This case is so fascinating.
Leigh Ann Hart (born Patricia Leigh Badgero) was facing trial for embezzlement after allegedly selling a fake bond shortly before her disappearance.
On August 17, 1988, Hart failed to appear for trial in East Tawas on the embezzlement charge.
The FBI original thought she fled to Canada.
On September 28th, 1994, a federal warrant was issued charging Hart with Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution.
The son of Hart (died 9/9/81) is buried in the Cemetery in Rose City directly behind the pavilion. Several persons familiar with her said Hart often visits the grave of her son on his birthday. In 2003, police set up surveillance at the cemetary but no luck.
For a long time, it would appear to make sense that Hart wanted to go on the run and avoid serving jail time but could something more sinister be at play?
Apparently, a package was sent from from someone in Montana to her other son and ex-husband and the investigation revealed that she forged her death certificate by altering her deceased son's own death certificate.
The package from Montana from an unknown individual contained a fake death certificate for Hart, forged using her son's and said that she died in an automobile accident. It included a book on bears, lottery tickets, the death certificate, a newspaper article on Hart's death, a letter asking to forward all possessions to her ex-husband and son, and a funeral home notice sent on letterhead of Weathford Funeral Home in Kalispell, Montana.
Hart had a life insurance policy with the payouts being her ex-husband and her son. Her son says the last time he saw her was when his dad put Hart on a Greyhound bus in Manistique to go to the hospital. The life insurance never paid out because they could not prove Hart's death. Her ex-husband denied having helped assist in Hart's disappearance or the package from Montana.
The ultimate question is who sent the package from Montana? Was it Hart attempting to fake her own death and give insurance benefits to her former husband and son? Did her ex-husband have it sent to them somehow to get the benefits and was he behind the whole plot? Or did Hart really just want to vanish and start a completely new life?
I think there's an excellent chance Hart is alive and living under an assumed identity. If she was committing fraudulent crimes like embezzlement over $100, it make sense that she would be able to send her ex-husband and son enough documents to get her declared legally deceased to receive the insurance benefits.
She would be 70 years old today.
Another interesting tidbit: Apparently, at one point, Hart was considering donating her body to science.
