Mary E. Buckley was a 77-year-old female who was last seen in St. Peters, Missouri, on April 13, 2015. She was an elderly woman living with serious medical vulnerabilities, including Alzheimer’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other health problems that left her frail, with limited mobility, and dependent on bottled oxygen around the clock. Because of these conditions, she rarely left home, making her disappearance immediately alarming.
Mary was described as a white woman with brown hair and blue eyes, standing between about 5 feet and 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing somewhere between 90 and 130 pounds. She was also missing all of her front teeth and was supposed to wear dentures, but those dentures were reportedly left behind.
At the time she vanished, Mary lived with her 51-year-old son, Gary Buckley, who served as her caregiver and held medical power of attorney for her. Their household appeared to be private and withdrawn; neighbors described Mary and Gary as reclusive, and available reporting indicates that Mary’s health and dependence on care made it unusual for her to be away from home on her own. Mary also had three daughters, meaning her disappearance affected a family already facing the strain of her declining health and need for daily support. What began as concern for an elderly woman soon became tied to a second tragedy involving the person closest to her day-to-day care.
On April 21, 2015, hikers found Gary Buckley deceased, hanging from a tree at Eco Park in St. Charles, Missouri. Authorities determined that he had taken his own life. When police went to the Buckley home to notify Mary of her son’s death, they discovered that she was missing. She has not been heard from since. Investigators later determined that Gary had died around the same time Mary was last seen, deepening the concern that her disappearance and his death were connected in some way, though the available public information does not provide a definitive explanation for what happened to her.
Mary’s silver 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe was later found in a wooded area south of the Highway 370 bridge in the Bridgeton, Missouri area, near a train trestle on the east side of the Missouri River. Investigators believed Gary had parked the vehicle there, and the vehicle appeared to have been deliberately hidden. The location of the SUV shifted the search toward the Missouri River area and surrounding terrain, where officers searched for Mary. Local reporting at the time described officers searching the St. Louis County side of the river just south of Highway 370 and bringing in cadaver dogs as part of the effort to locate her.
Inside Mary’s vehicle, investigators found one of two notes Gary left behind. Another message, described as a simple “I’m sorry,” had been carved into a piece of wood and left at the base of the tree where he died. Public case summaries also note that Gary had been known to spend time in wildlife areas in St. Louis County and St. Charles County, including Eco Park, and that he sometimes slept outdoors. Those details gave investigators places and patterns to consider, but they did not lead to Mary. Her vehicle was accounted for, her dentures were left behind, and her medical dependence made the absence of clear answers especially painful.
As the case developed, Mary’s disappearance was treated as endangered because of her age, medical condition, limited mobility, and dependence on oxygen. A later local report stated that St. Peters police were still searching for her months after she vanished and were trying to keep attention on the case. The available public information does not indicate that Mary was located alive or that her remains were recovered; instead, the case stands as one marked by loss, uncertainty, and the unanswered question of what happened to a vulnerable woman after she was last seen on April 13, 2015. In overview, Mary E. Buckley’s case began with the disappearance of a medically fragile 77-year-old woman from St. Peters, moved through the discovery of her caregiver son’s death and her hidden vehicle near the Missouri River, and remains a sorrowful missing person case defined by urgent concern, extensive searching, and the absence of final answers for those who loved her.Last Seen: Apr 13, 2015
