For 36 years, a North Texas family’s treasure sat buried deep in the files at the Parker County District Clerk’s office.
Years after a drug case, District Attorney Jeff Swain says jewelry entered as evidence in the case was scheduled to be destroyed.
"This is a 1986 case. We didn't have any records on this that we could find,” said Swain.
But among the giant bag of jewelry, he noticed a clue.
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“The class ring jumped out at us,” he said.
Faded with time, a ring dated 1956 led Swain’s officer to Dupo High School in the suburbs of St. Louis, where investigator Wendy Bravo said only one student used the initials engraved inside: Peggy Wall.
"He said, ‘I want to see if maybe you can try to track her down.’ He said, ‘Because if we can locate her or her family, you know, it really would be nice to get these items back to her,'” said Bravo.
Normally tasked with tracking criminals, Bravo took to the web, searching for a woman whose name had likely changed with marriage.
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"I had reached out to a class reunion-type Facebook page for Dupo High School,” she said.
But, there were few clues there or across any other databases she searched.
“I thought, you know, I'm going to give it one more try,” said Bravo.
Then, she stumbled across a 1950 census, holding the key.
"There was an older brother, and his name was Leroy,” she said.
And though he’s now deceased, Bravo said that family connection led her to relatives who could confirm that Wall, now Peggy Tucker, did exist and was just a short drive away in Keller.
"I was just over the moon when I found out that she's still alive. She's still in Texas,” said Bravo.
Photos of a sweet reunion four decades in the making closed the case on a mystery whose records Bravo said are long gone.
"She said, ‘That's it. That's my ring.’ And she was very excited,” she said.
Once again, Tucker possesses her mother's lapel pins. Her daughter is now the rightful owner of her late father's U.S. Air Force commemorative ring, just a few of the memories that could have been lost forever, had it not been for a commitment to civic duty and some good old-fashioned sleuthing.
“It's kind of a shot in the arm for the office. It's really uplifting,” said Swain.
