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Mother's 41-year search for her son still continues [Enid News and Eagle, Okla.]
(Enid News & Eagle (OK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 1--It was Friday, a nice June evening in 1968, when young Joreta Sharp Lacey answered the door at her sister's home in Bethany, where she and her 2-year-old son, Kipper, were living. She was separated from Mike Lacey, the boy's father, and she was expecting her estranged husband to come from Dallas to pick up the boy for a regular weekend visitation.
When Joreta answered the door, Mike's mother, Dorothy, of Enid, was standing there. All was well, Dorothy said. Dorothy told Joreta that Mike would be driving to Enid from Dallas, and he and Kipper would spend the weekend with her. She was helping her son out by picking up the boy.
Even though that hadn't been the plan, Joreta had no reason to be concerned or suspicious about Dorothy picking the boy up. During the short three years she had been married to Mike Lacey, and even during their separation, Dorothy and Joreta had always been on familiar terms. It was not unusual for Kipper to spend the weekend with Mike and his mother in Enid. Still, Dorothy had never offered to pick up the boy before.
When Sunday evening came, and Mike and the boy never appeared back in Bethany, Joreta called Dorothy in Enid to find out where they were.
"Dorothy said she had no idea, and that they should be there any minute," Joreta recalls.
But, Mike and Kipper never showed up.
And 40 years later, Joreta still has no idea where Mike or Kipper are. But, after years of cold trails and brick walls, a renewed search is giving Joreta hope she one day will meet her son again.
A long search begins
Forty years ago, domestic laws weren't what they are today. Even though Joreta had a custody order for Kipper, there were no custodial parental rights as there are today. It wasn't a crime to simply take your own child, and Mike and Joreta's divorce was not yet final.
So, when Mike didn't return Kipper to Joreta after what was supposed to be a routine visitation, a frantic Joreta didn't have a lot of recourse other than to try track the two down herself. She started with Dorothy.
Dorothy Lacey Grose-close Wills was a recent widow who lived at 1105 W. Maine in Enid. She had re-married twice after the death of Mike's father, Max. She was employed by Pillsbury Co. in Enid. Mike was the couple's only son, a 1957 graduate of Enid High School. Another daughter, Judith, had died.
Joreta said when Mike didn't bring Kipper home as he was supposed to, she kept calling Dorothy. Joreta was working at a Bethany bank at the time, a single mom struggling to make ends meet for herself and her son. She didn't have a lot of time or money to take off to go find her son. She still kept calling, and Dorothy kept telling her she didn't know where Mike was, but he probably took the boy to Dallas or on vacation.
"She was just sure that Kip was fine," Joreta said.
"I always knew that," Joreta said, reflecting for a moment. "I know they had the best of everything they could give him, and I know Dorothy gave him (Kipper) the best she could." But at the point Joreta was trying to find Mike and Kipper, Dorothy gave no indication she had the boy or knew where the boy was.
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INFORMATION SOUGHT
Anyone with any information about Dorothy Lacey Groseclose Wills, Michael Lacey or Kipper Lacey may call this toll-free number: (877) 355-7995
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Joreta tried contacting Mike in Dallas, but she couldn't reach him.
"I just kept calling his work," she said. After a few weeks, she found out Mike had left his job at a copier company. She and her sister finally scraped up enough money to travel to Dallas to try to find Mike.
But Mike, who had been living with friend Sydney Webb in Dallas at the time of Kipper's disappearance, had moved out of his friend's apartment and left everything behind. Mike had moved in with the Webbs after his split from Joreta.
Webb said Mike gave no indication he was going to take the boy. He simply never came back to the apartment after that weekend. The friend had even co-signed a note for Mike's car, and he was notified a few months after Mike's disappearance the payments were behind.
"Right after he disappeared, his mother called me and said she thought Mike had the right to raise Kipper," Webb said. "I disagreed and said the child should be with his mother. She hung up and never called me back."
Joreta and her sister searched Dallas-area day cares and nurseries to see if they could find the child. But, they never found Kipper and they never found Mike. There was really no help given to her by police in Oklahoma City or in Dallas.
"The police said it was a domestic issue, and they didn't step in for domestic issues" Joreta said.
About two months after Kipper and Mike disappeared, Joreta finally heard from Dorothy, who said she was moving away from Enid.
"She said, 'I don't want you to worry, I've sold my house and rented an apartment. If you can't get hold of me, don't worry.'" Joreta recalls. She and her brother made a trip to Enid once, but didn't find Dorothy.
Dorothy also had disappeared.
According to a private investigator's report done nearly 20 years later, Dorothy voluntarily terminated her employment with Pillsbury. She walked away from retirement benefits and never made any claim for them. Accord-ing to the investigator's report, Dorothy told other family members and Pillsbury employees she was going away with Mike to help raise Kipper and they would never see or hear from her again.
Joreta's divorce from Mike became final through publication -- a procedure in which divorce is allowed when a spouse cannot be located -- and she later married a former sweetheart, Gene McFadden, in 1969. Together, they have a son, who now is an adult. Although she never gave up on finding Kipper, "the trail just died," she said.
Over the years, there would be other unsuccessful searches for Mike Lacey due to an inheritance issue. Joreta was contacted in 1984 by a firm looking for Mike because of an inheritance left to him by an aunt. That contact renewed Joreta's hope Mike and Kipper would be found.
"They had all the re-sources they could get," to find Kipper, Mike and Dorothy, Joreta said.
But, it was not to be.
The firm's search carried on for three years. Local family members had not heard from them since 1968. There was no trace of Mike or Dorothy. Their Social Security numbers were traced, but there had not been any activity on either of them since 1968. A nationwide search of their driver's license records showed neither Michael nor Kipper held driver's licenses under their given names and dates of birth. Dorothy had never claimed her pension from Pillsbury. Interviews with friends and acquaintances confirmed no one had heard from Mike or Dorothy since 1968.
Charles Cole, an attorney for the firm looking for Mike, concluded in his report, "It is a possibility at this point in our investigation that Mich-ael, Dorothy and Kipper had most likely left the United States or had perhaps changed their names."
"I kind of lost hope," Joreta said. "I have never given up. But if someone with all that behind them can't find them ..."
Still, for years Joreta pursued what avenues she could. She tried contacting Sally Jesse Raphael, a talk show host in the 1990s. She said the show producers had some interest, but they never really followed up.
"When Childfind came out, my cousin put it on the Internet," she said. "I got a couple of inquiries, mostly from people wanting me to send them money."
Joreta built a new life, she said. She worked in the travel industry for a number of years, and she and her husband now live in Colorado.
"I've had a good life," she said. "Gene's been very supportive, my family has been supportive. I'll never give up, but what can you do? For self-preservation, I couldn't do it 24-7."
Renewed hope and the search starts anew
As much as she despaired over not being able to find Kipper, Joreta kept in contact with a cousin, who occasionally would make efforts to continue to try to find Michael and Kipper Lacey.
A little more than a year ago, she got word from her cousin there might be a man in Enid who could help. Her cousin knew this man from the Enid High School Alumni Association, and she briefed him on the case.
Jerry Kunkel immediately became interested.
Kunkel used to be director of the Enid High School Alumni Association, and his duties with that organization often required him to find missing alumni.
"I can find people," Kunkel said. "It's not that hard to do, it's just that nobody wants to work that hard."
Kunkel had been a radio and broadcast reporter for many years, and his most notable assignment was his involvement in the aftermath of President John F. Ken-nedy's assassination in Dallas. Kunkel had been one of the reporters on scene to question suspect Lee Harvey Oswald.
About the only information Kunkel had to go on was Mike Lacey had lived in Dallas when he and Dorothy took off with the boy. Kunkel began making contact with people he knew there, including an investigative reporter with the Dallas Morning News.
He also met with Joreta's cousin and gathered her information. Kunkel believed the best way to find the two was to talk to everyone possible who had any connection with the Laceys.
His search has led him to a lot of twists and turns in the case and the personalities of the people involved.
By coincidence, the man who had purchased Do-rothy's house in 1968 was a former Internal Revenue Service investigator, which also sent Kunkel toward other resources, including Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also talked to Sydney Webb in Dallas and found out at some point Mike had sent a card from the 1968 San Antonio HemisFair, a possible lead to where Mike and Kipper may have gone after their disappearance.
Kunkel has managed to peel away layers of people and resources in this case, and he continues to diligently make contact with them in the hope they might have had contact with Mike, Dorothy or Kipper.
"I appreciate everything he's (Jerry) doing because it just eats me up to devote more time to it (searching)," Joreta said. "When I get into this, I can't eat, I don't sleep. I have to back off."
In making contacts, Kunkel has generated some national interest in the case, and has even managed to get some age-progression artwork of Kipper Lacey done through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
However, there still is one legal issue that keeps the case from being entered into the National Crime Information Center database. What happened in 1968 was not a crime.
Kunkel and Joreta had hoped Enid Police Depart-ment might be able to enter the case in NCIC to jump start the search again. Yet, Enid Police Chief Rick West said his department can't enter the case.
"I thought we might be able to develop authority for a criminal investigation," West said.
He met last spring with Kunkel and Joreta and went through the case. The Enid Police Department made initial inquiries into the information that was provided him, and he found out Kunkel already had learned most of the information.
"Jerry is doing a very good job and a very intent job," West said. "But, the statutes at that time did not prevent a natural parent from removing the child, I'm sorry to say. It's not a statute violation."
There also is a jurisdictional issue, since Kipper was living in Bethany at the time of his disappearance.
The fact there is no case file on Kipper Lacey in NCIC means many search organizations are unable to devote their resources to helping find Kipper Lacey.
But, that hasn't stopped Kunkel from trying to get this story told on a national level. He has made contact with some TV personalities in Oklahoma City to create a video that may be submitted to "America's Most Wanted." And, he's also been in contact with a writer from People Magazine, who also has contacted Joreta about the case. He continues to dig for information, and it keeps coming in a small piece at a time.
"Jerry is the perfect person to put in this effort," West said. "I'm sure Jerry truly wants to find the man. But, they (Dorothy, Mike and Kipper) did a very good job of covering their tracks."
Everyone seems to be stumped at the way these three have disappeared and walked away from their previous lives and income. Kunkel said he first thought it might be a case of witness protection, but there is nothing to substantiate that probability.
Both Dorothy and Mike, who now would be 70, would have been eligible for Social Security. And, the inheritance Mike was to receive from his aunt was "substantial," ac-cording to Kunkel.
Kunkel believes Dorothy, who was born in 1914, likely has passed away. He also believes the trio did change their identities "because it was much easier to do at the time." He found a former high school friend of Mike's had stolen Mike's Social Security number some time back.
Kunkel's efforts in keeping at this case have impressed Joreta. She has hope perhaps Kipper is out there somewhere, and he's wanting to know about his birth mother and more about his family.
"I don't know how much he would remember of me, or my sister, I mean he was only 2," Joreta said. "I think maybe (Dorothy and Mike) told him I was dead and there was no family."
Kipper would be 43 years old, could have a family of his own -- and a lot of questions. If this story can somehow get out nationally, Kunkel and Joreta believe, the chances are Joreta will see her son again.
"Jerry has a lot of investigative skills and has made more progress in the past nine months than all of the other researchers combined in 40 years," she said. "Today, I am not skeptical, and I have hope again."
To see more of the Enid News & Eagle or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.enidnews.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, Enid News and Eagle, Okla.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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