Parker County District Attorney’s Office Reunited Keller Woman With Jewels Stolen Long Ago

For 36 years, the treasures of the North Texas family were kept deep in the files of the Parker County Clerk’s office.

Years after the drug case, District Attorney Jeff Swain says the jewelry presented as evidence in the case should have been destroyed.

“This is a 1986 case. We didn’t have any records that we could find,” Swain said.

But among the giant bag of jewels, he spotted a clue.

“The cool circle jumped on us,” he said.

A faded ring dated 1956 led Officer Swain to DuPeau High School in suburban St. Louis, where, according to investigator Wendy Bravo, only one student used the initials engraved inside: Peggy Wall.

“He said, ‘I want to see if you can try to track her down.’ He said: “Because if we can find her or her family, it would be nice to return these things to her,” Bravo said.

Normally he was assigned to hunt down criminals, but Bravo went online looking for a woman whose name likely changed after marriage.

“I got in touch with Dupo High’s class reunion Facebook page,” she said.

But neither there nor in the other databases she searched, there were few clues.

“I thought, you know, I’m going to give it another go,” Bravo said.

She then stumbled across the 1950 census while holding the key.

“We had an older brother and his name was Leroy,” she said.

And although he was already dead, Bravo said family connections led her to relatives who could confirm that Wall, now Peggy Tucker, really exists and is just a short drive from Keller.

“I was in seventh heaven when I found out that she was still alive. She’s still in Texas,” Bravo said.

Photos of the sweet reunion, four decades in the making, closed the case on a mystery whose records Bravo says are long gone.

“She said, ‘That’s it. This is my ring.” And she was very excited,” she said.

Once again, Tucker has the badges on her mother’s lapel. Her daughter is now the rightful owner of her late USAF father’s memorial ring, just a few memories that could be lost forever were it not for civic duty and good old-fashioned investigation.

“It’s kind of a shot in the arm for the office. It’s really inspiring,” Swain said.