Case of the Missing Widow

Helen Brack left behind $21 million--and no clues

When Chicago Candy Tycoon Frank Brach died in 1970 at the age of 80, he left $21 million to his third wife, Helen, a former Miami country club hostess who had married him 18 years earlier. Thereafter, the 58-year-old widow became a recluse, living in a stone mansion on seven wooded acres in suburban Glenview. She consulted a fortuneteller by phone almost daily and produced a drawerful of psychic writings while in a trance-like state. Suspicious of most people, Mrs. Brach preferred the companionship of her nine thoroughbred horses and three mongrel dogs. She seemed close to only one person: Jack Matlick, 48, the Brachs' chauffeur and houseman for 18 years.

Exactly one year ago last week, according to Matlick, he drove her to Chicago's O'Hare Airport for a vacation in Florida. She has not been seen since.

For twelve months, police have searched her estate, as well as a farm in Illinois and a summer home in Ohio that she had inherited from her husband. "We have no evidence of murder," says Glen view Police Chief William Bartlett. Still, since Mrs. Brach has made no use of her credit cards or bank accounts, police assume she is dead.

From the beginning, investigators have focused most of their suspicions on Jack Matlick. In the seven years after Frank Brach's death, the muscular onetime deliveryman practically became lord of the manor. He directed workmen around the estate and took care of business for "the missus." He knew every detail of her life, even that she stored a lock of her hair in an ivory box in her bedroom. Says John Demand, a former detective who participated in the investigation: "I had the strange feeling that Matlick had taken over her entire personality." He even used her glasses to read.

Just before her disappearance, Matlick's relationship with "the missus" seemed in jeopardy. She had become friendly with Richard Bailey, a Chicago stable owner who boarded some of her horses. She had been talking about moving to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Moreover, police found flaws in Matlick's story, particularly his account of driving her to the airport at 6:50 a.m. for a trip to Florida. There were no Florida flights out of O'Hare before 9 a.m.; Mrs. Brach had no reservation with any airline.

Police have questioned Matlick about eleven checks that cleared her bank account after she disappeared, including one for $3,000 that was made out to him. The checks were not signed in Mrs. Brach's normal handwriting. Matlick told police that her hand had been hurt when a trunk lid fell on it, and she could only scrawl. Oddest of all, Matlick failed for nearly two weeks to report that Mrs. Brach was missing. During that time, he says, he summoned her brother Charles Vorhees, a retired railroad worker, to the estate, where they burned two of Mrs. Brach's diaries and her psychic writings. Finally, police say, Matlick flunked two lie-detector tests when asked, "Do you know where Mrs. Brach is?"

Nonetheless, police have turned up no evidence connecting Matlick with Mrs. Brach's disappearance. In any event, he claims that he stands to inherit none of her fortune. He said in a deposition that she left more than $1 million to her brother and the rest to several animal shelters. By law, however, the estate cannot be distributed until 1984 unless proof of her death is found.

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