Ellsworth Wilson Mielke, 33, disappeared on August 25, 1947, from Salt Lake City, Utah. He had fallen ill and left work to go home. Ellsworth was never seen again.
Ellsworth was born to Walter George Mielke and Fanny May Wilson Mielke in Niagara County, New York, on July 28, 1914, the oldest of six children.
Somewhere along the line, Ellsworth ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he met Helen Olive Hansen, the only child of Hyrum Leroy and Nora Anderson Hansen.
Helen was born in Pleasant Grove, Utah, on April 16, 1916. It is unclear how she and Ellsworth met or how long they had dated before they married on March 31, 1938, in Salt Lake City.
Ellsworth entered the military, but there was no additional information other than it was the U.S. Army. His draft card lists his age as 26, around 1940.
Ellsworth and Helen waited four years before starting a family, likely due to his military enlistment.
Helen gave birth to their first child, Paul Leroy Mielke, in 1942, followed by Lynda A. Mielke in 1943 or 1944 and Dwight Ellsworth Mielke in 1945 or 1946.
In January 1947, Helen became pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, and Ellsworth had a growing family to support. He was a truck driver for R. A. Gould Gasoline Transportation Service, 967 Beck Street, owned by Robert Aubrey Gould.
On August 17, 1947, Ellsworth drove his work truck 70 miles north to Tremonton and returned to Salt Lake City on August 25 around 11 a.m. He told his boss he was not feeling well, and Gould instructed him to go home and rest.
Ellsworth left his workplace and disappeared without a trace.
On September 19, 1947, authorities notified Helen that someone had found her husband’s car three weeks before near Lagoon Resort (now Lagoon Amusement Park), 18 miles north of Salt Lake City in Farmington, between Salt Lake City and Tremonton. It took some time for the police to trace the car’s ownership to Helen. No reports mention whether Helen ever reported Ellsworth missing once he failed to return home from work that day. It sounds like she told the police her husband was missing once they recovered the car.
That’s not suspicious.
Ellsworth’s vehicle contained his cap and lunch bucket, and the keys remained in the ignition. There was no sign of Ellsworth anywhere. Witnesses told the police they noticed nothing unusual with the car until it had sat there unclaimed for several days.
Helen, then 31, told the police that her husband’s back had recently been hurting and he suffered from blackouts. However, she said he had not had any spells for quite some time. She also stated he was not despondent and had no reason to leave his family.
The official law enforcement search for the missing man began on September 20, 1947, nearly a month after he vanished. I wonder if they ever considered that SOMEBODY poisoned Ellsworth’s lunch. After all, he told Gould he wasn’t feeling well. There’s no mention of whether there was food in his lunch bucket.
Ten days later, Helen delivered a stillborn son on September 30. She and Ellsworth planned to name their third son, Keith.
Police never found Ellsworth or any clues to his fate. His father and mother died in 1949 and 1958, respectively, without ever knowing what happened to their son. All of Ellsworth’s siblings are now deceased.
Helen went on to marry three more times. She outlived all but one spouse before she died in 1990 at age 74. Ellsworth and Helen’s son, Paul Mielke, died in 2011.
Sources
“Death: Helen H. Lindsey.” Obituary. Deseret News, December 20, 1999.
“Ellsworth Wilson Mielke.” Family Search. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWJK-S16/ellsworth-wilson-mielke-1914
“Ellsworth Wilson Mielke.” Online Memorial. FindAGrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/271007220/ellsworth-wilson-mielke
“Ellsworth Wilson Mielke.” The Doe Network. https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/5923dmut.html
“Helen Olive Christensen.” Online Memorial. FindAGrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118749258/helen_olive_christensen
“Helen Olive Hansen.” Family Search. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWCR-CLS/helen-olive-hansen-1916-1990
“Police Launch Search for Lost Motorist.” The Salt Lake Tribune, September 20, 1947.
“Search Begins For Missing Utahn.” The Ogden Standard Examiner, September 20, 1947