About this episode
The episode concludes the three-part coverage of Jill Rosenthal's mysterious disappearance and the revelations surrounding her identity.
Over the past two episodes, we followed a story that almost refuses to be believed: a newborn taken from Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, a toddler found abandoned outside a department store in Newark, and a man raised as Paul Fronczak who later learned through DNA that he was not the baby everyone believed had been returned. After decades of questions, genetic genealogy finally gave him the name he had been born with: Jack Thomas Rosenthal. But that answer opened another mystery, because Jack had not been born alone. Fourteen minutes before him, a baby girl entered the world too. Her name was Jill Lynne Rosenthal. And unlike Jack, Jill was not found abandoned in Newark. She was not placed into foster care under another name. She did not grow up inside someone else’s story. She simply disappeared—without headlines, without a public search, without a childhood photograph, and without the world even knowing it should be looking for her. Today, in the final episode of our coverage, we turn fully toward Jill: a little girl who was born, a little girl who had a name, and a little girl whose disappearance was hidden so thoroughly that silence nearly became the final word. This is the…
Topics covered
- disappearance
- genetic genealogy
- true crime
- family mystery
- abandonment
- identity
Keywords
- Jill Rosenthal
- Jack Rosenthal
- disappearance
- Michael Reese Hospital
- true crime
- genetic genealogy
- Paul Fronczak
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Michael Reese Hospital
Books & works: The Fronczak Files
Places: Chicago, Newark
More episodes of Coffee and Cases Podcast
- FROM THE VAULT: Ann Gotlib · June 11, 2026 · 1h 1m
- FROM THE VAULT: Bill and Peggy Stephenson (2021) · June 3, 2026 · 1h 8m
- Jill Rosenthal Part 2 · May 29, 2026 · 56 min
- FROM THE VAULT: Dottie Caylor · May 27, 2026 · 52 min
- Jill Rosenthal Part 1 · May 22, 2026 · 1h 5m
- FROM THE VAULT: Monique Michelle Figueroa · May 20, 2026 · 51 min
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