The Disappearance and Murder of Kitty Wardwell
Kitty Wardwell
Kitty Collins Wardwell
Kitty Collins was the picture of glamour. Her younger sister, Linda, idolized her, and told us, “[Kitty] was fortunate enough to be 5-foot-9, and […] always thin.” She experimented with her looks, starting in her adolescence, and her love of wigs, costumes, and make-up annoyed her parents, especially her father.
After her parents separated, Kitty lived with her mother, Ruby, in Dedham, Maine, a rural town outside of the Bangor/Brewer area. Her older brothers moved out, and by the end of high school, Kitty had also left her mother’s home. By the time she graduated, she was a single mother.
Kitty’s mother, Ruby, raised Mark as her own, but Kitty remained present in his life. This allowed her the freedom to attend Finishing Touch modeling school in Massachusetts. Afterwards, Kitty worked at department store cosmetics counters, including J.C. Penney. Linda told us that Kitty always smelled good and had “a lot of different boyfriends.”
In 1978, she married Jeff Wardwell, taking his last name and becoming Kitty Wardwell. The marriage only lasted a few years, but Kitty kept his name.
By 1983, Kitty’s dreams of modeling were behind her, but she had new ambitions. She was a partner in a wholesale business with successful local entrepreneur Francis ‘Frank’ Julian. They bought goods wholesale and then sold them to distributors throughout New England.
At 29, Kitty was on the verge of another turning point in her life. She was pregnant again, and again, without a supportive father for her child. This man, though, wasn’t just unsupportive, he was insistent that Kitty terminate the pregnancy. Kitty knew she was in danger, and on June 6, 1983, told a friend over the phone that she feared for her life. She said her boyfriend “had threatened to kill her and her baby.”
Kitty disappears
There was one little problem: Kitty’s boyfriend, Frank, was married. And not only did Frank have a wife, he had 9 children. This meant their relationship was private, and they led separate lives.
Kitty’s mother, Ruby, last saw her on Sunday, June 5, 1983. Kitty took her son Mark to a movie that night, and brought him back to Ruby’s afterwards, at 10:00PM. The next day, Monday, June 6, Kitty was scheduled to go on a routine trip to Rhode Island to buy wholesale goods with Frank. Ruby, meanwhile, took Mark to the family cottage up north in Allagash.
That same Monday, Kitty phoned her girlfriend and told her that Frank had threatened to kill her. All we know about this friend is that she was described as a “girlfriend from Florida.”
Ruby and Mark had stayed at the cottage “for a few days.” When they returned, Ruby called Kitty’s apartment. There was no answer, which was unusual, so she went to over to investigate.
Ruby found the door unlocked. An eerie scene awaited her. The windows were open, and it had rained. Ruby noticed that the sofa cushions were missing. Kitty’s clothes and pocketbook were there, but Kitty was not. As she was leaving, a man from a nearby apartment approached Ruby and asked her if she knew what had happened with Kitty or the apartment. He told her he had seen a man carrying large trash bags out of Kitty’s place one night.
Frank was the last person Kitty had been with, so Ruby visited him at his business in Lewiston and his family home in Bangor. Frank claimed he’d had a fight with Kitty. He also told Ruby that Kitty was pregnant and he’d given her money for an abortion. But most importantly, Frank said, “I can tell you this, Kitty is all done with you and Mark.”
Some of Kitty’s friends were conducting their own investigation. One friend, William, also spoke with Frank, who told him what he’d told Ruby: he’d left Kitty at the El Ranchero Motel in Salem, New Hampshire. And based on this information, William reported Kitty missing to the Salem Police Department on July 11.
Francis ‘Frank’ Julian
Francis P. Julian was born in 1931 to Catholic parents: an Italian immigrant father and an Irish mother. His mom died in 1944 after “a long illness,” and she left behind 7 children, including 12-year-old Frank, who was just a month shy of his 13th birthday.
In the ‘40s, he was a football star at John Bapst, a Catholic high school in Bangor. But instead of graduating, 18-year-old Frank was arrested in 1950 for his role in a breaking and entering ring. The group of 11 young men stole money and guns from homes, businesses, and public buildings in Bangor. He was sentenced to an “indeterminate” time at the men’s reformatory, but he didn’t stay long.
In 1964, he and his first wife, Elaine, divorced. By that time, he’d already had a son with another woman, Kathryn Ann Smith, who was then pregnant with their second child.
Frank’s criminal past seemed well behind him, and he kept his nose clean, for the most part, only getting hit with a fine for illegal storage of fireworks in 1976. By that time, Frank had sold his Bangor pizza restaurant and started a wholesaling business, eventually entering into a business partnership with Kitty Wardwell.
At some point their relationship became romantic, but it soured when Kitty became pregnant and they disagreed about what should be done about it.
Then, only 2 days after Kitty was last seen or heard from, Frank was widowed. His wife, Kathryn, died in the hospital at age 42 “after a long illness,” on June 8, 1983. Despite his girlfriend’s disappearance and his wife’s death, Frank seemed to take it all in stride, because on September 14th of that year—3 months after this double tragedy—Frank married a new woman—Gloria Simons. They divorced in 1991.
A new mystery begins
A few weeks after Frank’s death, his family went through his property, which included a storage unit in Lewiston. They opened the unit on Friday, October 21, 2011. The metal door shrieked as it slowly rolled open like an old garage. In the back of the unit was an old chest-style freezer. There was no electrical outlet in the storage unit, and the old cord was coiled up around the base. The chest was 6-feet long and heavy. To their horror, Frank’s relatives found decomposed human remains inside. They immediately called Lewiston Police, who, in turn, called the state police.
DNA analysis confirmed Kitty’s identity. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death as homicide. Though the medical examiner also ruled on cause of death, police have not revealed that information.
By this time, Detective Zamboni had retired, and Brian Strout was now the lead investigator. Of Kitty’s murder, he told WMTW, “I had a pretty good idea that it was Mr. Julian, based on previous interviews, but [now] he is deceased—[there is] no chance to interview him [again].”
Perhaps Kitty’s body remained in that same location until October of 1992, at which point he rented the storage unit in Lewiston. This sister passed before Kitty was discovered. Exactly when and how the freezer was moved is unknown. In the words of Maine State Police Detective Brian Strout, “Could somebody have helped him, not knowing what was in there? Absolutely. Could somebody have helped him, knowing what was in there? Absolutely.”
There was no doubt that Frank was involved in Kitty’s death. The questions that linger are how and why—questions that, with Frank’s death, may never be answered. For Maine State Police, another question remains: did Frank have help?
Police want to know who helped move it. The freezer itself was quite heavy. They may not have noticed it weighed more than it should. It may have been padlocked shut. Frank may have demurred artfully any questions about what was inside. Because it’s possible Frank had an accomplice—whether they knew it or not.
There’s still a chance for the truth to be told. If anyone who knew Frank or Kitty is holding onto information they thought was insignificant until now, the Maine State Police want to know. Anyone who saw either one of them leading up to the day she was killed or who knew what was really going on in their relationship might have the clue they need to close this case.
In 2011, the heavy metal door that hid Frank’s dark secret for so long was finally opened. But what else remained hidden, and where? What, exactly, happened that day in 1983, and how did Frank get away with it for so long? What other crimes might he have committed—and gotten away with—in his 80 years?
Continue Kitty’s story: This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Disappearance and Murder of Kitty Wardwell. To hear Kitty’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.
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Sources For This Episode
Newspaper articles
Various articles from Bangor Daily News, Daily News, Daily Tribune, Eagle Tribune, Morning Sentinel, Portland Press Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Sun Journal, and The Odessa American, here.
Written by various authors including Alex Barber, Andie Hannon, Andrew Cullen, Andrew Neff, Clarke Canfield, David Sharp, Dawn Gagnon, Doug Ireland, Nok-Noi Ricker, Ruby Doughty, and Steve Mistler.
Online written
'ME - Kitty Wardwell, 29, Lewiston, 11 July 1983' (Websleuths), 10/22/2011, by CatFancier
'Body Found in Freezer May Be Woman Missing Since 1983' (Fox News), 10/23/2011
'Body Found in Maine Freezer May Be Remains of Woman Missing...' (CBS News), 10/24/2011
'Body Found In Maine Self-Storage Unit Could Be Woman Missing Since 1983' (Inside Self-Storage), 10/24/2011
'Dead Body Found in Man's Freezer...' (Daily Mail), 10/24/2011, by Emma Reynolds
'Body Found in Maine Self-Storage Unit Identified' (Inside Self-Storage), 12/5/2011
'Kitty I Collins Wardwell' (Find A Grave), 12/9/2011, by Bev Winship
'2011 Annual Homicides' (Maine State Police), 6/15/2012
'2011' (Maine State Troopers Foundation), 1/1/2015
'One of Maine's Missing Persons Cases' (Justice For Unsolved In Maine), 2/25/2016, by Leola Cochran
'Who Killed Kitty? Freezer With Missing Maine Woman's Body Was Likely Moved Investigator Says' (WMTW), 11/17/2016, by David Charns
'Francis P. “Frank” Julian' (Find A Grave), 10/2/2011, by Bev Winship
Online video
'The Case of Kitty Wardwell Solved 18 Year Missing Person' (YouTube), 9/21/2019
'Remains Identified As Kitty Wardwell' (YouTube), 12/2/2011
'Sister Seeks Answers After Maine Woman Found In Freezer' (YouTube), 11/17/2016
Interviews
Special thanks to Linda Currier, Lee Cochran, and Torri Collins.
Photos
As credited above.
Credits
Research, vocal performance, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey
Research, photo editing, and writing editing by Byron Willis
Writing by Anne Young
Additional research by Bridget Rowley
Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.