In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down perhaps the most controversial ruling in its history. The high court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the majority of instances.

Although abortions were illegal prior to the ruling, pregnancies had been covertly terminated for years. Because the procedures had to be done secretly, they were usually not performed by reputable doctors in medical facilities and were extremely risky.

Many women died as a result of faulty abortions. One of these victims may have been twenty-two-year-old Judy Hyams of Coral Gables, Florida.

In August 1965, at a time when unwed pregnancies were far more frowned upon than today, the twenty-two-year-old lab technician was allegedly in a pregnant predicament. Believed to be expecting, Judy was alone, unmarried, and had little money. Her parents were wealthy but also very religious, and she likely feared they would scorn her.

Although Judy’s body was never found, she is believed to have died during a botched abortion. But nearly a quarter-of-a-century after she was last heard from, an anonymous letter and several phone calls claimed she was alive and living in a part of America to which she had no known connection.

Judy Hyams

On September 14, 1965, Judy told her friend, Marilyn Jackson, she was getting off work early and planned to spend the afternoon shopping. After leaving work, she withdrew $300 from her bank account. Police, however, believed she had already done her shopping and had found what she wanted: someone to perform an illegal abortion.

After several days passed with no word from Judy, a friend told police he had arranged for a man named George Hadju to perform an abortion on her. Hadju, a Hungarian immigrant, had a medical license in his home country but not in the United States. Police say he was operating an illegal abortion clinic in Coral Gables.

Judy’s friend said the date and time had been set and confirmed Hadju’s price for the procedure was $300. Judy is believed to have registered at the clinic under the name “B. Kenney.”

Having an Abortion?

Three weeks after Judy’s disappearance, a rental car in her name was found six-hundred-fifty miles away in Atlanta, Georgia. Blood traces were splattered across the back seat but whatever evidence once existed had dissipated by the time of the car’s discovery. A resident reported seeing a stocky man parking the vehicle and removing what appeared to be a duffel bag from the trunk. The man was thought to be in his early-to-mid thirties, but he was never identified.

Three months later, in January 1966, Hadju was arrested for perjury, impersonating a physician, and performing illegal abortions. Police wanted to question him about Judy’s disappearance, but he jumped bail before they could do so and was not located; police believe he fled to his native Hungary.

The investigation into Judy Hyams’ disappearance turned cold for nearly twenty-five years until being revived in a most unusual manner.

No Trace of Judy

In March 1990, Coral Gables Police Captain Chuck Scherer delivered a narcotics lecture at a police academy two-hundred miles west of Omaha, Nebraska. It was his first visit to Nebraska, and he was unfamiliar with Judy’s case, which was never mentioned during the lecture.

Two days after returning to Florida, Captain Scherer received a phone call from a man identifying himself as Steve Brown, the host of a radio program in Omaha. The man claimed to have information on Judy’s disappearance but said he was unable to go into detail then. He left a phone number and asked Captain Scherer to call him the following day. When the captain did so, he found the number was the unlisted home phone number of Steve Brown, but the radio host had not called Captain Scherer and knew nothing of Judy’s disappearance.

Two days later, Captain Scherer received another phone call, this time from a woman. Quietly and quickly, she twice said, “Judith Hyams is alive and lives in Omaha,” before hanging up.

 

Captain Charles Scherer

Coral Gables Police Department

Six months later, in September 1990, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Judy’s disappearance, an article on the missing woman appeared in the Coral Gables newspaper.

Shortly thereafter, Captain Scherer received a third anonymous phone call. This time the caller was a man claiming to be an FBI informant. He refused to give his name, but Captain Scherer did not believe he was the man who had made the first phone call pretending to be Steve Brown. The alleged informant claimed he had recently been with Dr. Hadju in Budapest, Hungary, and gave Captain Scherer Hadju’s phone number.

INTERPOL determined the number was registered to the pseudo doctor. Hadju, however, again pulled another Houdini act, disappearing before he could be questioned.

Police believe it unlikely Hadju made the phone calls to Captain Scherer but still believe he had information about Judy’s disappearance. Hadju has never been located and is likely now deceased. I could not find a picture of him.

Strange Phone Calls

On January 6, 1991, four days after Judy Hyams’ disappearance was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, the Coral Gables Police Department received an unsigned typewritten letter.

Postmarked from Coral Gables, the letter read, “Judy Himes [some news outlets spelled her surname that way] is not alive. She came in for an abortion and was given an injection of anesthetic to which she had an immediate allergic reaction. Everything that could be done was done but the reaction was fatal. The body was disposed of in Biscayne Bay.” Police believed the letter was legitimate but could not confirm the claim.

Authorities hope the author is still living and will contact them. They guarantee the writer’s confidentiality and emphasize no criminal prosecution will occur because the statute of limitations has expired.

Police have no explanation for the phone calls tying Judy to Omaha, Nebraska. She is not known to have any connection to the city.

And a Contradictory Letter

As far as police could determine, the friend who said he arranged the abortion is the only person Judy told of her alleged pregnancy. If she were pregnant when she disappeared in September 1965, she would have been in the early stages because she was not showing and was not wearing the loose clothing typically worn to try to conceal pregnancies.

Many of Judy’s friends, however, do not believe she was pregnant and that an abortion never occurred. They contend that Judy, as a technician working in the medical field, would have known the dangers of undergoing the illegal procedure and do not believe she would have subjected herself to such risks.

As improbable as it may seem, some of Judy’s friends believe that she, for reasons known only to her, started a new life for herself, perhaps in Omaha, Nebraska.

I could not find any source stating who the father of Judy’s alleged child may have been.

Did Judy Willingly Disappear?

Judith Carol Hyams has been missing since September 14, 1965. She had black hair and brown eyes and may have been in the early stages of pregnancy. Some sources spell her surname as “Himes.”

Judy would today be eighty-years-old. If you have any information relating to her disappearance, please contact the Coral Gables, Florida, Police Department 305-442-1600.

Computer-Aged Image of Judy Hyams

Approximately Age Fifty

SOURCES:

• Charley Project
• Coral Gables Gazette
• Doe Network
• Miami Herald
• Omaha World Herald
• Unsolved Mysteries