Forty years ago, a husband dropped his wife at the doctor’s rooms for an appointment. When he returned to fetch her, she was nowhere to be found. A search of the premises turned up nothing. It appeared as if his wife had vanished off the face of the earth.
No Sign Of Her
No Sign Of Her
He had arranged to pick her up after her appointment, so he had waited for her thinking she was still in with the Doctor. Their arrangement had been clear, so she would not have left on her own. It would take one word and a photo to finally solve this disappearance.
Just Seasonal Flu
His wife had made the Doctor’s appointment as she had a nasty cold. Her husband drove her to the appointment and they agreed he would fetch her again in an hour. Then the unbelievable occurred.
Just Seasonal Flu
It seemed like just another ordinary day for the couple as they woke up and got ready for the appointment. No one expects to encounter anything out of the ordinary when they go for a doctor’s visit, unless of course, the doctor has something alarming to day…
The Missing Lady
Florence Stevens, known as Flora, was last seen by her spouse on August 3, 1975. She was a young 36 years old woman and was an active and healthy young woman, who enjoyed life to the fullest. There was no reason for her to vanish as she did.
The Missing Lady
And yet, the most shocking and tragic of disappearance cases often occur when people least expect the to, when they feel the safest. Even in the most public of places, filled with professionals and security people, things can quickly turn nightmarish.
Her Employer
At the time she went missing, Flora worked at a resort in the Catskill mountains called The Concord. It was a large sprawling holiday location boasting 1 200 rooms. Being so large, it was the go-to resort for most tourists wanting a break in the Catskills. People from all over the country would flock to the resort during the summertime, where the idyllic views were a sight to see and people could blow off some steam with family and friends.
Her Employer
Past Information Collected
Her job application to The Concord stated that Flora was a student at Lincoln High School in the past and that she was married to Robert Stevens. This rather bare information and profile did not provide much in the way of leads. There was not much else on the application that detectives could use to build up a profile of her. If they were going to build a proper case, they would need to find a richer source.
Past Information Collected
Reporting her Missing
Flora had disappeared without a trace and the authorities opened a missing person’s case. All who knew Flora were really puzzled by the events that August day. Flora was well-liked by them all and no one could imagine anyone wanting to harm her. She was also no type of person to leave without telling anyone. This was all completely out of character for the popular woman, and no one could rationalize how she could have disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Reporting Her Missing
No Progress On The Case
But it wasn’t just ordinary people that were clueless. The experts were struggling, too. The police were stumped and had no clues to go on. Flora also has no living relatives in the area, so gleaning more personal information on her past, was impossible. The case looked like it may go cold as those working on it began to lose hope. It seemed like there was nothing for them to stoke the flames of their investigation with.
No Progress On The Case
Would There Ever Be Closure?
Finally, it was time to call it a day. The case did go cold and this appeared to be one of those missing people who would never be found and whose family would never get the closure they needed to move on. This was a tragic and enigmatic way to leave a missing person’s case, but what could anyone involved do? None of those involved would imagine that the case would be reopened years later.
Would There Ever Be Closure?
A New Lead Investigator
It would be years later that a new development would come into the right people’s radar. In 2017, Yan Salomon was a New York State Senior Police Investigator. Despite not having any knowledge of the old missing person case, he had come across some vital information that may just blow the old cold case wide open. He was the right person at the right time, and despite decades having passed since Flora’s disappearance, it was time to get back on track.
A New Lead Investigator
Many Questions Were About To Be Answered
The Senior investigator had stumbled on a lead that may just clear the Flor Stevens case. Of course, her husband and friends who had never stopped following her case had so many questions. They were desperate to finally get the momentum going, perhaps for the first time. Was she alive or hurt? Where had she been all this time? There was a good chance that Flora had met some terrible fate, but that did not diminish the family’s hopes.
Many Questions Were About To Be Answered
Bones
Their hopes would soon turn to ash when a horrifying discovery was brought to their attention. Flora’s friends and family were about to be disappointed. Whilst Yen Salomon had found evidence, it was in the form of skeletal remains that he needed help in identifying. If this was Flora, she was long deceased. The now possibly deceased woman’s loved ones felt their hearts breaking. How could it all end like this when they had just been inspired once more?
Bones
Reaching out to His Colleagues
The investigator made some calls to the sheriff’s office in Sullivan County. He had some dire information to express to the detectives, and this was not going to be an easy conversation. Still, this was an experienced professional who was a veteran of all manner of grizzly cases and tragic conclusions. He told a detective there, that human remains had been found in the Catskills and he would greatly appreciate their assistance in identifying them.
Reaching Out To His Colleagues
A Needle In A Haystack
This wasn’t going to be as straightforward a case as most people would have been led to believe, however. It might seem cold to put it this way, but this woman’s case was a drop in the ocean. Because around 70 000 female adults are reported missing every year, it would be impossible for Yen to single-handedly identify the remains. Especially given that this woman had disappeared all the way back in the 70s. He had a plan though…
A Needle In A Haystack
A Place To Start
In January 2016, there were 21 894 active female missing person cases in the USA. All cases that went cold were kept in storage and all investigators were able to access the information in these files regardless of their jurisdiction. This meant that any officer could simply access the database if they were prompted to pick up an old investigation once more. As one can imagine, this was a fathomless flood of people and their varying levels of related details and developments.
A Place To Start
Looking For Her
But Yen was not going to go about this business alone. Yen put together a team that would go through these 21000 odd files and looks for similarities to the remains discovered. He hoped the teams’ findings would lead to them to identifying the deceased. This was no easy or straightforward task for the crew, however, as it still meant poring over seemingly endless reams of information. It seemed like their leads were taking them on detour after detour.
Looking For Her
The Site of the Discovery
Whilst his team poured over the cold case files back home, Yen traveled to Sullivan County to conduct a personal investigation. He planned to do local searches in an attempt to identify the woman. Although the missing person database was an incredibly powerful and far-reaching resource, nothing beat a good old-fashioned hands-on investigation, where Yen could directly and physically investigate all the leads that previously gone nowhere. Picking up where the detectives had left off all those years ago would take some time, however.
The Site Of The Discovery
A Past Open Case
In the course of his investigations, Yen had determined that the woman who remains he had found, came from the Sullivan County area. He hoped to get further confirmation of this himself. He found that years ago, Sullivan County had an open case that had similarities to his. You might think that Yen was grasping at straws, but he had solved cases before this one with rather tenuous ties. A case as extraordinary as this one was bound to take him on a wild rollercoaster, but he was determined to see this ride through to the bitter end.
A Past Open Case
Searching for Clarification
Yen Salomon had a particular woman in mind and asked the Sullivan County detectives to show him her file. He specifically wanted information on the woman’s relatives so he could further his investigation by interviewing them. Even though all those connected to the woman in question would have been quite old by now, with perhaps some of them deceased, he was sure that he would be able to find someone that mattered. It did not cross his mind that the woman may not have had any.
Searching For Clarification
Bingo
The file was old and dated back to 1975. It seemed like there was little to go on, but what may have seemed like a useless pursuit to some detectives could easily turn into a highly productive insight for someone like Yen. Sadly, it also provided little to no information on the missing woman, but something caught Yen’s eye and he felt a hunch that he needed to follow through on. It finally seemed like he had stumbled into something that would allow him to make more progress in the case.
Bingo
Fresh Eyes
Whatever Yen had unearthed, he would only be sharing the details with the right people. He could not risk the wrong people getting involved, even if they were fellow officers. Yen Salomon handed the file and his conclusions to the Sullivan County detectives, who assigned Detective Rich Morgan to follow through on the lead. His charge was to find a link between the missing woman from 1975 and the skeletal remains. He and two of his colleagues re-read the file and came up with some new findings.
Fresh Eyes
Solving The Puzzle
While the collection and integration of important and case-relevant information is generally a neat and informative process, there will often be many details that will be inadvertently swept under the rug. At some time over the years, the missing woman’s work ID had been added to the file, almost inconspicusously. It was found at the same location as that of the human remains Yen was trying to identify. A coincidence that could not be overlooked.
Solving The Puzzle
Intriguing news
Flora Stevens went missing in 1975. Nearly half a century had passed since this woman had mysteriously vanished off the face of the earth. In most cases, a person that had disappeared this long ago would have no hope of being discovered, let alone sparking curiosity in people beyond their family and friends. You are about to find out a gripping piece of new and pertinent information about that old case. Get ready to be fascinated.
Intriguing News
Flora
So much time had passed since this woman had suddenly disappeared after her husband had dropped her off for a doctor’s appointment. She was simply going about her business when she had unexplainably vanished. Even the best local detectives had given up on the case. A Detective Morgan worked on the re-opened case, he found that the skeletal remains were connected to the missing woman named Flora Stevens. He was about to solve the decades-long mystery
Flora
Land Wide Searches
Although the police had sadly been forced to turn their backs on Flora’s husband, the dedicated partner had never given up on her. In 1975, Flora’s husband organized search parties and handed out thousands of flyers in an attempt to locate her. He had spent endless hours scouring the world for his long-lost wife. He could not accept that he had innocently dropped her off at her doctor’s rooms and she was just not there when he returned to fetch her.
Land Wide Searches
Few Leads No Progress
To make matters completely heartbreaking, the man that had dedicated his life to finding Flora would not be able to continue his quest, or much of anything to be frank. After opening a missing person’s case, no further clues were found and sadly Flora’s husband died ten years after she disappeared. The devoted husband would never find any form of closure and would die still desperately seeking the love of his life. The file remained closed full of dead-end leads.
Few Leads No Progress
How Would Morgan Revive The Case
Detective Morgan had no living relatives to interview or indeed how to prove the remains Yen Salomon found and the missing woman was one and the same person. It seemed like there was still very little to go on, but it seemed like detective Morgan had an ace up his sleeve. He was confident that the case was not unsolvable, and that there was still some hope to be found. He was going to prove all the naysayers wrong!
How Would Morgan Revive The Case
Everyone Has A Social Security Number…
Morgan was working on the case with a healthy balance between physical, in-the-field detective work and hours spent in front of a computer screen scouring through the relevant digital sources. As Morgan was perusing hundreds of databases looking for evidence, he discovered that someone was using Flora Stevens’ social security number! Had someone gone to the great and immoral length of stealing a long-dead woman’s identity? This would not be the first time that Morgan had run into something unexplainable.
Everyone Has A Social Security Number
Tracking the ID Thief
Morgan did not waste any time getting down to tracking the possible identity thief. He was able to quickly establish who was using Flora’s identity, and where they were. After tracing the number to north Boston, Morgan confirmed that a person living in an old age home was using Flora’s social security number. Most people will assume that those that steal identities are murderers or other kinds of criminal trying to fly under the radar.
Tracking The ID Thief
A Change Of Name
The detective called the old age home. The staff told him that the social security number did belong to a resident named Flora, but that her last name was not Stevens. Their resident was named Flora Harris and she had been living there since 2001. While it was certain that this false Flora had been using the real one’s identity since the turn of the century, how much longer had she been using another’s identity for, and how had she acquired it in the first place?
A Change Of Name
Identity Artifice
Morgan could not hide his excitement when he shared the new developments with his colleagues and superiors. Those that had felt that the enthusiastic detective had been wasting his time suddenly felt incredibly silent. It was not time to get the relevant experts involved and head off to the old age home. Morgan and another detective took a drive to north Boston, to the old age home. Both were flabbergasted to find that the cold case they were working on, was not at all as it seemed.
Identity Artifice
Was This ID theft?
The two detectives had found a lady with the same first name, date of birth and social security number as a missing person from 1975. Only the surname differed. This was an incredibly strange situation where it seemed like a long-standing plot that had managed to go on for decades without anyone noticing anything. The police were ready to blow the cover on this operation, and bring whoever had stolen the dead woman’s identity to justice.
Was This ID Theft?
Photographic Comparison
The detectives were not completely convinced that this was an odd identity theft case, however. They did not discount another possibility. The detectives had brought with them, the only file photo of Flora that they had, just to compare in case the old lady turned out to be the same person. It was a photo that was on Flora’s work ID found earlier. Morgan and his partner wanted to meet and speak to this elderly lady!
Photographic Comparison
Confirmation
The detectives nervously entered the old age home and asked to see the mature lady in question. They were led to her private room, where she greeted them warmly. Upon showing the old lady the photo, she pointed at it and said: ‘me’. Just like that! They also showed her a photo of Robert Stevens, Flora’s husband. Her reaction to this was even more extreme, and the detectives knew that they had found Flora Stevens.
Confirmation
Amnesia
The case had been solved, but the detectives still had plenty of pressing questions to ask the woman. They did have a blank space measuring decades to fill in, after all. But was Flora in any shape to help them? The sad part of this amazing story is that the detectives could not get Flora to explain her disappearance in 1975 as she now had dementia. The past 42 years of her life were hidden away forever in her brain.
Amnesia
A Not So Loving Marriage
The circumstances of Flora’s disappearance will never be confirmed, but a caregiver at the old age home, named Mabuva, did have a few details to share with the detectives that she had gleaned over the years. As it turned out, Flora had trusted someone with the truth. Flora had disclosed to her before dementia took over her mind, that she had been in an awful marriage that was abusive. The marriage had led to her having some psychiatric issues later on in life.
A Not So Loving Marriage
Did She Up and Leave?
Despite how desperately and ‘heroically’ Flora’s late husband had tried to find her, who knows what he would have had in store for her if he ever got his hands on her again? Nothing good, that is for certain. The consensus amongst the investigators is that Flora bought a bus ticket and left town so that she could escape from her husband. We will never know for sure as these details are lost in Flora’s mind forever.
Did She Up And Leave?
What Really Matters Now
What Sullivan County Undersheriff Eric Chabot says, is that all that matters now is that we know Flora is safe. She grew up in Yonkers and is not shy to say ‘mind your own business,’ to inquisitive people. He also states that finding a missing person in this way is a reward enough. Various authorities had worked tremendously hard over many years to locate Flora, and here she finally was. She seemed happy in her own way.
What Really Matters Now
Missing Pieces
After 42 years, Sullivan County closed their missing persons file on Flora Stevens. They were sure that Flora Harris was Flora Stevens and were thrilled to finalize the case and advise the media of their success. Whatever Flora had been through with her husband, and the many years that she spent in hiding once she fled from her home, will always remain largely mysterious. Flora’s safety and comfort were the most important factors here, however.
Missing Pieces
Go Well, Flora
Finally, the Flora Stevens disappearance has been solved. The detectives would prefer to know all the finer details of her flight but are just as happy that she is safe. They took their leave of the 78-year-old Flora and wished her well. There are many stories with these kinds of endings. People will not always disappear through mysterious external circumstances. Sometimes, they just want to escape. The following story of Matt and Laura, childhood sweethearts are one of them.
Go Well, Flora
Don’t Look For Me
Flora’s caregiver, Festus Mbuva has looked after her for 10 years now. She is of the opinion that Flora never wanted to be found. She got the impression that Flora had escaped from something that she never wanted to return to. Whatever Flora’s life had been like while she was with her husband, it was bad enough that she convinced herself to leave her whole former life behind. Whatever had pushed her away was well behind her now.
Do Not Look For Me