Date: Fri 21-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SUPERE

Quick Words:

Regina-Brown-mystery-police

Full Text:

Ten Years Later, Regina Brown's Disappearance Is Still A Mystery

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

On March 26, 1987, Regina Brown put her youngest child and a babysitter aboard

a flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport to her parents' home in Texas, then

disappeared without a trace.

Ten years later Newtown police still are looking for clues to solve the case

of the missing American Airlines stewardess.

"Basically there's been no new information in the past few years to follow up

on," said Police Det Robert Tvardzik. "We've researched various rumors that

she's been seen in the Danbury area, but these have always been false."

Over the past decade Newtown police have gone to seven New England and

mid-Atlantic states following up leads and examining unidentified bodies. All

the leads turned out to be dead-ends.

Even efforts to probate the estate of the missing woman have been

unsuccessful. An application was filed in Probate Court in Newtown three years

ago by Mrs Brown's brother, attorney Dwight Fontenot of Dallas, Texas, who is

the trustee for the estate, after she had been missing for seven years and

could be legally declared dead.

Attorney Susan Wakefield of Anderson & Ferlazzo, PC, of Danbury, the firm

representing the estate, said probate has been delayed because of a lawsuit

pending against Regina Brown's former husband, Willis Brown, Jr.

"When the divorce was granted in 1988, [Regina Brown] was to receive a certain

portion of the value of the house," Ms Wakefield said. "But Mr Brown has not

sold the home and refused to pay that portion of the estate to the children.

So we filed a lawsuit to force the sale of the property."

Mrs Brown, a 35-year-old American Airlines stewardess who lived with her three

children at 18 Whippoorwill Lane in Newtown, was last seen at LaGuardia

Airport on March 26, 1987, putting her youngest daughter, Ashley, 19 months,

and the family's live-in nanny aboard a plane to join the two other Brown

children, Nicholas, 4, and Reina, 2, at the home of their grandparents, Emile

and Ernestine Fontenot, in Ames, Texas.

Car Found In New York

On March 30 Regina Brown failed to show up for work on a scheduled flight. Her

parents and the babysitter, meanwhile, became concerned because they had been

unable to contact her. So they called one of her neighbors and the neighbor

called the police on April 2.

When Regina Brown missed another flight on April 3, the airline contacted her

estranged husband, Willis Brown, Jr, then 53, an American Airlines pilot who

was living in Queens, N.Y. He called the Newtown police later that day to file

a missing persons report.

Regina Brown's rust-colored 1980 Honda was found on April 6, nine days after

she had disappeared, parked at West 104th Street near 10th Avenue in New York

City with the keys still in the ignition. There were several parking violation

tags on the windshield.

"There's a million things you can surmise from that," Newtown Police Det Owen

Carney said when the car was found. "Someone may have dumped her, someone may

have wanted the car to stick out, someone may have wanted it to be stolen."

At the time of her disappearance, the Browns were going through a contentious

divorce and custody battle. They had been married for less than five years,

living all of that time in Newtown.

After she disappeared, Newtown police, in conjunction with the state police,

searched the Browns' house at 18 Whippoorwill Road and the grounds of

surrounding properties, including a nearby undeveloped 50-acre parcel, but

found no evidence of foul play.

In their investigation, the police concluded that Mrs Brown had returned from

the airport to the house before disappearing. Groceries, which she purchased

on the way to the airport, were found in the house along with the receipt for

the purchase, her purse, clothing, makeup and an uncashed check for $1,000,

which she had withdrawn from her savings account at a credit union that day.

The Honda, which was towed back to Connecticut for forensic tests at the state

police lab in Meriden, yielded no significant evidence.

The police questioned Willis Brown when they learned he had come to Newtown

from Queens on March 26 for a dentist appointment. He told police that he went

back to his Queens apartment immediately after the appointment. He agreed to

take a polygraph test - provided that it was administered after the divorce

proceedings were concluded -but he later changed his mind and refused.

A $5,000 reward was offered for information about the whereabouts of Regina

Brown, described as a very light-skinned black woman, 5'4" tall and weighing

120 lbs.

Police Investigate A Map

Nearly a year later, on March 21, 1988, Newtown Police Det Harry Noroian

received a call from the Albany, N.Y., police regarding the death of Margaret

Brown, stepmother of Willis Brown. The shooting death, originally thought to

be a homicide, was later ruled a suicide.

The following year, on March 6, Det Noroian, who has since retired, received a

call from Margaret Brown's son, Randy Locke. Mr Locke said that while going

through his mother's belongings, he found a crude hand-drawn map, which

appeared to show the location of Regina Brown's body near a trailer on a Block

Island, R.I., property, where Willis Brown operated a seasonal moped business.

Police from three states conducted an extensive search of the 60-acre property

on September 27 and 28, and again in October, using the hand-drawn map as a

guide. They used dogs from the Connecticut and Massachusetts state police K-9

units trained to sniff for bodies, but no trace of a body was discovered.

In recent years, the Newtown police investigated rumors that Regina Brown had

been seen in Danbury.

"None of the rumors turned out to have any validity," said Det Tvardzik. "But

our investigation certainly is continuing."

During the couple's divorce proceedings and custody fight, Willis Brown

claimed that his wife had been unfaithful; she alleged spousal abuse. Denying

that the children were his, Mr Brown demanded repeated blood tests. Nicholas

was tested three times, Reina twice and Ashley once. Court documents showed

that the results of those tests showed a 99 percent liklihood that Willis

Brown was the father of all three.

Based on the testimony, Mr Brown was under a restraining order issued by

Danbury Superior Court, which barred him from entering the family home.

When the divorce was granted in April 1988, a year after Mrs Brown

disappeared, Danbury Superior Court Judge Howard J. Moraghan awarded custody

of the children to Mrs Brown's parents.

In his decision, Judge Moraghan wrote that immediately prior to her

disappearance, Regina Brown warned her friends that if something should happen

to her, they should not assume that it was an accident.

"It is also equally unanimous among all the witnesses that [Regina Brown]

would never voluntarily leave her children and certainly would never fail to

communicate with them were she able to do so," Judge Moraghan said.

Commenting on the couple's tumultuous marriage, Judge Moraghan wrote that

Willis Brown physically and mentally abused [his wife] and reduced her

existence to a living nightmare, threatening to kill her on several occasions.

Except for the instances during which Mr Brown was questioned, there has been

no contact between him and the police about the case.

"We've never had an inquiry from him about the investigation," Det Tvardzik

said. "Nor has there ever been a show of concern from him [about the fate of

his wife]."

A former Air Force pilot who completed several tours of duty in Vietnam,

Willis Brown had earned a degree in electrical engineering before becoming a

co-pilot for American Airlines.

After Regina Brown disappeared, police and news reports noted similarities

between her case and that of another Newtown stewardess, Helle Crafts, 39, who

disappeared several months earlier, in November 1986. Both women were

stewardesses, married to airline pilots and were going through divorce

proceedings. In each case relatives and friends insisted the women would not

have willingly abandoned their children.

While the Brown case remains unsolved, Mrs Crafts' husband, Richard, was

convicted of killing his wife, cutting her body up with a chainsaw, and

disposing of the parts through a rented woodchipper.

On November 13, 1990, WCVB-TV in Boston aired a broadcast entitled "Regina

Brown: The Other Pilot's Wife." Willis Brown sued the station but the suit was

later dismissed in court. In 1994 staff from Cosgrove/Meurer Productions of

Burbank, California, came to Newtown and wrote a script about the Regina Brown

disappearance for the television series Unsolved Mysteries. The show was never

aired.

Mr Brown later moved to Texas, was promoted to captain by American Airlines,

and has since retired. He kept the house on Whippoorwill Drive in Newtown as a

rental property. Emile Fontenot died in 1988; his wife, now 74, had custody of

the children, now 15, 13, and 11, after her husband died.

"But as of now the children are living with [Mr Brown]," Susan Wakefield said.

"The grandmother didn't have the money to continue to fight for their custody.

We all just hope that the children are well."

Ms Wakefield said that since the children are now with their father, it may be

easier to settle the lawsuit, which has held up probate. She said her firm

will discuss the matter soon with Mr Brown's attorney, Donald Mitchell of

Bethel.