The Purse in the Snow: How a Notary's Stamp Brought Her Home

The Purse in the Snow: How a Notary's Stamp Brought Her Home

Cold proof in deep snow: a burgundy leather handbag with a Missouri driver's license for Rebecca Ann York was found under 35 centimeters of compacted snow nine years after she vanished - and beside it a library card renewed weeks before her disappearance. How did documents bearing a notary's stamp help convince a county she had left when the paper trail said otherwise?

In this episode, we follow the case file from the morning Rebecca York was last seen to the discovery that reignited the investigation, outlining the key documents, the people involved, and the genealogist whose records search pulled on a thread that unraveled a decade-long assumption. What did the notary stamp and those three notarized documents really hide?

Person: Rebecca Ann York Date: October 8, 2009 (last seen); February 11, 2019 (purse found) Location: Millburn Road, Drennan County, Ohio Case: Missing person filed October 2009; declared probable voluntary departure in 2013 Other Person: Wayne Casey

- Purse discovered by a snowplow operator at 7:14 AM on February 11, 2019, under 35 centimeters of compacted snow. - Missouri driver's license inside purse identified as Rebecca Ann York with address on Millburn Road six-tenths of a mile away. - Library card found beside license had a renewal sticker dated September 2009 and a note that she expected large-print mysteries in November. - Three notarized documents dated October 6, 2009 (letter of intent, change-of-address, testamentary codicil) were presented by neighbor Wayne Casey. - Roy Sefton, a mobile notary, acknowledged notarizing paperwork for Casey; Casey signed a lease on a climate-controlled storage unit in October 2009 and later transferred Rebecca's estate in 2011.

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