In the spring of 1979, Diane Faye Chorba, a 30-year-old woman, was living in the area of Luther, Michigan. A mother to a teenage daughter and a young son, she was also six months pregnant with her third child. Her family last had contact with her on May 24, 1979. At the time, she was involved with a married man named Clarence Oliver 'Ollie' Bean Jr., who was the father of her young son and her unborn child.
Her family grew concerned when they hadn't heard from her for a couple of months and officially reported her missing on July 20, 1979.
When investigators initially questioned Ollie Bean about Diane's whereabouts, he told them a story designed to mislead them. He claimed that Diane had decided to go to California with a woman he did not know. According to Bean, he dropped her off in Big Rapids, Michigan, to get a ride to Chicago, where she was to take American Airlines Flight 191 on May 25, 1979. Tragically, that flight crashed shortly after takeoff from O'Hare Airport, killing everyone on board in one of the deadliest aviation disasters in U.S. history. Diane's family even hired an attorney to help locate her among the victims, but the coroner responsible for identifying those from the crash confirmed she was not on the plane. Before authorities could press him further or administer a polygraph test, Ollie Bean moved his family, which included his and Diane's son, to Oregon in May 1980, and the case went cold.
For two decades, Diane's disappearance remained a mystery. The case broke open in 1999 when Bean's wife, Judy, finally came forward to police in Michigan. After enduring more than 30 years of marriage and abuse, she revealed the truth about what happened to Diane. Judy told investigators that on the morning of May 24, 1979, Ollie came home and later returned with Diane, telling his wife to watch their son. He left with Diane and came back alone later, stating he had killed her and needed his chainsaw. He then forced Judy into his vehicle and drove her to a remote, wooded area near Bristol, Michigan, where he showed her Diane's lifeless body in a depression left by an uprooted tree. According to Judy, he had shot Diane, and she watched as he removed her jewelry before burying her.
Based on Judy Bean's powerful testimony, Clarence 'Ollie' Bean Jr. was arrested and charged with Diane's murder. In August 2001, twenty-two years after Diane vanished, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, where he later passed away. Despite his conviction and Judy's efforts to lead investigators back to the burial site, the landscape had changed too much over the years, and a location could not be pinpointed. The case of Diane Chorba is a heartbreaking story of a young mother who was murdered, with her killer using a national tragedy to cover his tracks for decades. While the man responsible was brought to justice, Diane's daughter and her other loved ones have never been able to give her a proper burial, as her body has never been found.
Diane Faye Chorba was a 30-year-old White woman when she was last seen in the Luther, Michigan, area on May 24, 1979. She was approximately five feet six inches tall, weighed about 120 pounds, and had brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears, and a slender build. She was reportedly wearing jeans, slip-on tennis shoes, and a reddish-brown leather trench coat that tied at the waist. Her listed belongings included a pacifier, a small and haunting detail that reflected the fact that Diane was pregnant when she disappeared. She seemingly vanished without leaving behind a confirmed destination, a dependable trail of later sightings, or any evidence that she intended to permanently abandon her children and the rest of her family.
At the time, Diane was involved with Ollie Bean and was reportedly carrying his child. The relationship and the pregnancy would later become important parts of the investigation. After Diane disappeared, Bean offered an extraordinary explanation for why no one could find her. He claimed she had traveled to Chicago and died aboard American Airlines Flight 191, which crashed shortly after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979, killing everyone aboard. The timing initially gave the story a surface appearance of plausibility because the disaster occurred the day after Diane’s last known contact. Investigators, however, determined that Diane had not been a passenger on the flight. Her name did not appear among the victims, and the explanation failed to account for her actual whereabouts after she was last seen in Michigan.
For years, the absence of Diane’s body prevented investigators from establishing through physical evidence where she had been killed or how she had died. Her disappearance nevertheless remained suspicious, particularly because of the false story connecting her to the plane crash. As detectives continued examining the case, attention remained focused on Bean and on people who might have known what occurred around the time Diane vanished. The case eventually changed after Bean’s former wife provided investigators with an account that directly implicated him. She said that Bean had taken her to a grave outside Bristol, Michigan, and had shown her Diane’s body. Her testimony gave prosecutors a witness who could describe not only Bean’s involvement but also an alleged burial site, even though Diane’s remains had not been recovered.
Bean was ultimately prosecuted for Diane’s murder more than two decades after she disappeared. In 2001, a jury found him guilty despite the fact that prosecutors could not produce Diane’s body. The case became an example of a homicide conviction obtained through circumstantial evidence and witness testimony rather than the recovery of the victim’s remains. Prosecutors relied on the circumstances surrounding Diane’s pregnancy and disappearance, Bean’s fabricated claim that she had died on Flight 191, and the testimony that he had revealed her body in a grave. The conviction legally established Bean’s responsibility for Diane’s death, although it did not return Diane to her family or answer every question about the crime.
The passage of time has further complicated efforts to recover Diane. The publicly available record does not provide a verified location for the grave described during the investigation, nor does it indicate that searches produced her remains. Rural land can change dramatically over decades as vegetation grows, roads and property boundaries shift, and landmarks disappear. Even when investigators have a general area to examine, locating a clandestine burial site after many years can be extremely difficult. Diane’s family has therefore endured the painful contradiction of knowing that a man was convicted of murdering her while still having no confirmed resting place where they could properly mourn her.
Investigators have continued preserving information that could identify Diane should remains be found. DNA reference samples from her daughter and sister were processed through the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, and the resulting genetic profiles were entered into the national CODIS system. Those samples allow unidentified remains found anywhere in the country to be compared with Diane’s close relatives. Her physical characteristics, clothing description, photograph, and personal details have also remained part of the national missing-person record maintained in cooperation with the Michigan State Police.
Several Michigan State Police investigators worked on Diane’s case over the years, and the investigation has been associated with the agency’s Mount Pleasant Post. The available record does not disclose every step taken during the original inquiry, the precise circumstances of Diane’s last confirmed sighting, or what happened between the moment she was last known to be alive and the alleged burial described by Bean’s former wife. What emerged over time was a disturbing narrative in which a pregnant woman vanished, the father of her unborn child falsely placed her aboard one of the deadliest aviation disasters in American history, and a later witness said that he had shown her the hidden body.
Diane’s disappearance began as a mystery in rural Michigan and eventually became a murder case proven without the recovery of her remains. Ollie Bean’s conviction brought a measure of accountability, but it did not provide the closure that comes from locating a loved one and bringing her home. In overview, Diane Faye Chorba was last seen in Luther on May 24, 1979, while pregnant with Bean’s child; Bean later falsely claimed she had died aboard Flight 191, his former wife testified that he showed her Diane’s body in a grave near Bristol, and he was convicted of her murder in 2001. Diane’s remains have never been publicly reported as recovered, leaving her family with a conviction and the knowledge that she was killed, but still waiting for the final answer of where she was buried.Last Seen: May 24, 1979
