The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 16

16 Saturday, May 20,1989 The Salina Journal Heirs found to receive dead man's fortune KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The mystery of a Kansas City man who left an unexplained fortune of about $190,000 when he died seven years ago has been solved. Jackson County Probate Judge John A. Borron ruled Thursday that the man known as George Marsh when he died in a nursing home was actually Joseph Zelenka. The judge decided that 24 heirs will divide Zelenka's fortune.

The county took control of Zelenka's wealth when he died with no known relatives, but there was a break in the mystery almost two years after the story was aired on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries." Eleanor Tolar of Rock Springs, Zelenka's 72-year-old niece, saw her high school graduation picture on television during the show. The photo had been found among Zelenka's possessions. She and other relatives pulled together birth certificates, photos and other documents linking them to a relative they had not seen since 1933. Borron ruled that one-fourth of the $190,000, minus about $5,000 in court administrative costs, will go to the surviving brother, James Zelenka, 92, of Rock Springs, and the rest will be split among more distant relatives. Grant Christensen, James Zelenka's son-in-law and spokesman for the family, said Thursday they would have their relative's body flown back to the Wyoming family plot as soon as paperwork clears in a month or two.

"It's kind of like bringing him home," he said. "I don't know how he would feel about it but that's what we're going to do." Zelenka had always been mysterious and the family had looked for him for years, Christensen said. "Even as a young man he would appear out of nowhere with large sums of money," he said. "He also was a very nice man but he always had a different woman with him." James Zelenka speculated in a letter to the court that Joseph used an alias because he did not want to hurt the family name. He was born in 1888 in Croatia, now part of Yugoslavia, and came to the United States with the family around the turn of the century, he said.

THE FIRST HOUND RAFT CHOICE Teen granted probation in death of her newborn ATCHISON A former Benedictine College student convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of her newborn baby was given a suspended sentence and placed on probation Friday. Jean A. Franks, 19, Mooseheart, was sentenced to three- to 10 years in prison. Atchison County District Judge Maurice O'Keefe suspended the sentence and ordered five years probation. "There was a very, very serious crime committed and you were very, very wrong in committing the crime," O'Keefe said.

"However, I don't think this would ever happen again. I know that you will suffer pain in your heart for the rest of your life." Franks was arrested Feb. 20 and charged with first-degree murder after the body of the infant was found in a trash dumpster on the college campus. A jury convicted her of the lesser charge May 5. Franks had testified that she gave birth to the baby on the top bunk of her bed in a college dormitory.

She said she took the baby to a utility room to examine it, found its face had turned purple and then could not get a pulse. "I didn't know what to do so I put her in a box (and) put her in the garbage can," Franks had testified. Dr. James Bridgens, a forensic pathologist, testified the baby was strangled. Richard Senecal, attorney for Franks, said at the sentencing that she was "fortunate and grateful" for the compassion of the community.

FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 75' DRAWS 75' HOT DOGS Annual WET-T-SHIRT Contest 300 prize money. ALL HAPPENING TONIGHT AT CHEVY'S It's-round. It's the shape of things to come. It's the new Party from Coors and Coors Light. It's filled with over five gallons of brewery-fresh draft beer.

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