The horse insurance frauds and the disappearance of Helen Brach
United States, 1977 to 1996
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, owners of show jumping horses in the United States hired a man to kill insured animals and fake accidents or illnesses so they could collect the insurance. A 1992 Sports Illustrated article and a federal investigation in Chicago exposed the scheme, which led to dozens of convictions.
The same investigation reopened the case of Helen Brach, heiress to a candy company, who disappeared in 1977. She had been deceived by dealers who sold her horses at inflated prices and, according to the prosecution, intended to report them. One of them was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to kill her. Her body was never found.
Sources
In the game
Empty Saddle
Vega Ranch, Texas, 11:40 pm. Wade Miller, who had trained the ranch's racehorses for twenty years, was found dead in the stable with a gunshot to the chest, beside the stall of the stallion Comanche.
The game borrows the structure of the fraud: an insured animal, a false veterinary report and someone who meant to warn the insurer. Characters, setting and outcome are fiction.
Broken Mallet
La Brava Polo Club, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 1:40 pm. Tormenta, the home team's champion horse, was found trembling and sweating in his own stall, two hours before the final of the Summer Cup.
The game borrows the clue of an insurance policy that pays only for the animal's death and the bankrupt owner. The poisoning, the bet, the characters and the outcome are fiction.
