I had watched her story again last night and tonight was looking at her official site to see if there were any updates and I was surprised to learn of her passing on January 1st this year.

http://www.squidoo.com/tangledweb

Some of you may remember her case from the very first special of Unsolved Mysteries hosted by Raymond Burr in 1987. Mealbach claimed she was a Siamese twin of one of the daughters of John Dodge.

Wow... thanks for sharing that.

It saddens me that she never got the truth during her lifetime. Either way, that woman deserved to see her real birth certificate and to know her real life story.

If you believe in the after-life, that it will put a smile on your face because I'm sure she KNOWS the real story now.

This was always one of my favorite cases. Partly because it is from the original UM broadcast, but also because it is such a great story.

RIP, Frances. . .

That is SO sad! This seemed one of the most solvable cases and she seemed such a likable lady!

Very sad. :( I read the book about her case and am totally convinced she is the daughter of John Dodge. I wonder if her children will continue the fight.

I'm so sorry to hear of her passing And offended she never got the truth. If Dodge was her father, its a disgrace that the family didn't stand up and accept her like a real family

She didn't want anything from them other than confirmation that she was related, correct?

She didn't want anything from them other than confirmation that she was related, correct?

Well from the impression I got from the UM segment she just wanted recognition. Her daughters were a different story I think.

From the info provided in the link, she says that for the lawsuit, she had DNA taken at University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. I guess this was because they wanted to prove through DNA that she had no claim to the estate.

They never revealed the DNA results to her and they didn't use the results against her in the lawsuit. When she requested her medical record regarding the DNA result from U of M hospital, the file was there, but empty. There was no DNA info in it at all.

That led her to believe that the DNA results were in her favor, that the results proved that she was related.

Regarding the motive for keeping one twin and not the other... A house maid is listed as Frances' birth mother on some of the documents. Could be that old Dodge had a thing for the hired help? Supposedly records show both women gave birth within 2 or 3 days of each other.

If Frances was a legitimate twin and not the child of the maid, either way, she was known to have been very sickly, was suspected or known to have tuberculosis, and was sent to live in a treatment facility in the home town of Mr. Dodge, all the way on the other side of the state.

At about age 6 months, Dodge's assistant had her placed with family friends but her adoption was never finalized and she did not know she was adopted until her adoptive father's death when his papers (will?) mentioned it.

So, I'm thinking that they got rid of the sick child just like they got rid of crazy aunts and ******** kids and everything else back then (1914). They sent the unwanted person to a "home" and pretended they never existed. Certain illnesses carried a stigma back then and a prominent family such as the Dodge's would not bear something like that publicly.

Also, according to Frances, on the day after her birth, her father went to work and announced his twins as "I've had a litter."

I can't believe even after all the years after the father's death that they are still covering this up.

I can't believe even after all the years after the father's death that they are still covering this up.

Well, now would probably be an especially bad time to find out that there's a hundred years worth of people who are heirs to whatever the heck is left of Dodge (chrysler, jeep, mopar, pentastar) Corporation.

Yeah, true. I wonder if Pat's daughters haven't found an attorney that will take on this case. I mean any high level attorney with the resources to take on the Dodge Corporation has to see the possibility of major dollar signs in this case.

Here is another example of the human costs of protecting corporate interests: http://www.skippy.com/skippy1.html

That is frightening, especially considering they can Baker Act people and keep them locked away and sedated for years. All they pretty much need are a few people that say the subject is a danger to others and themselves.

I can't believe even after all the years after the father's death that they are still covering this up.


I got the book "tangled web" from the library, it was a very good read. Very detailed history of the Dodge Motor Co. and the people and era. If you are a car buff you would enjoy the book. Only the last chapters that really focus on the "twin mystery". All in all most of the Dodges had a tragic life.

Some of the evidence in the book does not totally convince me that Frances Mealbach was the daughter of John Dodge. A lot of the evidence is heresay, rumor, speculation.

The only piece of evidence that does convince me is the DNA test. There was apparently one done. The Dodge grandchildren wanted it done, but Frances was not to be given the results. Mysteriously, the test results went missing. How convenient! Even the original lab doesn't have record of the results. You know darn well if the results were negative, the grandchildren and their lawyers would be running to the courthouse waving the paper in the air. That the results went "missing", makes me believe she was a Dodge daughter.