Katharina Buczek
And this case, along with several other LA murders and disappearances of the 1940s, was theorized to be committed by one man known as Dr. George Hodel. However, the theory that Mimi might have also been a victim of Hodel’s remains unconfirmed.
So, one last theory regarding the 48-year-old’s disappearance was that she faked her own death. Perhaps she had been facing some sort of external pressure– like gambling debts– and decided to leave. This theory suggests that Mimi might have left her own purse on the phone booth and is corroborated by the fact that there was no evidence of a struggle or reports of screams at her residence on the evening of her disappearance.
Still, no theories ever gained enough evidence to be proven. So, just 11 days after Mimi vanished, she was declared legally dead. At that point, the 48-year-old’s attorneys began selling off her possessions in order to pay her debts and ensure the bank did not foreclose on her property.
Later, though, the same judge who declared Mimi legally dead opted to reverse that decision– claiming he had made a mistake. So, she was not officially declared dead until 1956.
By that point, though, all of Mimi’s debts and legal fees had already reduced her estate’s value by more than 66%.
In the end, investigators also revealed how they believed Mimi had been murdered. But, they were never able to name any suspects in her case, and the exact circumstances surrounding her mysterious disappearance remain unknown.
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She Was Amelia Earhart’s Flight Instructor, And The First Woman To Have An Aviation Business
