SHELBY — Adam Turner has brought a conclusion to the 1945 disappearance of Mary Jane Croft Vangilder after investigating for nearly six years.
He said the Shelby Police Department received a message in October 2018 from Mindy Wilson, who reported her maternal grandmother (Vangilder) was missing and last seen in Shelby in 1945.
Turner, a Shelby police detective, opened an investigation on October 10, 2018, seeking answers for Vangilder’s family.
He said to date, he’s generated 107 supplemental reports spanning thousands of pages.
On Jan. 30, the detective announced a conclusion to the case had been reached.
“It took a vast amount of people to get where we are today,” he said. “I have a lot of people to thank. All of whom are instrumental in getting to the resolution that we did.”
Turner presented details about the case and its conclusion Monday morning at the North Central State College Kehoe Center, 175 Mansfield Ave.
Vangilder’s 1945 resignation from Wilkins Army Air Force Depot
Vangilder, originally from West Virginia, was married to James Wesley Vangilder on Jan. 26, 1929 in Marion County, West Virginia. Between them, they had seven children.
She moved to Ohio in 1944 to work at the Wilkins Army Air Force Depot in Shelby.
While working at the depot, Turner said Vangilder spent time living in Willard and Plymouth, both located in Huron County.
She resigned her employment on March 8, 1945, citing “added household duties,” according to Turner’s research.
After submitting her resignation, no trace of Vangilder could be found, he said, despite decades-long investigation by her surviving family members.
Turner said Vangilder wrote her eldest daughter in January 1945, requesting previously delivered war bonds be sent back.
“This was the last letter of contact anyone had with her (Vangilder),” he said.
On Nov. 26, 1945, James Vangilder was granted divorce from Mary Jane. He remarried in 1946 and continued raising their seven children until his death on Dec. 12, 1985.
Obstacles faced during Vangilder’s disappearance case
Vangilder’s home in West Virginia burned to the ground in 1986, taking any of her remaining possessions with it, he said.
Theorizing she could possibly be a Jane Doe — an unidentified woman — Turner utilized several resources, including the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database and FindaGrave.com, to begin his investigation.
He said there are “tens of thousands” of Jane Does in the United States alone.
“There were cases that piqued my interest, as the unidentified person had similar physical traits as Mary Jane,” he said, “and the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the unidentified person could be a candidate for Mary Jane Vangilder.”
The detective said he contacted coroner’s offices and police departments who oversaw the Jane Doe cases.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these departments were not open to the possibility of doing an exhumation for DNA purposes,” he said.
“Some scoffed at the idea of working a 1945 missing persons investigation, while others would simply not return my emails or phone call.”
Podcast connections lead to military file
From the beginning, Turner said he wanted to publicize his investigation because he values “public input and assistance.”
“I was fortunate enough to do several podcasts on her case, as well as be featured in numerous newspaper articles,” said the detective.
He credited his time on different podcasts with helping find one of the investigation’s most critical leads.
“I was able to locate Mary Jane’s military service file and letters that Anna Mae (eldest daughter) wrote in the 1940s and 1950s to the FBI,” Turner said.
“This was a huge lead that would be pivotal to the investigation.”
After receiving Vangilder’s military file, Turner said he published the document online.
Turner said a “civilian sleuth,” who wished to remain anonymous, reviewed the military file with a “fine-tooth comb” and directed him to page 17 of the document.
“When Mary Jane was promoted to high lift fork operator, she took the position from Mr. (Percy) Sebren and he likely trained her,” he said.
“This name was among the dozens of others located throughout Mary Jane’s military file, but it would be this one alone that would prove crucial.”
Mary Jane Sebren was ‘without a doubt’ Mary Jane Vangilder
According to Turner’s research, Percy Sebren died on April 14, 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Further investigating revealed Sebren married a Mary Jane Sebren, who was born on Nov. 19, 1911 and died on May 31, 1990, according to Turner’s research using FindaGrave.com
He said both Percy and Mary Jane Sebren were buried at New Forest Cemetery in Forest, Louisiana. Together they had two children, Percy Jr. and Kenneth Sebren.
“Percy Sebren Jr. was born nine months after Mary Jane Vangilder left her positions at the Wilkins Army Air Force Depot,” Turner said.
“This was probably the reason for her listing ‘added household duties.'”
Using Ancestry, an American genealogy company, Turner discovered Percy Jr. had four children, Jeff, Mary, Aubrey and Bobby.
He said he contacted Bobby Sebren on Facebook and advised her of his investigation.
“Bobby provided me with the following photographs showing her grandmother in the late 1970s or early 1980s,” Turner said. “She told me that she didn’t know much about her grandmother’s life and that it was not discussed.”
He contacted Brian Waters of Moxxy Forensics to do a side-by-side comparison and photo enhancement using the newly acquired pictures and ones previously obtained during his investigation.
Furthermore, Bobby and her siblings provided a document with Mary Jane’s Sebren’s signature, compared to Vangilder’s signature, which showed distinct similarities.
Turner said Jeff, Mary and Aubrey provided additional photographs of their grandparents when they were younger.
He added in December 2023, Mary Sebren took a DNA test showing her ancestral relation to Mary Jane’s daughter, Anna (Vangilder) Rager, and granddaughters, Mindy Wilson and Misty Greiner.
“Mary Jane Sebren was, without a doubt, Mary Jane Vangilder,” Turner said.
Family describes Sebren as ‘incredible’
According to her grandchildren, Mary Jane was the “perfect grandmother” and described as “incredible,” Turner said.
“They stated that she loved to garden and her favorite flower was the hydrangea. She liked sun tea and she was a great cook,” he said.
Members of her family reported Mary Jane Sebren died of colon cancer in 1990.
“Mary Sebren told me that when Mary Jane was dying, she told her that there was something that she couldn’t tell her and that she could never find out,” Turner said.
He said she assumed her grandmother was just speaking gibberish.
“What is unknown, and what will probably never be known, is why Mary Jane decided to leave her family behind in West Virginia and start a new life elsewhere,” said the detective.
“A family who loved her, cared for her and missed her for 79 years.
“What it shows is that our decisions can reverberate through time and distance, and affect generations of our immediate family and descendants, and that our choices in life need to be made in the consideration of how it will affect those who love us.”
Shelby Police Chief supported investigation from the beginning
Turner expressed his gratitude for Shelby Police Chief Lance Combs, who he said supported the investigation since the beginning.
“Other police chiefs would never have allowed the latitude that Chief Combs permitted me to have, and I cannot thank him enough for that,” he said.
Combs, who said the department lost its detective bureau in 1990 due to budget cuts, added Turner’s investigation came with little or no cost to Shelby taxpayers.
He said Turner voluntarily funded his own out-of-state travels throughout the investigation.
“The reason I bring that up is I would like to see us have the ability to expand that bureau and add some people,” Combs said.
“I think the value was shown today in something that took six years and we were told very frequently we’d never find her. So, kudos to Adam for doing what he did.”
Wilson says family now has ‘closure’
Mindy Wilson, granddaughter of Mary Jane, said Monday’s press conference was a long time coming.
“This journey of searching for our grandmother started many years ago, before I was ever born, with all of her children and her oldest daughter Anna Rager,” she said.
“She has never given up hope in finding her mother all these 78 years and is so happy to now know what happened to her, as well as all of my grandmother’s surviving children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.”
Wilson said she recently went to Louisiana and visited her grandmother’s final resting place, leaving flowers on her grave.
“I promised God if we ever found her, I would do so,” she said.
“I’m not sure why things happened the way they did. All I know is our family has closure and hopefully a forever friend in Detective Turner.
“He’s honestly more like family now, like a little brother, pain in the butt,” Wilson said with a smile.