Candy Heiress Helen Brach Vanished in 1977 — Meat Grinder Found, Body Never Recovered

The disappearance of Helen Brach, an heiress to the Brach candy fortune, remains one of Chicago's most enduring mysteries. On February 17, 1977, the 65-year-old socialite vanished after a visit to the Mayo Clinic — and despite decades of investigation, no verified remains have ever been found.

The Disappearance

According to investigators, Brach took a taxi from Rochester, Minn., to the local airport after her clinic appointment. Her longtime housekeeper and driver, Jack Matlick, later said he met her at Chicago's O'Hare Airport the same day and spent much of the weekend with her at her 18-room estate in Glenview. Matlick claimed he last saw her when he drove her back to O'Hare to catch a Monday flight to her Florida condominium — a trip she apparently never completed.

Suspicious Behavior And Evidence

Friends who visited Brach's home over that weekend reported inconsistent stories from Matlick and an inability to reach her by phone. Investigators noted a series of odd actions by Matlick: he thoroughly cleaned one of Brach's Cadillacs (the family was known for cars painted in Brach pink and lavender), scrubbed the maid's room, and ordered a meat-grinder attachment from Marshall Field's. He also cashed six checks worth a total of $13,000 that were supposedly signed by Brach; handwriting experts determined the signatures were forged. Matlick did not report Brach missing until nearly two weeks after her disappearance and reportedly failed at least two polygraph tests.

Other People Of Interest

Brach's brother, Charles Vorhees, later admitted that he and Matlick burned the heiress's diaries and pages of her so-called 'automatic writing' — notes Brach claimed were guided by psychic forces — saying they believed she would not have wanted them made public. Vorhees stood to receive income from a $500,000 trust in her estate.

Horse dealer Richard Bailey also emerged as a central figure. Brach had purchased roughly $300,000 in thoroughbreds from Bailey that authorities later said were vastly overvalued. Years afterward, a federal racketeering case alleged Bailey and associates ran schemes to defraud wealthy buyers at Chicago-area stables and that some conspirators even killed horses to collect insurance. Prosecutors alleged Bailey had solicited Brach's murder as part of a sprawling conspiracy. In 1994 Bailey was convicted on fraud and racketeering charges and sentenced to 30 years; the judge said the sentence reflected his alleged involvement in a conspiracy that included planning her death, though Bailey was never tried or convicted for murder. He was released in 2019 and died in 2023 at age 93.

Aftermath And Legacy

Helen Brach was declared legally dead in May 1984. By then her estate had grown to an estimated more than $40 million; reports say $500,000 was placed in a trust for her brother and a $50,000 annuity was directed to Matlick (a claim Matlick later abandoned), with sizable gifts to animal-welfare charities. Her family plot — beside her late husband and their dogs — remains empty because no verified remains have ever been recovered. Authorities briefly exhumed a body in 1990 that was thought to be hers, but testing showed it was not. Matlick died in a Pennsylvania nursing home on February 14, 2011; some former investigators publicly said they believed he carried secrets about what happened to Brach to his grave.

Decades on, the disappearance of Helen Brach remains officially unsolved, a case marked by alleged fraud, burned journals, a missing body and unanswered questions about motive and opportunity.