Description: From the 1910 disappearance of New York heiress Dorothy Arnold to the 1977 vanishing of teenager Simone Ridinger, author Brunelle details both famous and lesser-known cases that remain unsolved. Board a luxury liner with Agnes Tufverson as she embarks on a European honeymoon before her mysterious 1933 disappearance over the Atlantic; follow Jean Spangler to a famous 1940s Hollywood nightclub as she arrives for a clandestine meeting in a private booth.
Due to a strong belief that good girls didn't disappear, when authorities and family members were presented with missing women in the twentieth century, it was often assumed that they had simply ran away. Most investigations were funded by family members, and when women were found to be the victims of violent crime, they were faulted for placing themselves in dangerous situations. On the rare occasions when authorities investigated cases, they relied on interviews and cash trails in combination with rudimentary forensics such as blood typing and fingerprinting to find missing persons. For those reasons, many of the real stories from this time period have yet to be told. Featuring never-before-seen letters and documents, personal interviews, and genealogical research, alongside captivating storytelling, Brunelle delves deep into the lives of those who disappeared and the circumstances surrounding their cases.Brief description: EJ Lavery grew up in the dying heartland of Michigan, the adopted daughter of Mexican migrant workers whose well-being was entrusted to the success of the Detroit auto industry. Raised an only child by her loving grandparents, EJ's imagination was fueled by the books they always found the money to buy her. The magic in the pages transformed the rural landscape into an adventure, and her dreamer's heart rewrote her story into something extraordinary. Persistently curious, EJ pursued a bachelor's degree in theater at the University of Michigan, and then a bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Massachusetts. She's explored lava tubes and glaciers in Iceland, wandered in the footsteps of Lord Byron in Croatia, followed the Von Trapp children through the Mirabell Gardens, and fangirled at the final resting place of Beethoven. When not spinning tales for the world, EJ can be found exploring the outdoors with her husband and her Australian Shepherd, Adelaide. With an ever-growing stack of books-to-be-read, she can still be seen perusing bookstores, listening to the beckoning whispers from the shelves of horror, mystery, true crime, and young adult tales. Even when the seconds are spare, EJ will still slip away for some quiet moments with her piano or cello.