Marcella is Missing: A Pittsburgh Cold Case
Thursday, November 19, 1959, was a typical winter day for Pittsburgh; it was cold and overcast. It was also the last day Marcella Krulce was seen. She was eating dinner at the restaurant in the Martinique Apartments on Baum Boulevard. The Martinique Apartments were Marcella’s home during the week, where the 30-year-old lived alone. On the weekends, she frequently went to stay with her mother in Strabane, PA, located in Washington County.
Marcella was a secretary for the United Fund of Allegheny County. It was when she didn’t show up to work on Friday that people began to worry. Her brother, Joseph Krulce, told the Pittsburgh Press on November 26 that she had not been home or to work in a week. That was when they decided to file a missing person’s report with the Pittsburgh Police Missing Persons Bureau. He was worried not only because her family and work hadn’t heard from her but also because “She is a diabetic and may need help. . . She has to have daily insulin shots.” According to reports, her insulin and syringes were left behind in her apartment, along with her clothes and other belongings.
The Martinique Apartments
Police didn’t have any suspects or leads on her case, and it became a cold case. Neighbors did talk as the Martinique’s fifth floor, where Marcella lived, was no stranger to odd occurrences and deaths. In 1958, Mary Fitzgerald Regan was found strangled in her apartment. Her husband, John Regan, claimed he didn’t do it. He did admit to having argued with her that morning but swore he did not kill her.
Around three years after Marcella disappeared, 10-year-old Mary Ann Verdecchia, a frequent visitor of the Martinique Apartments, went missing. Mary Ann lived with her aunt and liked to visit the Martinique Apartments, where she would visit Jean Emery, an old neighbor, and her cat. According to former Pittsburgh assistant police chief Therese Rocco, Mary Ann had visited Emery and ran an errand to get her cat food. The apartment manager was the last person to see Mary Ann.
While police had theories about Mary Ann’s disappearance, they never solved the case, and it went cold. Police theorized her mother may have returned and kidnapped her. However, the police quickly dispelled that theory.
These three cases may share the Martinique Apartments, but that seems to be the only commonality between them. Police do not suspect that the cases are related, and Marcella and Mary Ann’s cases remain open to this day.
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