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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/longenglishsnakes on 2024-01-01 21:36:51+00:00.
Who?
Mary Flanagan was a hardworking sixteen year old girl, having a job at a Tate & Lyle sugar refinery, an occasional job at an opticians, attending school at Holbrook Road Secondary School, and also volunteering for the Blind Association. Born on the 9th June 1943 to Irish Catholic parents, Mary lived in West Ham, London, England with her parents, sisters, and brother, and was by all accounts a bright, confident, and friendly young woman. At the time of her disappearance on New Year's Eve 1959, Mary was 5'2" (157cm) and of medium build, with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes.
What?
Mary was due to attend the staff New Years party at the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery where she worked. On 31st December 1959 at about 1PM she dressed in a checked skirt, red knitted coat, and heels, slung a basket over her arm, and gave her family one final wave as she headed to West Ham tube station to travel to the party.
The next day, Mary's parents reported her missing to the police after she failed to return home from the party.
The Investigation
At this point, it was discovered that Mary hadn't attended work for two weeks - as recently as 2013, relatives still didn't know what she'd been doing during that period instead. The investigation was largely 'old-fashioned' police work, because it was January 1st, 1960 - DNA and most modern forensics were not yet a possibility. Searches were made of the local area, and there was some coverage in local newspapers, but little came from this.
One lead which quickly came to light was Mary's boyfriend, an Irish man in his 20's who worked in the Merchant Navy. Mary's father had introduced the two, and they'd been known to be seeing one another for some time before Mary's disappearance. Unfortunately, he couldn't be found - indeed, even his name turned out to be a mystery. It was thought to be 'Tom McGinty', but no Tom McGinty could be found working for the Merchant Navy, and it was considered that his surname could have been something similar but different, like 'McEntee' or 'McGuinness'. As of 2013, Tom McGinty still hadn't been tracked down to be questioned.
The thing with Tom was that no one seemed quite sure what he was to Mary. Some say fiance (though there was no ring), some say boyfriend, but others say that she was close to breaking up with him. Their last known interaction was a bitter argument - Tom had told Mary that he lived with a landlady, but it turned out he instead lived with his mother. This lie lead to an argument, with Mary crying and 'raised voices' between Tom, Mary, and Mary's father. Indeed, on the morning of 31st December 1959, Mary slept in late, something she didn't typically do.
No clues were found in the immediate aftermath, but long term plans were put into place to look out for Mary. Her National Insurance number (essentially the same as a Social Security number in the USA) had a trace placed on it, but it has never been used by anyone working within the UK since. The Salvation Army were checked with, too. At some point, her case became inactive due to lack of evidence.
2013 Re-Opening
To coincide with Mary's 70th birthday, her case was officially reopened and reexamined in 2013, bringing new publicity to her case - a case which happens to be the longest-running open missing person's case on the Metropolitan Police's records.
At this point, Mary's younger sister Brenda (who was eight at the time of Mary's disappearance) stated that she believed Mary was still alive. She offered the theory that Mary had been pregnant, which for an unmarried Irish Catholic teenage girl in 1959 would have been completely socially unacceptable (read about the Magdalene Laundries for more surrounding context), and so her and Tom had eloped to escape potential shame. Brenda noted that Mary had kissed all of them goodbye the day she left, suggesting that she knew she wasn't going to come back.
In 2013, Brenda's DNA was entered into UK databases, so that it could be compared against unidentified remains - given the passage of time and evolution of forensics, presumably DNA from Mary was wholly unavailable, and so her sister's was the best available. From what is publicly available, there have been no potential matches.
There has been no update on Mary's case since 2013. If she is still alive, she is 80 years old.
Theories
As previously discussed, Mary's family have theorised she could have been pregnant and so eloped with her boyfriend/fiance Tom McGinty to escape the shame.
Given that Tom McGinty also hasn't been traced (as of 2013), and his identity is indeed unconfirmed, my thoughts stray to murder and/or suicide. Did Tom end Mary's life, and then his own? Did he end her life and then vanish, living under a different name? Was "Tom McGinty" his real name? The mystery surrounding Tom and what role he could have played is something the police emphasise in their 2013 reappeal.
Of course, there are many other possibilities. Mary could have killed herself, her body somewhere unfound or washed away. Mary could have been kidnapped, attacked, or murdered in an entirely unrelated situation, though this feels less likely to me given her absence from work and argument with Tom. There are thousands of possible explanations for why Mary walked away to get the tube on the 31st December 1959 and now, 64 years and 1 day later, is still missing.
Sources