Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances (26 page)

The social upheaval taking place in 1969 could be witnessed everywhere. Throughout that summer, protests against the escalating Vietnam War broke out across the nation, and race relations were strained, to say the least. Contrary to all the protests, the moon landing in July united the ever fracturing American Population, for a brief while, at least.

Dick had spent a lot of time riding his Harley that summer, mostly in the company of his friend and coworker, Jay. Dick and Jay would often ride together, telling Dick’s family they were going out to “terrorize the campers with our motorcycles.” Tall, lanky, with sandy blonde hair, Jay worked in the meat department at Glen’s Market. Jay had a reputation as a drinker and a partier. While friends and family never saw Dick drunk, Jay, on the other hand, according to co-workers, was so drunk at the Glen’s Market Christmas Party the previous year, that he passed out at the table and his face fell into his dinner plate, full of food.

August was a particularly tumultuous month that year. On August 9th, pregnant actress Sharon Tate and a group of friends were murdered in the Hollywood Hills by the infamous Manson Family, putting the final nail in the coffin of America’s sense of innocence. Between August 15 and August 18, the Woodstock Festival made history on a rural New York farm, and around that time, a movie by the name of “Easy Rider” was released in theaters throughout the nation.

August of 1969 was a particularly eventful month for the Lepsys, as well. Dick and Jackie traveled to Illinois to enjoy the wedding of his little sister, Suzanne Darlington, whom he affectionately nicknamed “Snoozie.” The Lepsy children followed their father’s lead and lovingly referred to her as “Aunt Snoozie.” The couple was hoping this trip would be a cathartic sabbatical. The Lepsys were emerging from a difficult time in their marriage. Jackie suspected that Dick had had an inappropriate relationship with one of the workers at the store. Jackie described her as a “young pretty cashier that was putting crazy ideas in Dick’s head.” Things were pretty” touch and go” around the Lepsy household that summer, but the couple decided to stay together and work through the hard times.

Dick and Jackie Lepsy, circa Christmas 1968.

Suzanne’s wedding was beautiful. She was marrying the love of her life, Nino Ruggiero. Their wedding was a lavish affair, and Nino’s Italian heritage was present throughout the event. Susie had precious little time to socialize with her big brother, but when she saw Jackie and him, they seemed very happy and content. Unbeknownst to the bride, this was the last time she would ever see her big brother. When the festivities were over, Susie and Nino went on a six week honeymoon in Europe.

Back in Grayling, fall approached. The sun began setting earlier and earlier, and cool damp air started to arrive sometime during those quiet, dewy September nights. The town’s population shrank, as the summer residents packed up their cottages and cabins and headed back south to their suburban homes. The thought of putting away his motorcycle weighed heavily on Dick’s soul. Winters can be very long and isolating in Northern Michigan. No sun tan, no beaches, and all that snow to shovel off the sidewalk and driveway.

In August, the movie “Easy Rider” appeared in theaters throughout the U.S., although, It wasn’t until September that Dick saw it. The movie starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as two free spirited motorcycle riding drug dealers, making their way across the West. The film begins outside a dirty little cantina in Mexico, where our two motorcycle cowboys, the stars of the movie, buy a couple thousand dollars of cocaine for a Mexican drug dealer. They smuggle the drugs across the U.S. boarder and sell them to an American drug dealer played by infamous music producer Phil Spector, at LAX airport for a large sum of money. After putting the money in a clear plastic tube and hiding it in the gas tank of Peter Fonda’s motorcycle, the two rebels head cross country for New Orleans. The cinematography is captivating and the landscapes are gorgeous. It’s easy to see how Dick Lepsy was captivated by this movie. The characters in this movie were experiencing freedom Dick was never allotted. He married Jackie right out of high school and they started having kids shortly thereafter. He had been working full time since high school. Watching the two rebels roar through the desert on their Harleys must have stirred something deep inside him. He was mesmerized. He drove a Harley, after all, but never very far from his home in Grayling. Dick, somewhat of a cinephile, was so moved by this movie, he took his older children to see it, he told them the movie was a “social icon.”

Jackie and Dick Lepsy at sister Suzanne’s wedding. This photo, taken August 1969, is the last known photograph of Dick Lepsy.

October was another eventful month, with hundreds of thousands of people take part in Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations across the United States on the 15th of the month. The next day, October 16, 1969 the “miracle” New York Mets won the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1. “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies was the number one song for the first half of the month and “I Can’t Get Next to You” by The Temptations was the number one song the second half of the month.

Dick Lepsy and coworkers celebrate Halloween in 1968 at Glen’s Market. Lepsy, dressed as a “hippie,” is on the left.

October 29, 1969, started like any other autumn morning in Michigan. The sunrise appeared in a mostly blue sky, which was a welcome change from the previous few days, which were cold, wet and gloomy, with occasional snowflakes. It was a Wednesday. The Lepsy household was bustling with morning activities such as a hurried breakfast, and six people fighting for time in the one bathroom of the modest two story Lepsy home. The kids were sent off to school, Jackie went to her job at the courthouse and Dick made his way to Glen’s Market in his station wagon.

Dick Lepsy usually came home for lunch, hopping in his company supplied car and driving a short distance to his home. October 29th was different though. Dick talked with Jackie over the phone and said he was going for a ride for lunch. This was not unusual for Dick to take a drive at lunch to center himself when things were hectic at the store. Around noon, Dick climbed into his station wagon and drove off. A couple hours later, he called his assistant manager at the store, Kay Eisenhower, and told her he was taking the rest of the day off and he would not be returning to the store that day.

The following morning, October 30th, head cashier Maryann Hull arrived at work and went to retrieve the cash register tills from the store’s safe, which was located in Lepsy’s office at the front of the store. The safe was a dull gray box, about two feet wide and deep, and maybe three feet tall. It had two compartments: a small compartment which comprised the top one third of the safe with a round opening and a four inch thick, round door with a large handle and a tumbler on the face. It resembled a miniature bank vault door. The other, larger compartment took up the lower two thirds of the safe. It had a large door, which was basically the entire front of the safe. The tills were stored in the lower part of the safe, because they could fit in the large opening, and large amounts of cash and checks were stored in the top safe compartment, between weekly bank deposits. The head cashier, as well as other department heads and managers had access to the lower part of the safe, which was usually left open during business hours, while only the manager and assistant store manager, Dick Lepsy and Kay Eisenhower, had the combination to the upper part of the safe.

Maryann found that the safe was jammed shut and she couldn’t open it. Dick was not at the store as he usually was in the morning, so Maryann assumed he was late. She decided to call C. Glen Catt, the owner and founder of Glen’s Market, and apprised him of the situation. He ordered Maryann to call a locksmith and have them come to the store and get the safe open. Maryann obliged, and then went back to checking people out as best she could.

It took the locksmith the better part of the day to get the safe unlocked and when it was finally opened, an audit was conducted. Dick remained absent. The next day, Halloween, C. Glen Catt and a couple more of Glen’s Market’s top brass came to the store to collect information on the situation. The rest of the store employees did their best to go about their jobs, with all the unusual activities happening in the background. By this time, it was clear that Dick Lepsy was never returning to the store.

Glen A. Catt, son of Glen’s Market founder C. Glen Catt, was only 23 years old when Dick Lepsy disappeared. He had worked at the Gaylord store with Dick for years as a teenager. Now he was managing his own store in Kalkaska, about 26 miles west of Grayling. When asked about Lepsy, he recollects: “Ahhhh, I remember Dick. He was a fun guy to be around. He was well thought out, and always knew what he was going to do next. He was quite a prankster also, you never knew what to expect. He had a good head on his shoulders and wanted to do a good job.”

When quizzed about the disappearance, he said “Well I can tell you this, when Dick Lepsy disappeared, so did $2000 from the store safe.”

C. Glen Catt, or “Young Glen” as store employees referred to him, was surprised to hear this information when his father explained the situation to him. His father, “Big Glen,” handled the situation efficiently and effectively. The Grayling Police Department and the Michigan State Police were called in to investigate. Information was not shared with store employees and rumors soon began to circulate.

According to Young Glen, his father shared with him the information that the store safe was “jammed” shut on purpose. It was sabotaged. An audit determined that that $2000 in cash was missing. When Dick’s car was found at the airport, the State Police were dispatched, they questioned airline ticket agents and airport employees. All passengers who left Traverse City by plane on October 29th were tracked down and identified. All passengers, except two, a man and a woman. The man fit Dick’s description. What was their final destination? Mexico.

Two weeks later, Glen A. Catt took over Dick Lepsy’s position as manager of Glen’s Market in Grayling. He found the store in disarray. He described the store as “filthy” and immediately set about to put things in order. Within his first month of managing the store, he let half the store employees go, due to poor job performance. One employee he did not have to let go of was Dick Lepsy’s friend, Jay. He was already gone.

Rumors swirled around that when Dick disappeared, so did a female store employee, a young, attractive, bright store cashier. It was the same young cashier that Jackie thought Dick was having an affair with. Could Dick have fallen in love with one of his beautiful, young workers and run off with her to start a new life together? $2000 would go a long way for two people in Mexico in 1969.

Jackie had confided in her sister in-law, Suzanne, that there was this young cashier at Glen’s Market that was putting all kinds of crazy thoughts in Dick’s head. According to daughter Lisa Lepsy, a couple years after Dick’s disappearance her mother, Jackie, spotted the young cashier back in Grayling and drove her car right up to her. She made the children jump out of the car and call her names and yell things at her. They called her “home-wrecker” among other choice names.