On June 7th, 1962, 10-year-old Mary Ann Verdecchia had only a half-day of classes. Excited to get out of school early, Mary Ann went home, had lunch, and changed her clothes before leaving. Multiple eyewitnesses who knew her would confirm that she was at several locations in the neighborhood that day, but after 3 p.m. her trail went cold.
Authorities soon launched what would be the most extensive missing persons search in Pittsburgh’s history, but neither the child nor any substantial clues as to what became of her were ever found.
What happened to Mary Ann Verdecchia?
Mary Ann Verdecchia
An only child, Mary Ann Verdecchia was born on August 15th, 1951, to parents Marilyn and Joseph. She was a sweet and quiet, but often lonely, young girl.
In 1957, Mary Ann’s parents separated and abandoned her at a relative’s home. She would spend the next five years living with her aunt, Ruth Riley, and her cousins in Bloomfield—a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Joseph, an alcoholic, resided at a boarding house nearby, but never visited his daughter. He only sporadically talked to her on the phone. Marilyn, on the other hand, moved to Chicago and had nothing at all to do with Mary Ann, until shortly before her disappearance when Marilyn called her twice.
“She was a little kid who would be on her own constantly, going from place to place…” said Therese Rocco, former head of the missing persons bureau in Pittsburgh. “She was a very, very lonely child.”
Still, Mary Ann was an energetic and friendly girl who tried to make the best of her situation and was always happy to make new friends.
Last Known Location
As previously stated, school ended early for Mary Ann and her classmates on June 7th, 1962. She went home, ate and changed her clothes. She left at approximately 2 p.m. and headed over to the Martinique Apartments, located four blocks away, where a woman named Jean Emery lived. Mary Ann had become friends with Jean and would sometimes run errands for her. She also enjoyed spending time with Jean’s cat.
On this day, Jean asked her to make a run to the nearby Kroger and buy cat food for her. Mary Ann completed this task and quickly came back. For unknown reasons, Jean then asked her to leave and come back later.
Mary Ann walked back to her street and stopped at the Gorman home, where her friends Timothy and Sandra lived. Their mother Shirley answered the door and told Mary Ann that the children weren’t home right now. Shirley Gorman remembered that this exchange took place at just before 2:30 p.m., as the show she watched that afternoon started right after Mary Ann’s departure.
From there, Mary Ann apparently returned to the Martinique Apartments, where she was met by building manager William Dozier, who explained that Jean wasn’t home right now. According to Dozier, Mary Ann waited around briefly, then decided to leave.
A waitress at the bar next to the apartments also remembered seeing Mary Ann around this time, as the young girl had stopped and waved at her through the window.
“She was full of life, as ever,” she said.
Dozier put the final sighting of Mary Ann at approximately 3 p.m., when he saw her cross the street near the intersection of Enfield Street and Bound Boulevard and walk back in the direction of her residence. After that, her movements are unknown.
Pittsburgh’s Most Intensive Missing Persons Search
When Mary Ann hadn’t returned home by 6 p.m., her aunt started making phone calls to see if anyone knew where she was. No one did. She and her children went out and looked around the neighborhood, hoping to see Mary Ann somewhere along the way, but never came across her.
Ruth phoned the police at 10 p.m. to report the child missing.
Searchers—including police officers, Boy Scouts, firemen, and local volunteers—fanned out and combed the city, looking through neighborhoods, parks, beneath bridges and around railroad tracks (the latter two spots being areas that Mary Ann was known to frequent). They also brought search dogs along with them, but were unable to locate the missing girl.
The FBI became involved as well.
Then a potential clue turned up when someone discovered a bracelet on the ground at the Highland Park Zoo—five miles north of where Mary Ann Verdecchia was last seen. The bracelet, made up of pearls and a single amber stone, was exactly like one owned by Mary Ann herself.
Yet there was no way to prove it was hers. Shirley Gorman and Jean Emery both stated that she wasn’t wearing it that day. Furthermore, it wasn’t an uncommon piece of jewelry and was sold in many dime stores across Pittsburgh.
However, one reported sighting suggested that she might have been at the zoo just before she vanished. A young girl who was there that day claimed to have seen a child who resembled Mary Ann run down a hill and fall over an embankment. Another girl said that she heard a scream at the zoo on the same day.
Law enforcement searched the Highland Park Zoo, but to no avail. No trace of Mary Ann was found.
There was also the question of how she would have made it there. A friend of hers said that Mary Ann always remained within her neighborhood when she went out for walks.
There’s the possibility that she could have been picked up by someone and driven there, but no one witnessed her enter a vehicle that day. Additionally, the only person who claimed to see her at the zoo said she was on her own.
One eyewitness would say that they’d spotted a girl who looked like Mary Ann boarding a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh on June 7th, but the sighting was never substantiated.
So this lead ultimately went nowhere and produced more questions than answers.Subscribe
Mary Ann’s Mother is Investigated
Due to Marilyn’s sudden interest in reconnecting with Mary Ann shortly before she went missing, authorities considered the idea that she might have shown up and taken her.
They tracked Marilyn down in Chicago and questioned her, but she denied abducting her daughter. And since they found no evidence whatsoever to indicate she had, she was ruled out as a person of interest.
They eliminated Mary Ann’s father as a suspect as well.
Other Local Cases
Years before Mary Ann’s disappearance, the Martinique Apartments had a connection to two cases—a murder and a missing persons investigation.
On July 8th, 1958, a resident named Mary Fitzgerald Regan, 45, was found murdered in her apartment. She had been strangled and her body bore cuts and bruises as well.
A laundryman in the apartment building noticed the Regans’ door ajar at approximately 3 p.m. He peeked inside and saw someone in bed, covered by a blanket. He said he assumed that she was merely asleep and left. It would be Mary’s husband who found her and realized she was dead.
Mary’s husband, 75-year-old James, admitted to police that they’d argued that morning, but denied any involvement in her murder or any knowledge as to who might be responsible.
His alibi was that he’d left at 10:30 a.m., spent time at the Moose Lodge and went grocery shopping afterwards. He returned home late that afternoon and discovered his wife’s lifeless body. Whether or not his alibi was verified is unclear.
Law enforcement would go on to say that they’d “turned up no clue” as to the identity of her killer. Although her husband seems like a logical suspect, he was never charged with her murder, nor was anyone else.
Perhaps a more mysterious case is that of 30-year-old Marcella Krulce, a Martinique Apartments resident who vanished on November 19th, 1959.
Marcella, a secretary who lived alone, was last seen in the building and didn’t show up for work the following day. Nothing was missing from her apartment, aside from her. She has never been found and her case remains unsolved.
No connection between Mary Ann Verdecchia’s disappearance and these other two cases has ever been established.
Did Mary Ann Make It Out of the Martinique Apartments Complex?
Therese Rocco devoted a chapter to Mary Ann’s case in her memoir. In it, she discusses the Martinique Apartments building manager William Dozier, as well as Jean Emery.
Mary Ann had reportedly overheard Jean talking about being a prostitute in the past and had even repeated the word to Shirley Gorman before, not understanding what it meant. During a polygraph exam, Jean would admit to being involved in sex work and that Dozier was the one who regularly provided her with clients.
It was also noted that Mary Ann had enough money to go to Dairy Queen three times the day before she vanished, but no one knew where the cash had come from.
Dozier reportedly failed three polygraph tests, but Rocco believed his issues with drinking might account for that.
Additionally, it was said that the apartment building’s furnace was “constantly burning” despite the fact it was summertime.
Although Rocco, who passed away in 2023, appeared to view both Jean and Dozier with suspicion, neither was ever charged in connection with Mary Ann’s case. Still, it begs the question: Did Mary Ann really make it out of the apartment complex that afternoon, as Dozier claimed? Or is that where her journey ended?
A Disturbing Account
In 1991, a man came forward to police and gave a disturbing account that he believed might be relevant to Mary Ann’s disappearance. In 1962, when he was only nine years old, he allegedly saw a local Presbyterian minister sexually assault and then kill a girl in Pittsburgh. As Mary Ann was the only young girl reported missing in the area that year, investigators wondered if she might be the victim in this story.
The minister was questioned and denied harming any child. The eyewitness led authorities to the area in which the minister had supposedly buried her. An excavation was carried out, but only animal bones were found.
The veracity of his story has never been confirmed, nor has any solid evidence ever been discovered to implicate the minister in Mary Ann’s case.
Bizarre Unsolved Cases is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Subscribe
Current State of the Investigation
With a lack of evidence or solid leads, Mary Ann’s case has grown cold. Foul play is and always has been suspected, though.
Her parents and aunt have all since passed away, but she still has surviving cousins who hope to see her case solved one day and have provided DNA to law enforcement.
Her half-brother Thomas (Marilyn’s son) has taken an interest in her case as well. He was born a few years after she went missing and said that Marilyn often spoke of Mary Ann and cried while he was growing up.
“My mom always hoped that one day we would find out what happened to Mary Ann,” said Thomas.
Decades later, the mysterious disappearance of Mary Ann Verdecchia remains unsolved.
If you have any information regarding her case, you are encouraged to contact the Pittsburgh Police Department at 412-323-7800.