Helen Brach

Case background and investigation

Helen Vorhees Brach, the 65-year-old widow of Frank Brach, heir to the E.J. Brach & Sons candy company fortune, disappeared in February 1977. She had been visiting the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for a routine checkup. Her houseman, Jack Matlick, claimed he drove her to O'Hare Airport on February 21, but no record of her boarding a flight was ever found.

Helen's disappearance went unreported for two weeks, raising immediate suspicion about Matlick. The investigation eventually uncovered a massive horse-related fraud ring centered on the Chicago equestrian community, where wealthy buyers were sold over-valued horses that were then killed for insurance money.

Richard Bailey, who had been romancing Helen and selling her overpriced horses, was charged with conspiring to have her killed but was not convicted of her murder; in 1995 he was sentenced to 30 years for defrauding her, with the judge stating that the sentence reflected evidence of his involvement in a conspiracy to murder her. However, Helen's body was never found, and the exact circumstances of her death remain unknown.

The case exposed a dark underworld in the Chicago horse industry involving insurance fraud, corruption, and multiple murders. Helen Brach was declared legally dead in 1984.