THE TRAGIC TALE OF THE GIRL IN BLUE
On a chilly, winter day in December of 1933 a young girl arrived in the small town of Willoughby. Within only a few hours she was found dead next to the railroad tracks.
No one knew who she was and without any identification the townspeople donated money and buried the girl in the local cemetery, naming her the "Girl in Blue" as this was the color she was wearing when she was found.
1933
Christmas was two days away, and a young woman dressed in a navy blue skirt came to the ticket window at a Greyhound bus station, and asked about fare to Eerie, Pennsylvania and Elmira, New York. She eventually purchased a ticket to Willoughby, Ohio.
Once she arrived there, a kindly stranger directed her to a boarding house owned by Mary Judd on Second Street. Evening was falling when she arrived, and she told Mrs. Judd her name was "Kate", and nothing else about herself.
The next morning she sat down to read in the rest area, waiting for breakfast to be served. During the meal she asked Mrs. Judd the directions to the main bus station and the local church. At 11 a.m. she headed off towards the downtown area of the town.
An hour later she returned, looking a "little worried", and went to her room. When she came downstairs, she carried her suitcase, and handed the surprised landlady the key. The girl settled her bill, and on the way out said, "Merry Christmas".
Others recalled seeing her one block south of the boarding house, walking along a street that ended in a copse of maple trees. She stepped into the woods and disappeared from sight.
No doubt this odd behavior, kept the witnesses watching the area wondering what she was doing.
Emerging on the other side of the woods, she was faced with the railroad tracks stretching off into the distance. Suddenly, there was an eastbound flyer heading to New York barreling down the track at her doing about sixty-five miles per hour. She was seen to drop her suitcase and then she sprinted toward the tracks. A glancing blow from the train sent her slight body hurtling through the air, landing on the gravel siding. Her short-lived life was tragically over.
Haunted Willoughby, Ohio by Cathi Weber (2010)
People ran to where she lay, and someone called the police. There was no doubt she was dead but they couldn't find any wounds or blood on her. Inside her purse she had 90 cents, a railroad ticket to Corry, Pennsylvania, a handkerchief, trinkets and nothing to identify her.
Her suitcase was found nearby, but it only contained a towel, pencils and envelopes. Again there was nothing to help authorities give her a name.
The body was taken to a local funeral home. James McMahon, the undertaker examined the girl and concluded she died from injuries sustained in the train accident. Her cause of death was listed as a fractured skull. She was five feet, four inches tall, weighed 135 pounds and had reddish brown hair and hazel eyes. Her teeth were straight and she had high cheekbones, and he guessed she was born of foreign parents.
No one came forward to say they knew her. Perhaps because of her youth and prettiness, Mr. McMahon decided to give her a proper funeral. The story about the mysterious girl killed by a train appeared in more newspapers, and families called hoping she might be someone they had lost, but in the end she was never claimed.
A cemetery plot was provided by the municipality, and more than 200 persons viewed the body in an attempt to establish her identity. She was buried on January 5, 1934.
Henry "Hank" Heaverly the sexton took it upon himself to raise donations for a memorial. In 1936, he was still trying to get the $30 needed, after E. D. Rich & Sons agreed to sell the stone at cost. Eventually he raised some money and contributed some of his own. He would place a wreath on her grave every year.
At Christmas, residents would make a pilgrimage to the grave, which through contributions received perpetual care. An evergreen was donated by someone in Maine which grew on the plot, and each year strangers would send flowers to the "girl in blue" believing she might have been their daughter.
Even though it was never clarified one way or another, it was believed the poor girl had committed suicide.
In April 1934, it was believed the mystery had been solved. She was thought to be Mary Dalbaugh, 20. Her aunt and two younger sisters, inmates of a children's home in West Virginia were convinced that pictures of the dead girl was their sister. Then Mary called her family to say she was alive and living in Maryland.
Hopes were raised again in May when she was identified as Mrs. Elsie Goodwin. She had disappeared from her home since October, 1933, and her husband supplied a photograph of his missing wife as proof, and her sister Josephine Tenant from Steubenville examined the girl's personal effect and said they belonged to Mrs. Goodwin. Her husband was emphatic that she had not committed suicide.
Mr. Goodwin was ready to order a headstone, when he received a phone call that his supposedly dead wife was alive and living in Columbus, Ohio. In other words, she'd walked out on him and her two kids, after originally leaving a letter she was going to visit her mother.
In May, 1936, Leo Klimczak studied the photographs of the dead girl and he said she might be his sister, Josephine. He said his sister went to Erie, Pennsylvania on December 23, 1933, and boarded a bus for Detroit. The family had not heard from her again. In July two detectives spoke to Willoughby's police chief and said the dead girl was Josephine Klimczak of Spartansburg, Pennsylvania.
For some reason, after this article, no further reference was made to this disclosure, considering how close to the truth it actually was.
It wasn't until December 1993, when The News-Herald published an article marking the anniversary of the “Girl in Blue’s” death. A Pennsylvania real-estate agent Ed Sekerak recognized the girl. He had been selling the Klimczak family farm in Spring Creek at the time. Through court records his tip finally provided the identity of the mystery girl which turned out to be Josephine "Sophie" Klimczak.
Her parents were Polish immigrants. They both died in 1935, within six months of each other.
Both of her parents had immigrated from Poland, and each of them died only 2 years later in 1935 within 6 months of each other.
William C. Gargiulo an attorney living in Willoughby, with the information provided by Sekerak , ask the Lake County Probate to officially recognize the Girl in Blue with her true name.
Upon learning that Sekerak could confirm the identity of the Girl in Blue, Willoughby lawyer William C. Gargiulo came forward and asked that Lake County Probate Court Judge Fred V. Skok to officially recognize the true identity of the girl.
Her purpose for visiting Willoughby is still unknown.
After studying this mystery for years and being in receipt of the mortuary photo and police report myself, I am appalled anyone would publish her postmortem photograph.