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A blog that tries to inform others about at least a few of the hundreds, if not thousands, of missing children and adults in America. If you have a loved one missing, and would like me to add their story here, please contact me a.s.a.p.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Renee Bruhl - Maiden name Slunecko, Patricia Blough, and Ann Miller- Missing since 1966

Missing Since: July 2, 1966 from Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana
Classification: Endangered Missing
 Renee Bruhl, below


 







Patricia Blough, above









Ann Miller, above




Renee Bruhl:
Age: 19 years old
Height: 5'9
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair, hazel eyes. Bruhl's maiden name is Slunecko.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A brown swimsuit with a pattern of green flowers and gold leaves.


Patricia Blough:
Age: 19 years old
 Height and Weight: 5'4, 115 pounds
 Distingtishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Blough's nickname is Patty.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A bright yellow bikini bathing suit with ruffles.

 Ann Miller:
Age: 21 years old
 Height: 5'2
 Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes.
 Clothing/Jewelry Description: A blue two-piece bathing suit with a red belt.
 Medical Conditions: Miller may have been three months pregnant at the time of her July 1966 disappearance, but this information is unconfirmed.


Details of Disappearance

Bruhl and two of her friends, Patricia Blough and Ann Miller, drove to the Indiana Dunes State Park in Indiana on July 2, 1966. Miller drove her four-door 1955 Buick and picked Blough up from her family's residence in Westchester, Illinois at approximately 8:00 a.m. Blough told her mother the women planned to return home early in the evening to allow Bruhl time to prepare dinner for her husband. Miller and Blough picked up Bruhl from her home on West Fulton Street on the west side of Chicago, Illinois and stopped at a drugstore to purchase suntan lotion. The women arrived at the Indiana Dunes State Park at approximately 10:00 a.m. Miller parked in the park's lot and the women hiked to a spot approximately 100 yards from the Lake Michigan shoreline.
A couple reported seeing the women leave their belongings on the beach at approximately 12:00 p.m. and enter the lake together. The witnesses saw them speaking to an unidentified man operating a 14- to 16-foot-long white boat with a blue interior and and outboard motor sometime afterwards. The couple reported their observations to a park ranger around dusk when they noticed that the women's belongings were still sitting unclaimed on the beach. The witnesses stated that the women went aboard the boat and headed west with the driver. Bruhl, Blough and Miller have never been seen again.

Bruhl left her large-sized towel, shorts, blouse, cigarettes, suntan lotion, 25 cents and her purse containing approximately $55 in checks on the beach.

 Miller left her denim shorts, a polo shirt, shoes, a white bathing cap, a comb and her Thermos bottle on the beach.

Blough left a yellow robe, sunglasses, a transistor radio, a white print towel and her wallet containing five dollars on the beach.

The three women's belongings were collected by the ranger the night of their disappearance and stored in the Park Superintendent's offices until two days later on July 4, 1966. Blough's father called the office on that day, asking if anyone had seen the women. The park rangers soon learned that missing persons' reports had been filed for Blough, Miller and Bruhl over the weekend in Illinois by their families. The rangers began investigating the park and located Miller's Buick in the parking lot. Her car keys had been located with her belongings and some items of the women's clothing and other personal effects were still inside the vehicle. The car was apparently parked in its original space from July 2. The park rangers contacted other law enforcement agencies, including the United States Coast Guard. A search for the missing women was initiated on July 5, three days after the women disappeared. Additional witnesses came forward with conflicting stories regarding the women's last known movements, but authorities believe that the first witnesses' reports stating that the women were seen boarding a boat were the most reliable.

The search was extended to a six-mile stretch of beach west of the state park near the Ogden Dunes later in the week. More witnesses began substantiating the initial reports that the women entered a white boat operated by an unidentified man. Later accounts described the male as in his early twenties with a tanned complexion and dark, wavy hair. He was wearing a beach jacket at the time. A visitor was filming home movies at the state park on July 2 and offered his reels to investigators. The search was immediately narrowed to two boats once authorities viewed the footage. One was a fiberglass 16- to 18-foot-long trimaran runabout with a three-hulled design, which was operated by a man fitting the description of the unidentified driver. Three females matching the missing women were seen aboard the smaller boat in the footage. The second boat identified was a 26- to 28-foot-long Trojan cabin cruiser with three men aboard along with three women. The cabin cruiser was seen at approximately 3:00 p.m. three hours after the women entered the smaller vessel. Investigators believe that the women may have been dropped off on the beach by the driver of the smaller boat while he drove back to retrieve two male friends and the cabin cruiser. Blough, Miller and Bruhl were reportedly seen eating and walking along the sand dunes after this time. They were approached by another unidentified man, who accompanied them on to the cabin cruiser. Witnesses stated that the cabin cruiser was equipped with a radio/telephone antenna, but apparently did not have a name printed on its stern. This final sighting has never been confirmed, but is considered reliable by authorities.

Investigators began researching the women's backgrounds in an attempt to discover if their disappearances were voluntary. Authorities found a note addressed to Bruhl's husband, Jeffery, in her purse. The couple had been married for 15 months in July of 1966. The note stated that Bruhl felt Jeffery spent too much time working on hot-rod cars with his friends and insinuated that she wanted to leave the relationship. Jeffery told authorities that he was not aware of any major marital problems at the time his wife vanished. Her family agreed with Jeffery's statement, telling investigators that they felt Bruhl penned the note in a moment of anger and never gave it to her husband because she changed her mind.

All three women were horse enthusiasts, which pointed to a possible connection with criminal activity. Blough and Miller met while boarding their horses at the same Illinois stable. Bruhl was a classmate of Blough's from Proviso West High School in Maywood, Illinois. Bruhl completed a one-year course in medical technology at a school located in The Loop of Chicago after her high school graduation. Miller and Blough were associated with men who had criminal backgrounds in the horse market. Blough was reportedly having problems with 'horse syndicate people' in the spring and summer of 1966 and Miller's friends told authorities that she may have been three months pregnant at the time she disappeared. Both Miller and Blough arrived at their respective residences shortly before dawn the day they vanished. It is not known if events during the early morning hours of July 2 led to the women's disappearances.

Blough was a very skilled swimmer who could swim 20 to 30 miles; Miller was thought to possess similar abilities and Bruhl's family stated that she had fair swimming skills. Drowning was considered a possibility in the disappearances, but an unlikely one.

There have been many unconfirmed sightings of the three women throughout the years, but leads never surfaced. The boats they were reportedly seen boarding on July 2, 1966 have never been located, nor have the unidentified men spotted on the vessels been seen again. Debris from an apparent boat wreck were discovered near the Bailly Generating Station Of Northern Indiana Public Service Company on Lake Michigan shortly after the July 2 disappearances. There were no reports of any missing boats the day the women vanished and authorities do not know if the debris is connected to their cases.

A psychic once envisioned a Lake Michigan cabin where the women's bodies may have been buried. An extensive search of the property believed to be the location seen by the psychic did not uncover any evidence. Authorities pointed out that the shifting sand dunes may have buried any possible evidence deeply into the ground.

Blough, Miller and Bruhl frequently rode horses at Tri Color Stables in Palatine, Illinois in 1966. The stables were owned by George Jayne, a prominent horse dealer. George and his brother, Silas Jayne, were involved in a bitter argument over horse dealing during the mid-1960's. Cheryl Ann Rude, a young woman associated with the horse market, was killed at Tri Color Stables in June 1965 by a car bomb discovered to be intended for George. George asked Rude to move his Cadillac from the stable entrance and the bomb exploded. Investigators have explored the possibility that Blough, Miller and/or Bruhl may have witnessed the bomb being planted one year prior to their disappearances. This theory may explain Blough's odd remarks about a facial injury she received March 1966 and the connection to "syndicate" people. It has never been proven. George and Silas's phone numbers were discovered in the belongings of one of the missing women in 1966. George was killed by a gunshot wound in 1970; Silas was later convicted of conspiracy in his brother's murder and imprisoned. Silas died in 1987; he is also a suspect in the 1977 disappearance and probable murder of Helen Voorhees Brach. James Blottiaux was charged with planting the 1965 car bomb that killed Rude at George's stable in 1997. None of the men have been proven to have been involved with Blough, Miller and Bruhl's disappearances, but it does lead to speculation that something may have occurred to cause the three women to vanish.

Silas Jayne reportedly told a sheriff that he had three bodies buried underneath his residence some time after the women's 1966 disappearances. Law enforcement took the comment seriously and planned to search Silas's property; the sheriff involved was killed in a farming accident before the search took place. As a result, the lead was left cold.

The Indiana Dunes State Park where Blough, Miller and Bruhl were last seen is now called the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Their cases remain open but inactive and unsolved.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Indiana State Police
219-269-4747



Source Information
The Indiana Dunes State Park Mystery
NewspaperArchive
The Chronicle Of The Horse
Village Confidential: Palatine Police

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In many cases, these blogs are obtained from other sources on the web. Source information will be added whenever possible. My apologies for those already up that may not be sourced, or credit given. This will be fixed.