As a 12-year-old, Vera Christa Doederlein Hastie searched the streets of Montreal and peered through storefronts every night, looking for a girl in a purple jacket and a white collared shirt. Today, at 81, she still glances through store windows on her walks through Coronado, holding onto the hope that she’ll catch a glimpse of the one she has been missing for nearly seven decades.
Her older sister, Rosemarie Döderlein, vanished without a trace at the age of 14. After 68 years of endless searching, Doederlein and her daughter, Christa Hastie, finally cracked the mystery of what happened on that fateful night in 1954.
Doederlein published her memoir last month, “Whatever happened to Rosemarie?” unraveling events that led to and through the disappearance of Rosemarie, who had just 50 cents to her name.
Doederlein, who sat beside her daughter Hastie in their Coronado home, still holds pain in her eyes upon the mention of her sister’s name. She didn’t set out to publish a memoir, but as she continued to sit down and write, the chapters formed themselves.
“It just turned into a book,” she said.
A life story turned into a memoir
As a retiree in Coronado for the past nine years, Doederlein has written her family’s story as a form of entertainment and therapy. From living under Hitler’s rule during World War II, to her dad becoming a prisoner of war, to emigrating from a small village in Germany to Canada, to the sudden disappearance of her sister – Doederlein’s novel is a story of war, hope, tragedy and grief.
“People often say to her, ‘How do you remember all this?” said Hastie of her mother. “But she’s like, ‘How do I not remember every detail of how I felt then?”
After her father was drafted as a linguist for the German army, and endured years as a prisoner of war following World War II, Doederlein and her family set out to Montreal in search of a better life. Despite moving to a country where she didn’t speak the native language, everything appeared to be looking up for the family.
The disappearance of Rosemarie
Then, just six weeks after their move, Rosemarie was sent to pick up bread from a bakery two doors down from the family apartment. And she was never seen again.
In the book, Doderlein recalls a childhood spent navigating her new country while watching her parents turn into shells of themselves as they grieved a missing child.
“A boy gave me a snow globe for my first Christmas in school and there was a little person in it. I used to pretend that it was her and I would talk to her,” said Doederlein. “Every time the doorbell rang I hoped it was her. It was never her.”
In their last days, her mother Hilda and her sister Hilde each asked the question, “What do you think ever happened to Rosemarie?”
The question hung in the air for 68 years until one day when Hastie decided to commit herself to a search for Rosemarie, alongside her mom.
Missing persons case solved decades later
“I always believe that you have to start off any mission with the mindset that you’re going to complete it,” said Hastie. “Now is always the time, that’s the thing: Now is always the time.”
What was brushed off as another unsolved missing persons case decades ago became a worldwide search with the help of hundreds of strangers. After posting her story to Facebook groups, sketch artists, forensic scientists, private detectives, translators, artists and investigative genetic genealogists from around the globe were volunteering to help solve the mystery: “Whatever happened to Rosemarie?” Rosemarie’s story was aired on CBC News, appeared on the front page of the Montreal Gazette and was featured in Le Journal de Montréal.
In 2022, after employing advanced genetic technology, Doederlein finally discovered what happened to her sister that night. Her book, “Whatever happened to Rosemarie?” details that discovery.
Published to raise awareness of resources
Although the plan initially wasn’t to write a book, Doederlein realized the words she had been writing for herself told a greater story, even if it was heart-wrenching.
“It took a lot of courage to actually publish this book because a lot of the stuff was so personal and extreme,” said Hastie. “We want to get the word out about DNA and how it can allow law enforcement to make connections using investigative genetic genealogy. A lot of families have reached out to us over the last two years – [Doederlein] has become a beacon of hope for so many families that one day they might get answers, too.”
Still, the mystery they worked to solve feels incomplete to Doederlein because her family is no longer alive to share it with.
“She always says the thing that bothers her the most is that there’s nobody here that it really matters to,” said Hastie. “Obviously it matters to me, but to some extent, it’s truly the people who went through it – her brother, her sister, her parents.”
While the conclusion to her memoir is written, the story will never end. Doederlein holds onto Rosemarie’s possessions left behind from their childhood in hopes they will be reunited once again.
“There’s no such thing as closure. There really isn’t,” said Doederlein. “I still keep her red purse. I’m always waiting for that knock and I can say, ‘Look, see? I never forgot about you Rosemarie. I have your purse right here.”
“Whatever happened to Rosemarie?” is available on Amazon and Doederlein’s website. Doederlein and Hastie also created a site called DNA Super Hero that details the steps family members of missing persons can take to employ investigative genetic genealogy in the search for their loved one.
