Key Takeaways
- Three young women vanished from Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan in July 1966.
- Despite extensive searches and eyewitness accounts of them boarding a boat, no trace was ever found.
- The ongoing investigation has explored multiple theories, from accidental drowning to foul play.
- Connections to violent criminals and personal life complications emerged as potential factors.
Deep Dive
- Patricia Blau (21), Ann Miller, and Renee Bruhl (ages 19-21) disappeared on July 2, 1966.
- They vanished from Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan, approximately 60-80 miles from Chicago.
- The hosts noted it as a mysterious case with scarce available information, sourcing a 1987 Chicago Tribune article.
- The women arrived at Indiana Dunes State Park on a crowded July 4th weekend, with 9,000 to 10,000 people present.
- A teenage couple observed the three women wade into Lake Michigan around noon.
- This couple was the last to see them, later alerting a park ranger when the women did not return.
- Approximately 18 hours after their belongings were collected, Patty's father, Harold Blau, contacted park rangers.
- Indiana State Police took over, finding the women's 1955 Buick sedan, money, and a radio left behind, raising suspicions of involuntary disappearance.
- A large-scale search effort involving soldiers, the Civil Air Patrol, the Coast Guard, dive teams, and horseback posses found no trace.
- Ann Miller and Patty Blau were associated with Silas Jane, a man with a history of violent criminal activity including rape and suspected murders.
- Jane was connected to a horse stable where Ann Miller worked.
- A letter found in Renee Brule's purse hinted at leaving her marriage, and Ann Miller was reportedly three months pregnant and considering a home for unwed mothers.
- A couple from Indianapolis reported seeing the three women board a tri-hull runabout boat with a man around noon, corroborated by home movie footage.
- Other witnesses later claimed the women returned to shore, ate, and then boarded a different, larger cabin cruiser with three men around 3 p.m.
- The second cabin cruiser reportedly had its name sanded off, but its occupants claimed the women declined a ride, leading to its exclusion from suspicion.
- Patty's father, Harold Blau, personally searched for years, chartering a plane, convinced his daughter was either dead or held captive.
- Nine years after the disappearance, a police officer located a specific cabin on Lake Michigan based on a psychic's detailed description.
- A three-day search of the cabin and surrounding area yielded no bodies, and the case remains open with no evidence surfacing.
- One theory suggests Ann Miller sought an illegal abortion on a boat on July 4th, which was botched, leading to the murder of her and her friends.
- An illegal abortion clinic operated by Frank and Helen Largo existed nearby, whose nephew may have been the man seen with the women.
- Another theory posits the women witnessed a car bombing by criminal Silas Jane and were subsequently murdered to silence them, supported by Jane's history.
- The most straightforward theory, that the women drowned in Lake Michigan, the deadliest of the Great Lakes, is challenged by the lack of any recovered bodies.
- The possibility of the women being murdered by someone they met for a pleasure cruise, with no planned disappearance or accident, is considered.
- Richard Speck, a mass murderer who killed eight women in Chicago on July 13, 1966, was deemed an unlikely suspect due to differences in date, location, and his opportunistic killing style.