disappearances, could not be reached for comment.

 

[KivaSupporter]

Hi! Look at this guy--he has the same ears and nose!
http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200604842S

Relatives left to wonder why two vanished in '65

Published Monday
September 19, 2005

Relatives left to wonder why two vanished in '65

BY ELIZABETH AHLIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The last time Melvin Uphoff's wife saw him, he was leaving their home in Rising City, in Butler County, Neb., to pick up beer in a neighboring town. He was 31 years old, and he never returned.

Jacqueline Rains Kracman, 18, who was separated from her husband, Dennis Kracman, left their two young children with her parents in Columbus, Neb., about 15 miles north of Rising City. She said she was heading to a wedding in Glenwood, Iowa. Family members never heard from her again.

Uphoff was Dennis Kracman's boss at a service station in Rising City. Family members believe that's how Uphoff and Jackie Kracman knew each other. The two vanished about a month apart in 1965.

Forty years later, both families still wonder what happened.

"I have been trying since 1989 to locate him. I went down every street, every avenue. There's no paper trail on these two people at all," said Michele Uphoff Sells, who was 2 when her father disappeared.

Sells lives near Columbus. Nearly every day she drives some of the same roads her father did in his 1954 blue-and-white Oldsmobile, which was never recovered by authorities.

She has hired private investigators. At home, she keeps a plastic box filled with evidence of her search. She has notebooks full of research, photos, home movies, newspaper clippings and depositions from insurance hearings when Melvin Eugene Uphoff was declared legally dead in 1972.

She also has the family's stories of the last day she spent with her father, who took Sells and her siblings on a pheasant hunt and then roller skating.

But she wants to know more.

Jim Rains of Columbus, Kracman's younger brother, was 12 when she disappeared. He remembers his sister as a lively, energetic girl.

"She drove a little too fast on the gravel roads," Rains said, laughing.

"I just remember a very loving, caring, happy person, which makes it hard for me to really accept the fact that she just up and left and moved away somewhere and started a whole new life."

The Nebraska State Patrol says that may be exactly what happened.

Sgt. Robert Frank of the State Patrol's cold case division agreed to look into the case this year at the request of Rains. Frank is still investigating, but he hasn't found any evidence that a crime was committed.

"Back in the '60s, it was easy to disappear. You could change your name, change your Social Security number," Frank said.

Members of both families believe Kracman and Uphoff were seeing each other. Uphoff's family assumed they ran away together. But more than 20 years went by before the families discussed the disappearances with each other.

The dates are fuzzy, but Kracman's family believes the young woman they always called Jackie disappeared in late September 1965, about a month before Uphoff vanished.

Uphoff's family reported him missing immediately, but Kracman was not officially reported missing until 1992.

Frank said records from the initial Butler County Sheriff's Office investigation do not show any signs of a crime, but Sells and Rains aren't convinced that everything was done in those early days to find out what happened.

Jackie Rains was 16 when she married Dennis Kracman. By 18, she had two children. At the time of her disappearance, the Kracmans were separated.

She was a coil winder at an electronics company in Columbus, where she was renting a house with her two children and a roommate.

Sharon Henggeler remembers her sister Jackie as a stubborn girl who liked to get her way, but she was also big on family.

Henggeler and Rebecca Leslie, Jackie's youngest sister, both said she was overcome with homesickness during much of her marriage, calling home nearly every day when she lived in Rising City.

Henggeler, who was 17 at the time, saw her sister the night she left. Henggeler had stopped by with a friend to visit Jackie as she packed for the trip to Glenwood.

"When we stopped by, she wasn't packing for a weekend, she was packing everything," Henggeler said.

Jackie Kracman said she was going to attend a wedding, but Henggeler was worried. When she stopped at her sister's house the following Monday to drop off Jackie's children, her suspicions were confirmed.

"I knew when I hit that front porch that she wasn't going to be there," Henggeler said. "I knocked and knocked and knocked on the door."

Jackie Kracman's roommate told the family she didn't know where Jackie had gone. Henggeler said Jackie must have had help, because she didn't leave with her car. Her parents were left to wonder if their eldest daughter had abandoned her family.

After a while, the Rains family suspected foul play, but they didn't have any evidence to support that theory.

"That's just a gut feeling," Rains said.

Rains and Sells say they don't believe Uphoff and Jackie Kracman could have run away without someone knowing what happened. After so many years, some of the people who knew them, including Jackie's parents, have died, and the memories of those who are still around are fading.

Dennis Kracman, who still lives near Columbus, moved on long ago, remarrying when his children were young. But Rains and Sells still want to know what happened. With the 40th anniversary of the disappearances approaching, they're hoping someone will come forward with information.

"We just want to know the truth," Sells said. "Somebody out there knows the truth."

========================================

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/1723751.html

Missing Couple
Families cling to hope

Posted: 8:24 PM Sep 18, 2005
Last Updated: 10:52 PM Sep 18, 2005

Two Nebraska families are still searching for loved ones, in a quest that has lasted 40 years.

Jacqueline Ann Rains of Columbus vanished September 24, 1965.

Exactly one month later, 30-year-old Melvin Uphoff of Rising City disappeared without a trace.

Old photos and memories are all the Columbus family has of their sister.

In 1965 Jacque Rains smiled for the photographer, but her marriage was ending in divorce. She was 18 and the mother of two.

She was on her way to a friend's wedding in Iowa she vanished.

"She never came home," said Becky, who was eight when her sister disappeared. Her brother Jim was 12.

Every day for 40 years they have lived with the mystery.

"There's no trail to follow anywhere," said Jim

It was a Sunday that Melvin Uphoff took his family pheasant hunting, then skating and topped it off with a big dinner.

They ran an errand from which he too disappeared.

"He got in his 1954 Oldsmobile and drove away and we've never seen or heard from him since," said Michelle, Melvin's daughter.

For 40 years the two families have lived with rumors that Jacque and Melvin ran off together, but there's never been any proof.

No evidence, no contact, no trace of what happened to Jacque or Melvin.

Becky Rains
Jacqueline rains sisters

"Mom always thought she'd come back on mother's day, maybe father's day, maybe Christmas," said Becky Rains Leslie, Jacque's sister.

Jacque Rains parents died not knowing what became of their daughter. But it was at her father's funeral in 1999 Becky thought she saw a woman that resembled Jacque. And then the same woman showed up the next day at a store where Becky works, staring at her.

Becky is certain now it was her missing sister Jacque.

"She had her hand on her hip like my mother used to do," said Becky. "About that time, one of the cashiers needed me to come over and help them. So I went over and helped them and I'm telling myself hopefully she'll still be there. She was gone by then. I kick myself every day."

Time is running out. Melvin would be 70 now and his daughter would like to find him.

"It'd be nice to know where he is and what happened the night he disappeared," said Michelle. "Why did he go? What made him leave?"

Jacque would be 58 now and her family also wants to end the mystery, the gossip and the sorrow.

"Just we love her. We love you," Becky said.

"There's just too many unanswered questions," said Jim Rains.

 

[Cubby]

Hi! Look at this guy--he has the same ears and nose!


http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200604842S

I see some resemblence but this guy has a birth year of 1935 which would have made him in his early 30's when he met Dr. Waters, far too young to be our George Brody. Now if he has a father who went missing... hmmm.

 

[Julessleuther]

Duh!! Sorry about that, I did not think of the age, just the picture. Yes, too young!

I see some resemblence but this guy has a birth year of 1935 which would have made him in his early 30's when he met Dr. Waters, far too young to be our George Brody. Now if he has a father who went missing... hmmm.

 

[SherlockJr]

Duh!! Sorry about that, I did not think of the age, just the picture. Yes, too young!

It's OK Jules, we always like having another set of eyes while searching for Anna. My thought while reading all the newspaper articles, could they have been the couple in the car? Melvin would have been about 37 yrs old and Jackie would have been around 25 yrs. Jackie is also quoted about not wanting to take her 2 young children in 1965 across country, but which direction, east or west?

 

[Cubby]

It's OK Jules, we always like having another set of eyes while searching for Anna. My thought while reading all the newspaper articles, could they have been the couple in the car? Melvin would have been about 37 yrs old and Jackie would have been around 25 yrs. Jackie is also quoted about not wanting to take her 2 young children in 1965 across country, but which direction, east or west?

great thought! It hadn't crossed my mind. I think we should do a little more research. Does Jackie resemble the woman N recalls in the car?