8 years after being found, Virginia woman missing since 1973 to be laid to rest

Video: WDKY’s 2021 coverage of the identification of Martha Smith Helmick’s remains

LEXINGTON, Ky. ( WDKY ) — Closure is coming for a Virginia family, 51 years after their loved one disappeared.

Martha Smith Helmick of Bridgewater, Virginia, was last seen on Aug. 3, 1973. She had left Virginia with her sister Flora and family friend John Ed Keyton en route to a family reunion in Dabolt, Kentucky, in a light green 1967 Ford Fairlane.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS), the three never arrived at their destination, nor were they heard from or seen again.

That was until 2016, when, during a training exercise, the fire department of Lexington, Kentucky, said crews spotted vehicles on the floor of the Kentucky River using a sonar radar.

Many were stolen vehicles, but one raised alarm for Lexington Fire Department District Chief Chris Warren. It was a 1967 Ford Fairlane that “was so badly decayed, rusted, there were no identification markers on the car anywhere.”

Once the car was removed, the department discovered what Ginn described as scant skeletal remains and a woman’s purse. LFD said it took years of research and multiple DNA tests for the remains to be positively identified.

Finally, in 2021 , the remains were identified as Helmick.

“That phone call that I wanted to make finally happened. I got to call them and tell them we get to bring them home,” Warren told Nexstar’s WDKY in 2021. Flora and John, however, have yet to be recovered.

Although Hemlick’s remains were located in 2021, the family hasn’t yet had the chance to lay Helmick to rest.

On Wednesday, the department said Warren and Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn would escort her remains to her final resting place. Authorities weren’t available Wednesday to explain why they had to hold Helmick’s remains for so long.

WDKY previously reported Helmick is set to be buried next to her late husband, Eli Joseph Helmick, who died two months before her disappearance at 93 years old. He was survived by Martha and their daughter, four sons, 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

According to Eli’s death certificate, he was buried in 1973 at a cemetery known as the Waggoner Cemetery at the time. Records show that it has had many names over the decades but is located behind the Church of God of the Prophecy in Monterey, Virginia.

Ginn and Warren said they will attend a committal and burial service on Wednesday as Helmick’s remains are finally laid to rest.

“It has been a tremendous honor to bring closure to the family in Virginia,” Warren said.

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