Police Call Off Search for Grave of Heiress Who Vanished in 1977

Police officers who spent two days in the frozen countryside hunting for the grave of candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach gave up the search Friday, saying a Mississippi prison inmate who claimed he had been hired to bury the body had misled them for a third time.

Illinois and Minnesota investigators visited nine cemeteries in sub-zero cold Thursday and Friday, led by inmate Maurice Ferguson, who said he had buried the wealthy Chicago-area widow in a cemetery in 1979.

But Mark Shields, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, called off the search Friday, saying the only thing they discovered were many inconsistencies in Ferguson’s story.

“We have concluded Ferguson and his information are unreliable,” Shields said. “We have drawn the conclusion to stop this case.”

Maj. Philip Kruse of the Illinois State Police said: “I believe that Maurice Ferguson did not bring the body here. We are going back to square one and see if there are other leads to follow.”

Kruse, asked why Ferguson had misled them, said: “I think it is one of his favorite forms of recreation.”

In 1981, Ferguson twice led police on unsuccessful searches for Brach’s grave in Illinois. But he said he did not take authorities to the real site because he feared that the man who allegedly hired him, wealthy Chicago-area horse breeder and former cellmate Silas Jayne, would have him killed.

Jayne died in July at age 80, and Ferguson said he was willing to lead police to the real grave site.

Brach, the reclusive widow of candy magnate Frank Brach, disappeared in February, 1977, after getting a checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Seven years later, she was declared dead, but her body was never found.