Mystery Tip Leads Police to Missing Rich Widow

The search for missing millionairess Jean Fay Drexler ended suddenly Wednesday with an anonymous phone call telling authorities that the 74-year-old widow could be found near her expensive Hollywood Hills home.

“We kind of think that somebody put her out on the streets near her house,” said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. William Booth. “Neighbors saw her on the street and took her in.”

When detectives responded to the call, they located Drexler and reported that she appeared to be all right, Booth said. The neighbor was not immediately identified.

The news that Drexler had been found unharmed was announced at mid-afternoon during a hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam A. Vogel, who had led efforts to find the missing woman.

“No one is happier than I am that she is alive and well and in good hands,” Vogel said. “She is presently with representatives of the public guardian’s office.”

The judge ended the hearing without discussing how Drexler had been found.

And, now that she had been located, Vogel said she would leave to the district attorney’s office the question of whether criminal charges will be filed against two women arrested Tuesday in the case.

“My only purpose was to locate Mrs. Drexler,” the judge said.

After the hearing, district attorney’s Investigator Gerald Loeb declined to discuss specifics of where Drexler had been located.

“We got a call, and we responded,” he said. “We don’t know where she’s been or what’s happened.”

Drexler’s court-appointed attorney, Marshal Oldman, told reporters that Drexler “apparently had been deposited with somebody who called the public guardian’s office. She’s in proper hands now. Now, we’ll get back to the normal administration of the estate.”

Under Conservatorship

Drexler, who was earlier reported to be “confused, disoriented” and unable to express herself sensibly, was placed under the public guardian’s conservatorship by court order earlier this year.

Investigators reported that Drexler, whose husband, investor Troy L. Drexler, died in 1969, was unable to care for property and had been the frequent prey of younger men, who “have utilized every means to take from her an estate valued at $2 million.”

Authorities had been trying to find Drexler since May 14 when a young man identified as Moises Vasquez, who had been living at her house, drove her away in a car as deputy public guardians sought to talk to her.

Her former attorney, Thomas Carver, was jailed for contempt of court Aug. 4 when he refused to say where Drexler could be located. He was released after spending several days in jail, but Vogel accused him of lying to the court.

Authorities arrested a Los Angeles legal secretary and her daughter at a West Hollywood hotel Tuesday and booked them for investigation of kidnaping for extortion. The two women, Lillian Kahn, 38, and Cynthia Deaver, 18, were still in custody Wednesday.

They face the filing of possible charges later this week.

According to Booth, the two women had been seen with Drexler on Aug. 11 in Palm Springs where Kahn rented a car and returned it later with 377 miles on it.

Until receiving the tip on Drexler’s whereabouts Tuesday, investigators were considering the possibility that the missing woman might be anywhere within 150 miles--including Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona and Mexico.