Edna Thorne ////// 852 | Forensic Files

[Music] Summer is coming right to your door with Target Circle 360. Get all the season
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for Mental Wellbeing, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. [Music] Heat. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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True Crime Garage, more TCG for your ear balls, subscribe to us on Patreon or Apple podcast subscription. And Colonel,
that's enough of the business. All right, everybody, gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true
crime. [Music] [Music] When 15-year-old Edna Thorne vanished decades ago, no one held a news
conference to ask for help finding her. No one offered a $50,000 reward. There was no ongoing coverage of the missing
teen's plight on television and in the newspapers. Edna Thorne is still a virtual unknown.
Her disappearance is as much a mystery today to her family and to the police as it was decades ago. Quote, "She just
left one day and said she was going to the stables. She hasn't been seen or heard from since." End quote. As
reported back in 2000, each year more than 5,000 Philadelphia teens are reported missing. Most are runaways or
abducted by family members. However, 1% of these missing teenager reports like Edna's case is a bonafide mystery. So
Edna's case is not unlike teens who went missing before her and after. Unfortunately, sometimes folks simply
mysteriously vanish. Then years go by and then in some cases decades. The job of the Philadelphia police may
have been easier if Edna's case had the publicity and the reward that some other
cases have received. Sadly, her case remains open today. This is the missing person's case of 15-year-old Edna
Thorne, and this is True Crime Garage. [Music] [Music] It has been 50 years to the day, 50
years since a teenage girl walked out the door and has never been seen again. Edna Christine Thorne would have turned
65 this last February. That is if she was not missing and presumed dead. Instead, Edna and her family have missed
birthdays, maybe a wedding, and possibly children of her own in a case that has remained a Philadelphia mystery for
decades. Edna Christine Thorne was born in February of 1960, and she was just 15
years old when she went missing from Philadelphia 50 years ago on June 24th, 1975.
She still has an older sister, her name is Deb, who is looking for her and who keeps an active Facebook page aimed at
finding answers to Edna's disappearance and hopefully bringing her home. Edna had several sisters, in fact, two older
and one younger. Now, at the time of the disappearance, Edna had recently graduated from Stson Junior High School.
The reports state that Edna left the family's home located on Front Street in Philadelphia. The reports state that she
left on foot and left alone. One of her older sisters is Elvara. Now, Elvra got married the previous year to a guy named
Frank Ryan. Edna's relatively new brother-in-law had given her a pony as a gift at some point. So on the day that
she vanished, Edna left her family's home on Front Street. This to go visit her new horse at its stable. Now, I do
not have a great timeline due to the how far we're going back here on this case.
So, I'm not sure of when he gave her this horse as a gift, but all reports state the same that she was leaving the
home on Front Street on foot to go visit the horse at the stable. Now, prior to leaving, Edna had invited her
13-year-old sister to join her in the visit, but for whatever reason, the sister stayed behind. The horse stable
was located on a relative's property. This is at Toga Street. This area is right on the border of Philadelphia's
Kensington neighborhood, which today is now known for the largest open air market on the East Coast. And this is
where the TV series Long Bright River takes place. Oddly, Long Brightite River is about a lady looking for her sister,
her missing sister. The series, though, has nothing to do with our case here today, just simply an interesting
coincidence. Edna Thorne, our missing individual, is listed on several websites and databases. One that we
reference often is the charlie project website, the largest, most comprehensive collection of missing persons reports
and database. Please visit the charliepro.org or spelled with an ey where they have over 16,000 missing
persons profiles and links are listed for most if not all of those profiles for further investigation and study. The
site is run by Megan Good who is doing good work and relies on donations to keep the site fully up and running. The
Teogga stables referenced in the Charlie Project write up on this case are no more, but their closure makes it
difficult for me to pinpoint the exact location. However, from what I could find here, Captain, the stables are
close to the family's home, I'm assuming, because she left on foot. The stables, the info that I found suggests
that they were located at Tyogga Street and I Street near that intersection, if not at that intersection. So, so if this
was a straight shot from their home, it's like 9 or 10 blocks. And we do believe that she made it there cuz we
have eyewitnesses that put her at the stables. Yes, that's correct. And like you said, Captain, it looks like the
Edna's trek to the stables is not of concern here. Now, in the trailer for today's episode, I briefly touched on
reports from 25 years ago out of Philadelphia of statistics stating that each year more than 5,000 Philadelphia
teens are reported missing. Most are runaways or abducted by family members. Some of the websites that have Edna's
missing case listed, among other cases, have hers as a suspected nonfamilial abduction. If you have listened to our
show for some time, you know that the results typically are for those abducted by someone outside of the family are bad
and even worse when you start to talk about a possible stranger abduction. So Edna's travels to the stable is not the
concern because as the captain said, we have several folks that see her at the stables at some point that day and some
that state that they even spoke with Edna. So, she made it there just fine. But as the story goes, Edna was last
seen leaving the stables and has never been heard from again. Okay, she's 15, but there's nothing to suggest this, but
maybe she's filled with that teenaged angst and defiantly walks away, leaving her family and old life behind. It it
would not be the first time that a teenager would run away from home, but again, there's nothing to suggest this.
And in fact, there are some indicators that suggest she had no intentions of leaving her family, especially her
mother, who loved Edna and the children dearly. So, a little digging here from the Charlie Project web page regarding
Edna's case. It states, "Although Edna had been in foster care as a child and she had recently argued with her sister,
now we should point out we are unsure of which sister. She had multiple sisters.
There's no indication she had been planning to run from home, and she didn't take any money with her when she
left the house, only taking with her a pack of cigarettes. She wasn't dating anyone at the time of her disappearance,
so no older boy to lure her away on a rebel lover's runaway. She simply left the stables and vanished, gone for 50
years, and possibly, very sadly, maybe gone forever. Let the captain state the obvious, right? If you're going to run
away and you decide that you're going to visit your pony first, you're not going
to invite your sister along with you. Doesn't make any sense. Oh, well, let's go visit my pony and then on the way
home, uh, you just go back to the house and I'll run away and start a new life. Doesn't make much sense at all. Yeah.
And there's nothing inside the home. Well, possibly. We we'll get we'll get to digging a bit deeper here, but on the
surface at least, there's nothing inside the home that suggests that she would want to run away. And then think about
her situation. It's early into the summer break. She's going into high school. She has the sisters and as you
said, invited a sister to go along with her. At the time of her disappearance, Edna was just 15 years old. She was
about 5'1 in tall and approximately 105 lb. She was wearing a striped shirt and bell-bottom jeans. She has brown hair,
brown eyes, and she was a smoker. As we mentioned, when she left her house, she left only with a pack of cigarettes. In
fact, this is something that I think gives further insight into this case. It's reported by multiple people that
she left that pack of cigarettes behind at the stable. So, as said, the reports are that she was last seen leaving the
stables, never heard from again. I would like to know a few things here, right? The details of that statement and from
who, right? Last seen leaving the stables. Who did that come from and what are the details of that statement? Also,
who reported Edna missing and when? That info has been requested by yours truly.
What does the great William Joel say in Allentown filling out forms standing in line? a song about another Pennsylvania
city. That's basically where we are. We are likely weeks away from that information making its way to us, if it
ever does, because who's to say that the information even exists. It's been 50 years. We'll find out. We've looked into
other cases, a few other cases going back this far and sometimes it happens where the file or information that
should be may once was in the file is now no longer, right? So that could be the case here. It's not terribly
uncommon with a case this old. One thing we'll know as, and I can say this proudly, former smokers, I think this is
interesting because this also messes with the timeline. Even if you had a definitive
timestamp of when she left the stables. Mhm. As once a avid smoker, if I'm taking off and I'm walking back home, I
just visited my pony. But as I'm walking home from the stables and then I realize, oh, I forgot my pack of
cigarettes, I'm walking back to the stables. Mhm. So, this becomes an issue because like you said, I I believe
there's family members that own the stable and there's family members that are at the stable. So, even if you have
eyewitnesses saying, "Well, I saw her leave." So then you could have all these assumptions of, well, if she was
abducted by somebody, it was between the stables and her house. But if she headed
back to the stables to get the pack of cigarettes she left, who did she come in contact with on the way back? Or who did
she come in contact with again at the stables? And we just don't have eyewitnesses of her coming back around
for the second time, if that makes any sense. Well, and that's where I'm curious and that's why I filed for the
information to see if they would the Philadelphia Police Department would give us the report or at least the
statement that they got from the individuals claiming to have seen her at the stable because I wanted to know is
that just it's 50 years old and we've learned something here in the garage covering multiple cases that the longer
a longer on a the longer timelines for these cases especially when they go unsolved D. It's like a game of
telephone. Sometimes something is suggested or or speculation and then it morphs its way into fact or a statement
of fact at some point. And so what I'm wondering here, Captain, is did she leave the stable? And if she did, did
someone actually physically see her leaving the stable? Because there's also a chance that she went missing from the
stable itself without willingly leaving, right? And I'm throwing that out there just because, you know, the reports
could be from these individuals. Yeah, she was here. I spoke with her and then, you know, she was gone. Well, where'd
she go? I I assume she went home. You know, uh, and like you said, former smokers, anybody that's a smoker, former
smoker knows a couple couple things are going to happen here. When she leaves, she's either going to return realizing
she left her pack of smokes. And as a former smoker, I'll tell you, I'm not trying to tell people, you know, there's
nothing better than just walking down the street and puffing. And man, if if they weren't terrible for
you, if they didn't kill you, I man, I'd be puffing one right now. Walking up and
down the summer streets of Philadelphia, just holding your microphone, walking down the street, living best life. Oh
man. Anyway, but so she would return to get the cigarettes or stop off to pick up a pack. God, they were probably like
25 cents a pack back then. Or she would have she would have came home. She's 15.
Like like those seem the three most likely next places that she would be spotted and go ahead and knock all three
of those options down because nobody's saying that that happened. Yeah. So the thing here with with waiting for this
information, I I think, you know, we we should get it. There's no reason that they would withhold this information.
And you know, there's hold back information in in every good investigation, but 50 years have gone by
and and we're still sitting here talking about this case. Well, it also makes me
think that if law enforcement had bigger pieces of evidence or things that they could release to the public to further
along their investigation or maybe drum up new leads that they would have periodically released more information.
And we've seen that happen in in other cases like Amy Mahalovic's case. Yeah. And I think here what they have is a
true vanishing case where she just up and vanished. She's not responsible for why she is
gone. But there's no breadcrumb trail for them to to follow now. And it sounds like over the years people have come
forward with information that very likely due to the passage of time police just cannot confirm if that information
is correct. And so with with this now, one one breadcrumb here is after she goes missing, one of the older sisters
got a disturbing phone call from a man who said that he knew what Ednab was wearing when she disappeared and claimed
that he had buried her in Pennac Park. Now, I want to be clear here because this is reported a few
different ways. The way that it is always reported is that this caller, this mysterious male caller, knows what
Edna was wearing. That part is consistent in every telling of this story. What is not consistent is that he
had buried her. Other versions of the story states that simply states that she is buried in Penny Pac Park. So, Penny
Packac Park still exists to this day, unlike the stables. It's approximately like 6 to 6 and a half miles from where
the stables were back in the day. And I say approximately because it gets very difficult here right away. This is a
rather large park. I don't know that it was the same size back in 1975 as it is today. But according to visitfilly.com,
this park covers more than 1,600 acres of woodlands, meadows, wetlands, and fields. The landscape of this rambling
city park covers rolling hills, open meadow, and many miles of unpaved and paved trails that are great for hiking,
biking, running, and horseback riding. Visitors also find numerous historic buildings there, including a working
farm. Yeah. If if I'm law enforcement, you you also wonder, is this just some sick individual that's going to try to
send the family or law enforcement on a wild goose chase? Because a large park that doesn't even do it justice. You
said over 1,600 acres acres. I mean, that's that's huge. And some of it's wooded, right? And some of its wetlands.
uh the fields would be easier to search because that that's the other part that's missing from the story. When was
this call? Again, some reports stating it was a phone call. Other reports stating multiple phone calls. When was
this call received or these calls received in relation to when she went missing? Because if you're out searching
fields, look, I've said this dozens of times and I'll continue to say it on the show. I'm nothing but repetitive, right,
Captain? Um, let's not get it. Most most criminals most criminals from what I have found, and you don't have to be
Sherlock Holmes or any great scientist or any great understanding of of humans or human nature to to to come to the
same conclusion. Most criminals, John Douglas, are lazy or stupid or both. And I love when they're both because when
they're both, they are easily caught. But this falls into the stupid part. Okay, so burying a body is very
difficult. It's far more difficult than most lazy and/or dumb criminals would expect it to be. Okay? And I know this
100% from reviewing a dozens and dozens of crime scenes and and where bodies are
located from our little garage stories here, but also from some some education that I've received over the years.
Typically, what will happen here, Captain, is people when a person sets out to bury a body, they'll go, "All
right, well, I'm going to I'm going to dig." Most caskets are what, six feet under? That's what most people intend to
do when they start out trying to bury a body. But guess what? Digging a six-foot
trench, rectangle in shape, is very difficult, very laborious, very tedious. It takes a long time, and it's
backbreaking work, my friend. Unless you have a skid steer or or a backhoe or or
some some form of of farm equipment or construction equipment, it's very difficult. So typically what happens is
people start off with that idea and then they bury the person in a very shallow grave. And so if you were searching
fields it, especially if this were in quick su succession after she went missing, you would you would find her.
You would find that burial site if this were true information. The woodlands complicates it, right? If she were in
the woods, that would be very complicated. Uh the wetlands, I'm out to lunch on wetlands. I have no idea about
about trying to conceal a body in wetlands. So, what I'm getting at here is I don't know that this information,
good or otherwise, could be confirmed by anybody. I think that there is reason to
believe a few different things. like you had pointed out, maybe this is somebody
phoning in phony information hoping to complicate the investigation, throw somebody off the scent, or it could be
simply a prankster. And unfortunately, this did happen a lot. It still happens to this day, but it it happened even
more so when you start reviewing these old crimes from the 70s and early 80s where somebody would phone in some
information and a lot of times it was punk ass kids calling a a grieving family or a hurting family just trying
to get their kicks. It could be many different things. One, it could be, like you said, a prankster. Maybe it's just
some sick individual that wants to send the family on a wild goose chase. Or it's possible that it could be the
actual killer. But are they giving you correct information? Oh, well, I I buried her over here. Go look over there
cuz that's 1600 acres. That's going to take you a long time to search. And like you said, hills, forest, wetlands.
That's going to complicate things. Well, maybe she's not buried there at all. Maybe she's buried somewhere else. Now,
let's throw a giant wrench into this narrative just to knock everyone off of their mark. Edna may have been pregnant
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gotos delivered just when you want them. Snacks, towels, and even pillows. Get it
all delivered the same day with Target Circle 360. Restrictions apply. Substance use disorder and addiction is
so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're
vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the
power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwiththope.com. Brought to you by the National Council
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[Music] [Music] All right, we are back. You filthy animals. Cheers to you and cheers to
your your mother, your father, and all your cousins. Distant cousin, distant cousin, your second and third cousin,
maybe even fourth cousins. And cheers to you, Colonel. Not cheers to the cousin that refers refuses to speak with you.
He doesn't get a cheers. I got an email from uh one of our beautiful listeners. You know, I sent out an email to get
people's info for for a shout out uh for the people that are kind enough to donate to the beer fund. And one of them
responded saying, "Cheers from the people in the back to us." So, the people in the back, she says, are
cheersing us. And she says that she is one of them. So, a big shout out to the people in the back. You know, we love
the people all the way in the back of the room. I do want to share this with you. Do I had anybody that's afraid of
um AI taking over the world? So, this listener was just curious if we were married. So, they went to Google and the
and ask Google and their AI response to is the colonel and the captain married? And AI responded, "No, the host of True
Crime Garage, Nick and the captain, are not married to each other. Nick is married to someone else and while the
captain is married to his wife Melissa. That's hilarious because right there's a
lot of stuff that's not true in that. But uh that's hilarious to me because I think we were hanging out with true
crime writer James Rener and we were talking we had just met Tim and Lance from Crawlspace and from Missing Mara
Murray and you asked James, you said are are Tim and Lance married? And James's response was to each other.
So, it's it looks like uh maybe AI and James Rener are the same. So, okay. It's But I just for the
record, it'd be very sick because brothers shouldn't marry each other. And also, I don't know who Melissa is, so I
can't wait to meet her cuz I hope she's nice cuz apparently we're married. Yeah,
she's she's very nice. There's there's a song about it titled Sweet Melissa. That's an old one. Oldie, but I get it.
Okay. This case is now 50 years old as of this very day, today, June 24th, 2025. So, let's go back to when the case
was 25 years old. In the trailer, we suggested that maybe this case would have been easier for Philly PD to work
this one had the case received any real media news outlet attention. And had there been a reward in this case, there
were and are very few news articles about Edna, about Edna Thornne's case. One with Edna's name in it was from 2000
from the Philadelphia Daily News. This was a great article by staff writer Nicole Wilson.
The article featured on the front page of the Tuesday, June 27th, 2000 paper has a lovely picture of Edna smiling
bright and big. Her brown hair appears almost blonde in the black and white of the newspaper pages. Nicole's article
was about several unsolved and unresolved missing teen cases. I took the start of her report and switched up
the names for the trailer because so much of that part that she so eloquently wrote is true. Now, at that time in
Philadelphia, Dr. J, yes, the famous basketball player, arguably the greatest 76er of all time, one of his sons was
missing. recently missing and was the case was receiving a lot of attention like one would expect plus a $50,000
reward. However, Nicole in her article is not trying to take away from the severity of level of concern for looking
for Julius Irving's son, but pointing out that, you know, a lot of other Philadelphia cases of missing people
just I mean, it's not going to didn't receive the media attention that Dr. Jay's son's case was receiving. Julius
Irvin's son, Corey. It was determined that he tragically died in a vehicular accident. He and his car were recovered
from a retention pond sometime later. But they were looking for him for some time and there was much speculation of
foul play leading up to the recovery of of Corey Irving. But in the article with
Edna's picture in reference of her case, it was simplified as just the following.
This is from the article. Quote, Edna Christine Thorne was 15 when she disappeared in June 1975 after leaving a
horse stable. That's it. The article references several other missing teenager cases. Now, it's not the fault
of the Philadelphia Daily News that Edna has not been located. It is not the fault of Philadelphia PD. Hell, if
someone evil had not done something so terrible to Edna, we would not be discussing this matter in the first
place. Edna likely would be living out the start of her golden years, probably with grandkids of her own, chilling like
milk, maybe still living in Philly. The pregnant part is up for debate. I want I
want to be perfectly clear about that. This the the information, if it's good information, great. I I'm so glad that
they put it out there because it can only help to further the investigation. And I'm assuming that this is all
information if it's speculative or fact that obviously this information has made
its way to the Philadelphia police. But as far as our internet investigation goes, end up being pregnant is not
confirmed. Okay. We we cannot say with certainty that that is the case. We do know
according to all reports that she wasn't dating anyone at the time, but internet
rumors suggest that someone within Edna's family might actually be responsible or be the one responsible
for her disappearance. And this this goes back to the to the brother-in-law that we mentioned that that had gifted
the pony. Yeah, it's fishy. Yeah. according to family members. And that's what I think is key here in this part
that we found. It's not according to a family member. It states according to family members. Edna's brother-in-law,
Frank Ryan. So, this is the husband of her older sister, Elvra, who also goes by the nickname Dot. So, Elvra Ryan.
This is not the same sister that today runs the Facebook page, but it's stated that this guy is a possible suspect in
Edna's disappearance. According to the story, this brother-in-law had sexually assaulted, abused Edna and got her
pregnant. There are other reports that state that he was at the horse stable on the day that Edna disappeared. What I
couldn't find here, Captain, and you you correct me if you were able to find it.
You had said earlier that someone in in Edna's family. I think I chimed in and said extended family was the owner of
the property where the stables were. I however I couldn't find the relationship between Edna and the the person that
owns or family that owns right that property. So I if it is extended family, it's not crazy to believe that maybe
it's the brother-in-law's family or extended family that that owns that property. And there that would make it
much easier for Frank Ryan to gift her a pony. And then you wonder, is he just look is this just a good guy who's who's
gotten his name tarnished and he's thrown under the bus by by persons in Edna's family? Could be. Or could this
be a guy be a real [ __ ] Could be. Uh but so why would he give her a pony? Maybe he's just a really nice guy. Maybe
he just wants to fit into the family. Maybe he's just, you know, especially early on. Hey, you want to get to know
the family. You want to get in right with the family. Maybe that's what he's doing. Or maybe the pony is a gift so he
can do things that he shouldn't be doing with a with a young girl, with a underage girl. Maybe this here's a gift
to keep your mouth shut. Yeah. Shut shut up. If if you like nice things, you'll keep your mouth shut. How far does one
have to go to keep somebody's mouth shut? Because as this story goes, if he was the one that got her pregnant, this
could ultimately destroy his marriage to the older sister, Alvara, or it could be
have him and Alvara being outed by the family. It could have him with his ass ending up in prison. Um there's all
kinds of bad outcomes for Frank Ryan if in fact these allegations. Yeah. These allegations if they are in fact true.
Yeah. It leads you to so many questions. Like you said it, was this a gift to keep her quiet? What evidence do we have
that a sexual assault took place or was it multiple sexual assaults? We don't know. You know, there's nobody that I've
heard that said, "Well, I caught him red-handed." Right. So then the question for me becomes, was this speculation
before she went missing? Because then her possibly being pregnant would be obviously that would give this guy a
motive to get rid of her? Because if it's just speculation that something happened and he's saying, "What are you
talking about? I I would never do that. She's she's too young and plus she's your sister and whatever." But then he
finds out, "Oh, well, Edna's pregnant." Well, that would then confirm or there'd
be ways for them to confirm that he's the father and that would confirm the sexual assaults that the assault was
real, right? And so, a lot of questions there and and we don't have certain details to point us in the right
direction. Yeah. Her case. So when I first started looking at this one, I was I remain intrigued, but I was initially
intrigued because there were some other cases that are close in proximity via the timeline, the time frame and the
proximity in distance geological. And there were disappearances of other missing teenagers or children around the
time that Ednim went missing. Now, one of the more well-known cases is that of Sheila and Katherine Lion, the Lion
Sisters, who went missing in March of 1975. So, the same year they went missing from Wheaton, Maryland. But
their case is is, you know, they went missing from a from a a mall, a shopping plaza, and the Adam Walsh case and and
so many other I mean, we've talked and touched upon I don't know that we've covered any in great detail, but we've
touched upon several serial killers that would go to malls to shopping malls specifically to find teenage girls
because that's who they were targeting for victims. And so that one stands out right away.
And there's there's details about that case that you know right away there there's something very bad going on.
That case remained unsolved. It's now solved, but it was for many years was unsolved and it's a very infamous
missing kids case. And then not just the time frame or geographical location proximity-wise,
but the nature of that of drawing a line to Edna's case would be the sister's ages at the time. And then there's some
others. We have Wendy Wheaton who went missing in May of 1975 in in Media, Pennsylvania, as well as Tracy Anne King
who went missing less than a month after Edna from Littlestown, Pennsylvania. And
then you have Kathy Batty who went missing almost exactly Yep. exactly one month after
Edna in Wheaten, Maryland. So, is is there a possibility that this case is connected to something else and this
Frank Ryan has just got a got a bad deal here? Could be. But what what I can say is that there are
multiple people that have gone online and went out of their way to suggest that Frank Ryan is not a good guy and
that he not only that they believe not only assaulted Edna but also got rid of her likely due to the pregnancy.
Well, two points. Go for it. Two points here. one, we know, like you were saying, serial killers go to malls or go
to different areas, not just malls, but different areas to basically hunt for their prey. But we've also heard from
serial killers that sometimes they just it becomes happen stance. was I'm looking for a prey and I'm driving down
this road and I see this young girl. And the other thing, too, is what what what do we see so often in these cases?
I mean, I I think she's under 5 foot. She's around 100 lb. A lot of the these things matter, especially to these
sadistic killers, because they want to be able to control them, but also not just to control them when they're alive,
but to be able to control them when they're dead. And so, if you're going to dispose of a body or get rid of a
victim, it helps if they're a smaller victim. Well, look at accused serial killer, the Long Island serial killer,
Rex Turman, who's a giant troll looking of a man, giant [ __ ] Yeah. Ogre. And he in his Look, we we can sit here and
go, okay, he's accused and he's not been convicted yet, but they found documentation inside his home on his
computer where he's he's talking about the ideal victim for what he wants to do. and he specifically references
petite women. And now that could be because he's sexually attracted to petite women or because that a petite
woman would make a good surrogate for the person that he actually wants to harm or murder or because he's very
large and presumably comes with some ogrelike strength that it would be easy for him to control a small person. And
like the captain said, it would be easy for him to move them around. Yeah. So my
second point was, well, he was married to the older sister. Mhm. One of the older sisters. Yeah. So we should have
some clue as what happened to this guy since since the disappearance of Edna. Like did did they get a divorce? Did
this guy have other charges against him? So Edna disappears and then the way I understand it, Captain Elvra and Frank
lived happily ever after. So we'll we'll get into that in just a second. I want to make sure I don't forget to mention
some of the statements that have come forward over the years. Okay. So what one of them has been that the from two
younger dudes that were at the stables that day. Now their names are a mystery to me. I that I don't I've not found a
place that they've been named, but these beus and Buttad these younger guys. Yeah. And keep in mind like Frank Ryan
would not have been an old guy at the time. Like he is married to Alvara and from my understanding my from the every
bit of information that I could collect here. Again, there's not a lot of it and
it's difficult to confirm a lot of this stuff, but it looks like he would have roughly been about 18 years old when
Edna disappeared. Okay. So, difference I mean that's not threeear difference. Yeah. Threeear
difference. Yeah. So, Frank Ryan would have been about 18. Uh let's say maybe 19. Elvra would have
been a little bit younger than Frank. They get married and Frank, these guys say that Frank was at the horse stable
that day and at the horse stable at the same time that Ednub was there, right? It wouldn't be crazy to think that maybe
he offered her a ride. The other thing, too, is that there are reports that Frank Ryan worked uh he drove a truck
and the it was a dump truck, so he would haul trash and other items and then dump
it. And at least one of these guys says that Frank not only was using the truck that night andor the next day, but
typically one of them or both of them would go with him for the purpose of collecting things, moving things,
dumping things. And he insisted that nobody go with him when he was in the truck. And so he could have been he
could have there's no nice way of saying this, he could have simply dumped her at
the dump. Yeah. And who's to say that he didn't phone in? You know, she's at the
park. She was buried in the park. Or that could just be a prankster. The other thing, too, it's not stated what
sister. It just says one of the older sisters was getting received calls. And I say this because I think that if See,
I hate I hate kind of trottting down this road. Go for it. Because Frank's not alive. So, he's not here to defend
himself. But us little garage fellas here, we're not the first ones clearly to accuse this guy of of wrongdoing. It
looks to me like maybe either Elvara suspected Frank and decided to move on, you know, not move on from Frank, just
carry on with her life. Or maybe I'm not saying that she helped him, but I think
maybe she was aware of the truth. When difficult to say, but I'm pointing that out just to to suggest
that could there have been no phone call at all and Elvra just made it up. Right.
Right. All we know is that one of the sisters was receiving these calls. I did have some brief interaction with one of
the family members. These were not questions that we were able to get to uh for because of the complexities that we
won't get into uh on this show, but super complex. Well, it's not always easy to communicate with with people,
especially when you're when you're putting together these stories and you have limited time to do so. So, there's
some very interesting things here. Okay, so when Frank Ryan dies, uh, he passed away in June of 2020.
There was a comment left on his memorial page by his wife, Elvro, that states, "I
was 15, he was 17." This is she's talking about when they first started seeing each other and dating each other.
And then she goes on to mention that they later they get married. And she says, "Some people predicted that we
wouldn't last a year. The first three years were the toughest, but somehow we got through it. We went through a lot
together. It made us stronger. He will always be with me. I love you, Frank. Today, tomorrow, and always." Okay,
nice. But little odd there with the first three years. Maybe that has nothing to do with
her sister. Who knows? Now, let's fast forward to 3 years later when Elvra passes away. This is in November of
2023. Her obituary, and not everybody gets to write their own obituary, but regardless of who was the author of
this obituary, it does not list Edna as a sister, does not list Edna as a relative, late or otherwise, right? It
doesn't say leaving behind her late sister, you know, joining her late sister and
after, you know, in heaven. Nothing. No reference to Edna at all in Elvra Dot's obituary. Yeah. Which again could
mean something or could just mean that I No, I point that out for a reason because there there are other family
members that never stopped talking about Edna. Right. Right. I'm always very suspicious when you see the complete
opposite by by other family members. And I don't know how quickly or or what the
relationship was with Elvivara going forward after that. Right. So the mother um according to the other sister Deb, so
Deb Deb runs a Facebook page for her missing sister and has done so for many many years. This is 50 years later,
right? She's still running this Facebook page, still posting things about her sister, especially on her on her
birthday, on her mom's birthday, and and saying, you know, we miss you and saying, "Hey, me and mom got together
and celebrated your birthday with we ate brownies, and I brought mom flowers for
your birthday." And I mean, very sad stuff. And and and very sadly, the mother passes away at the age of 96,
lives to be 96 years old, never knowing what happened to her daughter. and and the sister saying, "Mom said a prayer
for you every day from the time you went missing until the day she died. She said
a prayer for you every day, hoping that you were okay, hoping you would return or hoping that she would figure out what
happened to you." Right. And the reverse of that is is a sister who there's no mention of of her sister Edna. Right.
And then like you said, but who wrote this? Exactly. you know, and and also it's tough because we and I keep saying
this for the last couple weeks, we can only view these cases through our own lens.
And just like, you know, going back to like the the Brian Schaefer case, he goes missing. The the guy he's with that
night, his supposedly one of his good friends, Clint, wants nothing to do with it. Changes his
name, goes into hiding. his brother doesn't seem to want to talk to a bunch of people about the case. And we can
look at these situations and say, "Well, if it was if it was me, I'd be shouting
it from the rooftops. I wouldn't shut up about it until we got answers." But obviously, we just won't know. We
wouldn't know that unless we were in that situation. Well, and anybody in that situation,
I mean, hopefully none of our listeners have to experience this, but this is not
something that anybody should experience, but any for anyone in that situation, whether your loved one went
missing a month ago, two years ago, 10 years ago, and again, this is not on Deb has done the right thing with her her
Facebook page and what I'm saying, I'm sure mom would have done would have done more had
knew to. And you know, we're talking the internet didn't exist for a large part of of the when this girl was missing,
but read John Walsh's book, Tears of Rage. Um, that that is almost there's chapters in there that feel like a
handbook for what to do if your loved one is missing. Yeah, but hold on. What I'm saying is maybe it's the right thing
for Deb to do, but not everybody in the family, you know, will deal with this situation the
same way. And I think I think it's unfair to say, well, somebody didn't one of the family members didn't want to
talk about it, so that's suspicious. It's just a different way of dealing with it. Yes. I'm not telling anybody
how to handle any very difficult situation. I'm saying if you want to increase the probability the probability
of your loved one being found, located or recovered, read John Walsh's book that you know he will tell you how to
increase the likelihood of finding. Well, just a little kick. Yeah, a little kick back to that though is they didn't
have a lot of great information on Otis Tool being responsible for Adam's death.
And when there was other allegations of people saying, well, they should look into Jeffrey Dmer as a possible suspect
in Adam's death, he it seemed like John Walsh kind of shied away from that. So, right, but he was the one that that did
him and his wife uh Rey were the ones that were were keeping their son's story in the media and made it a national
story. That's what I'm talking about. Forget about any other part of that. Now, back to our case here and back to
the family. So looking through the post over the years on the Facebook page in 2012, so this goes to March of 2012.
Edna's sister Deb, she's she is uh there's some information on Web Sleuth on a Web Sloo thread as well. But this I
found this on the Facebook page as well. She's excited in March of 2012 because she is saying that the police were
revisiting the case and they had contacted family members and wanted to collect DNA from all the family members.
Now, this is this is great because look, Edna's case has been compared to several unidentified remains that have
been found and and and I don't know that there's enough information on Edna to exclude her other
than some some generalities, right? Generalities being height uh and physical attributes, right? The
problem becomes with this when you're recovering remains. You're oftentimes not recovering all of them. Height gets
very difficult. I've talked about that on a couple of other cases where they they've excluded somebody based off of
height and because it's one or two inches off and I say, "Nay, that's a that's a terrible terrible way to
exclude somebody. I think you mention that the height is different, but you don't exclude." So anyway, them
collecting the DNA is a good thing because if if there were remains to be recovered, they they could compare that
to Edna's DNA and then the familial DNA and see if there's a match, right? Because before this, there's a chance
she could have been recovered somewhere and it's never been linked together. That's her post. She's excited. They're
they're revisiting the case. They're collecting family DNA. Right. Shortly after, within a couple days, there's
another post that states, "One of our family members refused accepted originally accepted the
appointment to go and give their DNA, but then later the appointment was cancelled and that individual is
refusing to give DNA to the Philadelphia Police Department." Fishy. And according again this is according to
the family and their statements on webs and on the Facebook page. They state that they were told by the police
department, that the appointment that was agreed upon to submit DNA was cancelled by the individual's wife who
told the police department that he would not be coming down there and he is not going to be giving his DNA in the case.
Look, we we can't say 100% we the the this post states that it's a family member later canceled the appointment
and that it was the family member's wife that canled the appointment. We can't say 100% that it's Alvara and Frank Ryan
that they're talking about because they were kind enough not to mention them, but there's not too many coincidences in
these cases. And it would seem to be that all fingers would be pointing that that would be the most likely two people
that these online posts are referencing here. Well, can I point out something that's a little sneaky sneaky?
Is you were saying that well law enforcement we if we have her remains or if we find remains and we need to
compare them to your family's DNA, well, you'd want the DNA from the sisters, right? Because they're the ones that are
related. So, you wouldn't necessarily need Frank's DNA because he's not technically re related. But if law
enforcement is collecting DNA from the family and and and we don't know this for certain because we don't have all
the details, like you said, they were nice enough not to name these individuals. But if the law enforcement
is contacting the sister and her husband to get both of their DNAs, they're not just trying to get DNA to identify
remains. Well, does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Um, and and I think you're exactly right there. And here's
why. So, I wouldn't I don't want anybody to get to misconrue what I'm saying here, because I don't I don't think that
this is an indicator that they have recovered remains that they believe are Edna. I don't believe that this is an
indicator that they have um physical evidence that would identify the killer. Right. What what you're doing here is if
able, you cast a wide net, especially if you're going back and and re-examining a
case that's that old. Yes. So, if I have my date right here of March uh sorry, of
2012, the the case at this point is over 30 years old. So, if you're Yeah, that's
over 35 years old by that point. So if you cast a wide net and what you're doing is
you're going to collect DNA from anybody that's willing to give it to you. So you
want family and everybody that's one degree of separation from those those immediate family members. So this would
be mother, sisters, and spouses or or or other persons. And so here you go. We can there's databases. We can put that
if we have that information. We can put it into the databases. we we can figure out if she was found on the other side
of the country 20 years prior and it's never been connected. The other part of that too is there's a lot of one-offs. A
lot of times if a person is responsible for the demise of another, they've only they only kill one person. But it's not
a far stretch to say whoever is responsible for Edna's disappearance and likely murder. It's not inconceivable
that they are responsible for other crimes that may have physical evidence that's sitting in databases out there
somewhere. Yes, that's a that's exactly where my mind was going is this individual didn't want to give
their DNA because they know that there could be other cases that can confirm what some people in that family believe
is that this individual is a monster. This case was brought to us by Lauren Fritzky, a true crimeobsessed freelance
journalist and content marketer based outside of Philadelphia. She has followed Edna's case and other local
cases like it for the last 20 years and hopes this episode can help bring justice to Edna and closure to her
surviving family members, which includes several siblings. If you have information regarding Edna's whereabouts
or information that could further the investigation, please call in a tip to the Philadelphia Police Department at
215686 tips. That's 2156868477. [Music] [Music] Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage each and every week. Make sure you subscribe. Make sure you tell your mother, your brother, your
father, and uh your third and fourth cousins. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
listeners? Mhm. Only tell the relatives that you believe would submit DNA should something happen to you because
the ones that you don't think, you don't need to be friends with them. All right,
that this week we are recommending what happened to Holly Bobo. This is a podcast available on ABC's 2020 podcast
feed. ABC News correspondent and Good Morning America co-anchor Ava Pilgrim. She was kind enough to come on Off the
Record with me. So, if you're already subscribed to our show, Off the Record, which is on Patreon and Apple
subscription, you may have already listened to this episode. if you haven't, go back and listen to it
because Ava knows every in and out of this case and it's a very twisty and turny type of case. Anybody that's
followed this case knows of the twist and turns some of them and more are coming to light as it would appear. What
happened to Holly Bobo is a series as said on ABC's 2020 podcast feed. 20year-old Holly Bobo was abducted in
April of 2011. and her partial remains were re were found in 2014. The death was ruled a homicide. It was determined
she had been shot in the back of the head. We covered this case in October of 2017. True Crime Garage episodes 146 and
147. So, really a lot of stuff here. If you want to dive into this case, you can
review our off thereord episode. You can review our two old episodes. And don't forget to go and check out the series
that is now available on ABC's 2020 podcast feed. So you can find that recommendation and many, many more
podcasts, documentaries, books, lots of different recommendations for you available. If you need some more
true crime, you can find that on our recommended page, true crimegar.com. And until next week, be good, be kind, and
don't litter. [Music] Heat. Heat. Summer is coming right to your door with Target Circle 360. Get all the season
gotos delivered just when you want them. Snacks, towels, and even pillows. Get it
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Edna Thorne ////// 852

Part 1of 1

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June 24, 1975 - 15 year old Edna Christine Thorne went missing after visiting the horse stables near her home. That day she asked her sister is she wanted to go visit the horse with her, but she declined. Edna was last seen leaving the Tioga Street horse stables. Like so many cases in the 70s, the police initially treated Edna’s case as a runaway case but eventually concluded this to be unlikely. Authorities now suspect that Edna Thorne was abducted and likely killed. If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the Philadelphia Police Department at 215-686-TIPS that’s 215-686-8477.

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Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

A special thanks to Lauren Frisky, a true-crime obsessed freelance journalist and content marketer outside of Philly. She has followed Edna’s case and other local cases like it for many years.

More True Crime Garage can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions with our show - Off The Record. Catch dozens of episodes of Off The Record plus a couple of Bonus episodes and our first 50 when you sign up today.

Follow the show on X and Insta @TrueCrimeGarage / Follow Nic on X @TCGNIC / Follow The Captain on X @TCGCaptain

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the unsolved disappearance of Edna Thorne, discussing potential suspects and the lack of media attention surrounding her case.

Key points

The Disappearance of Edna Thorne. 15-year-old Edna Thorne vanished decades ago, leaving her family in a mystery.
A Disturbing Phone Call. After Edna's disappearance, a mysterious caller claimed to know her whereabouts.
The Complicated Investigation. The search for Edna Thorne raises questions about the reliability of tips and potential suspects.
Media Attention Disparity. Edna's case receives little media coverage compared to other high-profile missing persons cases.
Speculation of Pregnancy. Rumors suggest Edna may have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance, complicating the case.
The Mysterious Brother-in-Law. Frank Ryan, Edna's brother-in-law, is implicated in her disappearance with troubling allegations.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She just left one day and said she was going to the stables.

Description of Edna Thorne's disappearance.

4:00WatchJun 24, 2025

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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