Cold Case Ludington: Who is Ludington's Doorstep Baby from 1946?

[XLFD]

Sixty-five years before the disappearance of a baby in Ludington received the attention and invited speculation by people of the state and even the nation (Baby Kate in 2011), the appearance of a baby on the doorstep of a Fourth Ward home had much the same impact in that time, just after World War II.  New interest has developed in the old case mow that the grown-up baby has been made aware of her humble beginnings and remains curious as to her birth family.

 

The baby left behind, Julie Himebaugh pictured above, now approaching her 70th birthday and the 16th year of trying to solve the mysteries of her heritage, has had few leads as to who her parents may have been or what may have happened to them.   The task has been compounded by the passage of time, a note left with the baby that said the child's father was dead and her mother was going to kill herself shortly after dropping the baby off, and the loss of police records about the event (the Ludington Police unwritten policy is to destroy records after about twenty years of retention). 

In June of 2014, a renewed effort was made to find out the heritage of Ludington's doorstep baby, spearheaded by an article in the Detroit Free Press, which was carried in other newspapers across the country including the Washington Times, numerous other outlets across the state and nation, and even across the ocean in the United Kingdom's Daily Mail. 

The most analytical and in-depth story is still from the Freep (June 29, 2014 Detroit Free Press article) and it is reprinted below.  Can you or your kinfolk help Julie Himebaugh put the pieces of the puzzle together and solve the mystery of her origins?

The mystery began on a quiet night in May 1946.  Fifteen-year-old Lois Yeck was listening to the radio when she heard a knock at the front door of her family’s home on Fourth Street in Ludington.

She went to the door, but saw no one there. A few minutes later, a knock at the side door led to the discovery of a baby lying on the porch, wrapped in a blanket.

That’s all Julie Himebaugh knows about how her life began. She was that baby abandoned on the doorstep of a western Michigan home.  The details she has learned about that night 68 years ago were printed in newspapers in Ludington, Muskegon, Ann Arbor and even in the Free Press. She was the 6-month-old blue-eyed girl found with a bundle of clothes, baby formula and a note pinned to her blanket.

Ludington police have no record of what happened May 7, 1946 — a year to the day after Germany signed an unconditional surrender to end World War II in Europe. They only keep records of such cases for about 20 years, a clerk said last week.

Newspaper stories tell the tale of the doorstep baby, detailing the efforts that went into trying to find her mother. The Pere Marquette car ferry was monitored closely. An advertisement was put in the Ludington Daily News asking for information. Rumors swirled around town about a woman with a baby who was given a ride from the Lansing area to Grand Rapids in the days before the infant was left on the Yecks’ porch.

A probate judge made an appeal in the Ludington Daily News, asking the child’s mother to come forward to sign off on rights to the child so she could be adopted more quickly. All to no avail.  “It’s hard to believe that all of this was done because of me. I caused a whole lot of commotion,” Himebaugh said.

The judge and a social worker arbitrarily picked a birth date for the baby — Oct. 20, 1945 — and gave her a name, Himebaugh discovered after tracking down both of them years later.  “I said, ‘How did I get the name Marleen Madison that was on my adoption papers?’ and the judge said, ‘Well, the social worker said her favorite name was Marleen and asked if we could name you that. I said fine, and we just added on the last name Madison.’ It sounds like a movie star’s name.  “And then, the judge told me, ‘We couldn’t keep calling you the Doorstep Baby, or Baby Jane. We had to give you a name.’ ”

An editor’s note published with an article about the doorstep baby in the Muskegon Chronicle suggested infant abandonment was commonplace in the aftermath of World War II. It said: “Officials point out there has been an epidemic of baby abandonments in the country recently where notes have been left saying the father was killed in war.””

Himebaugh was adopted by James and Jean Rye of Ludington nearly a year after she was abandoned, and grew up as Julianna Rye, though everyone called her Julie.  Her parents, she said, told her she’d been adopted. But it wasn’t until 1999, when she petitioned the Mason County Probate Court for adoption records, that she learned she’d been abandoned on a doorstep. By then, her adoptive parents were dead.  “It blew my mind,” she said.

“We used to joke about it,” said her husband, Gil Himebaugh. But then we found out that’s what really happened. We couldn’t believe it.”  The couple now live in Elizabeth City, N.C., but visited Michigan earlier this month to see friends, holding on to hope that they’d discover something new.

“I told one of my friends, ‘Gosh, this is like a Nancy Drew story.’ And she said, ‘Hell, it’s like Hercule Poirot.’ ... I really would like to find some biological family, and if they wish for me not to say anything, that they are part of my family, I would go along with that. I understand that some people just don’t want anything to do with a remembrance of an extra child.”

She has worked with a genealogist and historian trying to find clues, but has turned up nothing.  “We have no name to go by. And it’s hard for me to search,” she said. “I have no mother’s name, no place of birth, no date of birth. Usually, an adoptee has something like that. But I don’t have any of it.”

About four years ago, Himebaugh got an anonymous tip by mail with a Grand Rapids postmark suggesting she ask some questions of a woman working at a store in Ludington. But the lead went nowhere, and now many of the people who might have known something about her story are dead, she fears.

Himebaugh turned to DNA testing this spring through Ancestry.com, hoping to find clues in her blood. From that, she learned that her ethnicity is 97% European, with the largest portion — 53% — matching with people from Great Britain. The test also suggested that 22% of her DNA matches people from Ireland and 12% from Western Europe.

“Through my DNA, they found a second cousin” match, Himebaugh said, along with another possible cousin. But those leads, too, have dried up.  “I would just like to know what happened, and know if I have siblings out there. I had a great adopted life. I couldn’t have asked for better parents and sister and brothers. It was just wonderful. But I have an insatiable curiosity. I just wish I could find something out, or that someone would come forward.”

Himebaugh’s daughter, Laura McCombie of Accokeek, Md., said it would be peace of mind to have some family medical information, plus more clues about what her grandmother was thinking on that May night.

“Why would anybody leave a baby on a doorstep?” McCombie asked. “There’s a mystery surrounding it. My mom’s been trying to figure this out forever. She just runs into roadblock after roadblock after roadblock.  “I don’t want her to just give up. I want her to follow through. That’s what she always told us: Always follow through.”

[Willy]

Very interesting story. From what I have read, I'm guessing there is a deeper Ludington connection other than the mother just happened to pass thru and leave the baby. Ludington is out of the way and someone back then would more likely have had a reason to be in the Ludington area, either because of family or friends. Why did the mother pick that house and why did she knock on 2 doors unless she knew the person inside could be fooled into answering the wrong door. I think the mother knew the family whose doorstep she placed the baby on. My guess is the letter she left was also meant to throw people off the track as to who the parents were. Another thing is the newspaper mentioning of all the abandoned babies whose fathers supposedly died in the war. I think most of those children were born out of wedlock and the "missing war father" was a convenient excuse. It's hard to believe that neither the mother's or father's side of the family would have refused to help her.

I hope she is successful in finding out the truth.

[XLFD]

Unfortunately, unless some miraculous breakthrough is made, her quest may never be fulfilled.  Practically all the adults involved at the time, including the mother, are likely to have passed away due to old age since they would be around 90 or older. 

I wouldn't be surprised overmuch if authorities of the time did eventually know more, but never passed along the information so as not to complicate the situation.  I was surprised that the police department throws away records of such incidences after only 20 years. 

I think in our information age, where we can save tons of information in computer files and microfiche, its a practice that should be abolished.  A recent case being prosecuted in Manistee County  is going through primarily because the murder that happened 20 years ago still has all the evidence and paperwork retained.

[Willy]

I can understand not saving hard files of cases solved which will have no court appeals, however you are correct that now every last crossed t and dotted i can be saved digitally so there is no reason to throw out any information.