0:00

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0:02

ad-free on Amazon Music. Download

0:05

the app today.

0:13

It's

0:19

almost like, except for the fact that we

0:21

have photos of her and we know

0:23

that she existed, it's like she never

0:25

existed at all. I wish that I

0:27

had more information. I kind of feel like

0:30

I'm in this constant pursuit of

0:32

information that I think that I

0:34

have a really good lead or we think that, you

0:36

know, we found something out and then it

0:38

ends up being nothing. It's

0:41

always been in the family that

0:44

Ruth ran away with

0:46

a married man at 18 and was never seen

0:50

again. And that was just always the

0:52

family lore. Because

0:54

apparently she did have a boyfriend and

0:56

I don't know anything about him. I

0:59

think his name is Ray Brennan.

1:02

From what I heard, he was never

1:05

even talked to by authorities.

1:07

Like he was never looked at. They

1:09

tried to pin it on my grandpa. I mean,

1:11

they dug up the old house where

1:14

the family used to live. Yeah,

1:16

they dug up the old backyard, found a cow

1:18

bone. I mean, they harassed my

1:20

family. This is like where my grandparents

1:23

kind of grew up. It's just the area where they

1:25

both kind of grew up.

1:26

They moved out of the town. They had to. Sometime

1:30

between the summer of 1964 and 1966, a young woman disappeared from

1:33

Delavan, Wisconsin. No

1:39

one can remember exactly when for sure.

1:41

Depending on the year, she would have been between

1:44

the ages of 18 and 20. Her

1:46

family said that they reported her missing to the

1:48

local police, but they didn't do anything

1:51

to search for her. The family hired

1:53

a private investigator who said they were

1:55

able to find that she had taken a bus

1:56

to Chicago. But after that,

1:59

the trail went. cold. Over

2:01

the years some strange things happened.

2:04

First, the woman's ID and Social

2:06

Security card turned up in the office of

2:08

a local school custodian in the 70s.

2:11

In the 1980s, luggage was

2:13

found hidden within the ceiling of that same

2:15

custodian's office, and

2:17

the custodian happened to be her stepfather.

2:20

Could there be a link? It

2:22

took decades for this cold case to heat

2:25

up, but then it fizzled out again.

2:27

And today this case remains

2:30

unsolved. I'm Marissa, and

2:32

from Wondery this is episode 400

2:33

of The Vanished, Ruth

2:36

Ignoski's story.

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3:51

Ruth Agnowski's case started out

3:53

cold from the very beginning. There

3:55

was never much in the way of search efforts to

3:57

find her back in the 60s. They

4:00

only said they went to the police in the beginning,

4:02

but they wouldn't look for Ruth. She

4:04

was a young adult, it was the sixties. She

4:07

probably just ran off and would be back.

4:10

The thing is, Ruth never came

4:12

back. In fact, she was never

4:14

seen or heard from again. In

4:17

a 2002 article in the Janesville Gazette,

4:19

an investigator from the Delavan Police

4:21

Department stated that it was their belief

4:23

that Ruth's mother had come to the police early

4:26

on, but she seemed to be seeking advice

4:28

from them, not necessarily looking to file

4:31

a report at that time.

4:33

We will likely never know exactly how

4:35

that conversation went down between Ruth's

4:37

mother and the police, because Ruth's

4:39

mother has since passed away, and the

4:42

police department claims that they don't have any

4:44

records of a missing report until the late

4:46

nineties. Now we want to fast

4:48

forward many decades to the beginning

4:50

of 2023. We were contacted

4:53

by a woman named Sarah, who told

4:55

us that she's the family spokesperson for

4:57

Ruth.

4:58

Sarah is an anthropology student

5:00

who has done work identifying several Jane

5:02

and John Doe's with various organizations.

5:06

Sarah explained that she was working to identify

5:08

a Jane Doe when she stumbled

5:10

upon Ruth's case and became interested.

5:14

So probably two years

5:16

ago, I was looking for potential

5:18

exclusions for an unidentified woman

5:21

found in Jackson County, Missouri, and

5:23

she was found with like a wallet or a pocketbook

5:26

that had the initials RMK

5:29

inscribed on it. So I just

5:31

put RMK in the first,

5:34

middle, and last name

5:35

for missing people on NamUs,

5:37

and nothing came up. So I just put

5:40

in RM,

5:40

and then Ruth came up. So

5:43

I thought maybe she had gotten

5:45

married, had a name change or something like that.

5:47

I just wanted to explore it and rule her out.

5:50

The wallet that brought me to this case to begin

5:52

with is because

5:54

for that woman, whoever she

5:56

is, that is such an identifying piece of information.

5:59

And now. what I was hoping would be two

6:01

cases that I could smack

6:03

together and they would be the same person. So

6:06

ultimately, I'm pretty sure that

6:08

it is not her. The woman in Missouri

6:11

is not Ruth Ignosky. But in

6:13

doing my research about her, I

6:16

came across her on a family tree, on ancestry.

6:20

And I messaged the owner of the family

6:22

tree to see if I could get more information

6:24

about her disappearance or if it was even the

6:26

same person. And it turns

6:29

out that they lived in my town. So

6:31

the next day he was like, can you

6:34

meet up for coffee and we can talk about this

6:36

and we can give you some more information. And I

6:38

was like, sure, absolutely. So

6:40

we met up for about two hours.

6:42

And I got the run

6:44

down on Ruth's disappearance and

6:47

kind

6:47

of got the impression from the family

6:50

and then got the impression from talking to the police

6:53

department that not very much was

6:55

being done with it, you know,

6:57

being

6:58

almost 50 years old or older

7:00

than that now to find her.

7:02

So I was

7:04

talking to the family. They would like to use

7:07

me as like their representative. So

7:09

I started doing some information gathering

7:11

and some, you know, networking,

7:14

trying to get the word out about her case. And

7:16

I asked them if it was okay

7:18

if I tried to get her story featured on some

7:20

podcasts. And they said, yes.

7:22

So that kind of brings

7:24

us to where we are now. I've basically

7:27

learned what the family knows. The

7:29

people who actually remember Ruth

7:31

firsthand, there's only a handful

7:34

of them now with it being so long ago. With

7:37

a case as old as this one, it

7:39

can be a challenge to piece together enough

7:41

information to put together an episode.

7:43

But we like a good challenge.

7:45

These cases are tricky because many relatives

7:48

are no longer living. And those that

7:50

are still here were often too young

7:52

at the time to clearly remember what happened

7:55

or things were hidden from them by their parents

7:58

who were trying to protect them from the harsh realities

8:00

of the world. So we worked our way

8:02

through public records and newspaper archives

8:05

to see what we could learn about Ruth Agnoski's

8:07

life. Ruth was born on January 6,

8:10

1946 in Geneva,

8:12

Wisconsin.

8:14

Ruth's mother, Nancy Ruth Salserman,

8:17

was just 15 years old at the time that

8:19

Ruth was born. Ruth's mother

8:21

had lived in Melrose Park, Illinois, a

8:23

suburb of Chicago, but moved

8:25

to Geneva along with her parents during

8:27

her pregnancy. Ruth's biological

8:30

father lived in the Chicago area and

8:32

remained there after Ruth's family relocated

8:35

to Wisconsin. When Ruth was an

8:37

infant, her mother met Robert Agnoski

8:40

at a picnic. The two fell in love

8:42

and married on December 20, 1947, just weeks before Ruth's second

8:44

birthday. Shortly

8:49

thereafter, Robert adopted Ruth and

8:51

raised her as his own. In

8:53

those early years, Robert and Nancy

8:56

Agnoski continued living with her parents.

8:59

Due to this, Ruth had an especially close

9:01

relationship with her maternal grandparents.

9:04

In 1950, Ruth's sister Hesperus was

9:07

born. Then, her little brother Robert

9:09

came along in 1952. The growing family moved

9:11

out of Ruth's parents'

9:14

home in 1958. A few years later, in 1961, Ruth's youngest sister,

9:20

Candy, was born. The following

9:22

year, the family built a home on Senna

9:24

Street in Delavan, and this is where

9:26

they were residing at the time of Ruth's

9:28

disappearance.

9:30

We know that Ruth graduated high school in 1964

9:33

and that she disappeared either later that

9:36

same year or sometime in 1965 or 1966. We spoke to

9:38

Ruth's brother Robert, who was six years

9:40

younger

9:44

than Ruth and would have been around 12 to 14

9:46

years old when his sister went missing.

9:49

His

9:52

memories of Ruth are foggy from the passage

9:54

of time, but he told us what he could

9:56

remember about his oldest sister.

9:59

She was outgoing

10:03

and she had a number of really,

10:06

really good friends. And

10:08

I remember her being

10:10

baptized at the First Baptist Church

10:14

in her hometown. I remember

10:16

her going off to what was called

10:20

BYF, Baptist

10:22

Youth Fellowship, for summer

10:25

camp type things. Interestingly,

10:28

when I spoke to my other older sister,

10:31

just two years older than myself, we

10:33

both didn't have a lot

10:36

of contact, close

10:38

contact with Ruth. And it wasn't,

10:41

let's see, she graduated in 64,

10:45

my sister graduated in high school in So

10:48

there's only four years difference and yet there is just

10:51

an interesting personality difference

10:54

or something, social difference between

10:57

Ruth and my

10:59

older sister and myself.

11:01

And

11:02

I have an

11:04

era, a high school yearbook,

11:06

I call it era, when Ruth was

11:08

a junior. And it is

11:11

remarkable how

11:13

many people wrote in

11:15

notes to her and about

11:18

her about this incredible

11:20

personality that Ruth had. I

11:23

was kind of a homebody. And

11:25

now I see, I don't remember the particulars

11:28

of this, but my understanding

11:29

is that

11:31

she went to, I think

11:33

it would be prom, and

11:35

dated the same gentleman all

11:38

four years of her high school. And I

11:40

mean, that's a pretty interestingly serious

11:44

relationship going on. I'll

11:47

never forget the time that I don't

11:50

know exactly how or what I interrupted,

11:52

but it was, I think, her

11:55

and her boyfriend. And

11:57

she chased me into my bedroom.

12:00

And I crawled under the bed because I was so

12:02

afraid of her. She

12:05

grabbed my arm and dug her finger.

12:08

So that unfortunately

12:11

is kind of the limitation. I

12:13

just don't remember any,

12:16

anything outstanding about

12:18

any personal interactions with

12:20

her conversations,

12:23

heart to heart things, which

12:25

makes me sad. But

12:26

it

12:27

was what it was. My understanding

12:30

was that she liked to do hair and she

12:33

was doing some of that at a beauty salon

12:35

there at the, at the end.

12:37

She was, she was involved in Future Homemakers

12:40

of America. She liked to own a home that

12:42

I think that she wanted

12:44

to be a family person. She wanted to be

12:46

a mom and wife.

12:49

One major question mark in this case

12:51

is exactly when Ruth disappeared.

12:53

We know that at the age of 18, Ruth

12:56

graduated from Delavan Darian High

12:58

School in June of 64

13:01

months later in August of 64. There's

13:04

a possible mention of Ruth in a local

13:06

newspaper. The Janesville Gazette

13:08

published a little blurb about who was admitted

13:10

or released from the hospital each day, or

13:12

if any babies were born on August

13:15

21st, 1964. It

13:17

states that Mrs. Ruth Ignosky

13:19

of Delavan was admitted to Lakeland

13:22

hospital. Now, Ruth wasn't

13:24

married. So it's unclear if listing

13:26

her as Mrs. was a typo or

13:28

if that could be another Ruth Ignosky,

13:31

though that last name isn't very

13:33

common. A week later on August

13:35

28th, it says that Ruth was dismissed

13:37

from the hospital, this time not

13:39

listing her as Mrs. Just

13:42

Ruth Ignosky.

13:43

After the summer of 64, we

13:46

don't really have any concrete dates to

13:48

go off of,

13:49

but we will tell you what we do have.

13:51

But before we get there, it's important

13:53

to note that this case wasn't really looked into

13:56

or investigated by law enforcement until

13:58

more than 30 years later.

13:59

when one of Ruth's younger sisters

14:02

called the police, inquiring

14:04

about what progress had been made on the case.

14:07

Unfortunately, Ruth's sister learned that the

14:09

answer to her question was zero progress,

14:12

but this is where the investigation begins.

14:14

So keep in mind that when we go over these dates,

14:17

these memories were already 33 to 35 years

14:20

old in 1999.

14:22

In a November 17, 2002 article

14:25

in the Janesville Gazette, a friend of

14:27

Ruth's was interviewed. Her name was

14:29

Susie. Ruth and Susie attended

14:31

high school together at Delavan-Darien

14:33

High School, and they both graduated in 64.

14:37

Susie described Ruth as attractive,

14:39

outgoing, had a warm smile, thick

14:42

dark hair, and olive complexion.

14:44

After high school, the friends had gone off to do their

14:46

own things, and Susie didn't know that Ruth

14:48

had disappeared until her family came

14:51

looking for Ruth.

14:52

When Ruth finished high school, she spent time

14:54

working as a hairdresser and also in a

14:56

factory. Some people believe that

14:58

it was the summer of 64 that Ruth

15:00

went missing,

15:02

but later in that same article, a maternal

15:04

uncle recalled seeing Ruth in the summer of 65.

15:07

Her uncle had just gotten married, and he, his

15:10

new wife, Judith, and Ruth went shopping

15:12

together in Milwaukee.

15:14

They remembered what year it was because it was so

15:16

close to when they had married. They even

15:18

recalled borrowing a car from Ruth's grandmother

15:21

to make the trip together. Ruth's

15:23

new aunt by marriage said that they had

15:25

a nice girl's day out in Milwaukee that

15:27

summer. She also said that she knew that Ruth

15:29

was working and saving up her money in the

15:31

bank. Ruth was a responsible

15:34

young woman at the very beginning of her adult

15:36

life, with so much ahead of her.

15:38

Ruth's uncle also recalled driving Ruth

15:41

to see a boyfriend on a farm that summer.

15:44

He didn't know much about the boyfriend, but remembered

15:46

that he was absent without leave from

15:48

the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago.

15:51

He believed that Ruth was going to break up with

15:53

his boyfriend because she was angry

15:55

that he was AWOL. Some of Ruth's

15:57

friends reported seeing her during Labor Day

15:59

week. weekend at a county fair, but they

16:02

weren't sure if it was the summer of 65 or 66. Police also

16:07

learned that Ruth's social security number had not

16:09

been used since 1965. Ruth's aunt

16:12

didn't recall Ruth being at the family Christmas

16:14

gathering in December of 65 either. Going

16:18

back over their records, police could

16:20

find no reports from those years indicating

16:22

that Ruth had been reported missing. But

16:25

again, we don't know if a report was lost

16:27

or if it simply wasn't taken seriously when

16:29

the family says that they tried reporting

16:32

Ruth missing. One compounding

16:34

factor in this case, which we see in

16:36

many cases from this era, goes back

16:38

to generational differences. When

16:41

Ruth vanished, her siblings were still

16:43

quite young and the people in her parents

16:45

and grandparents' generations didn't really

16:47

talk about the hard things in life. They

16:50

pushed those thoughts and feelings away and

16:52

shut them off. There were certain things

16:54

that just remained family secrets,

16:57

things you didn't talk about.

16:59

Here's Ruth's brother Robert again.

17:01

Robert

17:39

happened.

17:52

She also don't learn healthy

17:54

ways to resolve conflict

17:56

and it probably would go

17:59

over to all also the emotion

18:01

of heartbreak and sadness.

18:04

And my dad, having

18:06

gone through the war and other tragedies, he

18:11

was pretty shut down. Well, he was.

18:13

Matter of fact, my mother said that first

18:16

time, and I'm getting emotional, the

18:19

first time that she saw him cry

18:22

was when his

18:24

four-legged faithful

18:26

friend and a hunting companion,

18:29

German Shepherd Dog, Saul died. That's

18:33

the first time that she saw dad

18:35

cry.

18:36

And there was also a saying that I

18:38

don't think any psychologists say is healthy

18:40

was, children are to be seen

18:42

and not heard. We didn't have any

18:45

heart-to-heart conversations.

18:47

And I grew up with their cultural things

18:50

and some are healthy and some are not

18:52

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22:17

When

22:17

Ruth disappeared, the family wasn't

22:19

having nightly conversations at the dinner

22:22

table about their progress in finding

22:24

her.

22:24

Ruth's parents have since passed away,

22:27

and whatever they knew about Ruth's disappearance,

22:29

or what they may have uncovered early on, now

22:32

seems to be lost forever. Ruth's

22:34

disappearance wasn't something that they spoke

22:36

about openly, and what they may have known

22:39

was not documented.

22:40

Some believe that Ruth did initially leave

22:43

voluntarily, but something later

22:45

happened that caused her to disappear forever.

22:48

We previously mentioned that a private investigator

22:50

claimed to have tracked Ruth to Chicago.

22:53

Robert remembers being told about an angry

22:56

letter that arrived at their home, a letter

22:58

allegedly written by Ruth after a

23:00

private investigator had come looking for her.

23:03

Robert told us what he knows about this letter.

23:05

I think

23:06

it was my mom, because my

23:08

dad didn't communicate much about anything when they did the

23:11

Holocaust case. And Ruthie was

23:13

angry.

23:16

She wrote a letter that was angry

23:20

to dad and mom because

23:23

she, quote, ran away, and

23:26

my mother's father

23:29

hired an investigator,

23:31

private investigator, to find

23:34

her

23:34

and told

23:36

the investigator, this is how I understand

23:38

it, told the investigator that

23:40

he was her

23:41

dad, her father.

23:44

Apparently,

23:44

the investigator

23:47

must have found her and told

23:49

her that

23:50

dad hired

23:52

him, and she gets angry

23:54

and sends off a ballistic letter

23:57

to mom and dad because,

23:59

quote,

23:59

when

24:00

my mother found out that it was her very own

24:02

father that did that,

24:04

she was

24:07

really angry with him for getting

24:08

involved like that and,

24:11

and doing harm, more

24:13

harm to the relationship between

24:15

Ruth and my dad. So at

24:17

that junction, she ran away

24:20

whenever that was. I might've been, well,

24:23

so 64, 65, 66, whatever, you know, how

24:26

old Deborah was 14, 15, 60, and there were some her again and

24:29

wondered and

24:31

wondered and

24:34

wondered.

24:35

Robert also has a memory of a man that

24:37

Ruth had been seeing before she disappeared.

24:40

He recalls that their mother didn't approve of

24:42

this relationship because the man was

24:44

married.

24:46

What I remember was

24:49

according to my mother, and I don't know how

24:51

she found out if it was true

24:53

that he was a married man. And the

24:55

one time that I remember seeing

24:58

him meeting him face to face,

25:00

it was at my grandparents' 10 acres

25:03

out north of Delavan. And

25:05

he was coming to meet Ruth

25:07

there. He had a Volkswagen

25:09

Beetle, I'll never forget that. And he was really

25:12

a short skinny guy. I

25:14

mean, that's, that's really about all I

25:16

knew.

25:18

Short cut hair. It was a wild

25:20

guy, looking guy, clean cut,

25:22

kind of gave me the impression of a

25:25

maybe a mild Fonzie, you know, like

25:27

he was kind of cool

25:29

from what I remember my mother saying that

25:31

she was not happy that she was seeing a married man.

25:34

And

25:34

he was from Northern Illinois. I know that

25:37

an investigator was doing maybe some

25:39

follow up work on that.

25:40

Again, as I recall, mother

25:43

wasn't happy that she was seeing a married man.

25:45

How did she find out? How did my mother find out

25:47

he

25:47

was a married man?

25:48

To me, Ruthie, I would

25:51

think would be the one to tell mother. So

25:53

she did know that he was a married man, but

25:55

I don't know.

25:56

Not sure he's still alive or

25:58

where he is. This is

26:00

a case where memories faded long ago,

26:02

and it makes it exponentially more

26:04

difficult to pull together a cohesive

26:06

story. We also spoke to Ruth's

26:09

niece, Robert's daughter, Jessica.

26:11

She told us about a story she heard from her

26:13

mom, one that her father has since

26:16

forgotten, but could be important.

26:19

My mom has a story that

26:21

she remembers my dad telling

26:23

her that he got

26:25

a phone call one night, I think still

26:27

living at home, and it seems like

26:30

it was Ruthie's, because only

26:32

family members would call my

26:34

dad Bobby, and then the

26:37

phone got hung up. And

26:40

of course my dad. My dad has a famously

26:43

bad memory, and he

26:45

does not remember the story, and my mom's like, no,

26:47

you told me the story, but there's

26:49

no date, you know, there's

26:51

no, nobody has any sort of idea

26:53

if that was her, or when that happened.

26:56

And I always heard there was a

26:58

letter written, but

27:00

no one has this letter that

27:02

maybe Ruthie wrote home.

27:04

Sarah was able to give us yet another interesting

27:07

piece of information that she was able

27:09

to uncover while speaking with members

27:11

of Ruth's family.

27:13

So shortly before her disappearance, I know

27:15

that she did graduate high school in Bellavand

27:18

in 1964.

27:19

And she was working at like

27:22

a beauty parlor, but I'm not sure

27:24

what she was doing there, like if she

27:26

was just

27:27

answering phones, or she was actually providing

27:29

services. And shortly before

27:32

she went missing,

27:34

she had brought a

27:36

boyfriend

27:38

to her parents' house, and there was a young

27:40

boy with them. And they told

27:42

her parents that it was the

27:44

man's nephew.

27:46

And at some point during the visit, her

27:48

parents heard this young boy called a

27:50

man, Daddy. And at that point, they

27:52

became upset and asked them all to leave.

27:55

And shortly after that is

27:57

when Ruth disappeared.

27:59

The family, after attempting

28:02

to report her missing with the Delavan Police Department,

28:05

hired a private investigator. And

28:07

that private investigator was able to determine

28:10

that she had traveled to Chicago,

28:12

probably by bus, but

28:14

nothing ever came of that

28:16

information. They don't know where

28:18

she went after that.

28:21

In the late 90s, Ruth's youngest sister

28:23

approached the local police. She

28:25

wanted to see if they would give her any information

28:27

about the search for her sister.

28:29

This is what finally opened the investigation,

28:32

or blew it wide open, some may say.

28:35

But it didn't go the way that she had hoped or

28:37

planned. The police began looking

28:39

at her father as a suspect in Ruth's

28:41

disappearance.

28:43

My youngest sister, Candy,

28:46

asked Greg Strome.

28:48

And Greg was maybe a

28:50

year or two younger than myself. Because,

28:53

I mean, we were in the same place, musicals

28:55

at high school. But he was the

28:58

city police investigator. Candy

29:01

asks him, after all these decades,

29:04

would you please investigate Ruth's disappearance?

29:07

And the next thing he knew, Mom and

29:09

Dad were called in for questioning. And

29:12

Candy was livid. However,

29:15

Dad became a suspect.

29:18

I know that Candy wants to just,

29:20

you know, have nothing more to do with this

29:23

whole history. My older sister shut

29:25

the door. I mean, Mom and Dad moved away from

29:28

the

29:28

hometown where we grew up.

29:30

And it was just, it was heavy

29:32

duty. And

29:34

being a suspect and then going and digging

29:37

up part of a... Because Dad built that house.

29:40

And I knew exactly what part of the house

29:42

they were digging up and why. And, you know,

29:44

I knew all that. And it was like, you're not going

29:46

to find anything. Good luck.

29:48

Have fun.

29:49

This is where things took an interesting twist

29:51

in Ruth's case. In a November 17,

29:55

2002 article in the Janesville Gazette,

29:57

Ruth's aunt recalled visiting the home after

29:59

Ruth had disappeared, and she

30:02

said she was surprised when she went into Ruth's

30:04

room and saw her belongings left behind,

30:07

her clothes, purse, and she believed

30:09

her checkbook.

30:10

If Ruth had left voluntarily, why

30:12

didn't she take her things? She

30:15

asked Ruth's mom if there had been any word

30:17

from Ruth, and she said no.

30:19

But Ruth's aunt also noted that the topic

30:21

of Ruth seemed to be one that everyone avoided.

30:24

Police also released information that seemed

30:26

to point at Ruth's stepfather, Robert

30:29

Ignosky.

30:30

They said that decades earlier, in 1973, a Delavan police

30:32

officer was on night patrol

30:36

when he found a door to Weillman Elementary

30:38

School unlocked.

30:40

This just so happened to be the school where Robert

30:42

Ignosky had worked as a custodian for

30:44

decades. The officer went inside

30:46

the school, presumably to make sure

30:49

that no one had broken in, and inside

30:51

the custodian's office, he says

30:53

that he found Ruth's driver's license and social

30:55

security card. It's unclear

30:58

why the officer thought anything of this at

31:00

the time, since the police department

31:02

says that there was no missing report made back

31:04

then. But the officer was suspicious

31:07

enough to take photos of those items and

31:09

put the photos into

31:10

evidence. On top of that,

31:12

in the mid-1980s, while Robert

31:15

was still working as a custodian at

31:17

the school, another employee found

31:19

something strange above the drop ceiling

31:21

in the custodian's closet, two

31:23

empty pieces of luggage that looked

31:25

to have been there for a long time since they

31:27

were described as very dusty. Could

31:30

those pieces of luggage have been Ruth's? They

31:33

were described as light blue hard-sided

31:35

suitcases. One was a cosmetic

31:37

case, and the other was a regular-sized

31:39

suitcase. Investigators began

31:41

taking a hard look at whether or not

31:43

Ruth's stepfather could be responsible for her

31:45

disappearance. Had he hidden

31:48

Ruth's social security card, driver's

31:50

license, and possibly luggage in his office

31:52

at work, in order to make it look like she

31:54

had left on a bus to run away forever?

31:57

When all of this information hit the news, Ruth's

32:00

parents got a lawyer who advised

32:02

them not to talk. Some may

32:04

think that that points to their guilt, while

32:06

others would say that was a smart thing to do

32:09

in order to avoid being falsely accused

32:11

of a crime. Ruth's family had

32:13

moved away from their home on Center Street

32:15

in the early 70s. The current homeowner

32:18

gave police consent to search the property

32:20

in 2002. They brought out cadaver

32:23

dogs, and the dogs indicated in a few

32:25

areas. They excavated the yard,

32:27

digging a 12-foot-wide hole, and

32:30

searching the crawlspace. However,

32:32

no trace of Ruth was found.

32:34

All they reportedly found were some cow

32:36

bones. Sarah explained that she

32:39

understands why the Social Security card

32:41

and ID being found in Ruth's

32:42

stepfather's office cast suspicion

32:45

on him, but she thinks there are other

32:47

leads that need to be run down as well.

32:50

Sometime after she was

32:53

missing

32:54

her Social Security

32:56

card and I think some other vital

32:58

documents were found at her

33:01

father or her stepfather's old place

33:03

of work, and that led to a lot

33:05

of suspicion that her stepfather

33:07

was somehow responsible for her disappearance,

33:10

and he was kind of vilified by a lot of

33:12

people, but the family really doesn't believe that

33:14

he has anything to do with it. And

33:17

a back porch,

33:19

I believe, of the stepfather's house

33:22

was dug up

33:23

and nothing was found there either. I think

33:26

the reason people suspected the stepfather

33:28

was, one, because

33:29

he had

33:31

asked Ruth and her boyfriend

33:34

to leave, and then two, that her important

33:36

documents were found at his prior place

33:38

of employment, which I think some people

33:40

felt like was him trying to conceal

33:43

evidence or something like that,

33:45

but in talking to the family they don't believe

33:48

he has anything to do with it.

33:50

Ruth wasn't spoken about often by the older

33:52

generations of her family. They

33:54

kept those emotions inside and dealt with

33:57

them on their own. Some may wonder

33:59

why Ruth stepped

33:59

father would have had her ID and social security

34:02

card inside his office. If

34:04

she had run away, why didn't she take those items

34:06

with her? She was an adult after all

34:09

and likely would have needed those things at some

34:11

point.

34:12

But if Ruth had left on her own, maybe

34:14

she didn't actually plan to be away so

34:16

long. Jessica told us about some

34:19

explanations that she's heard about this

34:21

through whispers within her family.

34:24

Apparently her suitcase

34:27

identification was found

34:30

apparently in the ceiling tiles of my

34:32

grandpa's

34:33

custodial office. And so maybe

34:35

that's why they were like, okay, gotcha.

34:38

But unfortunately there's just no

34:40

answers. I don't know where that suitcase

34:43

went. I don't know. Apparently

34:46

the cops never took it. It doesn't

34:48

look good. Also, it's just like

34:51

if the cops didn't take it

34:52

from what I heard from my dad, the cops

34:55

weren't there on like official duties. So they couldn't

34:57

take it for something. And then I

34:59

don't know where it is. I've never seen it. I

35:02

don't know if the cops have it.

35:03

And then my grandparents never

35:05

threw a thing out. We never found

35:08

it after they passed. So I don't know. The

35:10

official word was like, Oh, well, if she

35:12

wants it back, she has to come talk to me. That's

35:15

why I have it.

35:16

Cause she needs to like

35:18

for quote unquote, what she did, AKA

35:20

run away. Like she needs to come apologize

35:24

or whatever. That's just what I've always heard.

35:26

Well, if she's going to come back, she's got a thingy

35:29

to do it and get her stuff. And yeah,

35:32

I don't know. Or like maybe my grandma didn't want

35:34

it in the house. I don't know.

35:36

Like him having

35:38

the suitcase, it makes me think,

35:40

okay, did he know she was going to leave? And he

35:43

was like, well, you're not leaving with your suitcase.

35:45

And she left anyway. I never

35:47

had a conversation about this with my grandpa.

35:50

We kind of pretended it wasn't happening.

35:52

And then the fact that he was more than arrested, it

35:54

was like, okay,

35:56

we all need to move on.

35:58

For Jessica, she wants to know. why

36:00

the police went so hard after her grandfather.

36:03

Was it simply the ID and Social Security

36:05

card? Or was there something more that they

36:07

have never shared with the family? Or

36:10

was he simply the easiest target because

36:12

the police admittedly never looked for Ruth

36:14

until the late 90s and they had no

36:17

other leads. They didn't know who was

36:19

in her life around the time of her disappearance

36:21

because it wasn't documented at the time.

36:23

My

36:24

aunt Candy, the

36:26

youngest, got in touch with a

36:29

law enforcement officer from the hometown

36:32

wanted to try to find her sister.

36:34

And

36:34

then unfortunately

36:37

law enforcement focused on my grandpa

36:39

and

36:40

tried to pin

36:42

him for her murder even though there's never

36:44

been a... her body's never been recovered.

36:47

I would love to know what they had on him.

36:49

They didn't arrest him. I'm

36:51

wondering if it was like town gossip

36:54

but I don't know what the Delavan

36:56

Police Department has. My

36:58

grandpa is not Ruthie's

37:01

biological father. She was almost

37:03

two or just over two years old

37:05

when he got with my... with my grandma.

37:08

And unfortunately there were whispers

37:11

or whatever that maybe he was molesting

37:14

her. But according to all the,

37:16

you know, my dad and my aunt he never touched

37:18

them. They

37:19

tried to pin it on my grandpa and literally

37:22

didn't have anything.

37:23

Can we look into this

37:25

married man? This

37:27

Ray Brennan. I

37:29

heard he was married. Apparently my great

37:31

grandfather hired a private

37:33

detective and he tracked

37:35

her to Chicago and lost her trail,

37:38

which also like doesn't fit the narrative

37:40

of she was murdered by

37:42

my grandpa to

37:43

be specific.

37:45

The family doesn't believe that Ruth's stepfather

37:48

is responsible for her disappearance and

37:50

they point to the men who had been in Ruth's

37:52

life around the time that she went missing.

37:55

While conducting interviews and searching through

37:57

newspaper archives, the name we heard

37:59

the most was Ray Brennan. Earlier,

38:01

I mentioned that Ruth's uncle recalled taking

38:04

Ruth to a farm to see a boyfriend who was

38:06

AWOL from the Great Lakes Naval Station

38:08

in Chicago. Investigators told

38:10

the Janesville Gazette in 2002

38:13

that they believed that Ray Brennan may have

38:15

been stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station.

38:18

After all, this was during the Vietnam

38:20

War era. If Ray Brennan was AWOL,

38:23

had Ruth run off with him? In

38:25

the same article, the police said

38:27

that they had found several Ray Brennan's in

38:29

their search, but none of those Ray

38:31

Brennan's admitted to knowing Ruth Ignosky.

38:34

Sarah has been working closely alongside

38:36

one of Ruth's relatives by marriage, and

38:39

they've been trying to find Ray Brennan to

38:41

see what he may possibly know about Ruth's

38:43

disappearance. But Ray Brennan

38:45

has been an elusive figure for both the family

38:48

and law enforcement.

38:50

In doing some research,

38:53

so Brian

38:55

is the man who I initially

38:57

made contact with. He was the one that

38:59

had Ruth in his family tree,

39:02

and his wife, Luella, is Ruth's

39:05

aunt.

39:05

So in doing some research

39:08

with him over the last couple years,

39:10

we determined that the guy

39:12

that Ruth had brought home was a

39:15

man named Ray Brennan,

39:17

and he's still living in Joliet,

39:19

Illinois. And we've also been

39:21

able to determine that

39:23

he's never been interviewed by police.

39:25

And he is

39:27

likely the person he was living in Chicago,

39:29

and he's likely the person that Ruth had

39:32

left

39:33

to go be with. When

39:35

she had disappeared and the private investigator found

39:37

that she had taken a bus to Chicago, she was probably

39:40

going to be with him, but he

39:42

was married or had been married

39:45

at the time and had a young son.

39:47

So I don't know if it's too late.

39:50

I don't know what his mental

39:52

faculties are like. He would be close to 94

39:55

years old, but I think that he

39:57

is the most likely suspect

39:59

in a Ruth's disappearance.

40:00

Brian and I had gotten

40:03

a detective in, I believe

40:05

he's in Illinois now named Detective

40:08

Gene Sullivan,

40:09

and I had worked with him previously

40:11

or been in communication with

40:13

him previously about other cases,

40:16

and he attempted to make contact

40:18

with Ray Brennan, but was unable to.

40:21

The address,

40:23

I believe this is what Brian told me, that the address that they

40:25

had had for him is being

40:27

the most recent address when

40:29

Detective Sullivan tried to have contacts made

40:32

there, the homeowner didn't know Ray Brennan,

40:35

and he no longer lived at that

40:37

address. We also noticed

40:39

another name of a possible boyfriend mentioned

40:42

in the Janesville Gazette,

40:43

Brian Lee Ngo. In 2002,

40:46

police told the paper that they were unable to

40:48

locate this man as well.

40:51

It remains unknown what his connection

40:53

to Ruth may have been at that time,

40:55

but just like with every other lead in this case,

40:58

it seemed to go nowhere.

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43:37

Robert told us about another puzzling

43:39

clue that came his way via

43:41

an encounter that an old friend had with

43:43

a man at a convention in nearby Milwaukee.

43:46

Someone who claimed that they were going to marry

43:49

Ruth.

43:59

made of Ruth.

44:01

And I think it was, he was a

44:03

member of the lions club and he

44:05

was at a convention meeting like in

44:07

the Milwaukee area. And he

44:09

met a member who when

44:13

he found out that this, you know, school made of Ruth

44:15

was from Delavan. The conversation

44:18

about Ruth came up

44:19

and

44:20

the guy said, we were supposed

44:22

to get married and she was supposed to

44:24

take the bus here to Milwaukee. And

44:27

she never showed up. That piece

44:30

of history totally

44:32

blew my mind. And this

44:34

was years ago when I

44:36

spoke to him and I even wrote, I

44:39

remember writing to the lions club.

44:41

Do you mind sharing with me or the roster

44:44

of everybody that attended that? And nobody

44:46

ever said anything and I didn't

44:49

adequately follow up. I should have pursued it

44:51

more. I was thinking that maybe it was

44:54

just another party that was involved,

44:56

but it doesn't make sense because if Ruth never showed

44:58

up, then it's like, if that was a Wisconsin

45:01

lions member, then that wouldn't have been Ray

45:04

Brennan because Ray Brennan wouldn't have been a part of Wisconsin.

45:06

So it's puzzling.

45:09

And there was yet another bizarre encounter that

45:11

the family had after Ruth's stepfather's

45:13

funeral. He passed away in late 2020

45:17

and Jessica who lives out of state made

45:19

the trip and took the opportunity to ask

45:21

around to see if anyone there had memories

45:24

of Ruth.

45:25

Something that happened

45:26

recently, it was, unfortunately

45:29

it was like on my, at my grandpa's funeral at

45:31

his reception after it was like

45:33

at the Delavan like VFW and

45:36

the

45:36

bartender went to school with my aunt

45:39

and I was like, Oh my God, what can you

45:41

tell me about my aunt?

45:42

And he was like, she's a good kisser. I was

45:44

like, Oh, you made out with her once.

45:46

Okay, cool. And, uh,

45:49

yeah, that's all I got out of him.

45:51

There was a lot of talk about Ruth possibly

45:53

dating a married man. Is

45:55

it possible that Ruth became pregnant? Ruth

45:58

had disappeared before.

45:59

Roe v. Wade had legalized abortion in 1973.

46:03

Is it possible that Ruth could have gotten pregnant

46:06

and could that have been a motive to make her disappear?

46:09

We have no way to know for sure. It's

46:12

simply a theory that some people have put

46:14

forth. We made multiple record

46:16

requests to the Delavan Police Department,

46:19

hoping they would share records on this case

46:21

since it's so old and so cold.

46:24

Unfortunately, our request went ignored,

46:27

a violation of the Wisconsin Open

46:29

Records Act, which requires a response

46:31

within 10 business days. Sarah

46:33

told us that she has tried, too.

46:36

I've tried a

46:37

bunch of times to get the original

46:39

missing persons report, and the

46:42

Delavan Police Department has not been cooperative

46:45

with that, citing that it's an open investigation.

46:47

But how open of an investigation

46:50

is it really when they didn't investigate it

46:52

when it happened at the time and they still aren't

46:54

investigating it decades later.

46:56

So that part doesn't make sense

46:58

to me. It's just a missing persons

47:01

report. Because there's a lot of confusion

47:03

as to when the initial missing

47:05

persons report was actually made, because

47:08

the report was refiled. So it's

47:11

really confusing as to when she

47:14

was actually reported missing, when

47:16

this was actually investigated, because

47:18

the police won't give me the date

47:20

of the initial missing persons report,

47:22

because I think that they don't actually have

47:24

it. But also a lot of

47:26

time had passed

47:29

before anybody, except for

47:31

that initial private investigator had their eyes on

47:33

it, that discovered that she went to Chicago.

47:35

And I think that that was in 65 or 66.

47:39

It was shortly

47:41

after she went missing. And we've looked

47:43

for the name of the PI and we were

47:45

unable to locate it. It's

47:47

almost like, except for the fact that we have

47:50

photos of her, and

47:51

we know that she existed, it's

47:53

like she never existed at all. I

47:55

wish that I had more information.

47:57

I kind of feel like I'm in this constant.

47:59

works to of information that

48:02

I think that I have a really good lead or

48:04

we think that, you know, we've found something out

48:06

and then it ends up being nothing. It's

48:08

really frustrating. So I'm hoping

48:11

like with this, but

48:12

you know, maybe somebody in Chicago

48:15

will remember her, remember a girl coming

48:17

from Wisconsin and trying to work in a beauty parlor

48:20

or something like that.

48:21

Cause I think at that, at this point, that's

48:23

the only chance that this case is going

48:25

to get solved that either remains are going to be

48:27

found

48:29

and DNA will confirm that they are roots

48:31

or someone will remember her or remember

48:34

being told something.

48:36

And I tried to reach

48:38

out to, um, cause I have access

48:40

to her yearbook and I've

48:43

tried to reach out to some of her classmates

48:45

and she was fairly active. Um,

48:48

at least based on the yearbook, she was fairly active

48:50

in several clubs. So I especially tried

48:52

to reach out to those people who were in those

48:54

clubs with her, who maybe had spent a little more time

48:56

with her. And unfortunately all

48:58

but five that I've been able to

49:00

find are deceased. And for the

49:02

five that are, but I know that are living,

49:04

I can't track down accurate

49:07

contact information for them.

49:10

Sarah has spent countless hours looking for

49:12

Jane Doe's across the country that could

49:14

possibly match Ruth, but she told

49:16

us that she keeps hitting dead ends time

49:18

and time again.

49:21

Every unidentified woman

49:23

and NamUs that I can find

49:26

that even

49:27

remotely matches her description,

49:30

like there was a

49:31

woman who was

49:34

found, I believe in a cemetery,

49:36

but

49:37

it was a shallow burial that wasn't

49:39

associated with a grave that

49:41

we were wondering if it might be Ruth

49:44

because it was in Juliet. This is where.

49:47

Ray Brennan lives.

49:48

And finally we got in touch with the investigator

49:51

and

49:52

the initial

49:54

description of the woman

49:55

and NamUs was proved to no longer be accurate.

49:58

This woman was African-American.

49:59

and cannot be Ruth. There've been

50:02

a few others that I've reached

50:04

out for exclusions,

50:07

either based on

50:09

circumstances or DNA. Her

50:11

brother does have DNA in CODIS

50:13

now.

50:14

So hopefully if there are

50:16

unidentified remains that are put in

50:18

the CODIS, that should light up right away as being attached

50:20

to Ruth, but it hasn't happened yet.

50:23

There's so little information

50:25

to go on to begin with and all the

50:27

information that we had

50:29

or that we have

50:30

painstakingly pieced together.

50:32

And like, I have to give most

50:35

of the credit to Brian Prop.

50:37

He's done 90% of the

50:38

research. I'm just

50:41

the

50:41

speaker for the family. I mean,

50:44

I've done a lot of my own research, but all

50:46

the truly valuable information like about Ray

50:48

Brennan and the discovery of the PI,

50:50

like that was all Brian. And the family

50:52

has really had their own exhaustive

50:55

efforts. And I guess that's why

50:57

we're here now is because they have been exhaustive

51:01

and we don't have anywhere else to go.

51:03

Sarah is like many of us who are intrigued

51:06

by these mysteries. They're like a puzzle

51:08

that you just need to solve. The answers

51:10

must be out there somewhere. Sarah

51:13

has worked with various organizations to

51:15

help give other Jane and John Doe's their

51:17

names back. And that's how she came upon

51:20

Ruth's case, thinking a purse with

51:22

similar initials could mean that the Jane Doe

51:24

was Ruth. Sarah explained that

51:26

sometimes these puzzle pieces that we think

51:28

are very important end up meaning

51:30

nothing at all. And other times

51:33

important puzzle pieces get overlooked.

51:35

Sarah gave us some examples of how these situations

51:38

have played out in other cases that have since

51:40

been solved.

51:42

But I think a lot of time what happens

51:44

with these does is

51:47

that they're thought of as like, oh, they just moved

51:49

away and lost touch. Like they aren't thought

51:52

of as missing. People think

51:54

about them and like wonder what happened to them,

51:56

but they just think that they moved on somewhere

51:59

else. So they started.

51:59

another life somewhere else or that the assumption

52:02

is that they're perfectly fine. They're just choosing to

52:04

not have contact or like Ruth

52:06

Weymeyer, Spokane Millie, like

52:08

her

52:09

mother and father had divorced when she was

52:11

young and she hadn't seen her father in a long time.

52:14

And then her mother died prior to her disappearance.

52:16

And we know that the husband that

52:19

she was married to at the time, you

52:21

know, had a criminal history. And it's just

52:23

like the people who should have been around

52:25

a reporter missing were already dead

52:27

by the time that she disappeared.

52:29

Or when they're found like Karen

52:32

Nippers, her bra

52:34

had a name written in the strap and

52:36

it didn't end up being her name,

52:38

but that sent a ton of people

52:40

down the rabbit hole of like, okay, who's Julie

52:43

or Jubel is what the two

52:45

possibilities for the name were. And now

52:47

we don't even know that she probably got it from a secondhand

52:50

store. It was given to her and

52:52

it doesn't even have anything to do

52:54

with her identity. So I wonder how many of those

52:56

are just coincidental, but

52:59

Daisy Heath was found

53:01

less than 10 miles from where she went missing.

53:04

Her remains were found like 20 years after

53:06

she went missing and then she went identified for another 20

53:09

years.

53:10

And I don't know why they didn't go, okay, we have

53:12

this person missing from the reservation.

53:14

Could it possibly be this person? Like, I

53:16

feel like those should be ruled out automatically.

53:19

And they weren't, she sat in Amos for 20

53:21

years. Then there was another woman just

53:24

recently, I think from Columbia,

53:26

Tennessee,

53:27

who was found in Columbia

53:29

had

53:30

gone missing from Columbia like five years before

53:33

the connection wasn't made for two and a half years, which

53:36

just makes me think about like, who's really

53:38

looking at these? What

53:41

is law enforcement even doing if these connections

53:43

aren't being made? She was found two

53:46

miles away.

53:47

I have the unidentified woman map and

53:49

I've been working on the missing woman map

53:52

and I'm like starting to overlay

53:54

states and counties on each other and

53:57

like finding matches that I

53:59

hadn't considered.

53:59

before that haven't been excluded

54:02

yet. The thing that I intended

54:04

for the math to do with doing, which I think

54:06

is really cool, I think that a

54:08

lot of case connections are going

54:10

to come from that, and I'm

54:11

really excited about it.

54:13

The way that this case unfolded over the

54:16

course of decades has caused some of the remaining

54:18

family members to be hesitant to speak about

54:20

Ruth's disappearance. Ruth's youngest

54:23

sister, Candy, was the one who had tried

54:25

to revive the case in the late 90s, but

54:28

her efforts were what put the spotlight on her

54:30

own father, something that she came

54:32

to deeply regret. Here's Jessica.

54:35

My Aunt Candy, she's the one

54:37

that opens the case back up

54:40

just trying to find her sister. So

54:42

when they started zeroing

54:44

in on her dad, she

54:46

was

54:47

destroyed.

54:48

So she has a lot of guilt

54:50

about that, even though, but

54:53

I mean that was a first. It was like, wait, I'm sorry.

54:55

I'm just trying to find my sister. Why

54:58

are you like, either way, your dad killed her. And it's

55:00

like,

55:01

biddies. I mean, they dug up the

55:04

old house where they, the family

55:06

used to live, found a cow bone. I mean,

55:08

they harassed my family. This is like where

55:11

my grandparents

55:13

kind of grew up. It's the area where

55:15

they both kind of grew up. They moved out of the town.

55:17

They had to. My grandpa and my grandma

55:19

lost a lot of friends

55:21

and they moved

55:22

down to Jamesville.

55:24

They moved out of their home and

55:26

they moved away because my grandma

55:29

was furious. There's

55:30

just more trauma attached to my

55:33

aunt, aunt being missing since

55:35

they've tried to get my grandpa

55:37

for it.

55:38

There's just more family trauma

55:40

attached to it. And that's what's

55:43

really hard.

55:44

It would be nice to know for sure.

55:46

I think so. And that's

55:48

where it's just like, okay, everybody in the family

55:50

kind of feels differently about knowing

55:53

for sure. It's like, okay, it's easy

55:55

to be like, he didn't do it because they didn't charge

55:58

him,

55:58

but it's, there's just all these questions. It's

56:01

like what did the cops have that they were

56:03

like, Hey, just admit it. We know you did

56:05

it. And it's like, that's what I want to know.

56:08

Jessica has tried to learn as much as she possibly

56:11

can about her missing aunt, but there seems

56:13

to be so much distance between the remaining

56:15

relatives and Ruth, like no one

56:17

ever truly knew her. Maybe it's

56:19

because she was just that much older than her

56:22

siblings. Perhaps they would have gotten

56:24

closer in adulthood and Ruth vanished

56:26

before that could happen.

56:28

It's difficult to know, but remains

56:30

another frustration in this case.

56:33

All I have really of her pictures, my grandma

56:36

never talked about her.

56:37

And then my aunt Candie's who's the baby,

56:39

the age difference between

56:42

them was so big. It wasn't like they

56:44

were friends.

56:45

It was like, Oh, my sister's

56:48

never in the house.

56:49

And then just leading two different lives

56:52

to include my dad. He was like, we

56:54

weren't a close family. It

56:55

just seems really dark. We

56:57

wanted to be at home. And so I don't think

57:00

he has very many memories of

57:02

Ruth either.

57:03

And then my aunt Hesperus,

57:06

she was closer in age to Ruth.

57:08

I mean, I even asked her last time I saw

57:10

her, I was like, what do you remember about Ruth? And

57:12

she like,

57:13

didn't have much to say. I

57:16

think Ruth just did her own thing. And

57:18

I guess the siblings just weren't close.

57:21

Robert spent many years thinking that his big sister

57:24

would come back one day. He waited for

57:26

her to walk through the door. Maybe

57:28

she would return when her grandparents whom

57:30

she was so close to passed away.

57:32

But that never happened. And Robert

57:34

doesn't want his sister to be forgotten.

57:37

Thinking that she would show up at

57:41

the maternal grandparents, one of theirs

57:43

funeral, because

57:44

she was close to them. And

57:47

she didn't, my mother didn't think

57:49

that she would miss that. She'd somehow

57:51

sneak in to the funeral home when

57:53

nobody was there, and I hear her respect.

57:56

I look at her from the standpoint of she's

57:59

obviously gone. And no

58:01

one has done a thing

58:05

in memory of her

58:06

respecting this life that

58:09

existed. And that kind of bugs

58:11

me.

58:12

Sarah explained that she believes that Ruth

58:15

did leave Delavan voluntarily. But

58:17

something happened to her after that time. And

58:19

that's why Ruth has not been seen or heard

58:22

from in over 50 years.

58:24

I believe that Ruth's initial disappearance

58:27

was voluntary.

58:29

She was either right over or at the

58:31

cusp of adulthood.

58:32

But I don't think that her continued

58:35

disappearance has been voluntary.

58:37

And her Social Security number

58:40

has never been used since she

58:42

disappeared. She's never filed taxes.

58:44

She's never been married that we can find.

58:47

So I really do believe that after

58:49

she left Delavan,

58:51

she was not alive for much longer

58:53

after that. So what happened

58:55

to Ruth Ignosky after she disappeared

58:58

in the mid 1960s? This

59:00

is one case that is difficult to really form

59:03

firm theories on. We have bits

59:05

and pieces of memories, but very little

59:07

in the way of verifiable facts. We

59:10

know that the family said they tried to report

59:12

her missing, or that they did report

59:14

her missing. But law enforcement wouldn't

59:16

look for her.

59:17

On the other hand, law enforcement has

59:19

told the press that the family came to them at

59:22

the time seeking advice. There's

59:24

no way for us to know where the truth lies

59:26

here. And the police department has

59:28

ignored all of our requests for records

59:30

and interviews. It appears that Ruth's

59:33

case just sat until the late 90s

59:35

when her youngest sister, Candy, contacted

59:37

the police department in order to inquire

59:40

about what had been done to look for her big sister

59:42

over the course of several decades. This

59:45

sent the police department down a path where

59:47

their focus was on Ruth's stepfather.

59:50

They had what appeared to be some remarkable

59:52

evidence. Years earlier, in 1973,

59:55

an officer on night patrol had found

59:57

the elementary school door unlocked and destroyed it.

59:59

decided to go inside. In the custodian's

1:00:02

office, and remember the custodian

1:00:04

was Ruth's stepfather, the officer

1:00:06

found Ruth's ID and social security

1:00:09

card. He just so happened to have a camera

1:00:11

on him and decided to take a picture of

1:00:13

the items and put that picture into evidence.

1:00:16

Despite the fact that the police department claims

1:00:19

that there was no missing case for Ruth at

1:00:21

that time,

1:00:22

in an August 2, 2003 article

1:00:24

in the Janesville Gazette, the officer

1:00:26

was quoted as saying, "...It did surprise

1:00:29

me that they would be there. It really did. I

1:00:31

thought that somewhere down the road they might be useful

1:00:34

or come in handy."

1:00:35

Is it really true that there was no missing report

1:00:37

at that time? If so, then

1:00:40

how did the officer know that those documents

1:00:42

would be useful if they didn't know

1:00:44

that she was missing?

1:00:45

It almost feels like there's more to this aspect

1:00:48

of the story. Then, a decade

1:00:50

later, two pieces of blue luggage

1:00:52

were found above the dropped ceiling in that same

1:00:55

office. They were empty and appeared

1:00:57

to have been there for a long period of time. It's

1:01:00

been theorized that they could have been Ruth's luggage.

1:01:03

The theory is that Ruth's stepfather hid those items

1:01:05

to make it appear like Ruth had run away from

1:01:07

home. But we don't even know if that

1:01:09

luggage belonged to Ruth. Those

1:01:12

items were not taken by police and it's

1:01:14

not known where they went after that time.

1:01:17

Ruth's stepfather was never charged in connection

1:01:19

with her disappearance. An extensive

1:01:21

search of the property the family lived on

1:01:23

when Ruth disappeared came up empty.

1:01:26

There's also this information about a PI tracing

1:01:28

Ruth to Chicago. She had allegedly

1:01:31

taken a bus there. But no one knows

1:01:33

who this PI was. And as far as

1:01:35

we're aware, we don't know if any of those

1:01:37

records still exist today. And

1:01:40

Robert told us about a letter that his parents

1:01:42

received. It was allegedly written by

1:01:44

Ruth and she was

1:01:45

angry at them for looking for her. Did

1:01:48

Ruth really write that letter? Or

1:01:50

could it have been written by someone else who

1:01:53

wanted everyone to believe that Ruth had

1:01:55

in fact run away from home? We

1:01:57

also know that there were some men in Ruth's life.

1:01:59

Rey Brennan is the one who comes up

1:02:02

frequently, but all attempts to find

1:02:04

Rey have led to dead ends. In fact,

1:02:06

no one is sure that he is still alive today.

1:02:09

Did Rey harm Ruth, or perhaps some

1:02:11

other man that we're unaware of? Or

1:02:13

was it really her stepfather who harmed her

1:02:16

and made it appear that she had left on her own?

1:02:19

Or could Ruth have left on her own volition

1:02:21

and is chosen to never come home or contact

1:02:24

her family? Why would Ruth have

1:02:26

done that? She was old enough to just go

1:02:28

on her own and live her

1:02:29

life under her own identity. She

1:02:32

didn't need to disappear for any reason that

1:02:34

we know of. That would seem like an extreme

1:02:36

thing to do without reason. Yes,

1:02:39

it's one thing to go off as an 18-year-old

1:02:41

and not answer to your parents, but a

1:02:43

whole other thing entirely to give up your

1:02:45

identity forever. And Ruth's social

1:02:47

security number was never used after 1965. There

1:02:51

are so many questions in Ruth's case,

1:02:54

and the lack of investigation early on

1:02:56

means that many of these questions will likely

1:02:58

go unanswered forever. Many

1:03:00

of the people who could help fill in the gaps

1:03:02

in this case have since passed away. But

1:03:05

those who are still here are hoping that someone

1:03:07

out there listening will know something.

1:03:09

Even if you just knew Ruth Ignosky,

1:03:12

you could hold a piece of this puzzle that could

1:03:14

be useful today, and you may not even

1:03:16

realize it. If

1:03:17

you have any information regarding the disappearance

1:03:20

of Ruth Ignosky, please call

1:03:22

the Delavan Police Department at 262-728-6311. At

1:03:27

the time of Ruth's disappearance, she was

1:03:30

described as being between 5'2 and 5'6", and weighing between 100

1:03:32

and 135 pounds with dark hair.

1:03:40

More than anything out of this,

1:03:42

I want just any

1:03:44

new life, new eyes that

1:03:46

can be put on this case, I think, is really invaluable

1:03:50

because it's been,

1:03:51

you know, neglected for so long. I mean,

1:03:53

don't get me wrong. Her family has never stopped

1:03:55

looking for her. When I say neglected,

1:03:57

I'm not referring to them.

1:03:59

referring to the police department that, you

1:04:02

know, never thought it was worth to look for her

1:04:04

in the first place.

1:04:21

That brings us to the end of episode 400.

1:04:24

I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for

1:04:27

this story. And special thanks

1:04:29

to all of you from our team, myself

1:04:31

and Amanda, who works tirelessly

1:04:34

behind the scenes to help bring the show together

1:04:36

week in and week out. We wanted

1:04:38

to thank you all who have stuck around with us for 400

1:04:41

episodes. We couldn't do this without

1:04:43

you. If you have a missing loved one

1:04:45

that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's

1:04:48

a case submission form at the vanished podcast.com.

1:04:51

If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page

1:04:54

and discussion group on Facebook. You

1:04:56

can find us on Twitter at the vanished pod

1:04:58

and also on Instagram. If

1:05:00

you like our show, please give us a five star

1:05:03

rating and review. You can also

1:05:05

support the show by contributing on Patreon.

1:05:08

Next week, we'll be taking a week off to spend

1:05:10

the July 4 holiday with our families.

1:05:12

But we will be sharing a replay of a case

1:05:15

we covered several years ago that is still

1:05:17

unsolved. We will be back on Monday,

1:05:19

July 10, covering a new case

1:05:21

from North Carolina. Thanks

1:05:23

for listening.