Judith Hyams

[flytrapp]

Hello all! I was doing some internet digging on Judith Hyams (the correct spelling, not Himes) and I found out through a few different newspaper articles written shortly after she disappeared some details that the UM didn't report.
1. Judith was married and her divorce had just been finalized about 2 months before she disappeared. She was living with her husband right up until the divorce went through and then she moved back in with her parents.
2. It is believed that Judith had a secret bank account in a "Western state" with a large sum of money in it (divorce settlement money).
3. The UM segment mentioned a witness seeing a man park Judith's rental car and take off. What it didn't report was that the man later returned with a woman who had dark brown or black hair, they inspected the car, and then left in a buick. The man had sandy or bleached hair and bad complexion.
4. She had an appointment with her doctor later in the week to discuss her pregnancy but disappeared before the appointment.
5. The police found the lab report confirming Judith's pregnancy at her parents house with the rest of her things.
6. The police questioned a man who was a dentist who went out with Judith the night before she vanished.
To me, this information adds a few questions. Did the phone calls start from Omaha because of the "Western state" bank account rumours? Was the pregnancy from her husband, the dentist or some other person? Who were the man and the woman who were seen around the car, were they that Hungarian doctor and a nurse maybe?
Speaking of the Hungarian doctor, George Haju, anyone know the correct spelling of his name?
Sorry if some of this information has already been posted. I checked and couldn't find anything better I never have very good luck when trying to search this site LOL.

[flytrapp]

I answered my own question, the spelling is George Hadju, reading more articles about the case and I just came across his name.

[fabgourmet]

Originally Posted by flytrapp

I answered my own question, the spelling is George Hadju, reading more articles about the case and I just came across his name.

Actually the correct spelling would be Hajdu, it's a very common Hungarian last name, I bet there are more than 1,000 men named Gyorgy Hajdu.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by flytrapp

Hello all! I was doing some internet digging on Judith Hyams (the correct spelling, not Himes) and I found out through a few different newspaper articles written shortly after she disappeared some details that the UM didn't report.
1. Judith was married and her divorce had just been finalized about 2 months before she disappeared. She was living with her husband right up until the divorce went through and then she moved back in with her parents.
2. It is believed that Judith had a secret bank account in a "Western state" with a large sum of money in it (divorce settlement money).
3. The UM segment mentioned a witness seeing a man park Judith's rental car and take off. What it didn't report was that the man later returned with a woman who had dark brown or black hair, they inspected the car, and then left in a buick. The man had sandy or bleached hair and bad complexion.
4. She had an appointment with her doctor later in the week to discuss her pregnancy but disappeared before the appointment.
5. The police found the lab report confirming Judith's pregnancy at her parents house with the rest of her things.
6. The police questioned a man who was a dentist who went out with Judith the night before she vanished.
To me, this information adds a few questions. Did the phone calls start from Omaha because of the "Western state" bank account rumours? Was the pregnancy from her husband, the dentist or some other person? Who were the man and the woman who were seen around the car, were they that Hungarian doctor and a nurse maybe?
Speaking of the Hungarian doctor, George Haju, anyone know the correct spelling of his name?
Sorry if some of this information has already been posted. I checked and couldn't find anything better I never have very good luck when trying to search this site LOL.

That is all really interesting information--thanks for digging it up and posting it!

I guess a question I have about any of the Nebraska phone calls is whether they were actually placed FROM Nebraska. Unless the first phone call lasted over 15 minutes, at the time there shouldn't have been any way to trace it. So while there is this mystery about "the phone calls from Nebraska", it may be that those calls weren't made from the state at all. They even could have been made from Coral Gables. The only thing that seems to suggest that they came from Nebraska is that someone called pretending to be a talk show host in Omaha (which, at the time, an individual might only know about if he had actually spent time in Omaha), and someone called later claiming Judy was alive and living in that city.

[asmitty]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

That is all really interesting information--thanks for digging it up and posting it!

I guess a question I have about any of the Nebraska phone calls is whether they were actually placed FROM Nebraska. Unless the first phone call lasted over 15 minutes, at the time there shouldn't have been any way to trace it. So while there is this mystery about "the phone calls from Nebraska", it may be that those calls weren't made from the state at all. They even could have been made from Coral Gables. The only thing that seems to suggest that they came from Nebraska is that someone called pretending to be a talk show host in Omaha (which, at the time, an individual might only know about if he had actually spent time in Omaha), and someone called later claiming Judy was alive and living in that city.

I have never seen any evidence stating the calls actually came from Nebraska or where they were actually placed. They could very well have come from Coral Gables. Other than the mention that Judy was alive and in Omaha, the only other thing connecting the calls to Omaha was that the first caller claimed to be an Omaha radio show host and was able to provide the private unlisted home phone number of said host (provided we believe what we were told by the police officer and the radio host in the segment).

[baloony]

Originally Posted by Huskerz85

Well if the statute of limitations had expired and whoever wrote the letter knew this, I don't think they'd intend for it to be a deterrent........

I think what happened was just a sad case of bad luck. Complications developed from the abortion which she was either unable to anticipate or unexperienced in dealing with. She died either in that squalid shack, or somewhere close by and the doctor panicked. He had someone dispose of her body in Biscayne Bay and then get rid of her car (the blood in the backseat could suggest that's where her body was sitting while in transit....)

Then at the first chance he got (after making bail), he bolted. Now why would he go and do that if Judith had survived the procedure?? Passing himself off as a doctor is bad enough.......but certainly not as bad as passing himself off as a doctor and causing the death of an innocent woman........

As far as I know, no attempt was made by the Omaha Police Department to investigate the phone calls or do any sort of investigation to dispell these rumors. *(Coincidentally, the Omaha Chief of Police at the time--James Skinner, later resigned to become the Police Chief in Coral Gables in 1997)

James Skinner replaced Chuck Scherer who retired in 1997 and passed away years later in 2014.

[baloony]

UM messed up a bit on this segment. It turns out that someone who worked for the station DID in fact place those calls. The late Steve Brown was interviewed for the segment and said he knew nothing of that call, but later found out who was behind it, and the person subsequently resigned from the station as a result. Unfortunately, with both Steve Brown and Captain Scherer being deceased now, there is no way to find out more.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by baloony

UM messed up a bit on this segment. It turns out that someone who worked for the station DID in fact place those calls. The late Steve Brown was interviewed for the segment and said he knew nothing of that call, but later found out who was behind it, and the person subsequently resigned from the station as a result. Unfortunately, with Steve Brown being deceased now, there is no way to find out more.

The entire section of the UM segment about the calls to Steve Brown was always edited out on Lifetime reruns. For years, many of us didn't know about that aspect of the case until tapes of the NBC broadcast of the episode began circulating, as well as newspaper articles that suddenly became available due to many papers making their archives available online.

I always thought Lifetime trimmed the segment to squeeze in the update about the letter, but if the calls were later discovered by Brown himself to be bogus that could be an additional reason for that particular editorial decision.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by baloony

UM messed up a bit on this segment. It turns out that someone who worked for the station DID in fact place those calls. The late Steve Brown was interviewed for the segment and said he knew nothing of that call, but later found out who was behind it, and the person subsequently resigned from the station as a result. Unfortunately, with Steve Brown being deceased now, there is no way to find out more.

Wow, I had no idea about that.

[flytrapp]

Originally Posted by baloony

UM messed up a bit on this segment. It turns out that someone who worked for the station DID in fact place those calls. The late Steve Brown was interviewed for the segment and said he knew nothing of that call, but later found out who was behind it, and the person subsequently resigned from the station as a result. Unfortunately, with Steve Brown being deceased now, there is no way to find out more.

Whoa!!! That's crazy! Good find! Where did you find this information?

[baloony]

Originally Posted by flytrapp

Whoa!!! That's crazy! Good find! Where did you find this information?

It's a long story. Basically, what happened was, when Steve Brown died in 2008, I had asked (in the comments section of the article that announced that he had passed) if that was in fact the same Steve Brown that had been interviewed on UM. I was sure it was, I just wanted to be absolutely certain. Several replies stated that that was in fact, the same Steve Brown. Anyway, I then ended up e-mailing the writer of the article and asked him if he was familiar with the whole Judith Hyams case and how Steve Brown's name and number had been given to the late Captain Scherer down in Coral Gables, which led to him being interviewed on UM. He said that he was not familiar with any of that, but he did forward my e-mail along to someone who had worked with Mr. Brown for a long time.

That person replied to me and told me that UM did not do a very good job of explaining the phone call where the caller left Steve's name and unlisted home phone number. Long story short, that turned out to be someone from the station who took it upon themselves to contact the Coral Gables Police Department and leave Mr. Brown's information. Eventually, the person responsible for placing that particular call resigned from the station in complete embarrassment.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by baloony

It's a long story. Basically, what happened was, when Steve Brown died in 2008, I had asked (in the comments section of the article that announced that he had passed) if that was in fact the same Steve Brown that had been interviewed on UM. I was sure it was, I just wanted to be absolutely certain. Several replies stated that that was in fact, the same Steve Brown. Anyway, I then ended up e-mailing the writer of the article and asked him if he was familiar with the whole Judith Hyams case and how Steve Brown's name and number had been given to Captain Shear down in Coral Gables, which led to him being interviewed on UM. He said that he was not familiar with any of that, but he did forward my e-mail along to someone who had worked with Mr. Brown for a long time.

That person replied to me and told me that UM did not do a very good job of explaining the phone call where the caller left Steve's name and unlisted home phone number. Long story short, that turned out to be someone from the station who took it upon themselves to contact the Coral Gables Police Department and leave Mr. Brown's information. Eventually, the person responsible for placing that particular call resigned from the station in complete embarrassment.

Whoa.

Great work, baloony. That definitely seems plausible. I wonder how the person at the station came across information on the case.

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by baloony

It's a long story. Basically, what happened was, when Steve Brown died in 2008, I had asked (in the comments section of the article that announced that he had passed) if that was in fact the same Steve Brown that had been interviewed on UM. I was sure it was, I just wanted to be absolutely certain. Several replies stated that that was in fact, the same Steve Brown. Anyway, I then ended up e-mailing the writer of the article and asked him if he was familiar with the whole Judith Hyams case and how Steve Brown's name and number had been given to Captain Shear down in Coral Gables, which led to him being interviewed on UM. He said that he was not familiar with any of that, but he did forward my e-mail along to someone who had worked with Mr. Brown for a long time.

That person replied to me and told me that UM did not do a very good job of explaining the phone call where the caller left Steve's name and unlisted home phone number. Long story short, that turned out to be someone from the station who took it upon themselves to contact the Coral Gables Police Department and leave Mr. Brown's information. Eventually, the person responsible for placing that particular call resigned from the station in complete embarrassment.

Wow, that's an excellent find! This explains the most baffling element of the case to me. I can't imagine what their motive would have been to impersonate a radio host to inquire about an obscure 25-year old cold case.

I wonder how the "Judith Hyams is alive" call fits into this since that particular caller was a woman and obviously, the person impersonating Brown would have been a man. I wonder if this employee put someone else up to make the "Judith Hyams is alive" call in retaliation for losing his job?

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by justins5256

The entire section of the UM segment about the calls to Steve Brown was always edited out on Lifetime reruns. For years, many of us didn't know about that aspect of the case until tapes of the NBC broadcast of the episode began circulating, as well as newspaper articles that suddenly became available due to many papers making their archives available online.

I always thought Lifetime trimmed the segment to squeeze in the update about the letter, but if the calls were later discovered by Brown himself to be bogus that could be an additional reason for that particular editorial decision.

I checked out the original NBC segment and looked for the part with Don Brown that Lifetime cut out. Here is what was said...

STACK: Two days after the Nebraska lecture, Captain Sheer received a long distance phone call at his office in Coral Gables. The caller identified himself as Steve Brown, the host of a popular radio talk show in Omaha. He said an anonymous caller had given him information on the disappearance of Judith Hyams.

SHEER: I told Mr. Brown that I wasn't familiar with the case, that I'd have to research it and get back to him. I asked him for his phone number and if he knew how to get in touch with this person that had called the radio talk show. He said, yes, he knew how to get back to him and he gave me two phone numbers.

STACK: A day later, Captain Sheer called Steve Brown in Nebraska.

STEVE BROWN: He said, well, regarding your call to me, I have dug up the information that you needed and I have it for you. And I said, excuse me? This was a call out of the blue. I didn't know who the man was and I couldn't imagine what he was talking about.

SHEER: He was totally surprised. He had never heard of me. He never knew anything about it and denied adamantly that he was the one who made the phone call.

STEVE BROWN: When he gave me my own unlisted home phone number, I began to think through the people that come to mind who have that telephone number, thinking they could have called. And nobody has yet come to mind who would make such a phone call without telling me about it, claiming to be me.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't remember this segment being brought up in the thread where we discussed all the cuts Lifetime made to the original NBC segments.

[baloony]

Captain Chuck Scherer, the one who received the "Judy Hyams is alive and she lives in Omaha" phone calls passed away in 2014.