Mysteries

What Happened To Mary Ann Verdecchia?

Mary Ann was last seen on June 7, 1962 in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

She attended a half-day of classes at Immaculate Conception School, went home, and then changed out of her uniform and into street clothes.

At 12:30 p.m. she went to Martinique Apartments on Baum Boulevard in Bloomfield to run errands for a woman who lived there. The woman sent Mary Ann to the store. She was last seen re-entering the apartment complex at 2:45 p.m.

Mary Ann has never been heard from again. She was missed at 6:00 p.m. and her disappearance was reported to the police at 10:30 p.m. after her relatives had searched for her with no result.

A few days after her disappearance, a piece of jewellery believed to have belonged to her was found at the entrance to the Highland Park Zoo, but a massive search turned up no other sign of her. Authorities are uncertain if the jewellery is connected to her disappearance; she could have lost it before she vanished.

In 1991, a man came forward and said that in 1962 he witnessed a Presbyterian minister molest and murder a young girl in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The witness was nine years old at the time. Mary Ann was the only girl reported missing in the area at that time. The witness’s account was never confirmed and the minister, who maintains his innocence, has not been charged in connection with her case.

Mary Ann lived with her aunt and several cousins at the time of her disappearance. She had moved in with them after her own parents separated in 1957. Neither parent played a big part in Mary Ann’s life.

At first investigators believed Mary Ann’s mother had taken her, but she was located and cleared as a suspect, as was her father. Mary Ann’s mother died in 1983 and her father and aunt are also deceased, but her half-brother is alive and works as a police officer in Chicago, Illinois.

Marcella Krulce, a woman who also lived in Martinique Apartments, disappeared in 1959, three years before Mary Ann did. She was never found. There’s no indication the two cases are related, however.

Foul play is suspected in Mary Ann’s case. Her disappearance remains a mystery.

Information courtesy of The Charley Project.

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar