NamUS MP #32981 (Marcella Krulce) and NamUS MP #7036 (Mary Ann Verdecchia)

Author: Shane Lambert

Marcella Krulce has been missing since November 19th, 1959. At the time of her disappearance, she was believed to be about 30 years old (b. 1929). She is missing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and NamUS offers the following circumstances:

Marcella Krulce

"Last seen on 11/19/1959 dining at the restaurant at the Martinique Apartments. She was a secretary at the United Fund of Allegheny County, living at the Martinique during the week and spending weekends at the family home in Strabane Twp. Failed to show up at work on Friday, 11/20/1959. Her clothes, jewelry, insulin and needles were found in their place at her apartment."

Marcella Krulce disappearance 1959 Thu, Nov 26, 1959 – Page 18 · The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

The Martinique Apartments were at 4740 Baum Boulevard. It was a building that made the news for the wrong reasons in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Firstly, I did find evidence of a mass murderer living at those apartments, however, the match to the address was just over four years later. Robert Lee Bricker, known as Pittsburgh's most notorious contracted killer, lived at the apartments in January of 1964 according to an address given in a news article.

At the time of Krulce's disappearance, he would have been 18 years old and, assumingly, capable of renting his own place. It would be interesting in regard to Krulce's case if anyone was able to connect him to his 4740 Baum Boulevard address at an earlier time than when I was able to. By my research, he was living there as of January 9th, 1964. 

How long had he been at that address?

Marcella Krulce Fri, Jan 24, 1964 – Page 2 · The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

Thu, Jan 9, 1964 – Page 1 · Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

I did not find a ton of coverage for Krulce's missing-person's case in the media at the time. The one article that I found was in The Pittsburgh Press on November 26th, 1959. The article quoted the brother of the missing person who stressed that she needed daily insulin shots.

Is her diabetic condition a clue?

I do find it interesting that she disappeared after visiting a restaurant and that she was diabetic. When strangers prepare a diabetic's food, then I think he/she is at increased risk of going into insulin shock. If Krulce ordered something believing it was diabetic friendly or was inadvertently served sweetened food or drink (ie. a sugary drink instead of something low calorie) then perhaps she later went into insulin shock and ended up in a hospital as a Jane Doe. I would think that websleuths looking into this case should take some time to focus on a woman who was brought to a Pittsburgh hospital without ID on the date in question. If she collapsed in public it's possible that her purse would be stolen from her before a good samaritan would happen on her.

Regarding her health problems, the name "Miss Marcella Krulce" appeared in the March 7th, 1958 edition of the Daily Notes, a newspaper out of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The date of the article is roughly a year-and-a-half prior to Krulce's disappearance. It states that one "Miss Marcella Krulce," possibly the same individual that went missing, was admitted to a hospital for monitoring. It used to be that newspapers would chronicle hospital admissions and I think that's what the snippet below did.

The relevance could be that Krulce was having health problems in and around the time of her disappearance. A guess that she went into insulin shock after consuming too much sugar at the restaurant and was admitted to an area hospital without identification cannot be ignored in my view. Another article I found from the same newspaper is dated Thursday, March 20th of 1958. It states that she was "discharged" from the hospital on "Wednesday," which would have been March 19th. That means she would have been in the hospital for 12 days, suggesting that she did have significant health problems in the years that preceded her disappearance.

Krulce connected to another case?

But overall "Marcella Krulce" did not appear regularly in the databases I looked in. She was mentioned in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on January 5th, 1997 as part of an article that commented on several cases. Another article in the July 22nd, 2001 edition of the same newspaper mentions the case, calling it the "oldest" case that Pittsburgh detectives have regarding a missing person. This article contained an interesting comment as it stated that someone named Mary Ann Verdecchia went missing from the same apartment complex three years later.

Mary Ann Verdechia

Verdecchia is NamUS MP #7036. NamUS states the following:

"Verdecchia was last seen in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 7, 1962. Mary Ann, who lived with her Aunt, had returned home after a half day of classes at Immaculate Conception School, changed from her uniform and went outside about 12:30. She had lived with an aunt for five years, ever since her parents separated.

She was seen going into the Martinique Apartments on Baum Boulevard. She ran errands for a lady there, and the woman sent her to the store. She was seen going back into the apartment about 14.45. That was the last reported sighting of her. About 18.00 her relatives began looking for her, and they called police at 22.30."

The name of the "lady" that sent Mary Ann to the store is Jane Emery, a 23-year old who used to be Mary Ann's neighbour. A janitor at the Martinique Apartments, one William Dozier, also saw Mary Ann at a time after 2pm the day she disappeared (June 23rd, 1962 Pittsburgh Post Gazette).

Whether the cases of Krulce and Verdecchia should be considered related to one another isn't clear. Furthermore, the Martinique Apartments didn't seem to be a safe haven. A woman was murdered there in 1958, someone named Mrs. Mary Regan.

Wed, Jul 9, 1958 – Page 1 · The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com