'Unsolved Mystery' Solved; Man With Fortune Identified
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - May 22, 1989
Author: The Associated Press
SOURCE: The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY (AP) - The mystery of a man who left an unexplained fortune of about $190,000 when he died seven years ago has been solved. Jackson County Probate Judge John A. Borron ruled Thursday that the man known as George Marsh when he died in a nursing home in Kansas City was actually Joseph Zelenka. The judge decided that 24 heirs would divide Zelenka's fortune.

The county took control of Zelenka's wealth when he died with no known relatives. But a break appeared in the mystery almost two years after the story was aired on the television show ''Unsolved Mysteries.''

Eleanor Tolar, 72, of Rock Springs, Wyo., Zelenka's niece, saw her high school graduation picture on television on the show. The photo had been found among Zelenka's possessions.

She and other relatives pulled together birth certificates, photos and other documents linking them to a relative whom they had not seen since 1933.

Borron ruled that one-fourth of the $190,000, minus about $5,000 in court administrative costs, would go to the surviving brother, James Zelenka, 92, of Rock Springs, Wyo., and that the rest would be split among more distant relatives.

Grant Christensen, James Zelenka's son-in-law and spokesman for the family, said Thursday that they would have their relative's body flown back to the Wyoming family plot as soon as paper work clears in a month or two.

''It's kind of like bringing him home,'' he said. ''I don't know how he would feel about it, but that's what we're going to do.''

Joseph Zelenka always had been mysterious, and the family had looked for him for years, Christensen said.

''Even as a young man he would appear out of nowhere with large sums of money,'' he said. ''He also was a very nice man, but he always had a different woman with him.''

James Zelenka speculated in a letter to the court that Joseph used an alias because he did not want to hurt the family name. He was born in 1888 in Croatia, now part of Yugoslavia, and came to the United States with the family around the turn of the century, he said.
Edition: 5*
Page: 4A
Index Terms: ruling decision court a heir mystery solution wyoming
Record Number: 6890033660
Copyright 1989 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Didn't someone claim they have a version of this segment where Malden actually updates it?

Didn't someone claim they have a version of this segment where Malden actually updates it?

Yes, I think you're right, although I can't for the life of me remember who the poster was. I think this would have been the 4/25/88 episode - basically a repeat of the third special. The special most of us have is from the first time it aired, so there was no update. I have another copy of special 3 that I bought from someone else, but it too does not have this update and is basically just a cleaner quality copy of the third special. This update would be cool to see, especially if Malden narrated it.

Yes I spoke with someone who said they had a PSS with an update of it. Thanks for posting that article! I assume they didn't find his son (he had mentioned to a nursing home worker that he had one) or they would have given him the bulk of the estate instead of his brother.

Yes I spoke with someone who said they had a PSS with an update of it. Thanks for posting that article! I assume they didn't find his son (he had mentioned to a nursing home worker that he had one) or they would have given him the bulk of the estate instead of his brother.

I still wonder who the "Mrs. Marsh" was that visited him at the nursing home. It would seem to me that if this report is credible then SOMEONE in the family would have known his whereabouts, and the fact that he was using a different name. Although the article seemed to imply he kept a lot of women around, so I suppose it could have been anyone.

i am so glad his heirs were found!

Just saw this case for the first time last night, very interesting. They hinted he saved all that money by being frugal.

Hope you guys don't mind me bumping this, but it's worth mentioning now that the episode is on Amazon Prime.

I was delighted to see the update included. It also kind of gave me chills to realize just how long ago UM aired, considering George's family says they have been searching for him since 1931...holy cow.

Can anyone point me on google maps where the nursing home was he lived at? I typed in Roanoke Manor Nursing Home on google and got nothing so i assume that it either change it’s name or location or it went out of business years ago. Any help would be great thanks

I'm glad he got his real name back and the appropriate people got his dough. But I will say one thing I really dislike about stories such as this one- these people are frugal, often they die alone. But when the story airs, you can bet close heirs who had nothing to do with that person in real life, will prove they are related when there is cash involved. I am not talking about the cases where the heirs are found a hundred years or more down.