Missouri thrift store seeking to solve mystery of WWII love letters

Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A Missouri thrift store is unraveling the mystery of a cache of World War II love letters found in a donation bin.

Tina Eifert, manager of the Salvation Army Family Store in Hannibal, was sorting through donations when she found the pile of letters sent by Chester McMeen to his wife, Alma Bernice Modglin, while he was stationed in the Philippines during World War II.

She said there was no way to trace whose donation the letters, which were dated from between Sept. 11, 1944, and Nov. 27, 1945, had come from.

"There's a lot of history, so I wanted to find who they belonged to," Eifert told WGEM-TV.

Eifert teamed up with Megan Duncan, a local investigative journalist, to solve the mystery.

Duncan discovered McMeen and Modglin had reunited after the war to raise three children and run a woodworking business in Carbondale, Ill.

"[In the letters, Chester] talked about how 'When I get back together, we're going to open a business, we're going to do these things,'" Duncan said. "And then when you look at their lives, and you look at their obituary and you look at the pictures, all of that came true."

Duncan said she has been working hard to try to track down relatives of the couple, and discovered an address that might belong to their son. She said she sent a letter to the address and is now hoping for a reply.