Last Monday as Garbutt Construction continued the renovation of Campus Theatre on Wayne Street, John Scott found a wallet stashed on the ledge of a basement wall that was being torn down.

Upon investigation, the contents of the wallet — a Social Security card, Georgia State Employment Service card and five black-and-white photos — revealed that it has been missing since the 1940s.

“I just happened to be in here and saw it up there. It had an even older Social Security number than mine,” said Scott.

After the wallet was discovered, it was turned over to Georgia College & State University Public Safety employee Mark Bowen and then made its way to GCSU Public Safety Administrative Assistant Cindy Potts.

Potts has been trying to solve the mystery of the wallet ever since.

The Social Security Card and the Georgia State Employment card inside of the wallet are in the name of a Mary Ruth Justice, who was born Nov. 11, 1920.

“The dates on both of these cards are from July of 1940,” said Potts. “I have no idea who the people are in the photos, but I went on the death records online and found out that she died in January of 1978 in Buffalo, N.Y.; Eerie County.”

Potts also decided to call the Baldwin County Courthouse, and she was able to find out that Justice applied for a marriage license in 1944 to marry Walter Davis.

“I don’t know if they had children, but I’m hoping they did because that’s who I’d like to get this stuff back to,” she said. “Somebody’s family would love to have these pictures.”

After calling every Justice in the Milledgeville phone book, Potts discovered some United States Census Data from 1920 that traced the woman’s ancestry back to Hancock County.

She has also been in touch with various members of the Milledgeville community trying to get help on finding the deceased wallet owner’s family. She called local civil war buff Hugh Herrington and Allied Arts Board of Directors member Sandra Jones as well as several other people for help, but the mystery remains unsolved.

“It’s been fun, but I’m kind of stuck now,” she said. “It’d be neat to know how she lost it or what movie she was watching.”