Mary Rose Mikulak

• Missing Since 09/01/2007
• Missing From Plains Township, Pennsylvania
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Age 89 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5 - 5'10, 150 - 160 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair. Mikulak may use the last names Genovese and/or D'Onofrio.

Details of Disappearance

Mikulak was last seen in Plains Township, Pennsylvania sometime after September 2007. She lived with Linasheri D'Onofrio, who was her granddaughter, and Linasheri's disabled son, Shain Cori-Jesi D'Onofrio. Shain had a cerebral palsy and autism and was severely disabled. He used a wheelchair to get around, and needed help with basic needs such as eating and toileting.

A photo of Linasheri is posted with this case summary. She also uses the names Layla Marie Genovese and Layla McCool. Her ex-husband helped her, Shain and Mikulak move from New Jersey to the East Mountain Ridge Mobile Home Park off Jumper Road in Plains Township in 2007.

Mikulak dropped out of sight sometime afterward and has never been heard from again. In 2011, her New Jersey relatives hired a private detective to find her, without result.

Linasheri house-sat for a neighbor in 2014, while the man was in a nursing home. When he returned home, he discovered six personal checks for a total of $2,980 had been stolen from him, written out to Mikulak, and deposited in a bank account jointly owned by Mikulak and Linasheri. The man complained to the police, who were unable to find Mikulak.

In February 2018, a shed behind Linasheri's trailer caught fire in what was later determined to be arson. Authorities discovered human remains inside it, wearing sweatpants, a stained shirt and a toddler's diaper and wrapped in a blanket. They were initially thought to be female, but later determined to be male, and were not identified for three months.

Neighbors told investigators that Linasheri lived near the shed with her disabled son. When questioned, Linasheri said the disabled male was not her son but her brother, that his name was David Genovese, and that he was living with their mother in New Jersey. She refused to provide an address for them, claiming they were in the witness protection program.

It wasn't until May that police were able to determine the body in the burned shed was Shain's. He was 24 years old when he died. Linasheri had a history of failing to take him to medical appointments and failing to refill his prescriptions, and witnesses reported she only changed Shain's diaper once a day and would slap him in the face if he spat out his food.

The neighbors hadn't seen him for awhile prior to his death, but Linasheri had appeared with him at a court hearing in September 2017. Police found Shain's New Jersey birth certificate identifying him as Linasheri's son. The father named on the certificate said he was not Shain's biological father and hadn't seen him in almost a decade.

In February 2023, Linasheri was charged with felony counts of neglect of care of a dependent person and reckless burning in Shain's death. Authorities stated he died due to "severe malnutrition and egregious neglect" sometime on or around September 5, 2017. He was 83 pounds when he died and should have weighed at least 121 pounds. Linasheri kept his body hidden after his death, until she got an eviction notice in 2018. She then put Shain's remains in the shed and set it on fire to destroy the evidence. Linasheri is still awaiting trial in her son's death.

It wasn't until after the shed fire that investigators realized Mikulak was missing. Authorities are not certain what happened to Mikulak, who would now be approximately 100 years old. They are trying to locate anyone in the local area who may have had contact with her at any point. They can find no death records for her, and no human remains have been discovered either, but they believe she is deceased.