Shoeboxes

The genealogists tracked down 21 of Dunne's heirs, many of them great-nieces and great-nephews. In January 2008, the family went to court to reopen his estate and claim the money.

Now there were three sides: the contractor who found it, the woman who owned the house, and the family of the man who had hidden it.

And by then, most of the money was gone.

Reece had kept it in a safe deposit box at first. In August 2006, she moved it to shoeboxes in her closet.

About $54,600 of the old money was sold on eBay. About $14,000 went to a trip to Hawaii.

Then, by Reece's account, she found over Labor Day weekend that a shoebox holding $60,000 was gone. She ran out onto Edgewater Drive, crying, to tell the neighbors.