Account
Dec 30, 2018
Jan 27, 2022
Julia
Shimkus
105
54
67 inches
180 lbs
White / Caucasian
Female
In the winter of 1972, a 54-year-old woman named Julia Shimkus vanished from her home in the Esplen neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving behind a mystery that has endured for decades. On December 20th, Julia, a cook, left her residence on Oregon Street around noon with plans to do some Christmas shopping. She was also scheduled to work her 5:00 p.m. shift at the Rockwood Lounge, located about a half-mile away in the McKees Rocks Plaza, but she never arrived. When she left her home that day, she was wearing a black trench coat, black shoes, a green and white scarf, and dark-framed eyeglasses. No one has definitively heard from or seen her since that day. At the time she went missing, Julia was living with her daughter, her husband having passed away from cancer several years earlier in 1965. The years following Julia's disappearance were filled with uncertainty and a desperate search for answers by her family. Her son, in particular, remained persistent in his efforts to find his mother, even writing to television shows like "Unsolved Mysteries" in the hopes of bringing wider attention to her case. A significant but unconfirmed lead emerged in 1974 when a friend of Julia's, who worked as a clerk at a Woolworth's store in Pittsburgh, reported seeing her. The friend claimed that Julia was with a male companion, whom she introduced before asking the clerk to say hello to her brother. Despite this potential sighting, no concrete evidence surfaced to verify her whereabouts. The trail remained cold, and with no further contact or credible sightings, Julia Shimkus was legally declared dead in 1980. Decades later, the case saw a brief moment of potential breakthrough in 1995. The new owners of Julia's former home on Oregon Street discovered bone fragments in a crawl space beneath the kitchen, sparking hope for a resolution. However, upon examination, the fragments were determined to be of animal origin, once again leaving the family with no answers. At the time she vanished, Julia was reportedly on good terms with her children and was even considering marrying her boyfriend. While she had experienced a period of depression following her husband's death, her family did not believe she was depressed at the time she went missing. The case of Julia Shimkus is an overview of a woman who seemingly vanished without a trace while running holiday errands and heading to her job, leaving her loved ones in a state of perpetual ambiguity. Despite the passage of time and the lack of new evidence, her disappearance remains an unsolved and poignant local mystery.
Dec 20, 1972
Esplen
Pennsylvania
Allegheny County
15204
No
45482
Pittsburgh Police Department
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Allegheny County
15233
Krista Hoebel
Detective
1203 Western Avenue, Pennsylvania
4123237800
Local
Law Enforcement
Pittsburgh Police Department
10708
Brown
Unknown
Unknown
05/31/2026
