Mystery solved: Three Virginians missing for 48 years perished at Ky.’s Valley View Ferry

The disappearance about 48 years ago of Virginians John Ed Keyton, an eccentric 81-year-old World War I vet, his live-in housekeeper Flora Helmick, and her sister Martha Helmick was solved Wednesday.

The three who disappeared after leaving Bridgewater, Va.,for Kentucky on Aug. 3, 1973, perished in the Kentucky River near the Valley View Ferry, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said at a news conference.

Traveling in a 1967 Ford Fairlane, the they were headed to Jessamine County to pick up Keyton’s brother and then on to a Keyton family reunion at Dabolt in Jackson County. They never arrived and were not heard from again. The ferry connects Tates Creek Road in Fayette and Jessamine counties with Madison County.

On Wednesday, Ginn announced at a news conference that human remains found in 2016 near the Valley View Ferry at the Kentucky River were that of Martha Smith Helmick.

Martha Smith Helmicks’s identity was confirmed through the advanced DNA technology of Parabon NanoLabs in Reston, Virginia. DNA technology has become more efficient in its ability to make positive identifications using DNA profiles from distant relatives.

In 2016, Lexington Fire Department crews on a training dive found boney structures from a human foot and ankle when they pulled the front half of a rusted 1967 Ford Fairlane from the water.

When the back of the car was pulled out, a femur, two radiuses and an ulna were found, Ginn said at the time. A recovered shoe was determined to be elevated. Martha used a corrective shoe because she had an unset fractured tibia. There were several long bones and bones of the foot inside panty hose.

The car was found 20 to 30 feet from shore, just downstream from the ferry.

Lexington Fire Captain Christopher Warren spent the next six years working on the case.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about the woman we had found. I couldn’t stop thinking about her family and that they would want to know what happened. I couldn’t help but feel there was more we could do for her.”

The Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia reported in 2017 that John Ed Keyton was described as eccentric in a 1974 article in that newspaper.

Keyton lost his left leg in France. The newspaper said he was awarded the the American Silver Star for gallantry in action. Upon his return home, he was often described as shell-shocked, was declared incompetent in 1932, and a guardian was appointed to handle his affairs.

Keyton was colorful, making purchases on credit and then referring creditors to his guardian, the newspaper said: The 1967 Ford Fairlane that Keyton and the Helmick sisters took to Kentucky in 1973 was acquired on credit one month earlier. Because his drivers license was revoked after four traffic convictions, Keyton would take little-used roads to avoid police, the newspaper reported.

As for Martha and Flora Helmick, they were raised in an orphanage in West Virginia, married a pair of brothers and were widowed by 1973, according to media reports.

Keyton and Flora Helmick, 52, picked up Martha Helmick, 54, from her small mobile home in Virginia prior to the trip and then the three went to Keyton’s home before leaving for Kentucky, according to a 1981 article on virginiachronicle.com.

Keyton and Flora Helmick’s remains were not found. Keyton was a difficult man, Ginn said, and Flora was gentle-natured and one of the few people who understood him. It was not clear why the women went to Keyton’s family reunion.

Their planned route of travel would have taken the three directly through the area where their sunken vehicle was found near Valley View Ferry.

Ginn has explained that at the ferry, the water is black like the road is black and someone could have driven down the hill and into the water.

“They lost their lives accidentally,” Ginn said.

Helmick family members don’t want to be publicly identified. But Warren said they were ecstatic at the findings.

At the request of the family, Martha Helmick’s body will be escorted home to Virginia in the spring by Warren and Ginn.

This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Mystery solved: Three Virginians missing for 48 years perished at Ky.’s Valley View Ferry."