Free Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances by Ross Richardson

was the only one she could spend her life with. Something happened to him, something that kept him from reaching out to his family, his children. No one knew what that something was, but if Dick was alive, he would have been in touch at some point.
    Dick had been gone nearly 25 years by now. In a conversation between Jackie and her sister Mary Kay, the subject of psychics came up, particularly a psychic in Traverse City with whom Mary Kay was familiar by the name of Madame Melody.
    “You’ve got to go see her!” Mary Kay insisted.
    Jackie did just that. She called and set up an appointment at the shop on Front Street where Madame Melody worked, and went to see her the following week. After introducing herself at the reception counter, Jackie followed Madame Melody back into the reading room, sat down and made herself comfortable.
    Madame Melody sat across from Jackie and looked her over. One of Jackie’s rings caught her eye.
    “That ring: you’re not the first owner of that ring, are you?” Madame Melody asked with certainty. “That ring is very old. That ring has a lot of history.”
    Jackie explained, “My husband bought this for me when we were first married. He found it at an estate sale in Chicago. It’s very old, indeed.”
    Right after they were married, Dick went to a large old home for an estate sale of a very wealthy woman in the Chicago area. He loved looking at antiques, jewelry and trinkets at estate sales and antique shops. He found the unique ring in the deceased wealthy woman’s jewelry box and bought it for Jackie.
    Madame Melody inquired, “Is your husband a spirit?”
    Jackie responded truthfully, “I don’t know.”
    “Your husband is a spirit, and he’s standing next to me right now, and he’s telling me to tell you something. He won’t let me do anything until I tell you this. He wants you to know that it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t leave. Somebody killed him and put his body in a car, drove to the woods in the middle of Kalkaska, and set the car on fire. He wants you to know that he didn’t leave you. He didn’t leave your children. He loves you and it wasn’t his fault.
    Jackie was flabbergasted! She nearly fell out of her seat. How could Madame Melody know this? After Jackie drove back home to Grayling, she called Lisa and told her, “I went to see the ‘hoodoo voodoo lady,’ and this is what she said…!”
    Jackie gave a surprised Lisa the details of what Madame Melody had told her. After their conversation was finished, Lisa pondered what her mother had said.
    “For the first time in my life, I actually considered that someone could have murdered my father,” Lisa would later say. “I had always thought that maybe he killed himself or went someplace to start a new life. I was haunted by the question of why wasn’t I a lovable enough child for my father to even say goodbye to.”
    Jackie eventually retired from Mercy Grayling Hospital, and got to spend time with her grandchildren. She was even blessed with some great-grandchildren. She stayed in her house on Maple Street, the same house she bought with Dick in the 60s, until the end of her life.
    When Jackie’s health began declining, she found herself on the receiving end of the care she had provided for so many as a nurse. Her family rallied behind her and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. A few weeks before her passing, the children approached Jackie to discuss her funeral plans. They asked if she wanted Dick’s name on her headstone. She did. saying, “Yes, I loved him so much. He was the love of my life.”
     

    Family photo of Dick and Jackie Lepsy with their children,
Lisa, David, Chris and Richard
    She felt that Dick had in fact died on the day he disappeared. When Jackie was on her deathbed, Karen joked with her and said “Jeez, Jackie, you’re gonna find out what happened to Dick and you’re not gonna come back and tell us!” Jackie laughed.
    Jacqueline Sue Lepsy passed away on January