Becoming a millionaire with an estate worth up to 20 million dollars after her husband’s death, Helen led a lavish life. However, tragedy struck Helen when she fell for a “gold digger” specializing in approaching middle-aged wealthy women newly divorced or widowed.
Mysterious Disappearance
Helen Vorhees Brach was born in 1911 in a small town in Ohio. From a young age, she had striking beauty. At 17, Helen got married, but the marriage only lasted 4 years. After divorcing her first husband, she left Ohio and worked in a country club in Miami Beach, Florida.
Here, Helen met a man who completely changed her life. It was Frank Brach, heir to a large candy company in Chicago. From their first meeting, Frank was impressed by a beautiful redhead. They married in 1950. Helen was Frank’s third wife.
When Frank passed away in 1970, he left his wife an inheritance of over 20 million USD (equivalent to nearly 160 million USD today). With this immense wealth, Helen had a very luxurious life. She often spent time socializing with friends, driving luxurious Cadillac and Rolls-Royce…
Then one day, news of the disappearance of the female millionaire in a mysterious way shocked the public.
On Thursday, February 17, 1977, Helen went to a clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for a health check-up. Everything was normal. On her way back, she stopped at a store to buy cosmetics. The cashier remembered that Helen urged her to pack the items quickly because she was in a hurry. And this was the last person to see Helen alive.
The Suspicious Butler
Helen’s butler, Jack Matlick, did not report her disappearance for the next 2 weeks.
Jack Matlick told the police that he picked up Helen at O’Hare Airport (Chicago) on February 17, and drove her to their 18-room mansion in Glenview, Illinois. She spent the weekend here and on Monday morning, he drove her to the airport around 6 a.m. to go to Florida, where she had just bought an apartment. During this trip, Helen did not have much luggage or pre-booked flights. Since then, Jack has not heard anything from his employer.
Jack Matlick, Helen’s husband hired butler in 1959 as a private driver and property manager for his estates in Glenview, Illinois. When Frank Brach died, Jack continued to be hired to maintain the houses and quickly became a trusted butler.
Helen’s husband never knew that Jack had been imprisoned for various crimes including robbery and assaulting his wife.
That weekend, Jack called his wife and said he would stay in Glenview because he had work to do. His wife asserted that her husband had never stayed overnight at Helen’s house because their families lived only a few miles apart. During those mysterious days, some of Helen’s friends visited but were turned away by Jack, who said his employer was unwell. She also did not call anyone during those days. Calls to her were answered by Jack.
Jack said he took his employer to O’Hare Airport at 6 a.m. to go to Florida, but Helen’s acquaintances felt that something was amiss. Helen usually traveled with a lot of luggage and a meticulously planned itinerary. She also hated waking up early and never took flights before 9 a.m. Moreover, no tickets were purchased under Helen’s name to fly to Florida or anywhere else that day.
These details led the police to start suspecting the butler Jack Matlick, especially when they discovered more suspicious details.
On that fateful weekend, Jack cleaned the maid’s room in Helen’s mansion, hired workers to repaint two rooms, and replaced the carpet. Jack also thoroughly cleaned one of Helen’s Cadillacs from the inside out.
Helen’s gardener also reported seeing Jack with two strangers inside Helen’s house over the weekend, one of whom was a young woman wearing a wide, baggy dress and a wig resembling Helen’s. Police also found a receipt in Jack’s belongings dated February 21 (the day he said he took the mistress to the airport) showing Jack passing through a toll booth near Helen’s remote Ohio farm.
The most suspicious evidence was a $13,000 check signed by Helen that Jack cashed. The butler explained that it was a gift from the mistress for taking care of the house. However, handwriting analysis showed that it was not Helen’s signature. Jack later claimed that the mistress had arthritis in her hands and asked him to write and sign the check on her behalf.
The Professional “Gold Digger”
Despite suspicions about the butler, authorities could not find evidence linking him to the disappearance of the millionaire. Jack also underwent a series of lie detector tests and passed.
At this point, police also cast suspicion on Helen’s lover – Richard Bailey. This man owned a horse trading farm and a large horse racing club in the city.
Richard was 20 years younger than the millionaire mistress. According to the police investigation, Richard was a professional “gold digger” specializing in approaching middle-aged wealthy women newly divorced or widowed, then taking their money by enticing them to invest in worthless horses while lying to inflate their value. Helen’s accountant estimated that she had spent $250,000 on these horses.
However, once again, the police could not find any leads related to Richard Bailey.
Murder Suspicions
With no concrete evidence, the case surrounding millionaire Helen Vorhees Brach’s mysterious disappearance reached a standstill. In 1984, millionaire Helen was declared dead despite her body not being found. The investigation made no progress until 1989 when a fraud case involving purebred horses was uncovered, and one of the two main suspects was her lover – Richard Bailey.
Richard was accused of colluding with Silas Jayne, the leader of a criminal gang. Silas was also a suspect in three disappearances of other wealthy horse-loving widows since 1966.
Part of the suspects’ scheme was to lure widows into investing in worthless horses at high prices. If the victims became suspicious after buying the horses, they would kill the horses and compensate the buyers with small insurance payouts.
Investigators believed the two suspects approached Helen similarly. However, it seemed she knew she was being deceived and threatened to expose the horse smugglers’ fraud, so she was murdered to silence her. With Helen’s wealth and connections, Richard was likely to face imprisonment.
In 1994, Richard was indicted on 29 counts of fraud and money laundering. This man was also charged with conspiring to murder Helen Brach. Richard admitted to all charges except defrauding Helen or being involved in her disappearance. Richard was sentenced to life in prison, later reduced to 30 years.
In July 2019, Richard was released at the age of 81 and still maintains he had nothing to do with Helen Brach’s disappearance.
Surprising Confession
In 2004, Joe Plemmons – a former associate of Silas Jayne – called the police to tell them a story about Helen’s death 27 years prior.
Joe claimed that Helen was murdered at the direction of Silas Jayne out of fear she would expose his fraud scheme. But Joe also asserted that Richard had no involvement.
Joe confessed to the police that they abducted Helen on her way to the airport and used a woman disguised as Helen. She then used Helen’s plane ticket to fly to O’Hare, where the butler was waiting. To avoid suspicion, this woman stayed at Helen’s house for a few days before taking a flight to Florida. 11 of Silas’s gang members then murdered and burned Helen’s body.
Joe handed the police a ruby ring, claiming it fell off while he was disposing of the body. The victim’s relatives identified it as Helen’s, but authorities couldn’t prove it through DNA testing. Furthermore, the mastermind, Silas Jayne, died in 1987.
To this day, no one can explain what happened to Helen Brach. The case remains one of Chicago’s biggest unsolved mysteries. It’s known only that the millionaire made a mistake by trusting a man with a violent criminal past as her butler and dating a “gold digger”, a scammer.
