Disappearance

On the morning of March 20, 1978, Joyce went to work at the Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, Washington where she was employed as a ticket agent.

She walked away from her counter after her shift was over, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Joyce was reported missing by Pan American airline officials when she failed to report to work for her next shift.

Investigation

Joyce’s car was found abandoned two days after her disappearance, parked in the visitor’s section of the airport parking lot.

The doors were unlocked, and her purse and keys were found lying on the front seat. There was no sign of a struggle.

On the day of her disappearance, Joyce was supposed to meet her ex-husband, John Thomas “Jack” O’Keefe II, so he could repay a debt he owed her.

She had been married to O’Keefe from 1972-1976, and he had a history of abusing her.

Joyce called her brother Jack Sparks, asking if he could accompany her to meet her ex-husband that night after her shift, but he was unavailable.

Joyce’s family believes O’Keefe murdered her, but he was never charged in connection to her disappearance and is now deceased.

Her family believes O’Keefe parked her car in the visitor’s area to make it look like she had taken off on her own.

Whereabouts

The location of Joyce Lee Kennedy, and the circumstances regarding her disappearance, remains unknown.

Foul play is suspected in her disappearance, though no one has ever been charged in connection to her case.

Appearance

Caucasian female born on March 28, 1933. Joyce has red hair, blue eyes, stands 5’3, and weighs 135 pounds.

She was last seen wearing a red blouse, tan slacks, and a gold ring set with diamonds and the word “love.” Joyce wears eyeglasses.

She may use the last name O’Keefe.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Joyce Lee Kennedy please contact the Port of Seattle Police Department at (206) 787-5400.

The post The Disappearance of Joyce Lee Kennedy appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

She had just one job application left to drop off that day—at the Sav-On drugstore nearby. She departed from Winchell’s Donut House, leaving two friends behind and promising to meet up with them after she was done. But she would never return. Aside from a few scattered unsubstantiated sightings, her trail went cold.

What happened to Joyce Walcott?

Joyce Irene Walcott

One of five children, Joyce Irene Walcott was born on January 5th, 1967, to parents Danny and Helen. Her father passed away when she was only nine years old, and the family eventually relocated to Farmington, New Mexico.

For reasons that are unclear, Joyce—whose nickname was “Sneezie”—wanted to leave New Mexico. In 1985, the teenager moved nearly 800 miles to live with her Aunt Irene and cousin Jason in Reseda, California, where she planned to finish out her senior year of high school. Irene enjoyed having Joyce there and came to view her as a daughter.

That same year, Joyce was in two automobile accidents, both times as a passenger. She wasn’t seriously injured either time, but after the second accident she went to the doctor and an examination revealed that she might have a congenital separation between her skull and spine. Shortly thereafter, she underwent corrective surgery.

She started dating 21-year-old shipping clerk Scott Noone, who lived in the same apartment complex. Joyce wished to return to school and obtain her diploma, but wearing a neck brace made this too difficult.

“She tried to go back to school in February,” Scott explained. “With the brace on she just couldn’t handle sitting in school.”

Things began to get serious between Joyce and Scott, and she moved into his apartment in March 1986. By April, she felt ready to start working and began picking up job applications from local businesses.

Joyce’s Disappearance

On April 29th, Joyce decided to drop off her applications. Sources vary on this, but she was either accompanied by Scott’s sister and the girlfriend of Scott’s brother until she left the donut shop or she had been on her own until she came across them at Winchell’s Donut House.

She stopped at 7-Eleven and Vons supermarket that morning before arriving at Winchell’s Donut House around noon. All of these businesses were located on Sherman Way—the same street she lived on. She had one application left to drop off: at the Sav-On drugstore next door. She told her friends that she would rejoin them as soon as she was done.

Strangely, though, Joyce never came back. Her friends found this odd, but assumed that she’d simply gone somewhere else and didn’t investigate further.

Scott returned home from work later that day and immediately noticed that Joyce wasn’t there. Irene hadn’t seen her either. Both were concerned, because this was very uncharacteristic behavior for the reliable Joyce.

They went to the West Valley Police Department and attempted to file a missing persons report. They were met with an air of indifference by the police, who assumed that Joyce had left of her own free will and would be back. Irene and Scott were told to wait at least 24 hours for her to return before making a report.

Detective Steve Brazner would later explain the reason for this by stating that approximately 90% of missing persons cases involve people who chose to leave and aren’t due to foul play. Law enforcement believed that Joyce’s disappearance was another such case, even though she had no history of running off with no explanation.

After a full day had gone by with no sign of the missing 19 year old, they were finally able to file a missing persons report. However, it appears that investigators still didn’t take her disappearance seriously and continued to believe that she’d return on her own. There was no sign of foul play, they said.

Yet there was no evidence of anything, really, foul play or otherwise. Joyce had simply vanished and no one seemed to know why or where she might be.

Scott and Irene were determined to locate her and distributed missing persons posters to many places in southern California and even as far away as her family’s city of Farmington, New Mexico.

Her loved ones were certain that she hadn’t run away. She also hadn’t taken anything with her that day, aside from her birth certificate and the job applications. All of her other belongings remained in the apartment.

“There was no reason for her to take off,” Scott said. “She was really happy that day.”

Irene made a similar statement:

“She’d never do anything like this to hurt the family. She’d have let somebody know by now.”

Strange Sightings

As the weeks went by with no sign of Joyce, law enforcement started to consider that she may have been abducted.

With that in mind, they began questioning people in the area. They quickly eliminated Scott as a person of interest, as he had the verifiable alibi of having been at work that day. They went to Sav-On and spoke to the manager and employees there, none of whom remembered seeing Joyce come in. Additionally, her job application had never been brought in.

So it appeared that whatever had happened to Joyce had occurred within the brief window of time from when she left Winchell’s and walked the short distance to Sav-On. Had someone approached her in the parking lot and forced her into a vehicle?

Multiple sightings of the missing young woman came in. One witness claimed to have seen someone who resembled Joyce speaking on a payphone outside of Sav-On that day. Another eyewitness said they saw her sitting on a bench nearby and crying on the day she went missing.

Someone else stated that she was working as a waitress in a restaurant approximately five miles away.

Ultimately, none of these sightings could be substantiated and the potential leads went nowhere.

Joyce’s Disappearance Possibly Connected to Serial Killer?

On June 9th, 1986, the body of 22-year-old Mary Duggan was discovered in the trunk of her car, just a few blocks away from Joyce’s apartment complex. Mary had been raped and murdered.

Given the proximity to where Joyce lived and was last seen, investigators wondered if the as yet unknown perpetrator could possibly be the same person responsible for her disappearance.

“It may just be a coincidence but, then again, it’s something we have to look at,” said Lieutenant William Gaida of the LAPD’s West Valley detective bureau.

Mary’s case would remain unsolved for decades, until a resolution was finally obtained using genetic genealogy.

In 2019, a man named Horace Van Vaultz was arrested and charged with killing Mary. DNA evidence also tied him to the 1981 murder of 21-year-old Selena Keough. Van Vaultz, who still maintains his innocence, was charged with two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison, with no possibility of parole.

Though DNA had also connected him to the 1986 rape and murder of 25-year-old Janna Rowe, he couldn’t be charged with this crime as he had already been acquitted for it in 1988. During his original trial, his ex-wife had testified that Van Vaultz was abusive to her and would also boast of having raped and murdered many local women.

During a search of his home, law enforcement found a collection of pictures of teenagers and young women, some of whom they believe were likely victims of his. However, at least two of the women have since been located and are still alive.

It has never been said that any pictures of Joyce were discovered among his possessions, but some speculate that she might have been one of his victims as well.Subscribe

Cold Case

Sadly, her mother and two of her brothers have since passed away.

To this day, Joyce Walcott has never been found and her case has grown cold, due to a lack of evidence or viable leads. However, her surviving loved ones are still hopeful that one day it will be solved.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Joyce Walcott, you are encouraged to contact the LAPD Missing Persons Unit at 213-485-2806.

The post Joyce Irene Walcott: California Woman Still Missing appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

So what happened during that brief walk that prevented him from getting there?

The investigation into his disappearance would fail to produce evidence of any kind and it was as if the teenager simply vanished without a trace.

What happened to Jason Jolkowski?

Jason Anthony Jolkowski

The oldest of two sons, Jason Anthony Jolkowski was born on June 24, 1981, in Grand Island, Nebraska, to parents Jim and Kelly.

Jason was described as shy, intelligent, and kind by those who knew him. He had been a part-time student at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but had dropped out the previous winter because his family didn’t have enough money for him to continue there.

However, he was planning to go back to school soon, as he had secured a job as a customer service representative at Sitel Corporation, which was a position that offered more money as well as a tuition program. But for the time being, Jason worked at Fazoli’s, a local restaurant.

During his time in college, he had a part-time job as a DJ for his school’s radio station, which was something he loved.

“When he was on the air, he was so enthusiastic and so peppy,” remembered Sarah James, a fellow DJ. “He would do anything for anybody.”

Jason—whose favorite teams were the Cubs, Huskers, and Broncos—loved watching sports and had a great memory for players’ names and stats.

Additionally, he was deeply religious and, according to Reverend Edward Vella, had even expressed interest in becoming a priest one day.

“He was a prayerful kid,” noted Vella. “Very friendly, very quiet.”

Baffling Disappearance

In June 2001, 19-year-old Jason was living at his family’s home in Omaha, Nebraska. On June 13th, he received a phone call asking him to come into work early.

Since his car was still at the auto repair shop, he had to figure out another way to get to work. So he called a coworker and arranged to meet her at nearby Benson High School, roughly half a mile away from his home, and from there she was supposed to drive him to Fazoli’s.

(Side note: Jason reportedly struggled with giving directions, which is why he preferred to just meet at the high school.)

However, he would never show up.

Jason was last seen by a neighbor, Chester Link, who spotted him helping Michael, his younger brother, take the garbage cans back to the garage and then walking in the direction of the school at about 10:45 a.m.

When he failed to arrive, his coworker phoned his house at some time between 11:15–11:30 a.m., looking for him, but he was not there.

The eight blocks between the Jolkowski home and Benson High School were made up of quiet residential streets with little traffic.

Security camera footage from Benson High School confirmed that Jason never arrived that day.

An Investigation With No Evidence

Jason’s parents waited to report him missing until the following morning because they believed (wrongly) that it was necessary to wait a full 24 hours before notifying the police.

According to the blog Disappeared, the authorities initially assumed that Jason was just another teenage runaway and did not begin to investigate his disappearance until 10 days after he went missing.

But his family and friends were certain that he wouldn’t have run away, explaining that his family meant everything to him and that things were going well in his life.

According to Jason’s friend, Amanda Goodman:

“He loves his parents and his brother more than anything in the world. He’d be talking to me on the phone and he’d put me on hold so he could tuck his brother into bed. His family came first.”

Jason was described by his parents as considerate and generous, the kind of person who would go out of his way to help others.

“He was an unusually polite person,” said Kelly Jolkowski.

It’s believed that Jason had only his cell phone and no more than $60 on him that day. Nothing else had been taken from his bedroom.

The police interviewed friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers, but were at a loss to explain what had happened to Jason. There had been no additional sightings of him and there was no forensic evidence or even circumstantial evidence to work with in this case. It was as if he had simply vanished without a trace.

Jason was also said to have no interest in partying and no known involvement with alcohol or drugs at any point in his life.

Following his disappearance, there was no further activity on either his bank account or his cell phone. No suspects have ever been identified in this case, and his coworker was ruled out as a person of interest early on.

So what happened to him? How did Jason vanish in broad daylight during such a short window of time?

One of the officers involved in the investigation was quoted as saying Jason’s disappearance was “the most baffling case” he’d seen in 30 years.

Theories

In a case like this, one with no witnesses or evidence of any kind, one can only speculate as to what might have happened.

But the main theory, which his family also believes to be true, is that Jason was lured into a vehicle—or home—by someone that day and then murdered.Subscribe

Jason’s Law

Jim and Kelly Jolkowski went on to create “Project Jason,” a non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide assistance to the families of missing people. They also lobbied for “Jason’s Law,” which was passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2005 and resulted in the creation of a statewide database for missing persons.

Kelly was later awarded a Volunteer for Victims award from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as Nebraska Governor’s Points of Light Award.

Current State of the Investigation

According to the Omaha Police Department, the investigation remains open and active, but it is essentially a cold case with no promising leads.

In 2021, the Jolkowski family gathered with Jason’s friends at a park for a grim commemoration—the 20th anniversary of his disappearance.

Jason’s mother, Kelly Murphy, said:

“Unfortunately, with this mark, I will have not had him more years than I had him in my life since he disappeared at the age 19. He was almost 20, but he was 19. That’s just hard to fathom. 20 years, that’s two decades.”

Murphy recalled a memory from those lost years:

“We really didn’t have a name for it, but it was kind of a who laughs first game. You would say one word, and it was usually something silly. You would just see who would start laughing. And he (Jason) was the one who always lost. We knew he had a tendency to start giggling.”

Despite the enduring pain of their loss, Jason’s family still remains hopeful that one day they’ll have closure and definitive answers about what happened to their son.

“Hope is your right until you know the truth,” Jason’s mom added. “Some people try to take hope away from you. They think, well, you should be over that by now, you should be back to normal. Everyone deserves hope.”

To this day, the bizarre disappearance of Jason Jolkowski, a kind teenager with his whole life ahead of him, remains unsolved.

The post The Bizarre Disappearance of Jason Jolkowski appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

They met friends at a Philadelphia bar and by all accounts the evening was an enjoyable one. Nothing seemed amiss.

Shortly before midnight, Richard and Danielle left together, never to be seen again.

An extensive search and lengthy investigation into their disappearance would culminate in the FBI’s belief that foul play was involved—specifically a murder-for-hire plot. However, solid evidence remained as elusive as Danielle and Richard themselves and the case soon hit a standstill.

What happened to Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr.?

Danielle and Richard

Danielle Imbo was born on August 7th, 1970, in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents John and Feliz Ottobre. Her father, a singer who went by the stage name “Johnny October,” rose to fame in the 1950s as a member of the doo-wop group The Four Dates, which eventually became a backup group for popular singer Frankie Avalon.

As the daughter of a musician, Danielle developed a deep love for music and enjoyed singing and attending concerts. She was also an avid reader of murder mysteries and worked as a loan processor.

Those close to Danielle knew her as a kind and outgoing person, as well as a dedicated mother to her 18-month-old son, Joe Jr.

Richard Petrone Jr. was born on August 29th, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Richard and Margaret. Described as hardworking, laidback, family-oriented, and compassionate, Richard was a devoted single father to his 14-year-old daughter Angela and worked at his family’s bakery—Viking Pastries—in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

Like Danielle, Richard loved music, especially rock. Additionally, he enjoyed watching sports and was a fan of the Chicago Bears.

Richard and Danielle Reconnect

In 2004, Danielle’s husband, Joe Imbo, flew to Houston to see the Super Bowl, leaving behind his wife and baby, both of whom had a cold at the time.

When he got back, he announced that he had met another woman on the plane and wanted a divorce. Though shocked and deeply hurt, Danielle complied with Joe’s wishes and the two began divorce proceedings.

Sadly, the separation took a toll on Danielle, who began chain-smoking and dropped an alarming amount of weight.

This is when Richard Petrone Jr. came back into her life.

Richard and Danielle grew up in the same neighborhood and had known each other for most of their lives. Danielle was close friends with Richard’s sister but had lost touch with Richard over the years. However, they hit it off immediately upon reconnecting and soon began dating.

Richard had never felt this strongly about a woman before, according to his daughter Angela:

“Danielle was the first girl he ever really fell in love with, wanted to dedicate his time to.”

Though the pair were happy together, Danielle was still in the middle of a painful divorce and decided that it would be best if she and Richard didn’t see each other for a while, so she could put her entire focus on her baby as well as getting through the divorce proceedings. As much as this hurt Richard, he respected Danielle’s wishes and stayed away.

Joe’s Temper

Unsurprisingly, Joe’s new relationship with a woman he barely knew didn’t last, and it wasn’t long before he asked Danielle to reconcile and give their marriage another chance.

While she still had feelings for her husband, she also felt that a divorce was the right decision and wanted to remain on that path. Joe was allegedly controlling and short-tempered, and his pleas for reconciliation often erupted into explosive arguments.

On one of these occasions, Joe reportedly became so angry that he threw his son’s highchair at the wall, though he would later deny this accusation.

Danielle and Richard Go Out Together One Last Time

On February 19th, 2005, Richard was eating dinner alone at a bar when he decided that he wanted to go somewhere to see live music.

However, he didn’t want to go alone, so he called his sister Christine and asked if she’d like to join him. She declined but passed on the invitation to Danielle, who happened to be visiting her at the time—Joe had the baby and was out of town that night.

Richard and Danielle hadn’t spoken in weeks, but she accepted the invitation to his surprise.

He picked her up in his 2001 black Dodge Dakota and the two of them went to a bar called Abilene’s on Philadelphia’s South Street, meeting up with Richard’s friends, Anthony and Michelle. They watched a band perform and, by all accounts, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

In fact, Richard and Danielle looked happy and were seen sitting close to each other and kissing inside the bar. They also compared their schedules for the following weekend, as if to plan another date.

Anthony and Michelle asked the couple to go with them to another bar, but both declined, explaining that they each had an early morning the next day and didn’t want to stay up too late.

Then, at approximately 11:45 p.m., they prepared to leave and Richard was overheard saying he would drive Danielle home to Mount Laurel before returning to South Philly.

They walked outside into the evening air together and haven’t been seen or heard from since.

[Side note: It’s unknown where Richard parked his truck, but it can be reasonably narrowed down because he made a comment to Anthony that night about being happy that he was able to get a parking space so close to the bar.]

Where Are They?

The next morning, Danielle missed her hair appointment and, throughout the day, both her cell phone and Richard’s went straight to voicemail. Their families became increasingly concerned.

Danielle’s brother, John Ottobre, decided to go check on her, using the spare key she had given him to enter her home. It was dark inside and nothing seemed suspicious or out of place.

But by 3 p.m.—the time Joe Jr. was usually dropped off by his father—Danielle still wasn’t home. That’s when John knew something was wrong.

“She wouldn’t have missed that. No way,” he later remarked.

Both Danielle and Richard were close to their families and in frequent contact with them. It wasn’t like either of them to vanish with no explanation.

When Joe arrived at Danielle’s home that afternoon to drop off little Joe, he found her family there, but not Danielle. John tried to cover for her by saying that she couldn’t be there right now and had asked him to take care of Joe Jr. in her absence.

However, as the hours went by with no word, their families knew something must be wrong and reported them missing.

The search began.

The Search

When night fell, John and Richard Petrone Sr. drove through the city streets and checked the highway routes in search of Richard’s truck, slowing to peer down every side street and back alley between Philadelphia and Mount Laurel.

They even checked the city’s waterways and overpasses, including the Walt Whitman, Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross bridges. Finally, at sunrise, they went home.

That day, friends and volunteers organized a grid search that covered a hundred miles in every direction, carrying pictures of Richard’s truck and its license plate number, YFH-2319.

John spent $1,200 hiring a Camden police officer to commandeer a helicopter, which they used to scour the city from above.

But no one found anything. According to one report, a police deputy said to John:

“No one is ever going to find anything.”

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“It’s too clean.”

Despite several extensive searches, no sign of Danielle and Richard or the truck could be located.

There were no eyewitness accounts of them after leaving the bar. They didn’t appear on any of the toll bridge cameras after their departure from Abilene’s. And when investigators checked their respective bank accounts, credit cards and cell phones, nothing unusual came up. In fact, there was no activity at all.

So what happened to the couple?

Theories

A theory that often comes up considering the fact the truck vanished as well is that they accidentally drove into the nearby Delaware River. But those familiar with the Philadelphia area believe this is an unlikely explanation, as there isn’t easy direct access to the river from the street.

Another possible explanation is that they were carjacked and murdered, with the truck taken to a chop shop afterwards and sold for parts.

This idea seemed plausible to some—after all, over 13,000 vehicles were stolen in the Philadelphia area in 2004 alone. The FBI and the Philadelphia stolen car squad worked in conjunction to investigate this lead, but it ultimately went nowhere as no evidence of a carjacking could be found.

FBI involvement in a missing persons case is relatively rare, so what compelled them to join this particular investigation?

Murder For Hire

In 2014, FBI special agent Vito Roselli, the investigator in charge of the case, put out a press release, stating:

“Making two people and a truck disappear, with no witnesses and no evidence of any kind for nine years, suggests methodical planning. It’s possible a perpetrator could just get lucky, but it’s more likely just what it looks like: Someone behind this knew what they were doing.”

Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr. were, according to the FBI, likely the victims of a “murder-for-hire” plot.

Given how cleanly and abruptly they disappeared, without any evidence left behind, this seemed like a plausible explanation.

But who would want to hurt them? And why?

Suspects

The first people that the authorities looked into were the last ones known to have seen the missing pair before they vanished: Richard’s friends Anthony and Michelle. Both were questioned multiple times, but ultimately detectives came to believe that neither was involved in the disappearance.

The next logical suspect was Danielle’s husband. His alibi was soon verified: Joe was 50 miles away at a children’s birthday party that day, a party at which his stepfather, a former NYPD officer, was in attendance. Joe took a polygraph test as well, but the results were inconclusive.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Joe possessed the password to Danielle’s voicemail and had accessed her account multiple times in the months leading up to her disappearance.

Another fact that came to light was that Joe made several threatening phone calls to Richard, both at his home and workplace, during the same timeframe, warning him to stop seeing his wife.

Nevertheless, no solid evidence for Joe’s guilt was discovered and he has adamantly denied being involved.

No other suspects have been named.

According to J.J. Klaver of the FBI: “We’re not identifying anybody as a suspect, but we’re not ruling anyone out. Everybody is ruled in at this point.”

Further Developments

A tip was received from a local waitress about a broken gate near the Delaware River. It appeared that someone had driven through it. A search was conducted of the river in that area and several vehicles were found, but Richard’s Dodge Dakota was not among them.

In 2021, the FBI released a new statement reporting that “an extensive investigation to date has generated some promising leads; however, neither they nor the vehicle has ever been located.”

In March 2022, a private Oregon-based search and recovery dive team, known as “Adventures with Purpose,” announced they were working on the case. The team has solved 11 of its 36 missing person investigations since 2021 and carried out multiple dives in the Delaware River.

Doug Bishop, one of the group’s members.

“I know the FBI’s position is that there was foul play and that the vehicle has somehow made it to a chop shop; however, there’s no actual information leading to suspect those types of conclusions. So our specialty is water, we know we have a couple that’s missing and missing with their vehicle and we’re going to do what we do best.”

So far, however, no evidence relevant to the disappearance of Richard and Danielle has been recovered from the river.

There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the location of Richard and Danielle and/or to the arrest of those responsible for their disappearance.

Bizarre Unsolved Cases is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Subscribe

Current State of the Investigation

The case is still open and being actively investigated by the FBI, Philadelphia Police Department, Mount Laurel Police Department, New Jersey State Police, and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

Though the whereabouts of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr., as well as the events leading up to their disappearance, remain a mystery, their families are still holding out hope that the case will be solved someday and that they will be able to give their loved ones a proper resting place.

If you’ve ever had that feeling that something’s wrong, something’s just not right. I think everybody has that once in their life. Just something doesn’t feel right. I have that feeling from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed every day.

— Danielle’s brother John, describing what it’s like not knowing what happened to his sister

The post The Strange Disappearance of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr. appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

The three women were inexplicably gone, but their cars and purses were still there. There were no signs of a struggle inside the home, but the front porch light had been broken. Additionally, there was reportedly a disturbing message on the answering machine. No other clues as to what had happened to the missing women were found.

To this day, answers to this bizarre mystery remain elusive.

What happened to Suzanne Streeter, Stacy McCall, and Sherrill Levitt?

The Springfield Three

Stacy Kathleen McCall was born on April 23rd, 1974, to parents Janis and Stu. Stacy loved fashion and music. She worked part-time as a receptionist for Springfield Gymnastics, as well as occasionally modelled for a local bridal shop.

Suzanne “Suzie” Elizabeth Streeter was born on March 9th, 1973, to parents Sherrill and Brentt. Suzie was said to be sensitive yet bold, with an edgy style. She enjoyed hanging out with friends and loved bowling. She was very close to her mother.

Suzie’s parents divorced when she was a child and her father didn’t have much involvement in her life. Her mother Sherrill (born on November 1st, 1944) went on to remarry a man named Don Levitt.

They were happy together for a time, but Don eventually accumulated a significant amount of debt and then abandoned his family. Sherrill, now a single mother, worked as a cosmetologist at New Attitudes Hair Salon. She and her daughter had lived in the home they’d mysteriously vanish from for only two months.

Sherrill had a contentious relationship with her oldest child, Suzie’s brother Bartt, who was now an adult and living elsewhere. The two were said to periodically cease contact with each other following arguments.

Their last falling out reportedly had to do with both Bartt’s outspoken disapproval of an ex-boyfriend of Suzie’s—a man named Mike Kovacs, who had allegedly abused Suzie and slashed her tires—and an argument he had with Suzie over loud music, which had devolved into a shoving match between the two siblings.

By the time Sherrill and Suzie went missing, 27-year-old Bartt hadn’t been on speaking terms with either of them for months.

Graduation

Friends Suzie and Stacy graduated from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, on June 6th, 1992.

Their celebration plans included attending multiple graduation parties that evening, after which they would stay the night at a hotel in Branson. The following morning, they intended to head out to a water park with a group of friends and fellow graduates.

By 10:30 p.m., however, they no longer felt like making the drive to Branson and decided they’d go the next morning. They thought they’d stay the night over at their friend Janelle Kirby’s house instead. (Side note: Stacy and Janelle were best friends and had known each other since early childhood.)

Stacy made a call to her mother, Janis, to check in and let her know about their change of plans. This turned out to be the final time Janis would speak to her daughter.

Fateful Change of Plans

Suzie and Stacy then went to a party at the home of one of Janelle’s neighbors and stayed there until well after midnight. By around 2 a.m., the girls were ready to go to bed, but Janelle’s house was too crowded with visiting family members for them to sleep over.

At this point, the friends decided that they would spend the night at Suzie’s house, at 1717 East Delmar Street.

Suzie and Stacy assured Janelle that they’d come back in the morning and that the three of them would still go to the water park together.

A Strange Scene

When Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall did not show up at Janelle’s house the next morning, Janelle called them multiple times but received no answer. Initially, she wasn’t worried, believing that the two had likely slept in after their late night.

But as the hours passed with no sign of them, Janelle started to think that she should go over to East Delmar Street, just to check things out.

Janelle and her boyfriend Mike went over and found something odd right away: The front porch light was broken and glass was all over the porch. Specifically, the globe encasing the bulb was damaged, but not the bulb itself. They didn’t find this concerning, however, and Mike even swept the glass up, thinking no more about it.

The cars of each of the three women were parked out front, although it was notable that Suzie’s car—which she parked in the exact same spot every day—was in a different location. Had someone else been parked there when Stacy and Suzie arrived?

Janelle and Mike found the front door unlocked, but no one was inside. They assumed they had just missed them and that their friends had already left for the water park. However, as they were about to leave, the phone rang. Janelle picked it up and was greeted by an unfamiliar male voice saying lewd things on the other end of the line. She hung up.

Suzie had been receiving prank calls recently, so Janelle wasn’t particularly disturbed or surprised by this incident. Oddly, nothing at all about the scene or circumstances struck them as worrisome initially, and she and Mike left.Subscribe

Missing

When Stacy and Suzie didn’t show up at the water park, Janelle felt that they should return to the house to see if the girls were back yet. But when she and Mike arrived, the only person they saw was Janis McCall, Stacy’s mother, who was hoping to find her daughter there. But the home was still empty and eerily quiet.

They investigated further and found, bizarrely, the purses of the three women lined up on the floor in Suzie’s bedroom. Sherrill and Suzie’s dog, a Yorkie named Cinnamon, was in the home as well and appeared to be anxious. Nothing seemed to have been stolen and there were no signs of forced entry.

Janelle also discovered that a message had been left on the answering machine in their absence. When she listened to it, she heard the same male voice from the earlier call, once again making crude remarks. Unfortunately, she accidentally deleted this message.

Finally, they called the police. While waiting for them to arrive, Janelle made the questionable choice to clean the house, thus contaminating what was likely a crime scene.

A missing persons report was filed with the Springfield Police Department and within days, the FBI showed up join the investigation. During the first two weeks, law enforcement and local residents launched multiple community-wide searches, which included divers looking for bodies in Lake Springfield and the James River. They turned up nothing.

More than 20,000 missing-persons posters, some of which still remain in storefronts today, went up throughout Springfield during this time.

The case also received a large amount of media attention, with coverage on shows like 48 Hours, America’s Most Wanted and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

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Suspects

Mike Kovacs was looked at as a person of interest early in the investigation. Suzie had broken up with him in September 1991 and had a temporary restraining order against him in October of that year. However, investigators quickly ruled him out as he had an alibi for the night in question.

Another ex-boyfriend of Suzie’s, Dustin, was considered a suspect as well. He had recently been arrested for being part of a grave-robbing gang and this was allegedly the reason why Suzie broke up with him. Additionally, she had reportedly given a statement to police implicating him in the crime and was going to be testifying against Dustin in just a few months.

Although none of the men in this gang—including Dustin—had a solid alibi for that night, there was nothing to definitively link them to the disappearance of Suzie, Stacy, and Sherrill, and, for whatever this is worth, each passed a polygraph test.

Bartt Streeter was also a person of interest to law enforcement, due to his history of alcoholism and aggression, as well as the falling out he’d had with both his mother and his sister.

Bartt’s alibi was that he had been drinking and then went home and passed out. Yet, since he had been alone, no one could corroborate his story. But there was no evidence to connect him to the disappearances either. He also passed a polygraph test.

In February 2019, Bartt was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and disorderly conduct, in addition to attempted false imprisonment, from an unrelated incident in Tennessee. Police once again investigated him for possible involvement in the Springfield Three case and eventually ruled him out as a suspect.

As Suzie and Stacy weren’t originally supposed to be there that night, some have speculated that Sherrill Levitt might have been the true target of the assailant(s) and that the two teenagers were collateral damage.

Conversely, it was theorized that the girls may have been followed home. Although this wouldn’t explain why Suzie had parked in a different place than she typically did, which seems to indicate that someone else was already parked in her usual spot.

The Mysterious Green Van

A witness in the neighborhood reported having seen a green van in the area just two days after the three Springfield women went missing. Supposedly, a blonde woman was driving and the witness heard an aggressive male voice tell her, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

The eyewitness pointed out a picture of Suzie Streeter to the authorities, claiming that this was the person she’d seen driving the van.

In 2002, the police investigated leads about a suspicious green van that belonged to a group of men working at a concrete company in Webster County. Investigators brought in cadaver dogs and recovered bones from the site. The skeletal remains were tested but deemed too old to be connected with the case.

Robert Cox

Robert Craig Cox, a convicted murderer who lived across the street from Suzie and Sherrill at the time of their disappearance, was questioned by Springfield Police several times over the years in connection with this case.

In 1996, investigative reporter Dennis Graves interviewed Cox in a Texas prison and asked him about the Springfield Three. The following exchange took place:

Cox: “I know that they are dead. I’ll say that. And I know that.”

Graves: “That’s not a theory?”

Cox: “I just know that they are dead. That’s not my theory. I just know that. There’s no doubt about that.”

Cox failed to provide additional information, though he was later quoted as saying that he would elaborate on what he knows once his mother has passed away.

Later that year, the interview was subpoenaed by authorities and submitted as evidence to a grand jury. However, no charges were forthcoming.

Possible Remains in a Parking Garage

In 2007, a tip provoked a local writer to hire an engineer and use ground-penetrating radar to scan a parking garage at the Cox Hospital South in Springfield. The engineer said he picked up on three distinct shapes that were consistent with human remains.

However, the parking garage in question was built a year after the disappearance and police felt it was unlikely that the bodies wouldn’t have turned up during its excavation.

Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for the Springfield Police Department, stated:

“Digging up the area and subsequently reconstructing this structure would be extremely costly, and without any reasonable belief that the bodies could be located here, it is illogical to do so, and for those reasons SPD does not intend to. Investigators have determined this lead to not be credible.”

Current State of the Investigation

As of yet, there have been no further developments. In the absence of hard evidence or viable leads, the case has grown cold.

Former Springfield Police Detective and current Bolivar Police Chief Mark Webb said the case changed the way local authorities look at crime.

“They started looking for computer programs. What are we going to do if we get another case of this magnitude?”

Still haunted by the cold case, Webb questions himself and his department.

“Is there something more we could have done? Is there another question we could have asked? Was that person lying to us? Could we have dug deeper there? Just those questions of how could we have done better.”

In 2021, journalist Anne Roderique-Jones, who grew up in Springfield, launched a podcast about the disappearance, The Springfield Three: A Small-Town Disappearance.

More than 30 years later, the bizarre disappearance of Suzanne Streeter, Stacy McCall, and Sherrill Levitt remains unsolved.

The post The Bizarre Disappearance of The Springfield Three appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

As his friends would explain, they sped on as Mike lagged behind, not realizing until later that he was no longer with them. They waited for Mike in the parking lot of a local 7-Eleven but he never showed up, leading them to assume that he’d simply gone home.

However, he did not make it home and was never seen again. In the days following his disappearance, his bike would be located in the Little Susitna River and, bizarrely, his sneakers would turn up on a private airstrip hundreds of yards away from the river. These were the only clues that law enforcement had to work with.

The search for Mike turned up no other evidence. Dogs were unable to track his scent anywhere around the river, and neither Mike nor anything else belonging to him was discovered in the body of water. Further adding to the confusion, disturbing rumors about what occurred that night soon began to circulate in the area.

What happened to Michael Palmer?

Michael Timothy Palmer

One of four children, Michael “Mike” Timothy Palmer was born on January 8th, 1984, in Alaska, to parents Lisa and Charles. The Palmer family resided in Wasilla. Mike was close to his brothers and was an outdoorsy teenager who loved hiking, fishing and hunting.

Unfortunately, there are few details publicly available about Mike’s life and personality.

A Night Out Ends in Mystery

Mike was spending the night at a friend’s home on Friday, June 4th, 1999. At some point during the evening, Mike and three of his friends (two of whom were named Tommy and Dustin, according to some sources) snuck out of the house and rode their bikes to a graduation party that was taking place near the Meadow Lakes subdivision.

(Side note: It’s unclear why they chose this particular party, as there were others going on that night, or whether or not they really knew anyone there. There are few details available about many aspects of this case.)

Confirmed facts about what occurred at the party are very limited, but it has been said that Mike drank a few beers while there. However, according to the observations of others, he wasn’t noticeably intoxicated and appeared to be alert.

He and the other boys left in the early morning hours and were heading back to the friend’s home. Mike was last spotted riding his bike on Pittman Road at approximately 4 a.m.

He was reportedly riding more slowly than the other boys, lagging behind them. According to them, they continued on for a few miles before they realized that he was gone. They hadn’t seen or heard anything that would indicate Mike was in danger.

At this point, they stopped in the well-lit parking lot of a local 7-Eleven on Parks Highway and waited for their friend to catch up. He never did.

They remained in the parking lot for around 40 minutes (or as little as 15 minutes depending on the source) before giving up and assuming that Mike decided to go back to his own home, which was located roughly nine miles away from the party.

It wasn’t until hours later that his family would find out that he was missing. When Mike didn’t come home that day, Lisa called the home of the friend he’d been staying with and asked where her son was. This was when she learned that he wasn’t there and that no one knew where he might be.

She contacted the police and reported Mike missing at 3 p.m.

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Strange Clues

Search parties composed of police officers, local volunteers and search dogs were formed. Within a day of Mike’s disappearance, two pieces of evidence would be discovered. However, these clues would only introduce more questions.

Firstly, Mike’s bicycle, which he’d borrowed, turned up in the Little Susitna River. Though the river was located near the road Mike was last seen on, he would have had no reason to cross it, whether he was going home or back to his friend’s house, creating further confusion as to how the bicycle might have ended up there.

This finding initially led to speculation that perhaps Mike had accidentally fallen into the river and either drowned or succumbed to hypothermia, as temperatures had dropped to 43 degrees Fahrenheit on the night he went missing.

A thorough search of the river was carried out by divers, but ultimately nothing else relevant to Mike’s case was found. The Little Susitna River was described as being fairly shallow, with clear water that made it very easy to see to the bottom.

Furthermore, it had logjams which would have prevented anything large—such as a body—from traveling any further. Because of these facts, it was believed that if the missing teenager had ended up in the water, and remained there, he would have easily been found.

Additionally, tracking dogs were unable to pick up on his scent anywhere around the river.

But the strangest clue, one that would further suggest that Mike wasn’t in the water any longer (if he ever had been), soon turned up: His high-top Converse sneakers were located on a private airstrip 200 yards away from where his bike was discovered. The shoes, which were wet and muddy, had been neatly placed next to each other.

Law enforcement structured their search grid around the areas in which these items were found. Approximately four square miles, including the nearby woods, were combed in the effort to find Mike Palmer, but no other evidence materialized.

“We searched all the logical places in the (Little Susitna) river and came up empty-handed,” explained Alaska State Trooper Pat Davis. “We’ve refocused the search to land.”

Interviews & Disturbing Claims

The Palmer family didn’t believe that Mike ran away and suspected that foul play might be responsible for his disappearance.

Investigators questioned locals, focusing their attention primarily on those who had attended parties on June 4th.

One individual came forward, reporting that they’d witnessed Mike leave the party with two people in a blue sedan. However, it turned out that this eyewitness was mistaken and the people and vehicle in question had been at an entirely different party from the one Mike and his friends had attended.

Tips poured in, most of which suggested that foul play had befallen the teenager.

Someone stated that Mike had been badly beaten at a party. Three anonymous callers told a similar story. As a result, Chris Palmer came to believe that his brother had been the victim of a violent encounter at the graduation party.

Yet after investigating this lead, authorities said that the fight had actually occurred at a different party, one at which Mike hadn’t been in attendance, and concluded that it had nothing to do with the missing boy.

Months later, a teenage boy (whose identity wasn’t revealed to the public) began to spread a disturbing rumor to the effect that he’d witnessed Mike being beaten and then shot on a bridge that was said to be far from where the bicycle was located.

Investigators brought the teenager in for questioning and administered a polygraph exam as well. During the interrogation, he admitted that he’d made up the story to gain attention.

Little has been disclosed to the public about the investigation, but it has been said that authorities found every rumor relating to Mike’s disappearance to be baseless.

Multiple eyewitness sightings of a young man purported to be Mike came in—including one which placed him at a biker party in Talkeetna—but none could be substantiated.

Ultimately, investigators still favored the accidental death theory, while his family thought foul play was a more plausible explanation.

The Palmer Family’s Quest for Answers

The loss of Mike left his family deeply shaken and heartbroken.

“My boy, I love him,” said Charles. “And if he’s dead, he’s with God, and that’s the only thing that’s keeping me together.”

Lisa:

“I’m just hanging on by a thread. We all are. It gets harder and harder every day. Somebody knows something. They’ve got to.”

Charles was skeptical about the story that Mike’s friends had told, though no one was certain why they might lie. Had an accident occurred? Or had a prank gone too far? If so, no one was talking and evidence to support foul play remained elusive.

It’s worth noting that the version of events told by his friends stayed consistent.

(Side note: It’s unclear if the discrepancy relating to how long they waited for him came from them or from a simple misreporting of the facts by the media. The latter seems more plausible here, as it has been specifically noted that his friends never deviated from their original story.)

The Palmers hired private investigators to aid in their quest for answers. One reportedly quit after receiving death threats. Another stated that, according to their findings, it’s possible that Mike actually left the party later than his friends, was grabbed while attempting to ride his bike home and then badly beaten.

Despite their efforts, no solid evidence was found to prove the veracity of these claims and the truth behind whatever happened to Mike was still frustratingly out of reach for his loved ones.

Mike’s Brother Vanishes

Sadly, this wouldn’t be the only mysterious tragedy suffered by the Palmers.

Almost 11 years later, Mike’s older brother, Charles (“Chuck”), would vanish under somewhat similar circumstances.

30-year-old Chuck was snowmobiling with friends and relatives near Talkeetna in April 2010 when he vanished. All that would be recovered during the extensive search was his snowmobile, which had gotten stuck in deep snow.

It also appeared that he’d gone in the wrong direction before getting stuck. Though it has been questioned why he didn’t follow the nearby river in an effort to find his way out, it is presumed that he simply got lost and succumbed to the elements. He has never been found.

There is no known connection between the disappearances of these two brothers, beyond some similarities in the circumstances. They were with different people when they went missing and, at least in Chuck’s case, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to suspect foul play.

Current State of the Investigation

Mike Palmer’s case remains open and active, though law enforcement hasn’t had any substantial leads in many years. Authorities have also stated that all of the persons of interest identified during the course of their investigation have been cleared of any suspicion.

If you have any information regarding Mike Palmer’s disappearance, you are encouraged to contact the Alaska State Troopers at (907) 745-2131.

The post Michael Palmer: Alaska Teenager Mysteriously Vanishes appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

Background

Kadin McKallaster Black was born on December 10, 2003 to parents Maurice Black and Kara Patterson. He grew up with two older and two younger siblings. His parents divorced when he was three-years-old.

Kadin enjoyed going to the gym, hiking, and riding his bike. He also loved animals and often went to exercise with his father’s two pit bulls.

In 2019, Kadin and his two younger siblings moved to Maryland when his mother got a promotion at work. Missing his friends, Kadin moved back to Pennsylvania in November 2021, moving in with his father.

In September 2022, Kadin moved out of his father’s home following an argument and began staying at his friend’s house with his family on Vickilee Drive in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania.

At the time of his disappearance, Kadin and his father visited each other often.

Two weeks before his disappearance, Kadin started a job at Delateur A-1 Moving Helpers, a local moving company in Windsor, Pennsylvania.

Disappearance

On December 14, 2022, Kadin Black had a phone conversation with his mother about his plan to celebrate Christmas together in Maryland.

On December 16, 2022, Kadin had dinner with a coworker from the moving company, and they made plans to meet again the next day.

On December 17, 2022, Kadin’s last contact with his family was a phone conversation he had with his father. He told his dad he’d be coming by the next day to visit and exercise his dogs.

That evening, Kadin was last seen by his friend’s family at their home on Vickilee Drive in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Kadin hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

On December 20, 2022, his family filed a missing person’s report with the Windsor Township Police Department when they couldn’t contact him.

Investigation

Kadin disappeared with along his wallet and cellphone, which last pinged to an area about three miles away from a cell tower on Old Commons Road in Windsor Township.

According to his friend’s family, Kadin’s demeanor seemed to have changed about two weeks before his disappearance. He would often return home and go straight to his room instead of hanging out with everyone as he usually did.

Whereabouts

Police found no evidence, means, or motive for foul play in Kadin Black’s disappearance. The investigation into his case is active and ongoing.

The circumstances of Kadin Black’s disappearance remain unclear and his case is currently classified as missing. His case remains unsolved.

Appearance

Physical Description:
Biracial male born on December 10, 2003. Kadin has brown hair, brown eyes, stands 5’10 tall and weighs 160 pounds.

Distinctive Physical Features:
No information available.

Clothing and accessories:
Kadin is known to wear dark clothing and white sneakers.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Kadin Black please contact the Lower Windsor Township Police Department at (717) 244-8055 or Crimestoppers of Pennsylvania at (800) 843-5678.

The post The Disappearanc of Kadin Black appeared first on mediumwebs.com.

In April 2011, he traveled to Toledo to check out some retirement facilities. As usual, his dog Lucky was with him everywhere he went.

He planned out his road trip and hoped to be back in Reno on April 14th.

On April 13, 2011, Patrick was on schedule. He had made it to Nevada. Around 9:00 p.m., he was pulled over on Interstate 80 in Wells, Nevada for failing to move over for a stopped truck. He told the officer he was heading to Elko where he was going to get some sleep.

He specifically told the officer he was following the truck ahead of him because the trucker was going to Elko also.

The officer let Patrick go with a warning and advised him to be sure he moved over for stopped vehicles.

The next morning, around 6:00 am, an ff-duty police dispatcher was heading to work. She noticed a car off the highway and believing there might have been a car accident, called it into the sheriff’s department.

The car was Patrick’s, but there was no sign of him or his dog Lucky anywhere. The scene was bizarre. It didn’t appear to be an accident but the car was pulled quite a bit off the road in the desert.

There were quite a few oddities leaving authorities- and family- to wonder, what happened to Patrick Carnes and his dog Lucky out there.

What went wrong?

And most importantly, where are Patrick Carnes and his dog Lucky?

Patrick Francis Carnes often went by ‘Pat’ to family and friends. He was born on January 30, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he’d grow up with five sisters and one brother.

In 1942, Pat joined the U.S. Navy. He was honorably discharged for the first time in 1946, and then after being recapped the next year, he’d be discharged honorably again in 1949.

This was also the year he would marry the love of his life, Margaret. Pat and Margaret would raise their children near Santa Monica, California. They had three sons and one daughter.

In 1981, Pat retired and he and Margaret decided to move to Reno, Nevada for something different.

Margaret passed away in 2004, and after 55 years of marriage, Pat became a widow.

Pat was still healthy and decided he would try his best to enjoy the rest of his life as happily as he could. He adopted a mixed-breed dog he named, Lucky. Lucky became Pat’s best friend and went everywhere with him.

He was a dog that people would notice also, as he was so big- over 100 pounds.

In 2011, Pat was 86 years old, and he began to feel it was time to look into some retirement homes. He also thought it might be a good idea to move to Toledo to be closer to family.

In April, Pat took a road trip with Lucky and drove from Reno, Nevada to Toledo, Ohio. He spent some time with family and touring some living options in the area.

Pat was going to return home to Reno and think over his options before making a decision.

He left Ohio and with Lucky by his side, he began his journey back to Nevada.

THE DISAPPEARANCE.

Pat was driving west on Interstate 80 on the evening of April 13, 2011. He was coming up to the mile marker 358, near Wells, Nevada, when he passed by a Nevada State Trooper with a truck pulled over on the side of the road.

Pat didn’t slow down, nor did he move over, so the trooper jumped in his car and pulled Pat over.

Pat was unaware of the law that required him to do so, and he told the officer this.

Interestingly, Pat made a few notable comments to the the officer which was caught on the officer’s audio.

First, Pat commented that he was following a truck because the truck was heading to Elko, and Pat had decided to make it to Elko to sleep for the night.

It was noted on the trooper’s dashcam that Pat was indeed following behind a semi-truck.

Pat made another comment as well. He said he wouldn’t be driving at night anymore.

The trooper believed Pat was fine, he seemed perfectly normal, perhaps just getting tired from the drive, but nothing raised any alarms for the trooper.

Pat was sent off with a warning.

The next morning, around 6:00 a.m., an off-duty police dispatcher was driving to work when she noticed a vehicle off the road. This was in between Battle Mountain and Golconda, Nevada, and specifically near the 205 Pumpernickel Valley exit.

It was a ways off the road, and sitting in a way that she believed there had possibly been an accident. She called into the local sheriff’s office to report so someone could check it out.

An officer was dispatched to the scene. This was a rural, desolate area, and the officer wondered at first if the car had been abandoned there on purpose.

There were no signs of an accident, but there was one set of footprints walking away from the car.

The officer called in the license plate and learned that the Subaru belonged to Patrick Carnes. They called the phone number listed for Pat, his apartment number, but no one answered.

Pat didn’t have a cell phone.

Meanwhile, Pat’s family was waiting to hear from him to make sure he made it back home safely.

But they never received that call.

Patrick Carnes- and his dog Lucky- had disappeared.

THE SEARCH.

It took a few days for everyone to realize there was a problem. Pat’s family had been waiting days to hear from him, wondering if he took a detour to visit a friend or had other plans on the way home.

Around this same time, authorities in Humboldt County were also wondering why they hadn’t been able to reach Pat and why the car was still there. They called Reno authorities and asked them to do a welfare check on Pat.

A couple of Pat’s family members also decided to drive to Pat’s place.

Together, they all noticed that Pat had never made it back home after Ohio, and his family now learned his car was abandoned off the highway.

A search immediately began near the site where the car was. Authorities were now acting quickly, knowing it had been four days since they initially found the car there and Pat, at 86 years old, could be out in the Nevada desert and in need of help.

The car was looked over, and it seemed all of Pat’s personal belongings were there, except a wallet. There were no signs of an accident or foul play, and there was one set of footprints walking away from the car.

The car was also found to be in working order, but possibly stuck. It also had plenty of gas.

So why was it off the road in the manner that it was?

Interestingly, Pat was traveling home on the night of April 13th, and he was heading West. But the car was found off of the Eastbound side, meaning he was possibly heading back in the opposite direction.

Did he miss an exit?

This was also 85 miles past Elko, where Pat indicated he was planning on sleeping for a bit. Did he turn around to go back to Elko?

But Pat was also only four hours from home, why would he backtrack 85+ miles just to get some sleep in Elko?

The searches of the area turned up no signs of Pat or Lucky.

Authorities learned that Pat had a mild leg injury which caused him to walk with a limp. This further concerned everyone because if Pat had walked off into the desert, he couldn’t have gone too far.

Searches of the area were hindered by rain, but still nothing was found. Law enforcement brought in tracker dogs and utilized air searches also.

Still no signs of Pat or Lucky.

The investigation was also made difficult by the fact that Pat only used cash, he didn’t have any credit cards, and he didn’t have a cell phone.

There was nothing to trace.

Authorities were also curious about Pat’s timeline that night.

He had been pulled over by a police officer around 9:00 p.m., and this is verified by dash cam footage.

Pat indicated he was following a truck to Elko, where he planned to get some sleep.

Why was he following a truck to Elko? By this statement, everyone had to wonder if Pat had been communicating with this trucker. Perhaps he had stopped at the same gas station earlier and they struck up a conversation.

Dashcam Screenshot of Truck (ON THE LEFT SIDE) Pat Was Following — –

How did Pat know this truck was going to Elko? And why was he following him?

Authorities tried to enhance the footage of the dash cam which did show this truck Pat was following, but the quality was too poor to make out any identifying factors. It is too grainy to read a license platethe or to see a logo on the trailer.

Had Pat made it to Elko? Did he even stop at Elko?

There were some traffic cams near the Elko exit, but those cameras weren’t working that night, adding to the frustration of everyone involved in searching for Pat.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, NEVADA.

Pat’s Subaru Forester was found in Humboldt County, just inside the county limits. This area is desolate and vast and there just isn’t much around.

Humboldt County is in the northern part of the state of Nevada, just northeast of Reno, Nevada, where Pat lived in 2011, and where he was driving back to on April 13.

The car was found off of Interstate 80, which would be the main highway running through the area. Pat’s route home, would only take him through the small southern corner of Humboldt county.

This was more than a two-hour drive away from where he was pulled over at in Wells, Nevada, and another hour away from where he told the state trooper he was going to stop for the night- in Elko, Nevada.

There is nothing around.

At night, this area would be completely pitch black, with only moonlight and passing cars lighting up the area. It’s also been said while this is a main highway, nighttime traffic is minimal, usually just the occasional trucker here and there.

The population of the entire county is just over 17,000 residents, with an area of over 100,000 acres.

The area of Humboldt County where his car was found, was just about 200 miles from Reno, where Pat lived. He had driven the entire way from Ohio without incident but something happened to Pat between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

Authorities did come out and state they believed it was highly likely that the car was purposefully dumped there and possibly not by Pat.

The reason for this belief? They simply found no signs of Pat or Lucky and didn’t believe he could get far, especially with a leg injury.

This leads to some interesting theories about what may have happened out there in the Nevada, Desert.

THEORIES.

First, did Pat drive off the road on purpose and leave his car there? Perhaps for Lucky to use the bathroom?

But why did he park it in the way he did? Did it get stuck there?

I think the most telling question I have about this theory is the fact that the car was found on the wrong side of the road, so it would have been heading in the opposite direction he should have been.

It’s also a dramatic way to drive off the road, instead of just pulling over to the side. It was nighttime, and the car ended up there between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. There would have been very little traffic on the road.

Second, did Pat have a medical episode causing him to drive the car to that spot, and then walk away from it?

But where did he go? And how have there been no signs of Pat or Lucky despite the search effort to find them?

There is also the theory that Pat ran into foul play somewhere. Perhaps he was robbed, and the perpetrator dumped his car in that location- not Pat.

That still leaves no answers as to where Pat may be- and in fact, he could be anywhere.

This theory also led authorities down another route. Could there be a serial killer? A truck driver serial killer?

The FBI started a task force to look into this very possibility.

Long-distance truck drivers have the ability to move quietly through the entire country without much of a second look. They often drive at night, and they often drive through rural and empty areas. They pass through mountains, forests, by lakes and rivers, and pretty much every landscape of our country.

The task force was named the ‘Highway Serial Killings’ initiative. Through the work of this task force, they identified 200 possible victims and solved 70 crimes that were indeed related to truck drivers.

There were two main reasons detectives thought this a possible theory in the case of Patrick Carnes

First, he had told an officer he was specifically following a truck to Elko, and then he vanished.

Second, is the case of Judith Casida.

Judith Casida and her husband argued on February 14, 2006. Judith told him she was leaving.

Neighbors saw her get into her truck and drive away She was seen later on at a McDonald’s by other witnesses.

She was driving a white 1991 Mazda pickup truck.

On March 5, her truck was found abandoned near the 205 Pumpernickel Valley exit ramp off Interstate 80. There was no sign of 62-year-old Judith anywhere.

This is the same spot where Patrick’s car would be found five years later.

Coincidence? Some think so. But others think it’s bizarre, that two cars were found abandoned in the same exact place, and both drivers of those vehicles vanished into thin air.

Judith Casida remains a missing person.

So what do you think happened to Patrick Carnes?

Do you think his case and the case of Judith Casida are related?

Did Patrick meet with foul play, or become lost in the desert?

Patrick was declared legally deceased in April 2014. Local detectives still work the case, and still discuss the case often.

Pat’s family also continues to find clues as to his whereabouts, through billboards and flyers they have posted all over the country, specifically at truck stops.

The trucker whom Pat was following might have been innocently helping an elderly man find his way to Elko and if so, authorities would still like to speak with him.

Pat is described as a Caucasian man, 5’11” tall and weighing around 180 pounds when he was last seen in April of 2011. He has grey hair and wears glasses. He also walked with a slight limp.

Pat was wearing a tan jacket, a blue plaid shirt, tan or beige pants, tan canvas shoes and a Toledo Mud Hens baseball cap.

He was traveling with his loyal companion, Lucky, a 100-pound mix-breed dog.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 775–623–6419.

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Background

Alissa Marie Turney was born on April 3, 1984 to parents Barbara Farner and Stephen Strahm. Her parents divorced when she was 3-years-old.

In 1986, her mother Barbara Farner married former Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy, Michael Turney, who had three children from a previous relationship. She was legally adopted by her stepfather and grew up in a blended family.

Barbara Farner died of cancer when Alissa was 8-years-old, leaving Michael Turney to raise the children as a single parent. Alissa lived with her younger half-sister and stepfather at a residence on North 34th Street in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 2001, Alissa Turney was in her junior year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix, Arizona. She was in a relationship with Jon Laakman and worked at a Jack in the Box restaurant.

Disappearance

On May 17, 2001, Alissa Turney was last seen at her school in the area of North 34th Street and East Bell Road in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was the last day of classes at Paradise Valley High School. Alissa was excited for summer and had plans to attend a graduation party later that evening. She told her boyfriend that she was going to lunch with her step dad, Michael Turney.

Around 11:00 am, Alissa left school early and was picked up by her step-father. During lunch, the two reportedly got into an argument because Alissa wanted to stay out late that night.

Around 1:00 p.m, Alissa was dropped off alone at home and was last seen by her stepfather going to her room, still angry about their argument and her desire for more freedom.

Michael then ran some errands before picking up his younger daughter from her field trip at a water park. When they returned home around 5:00 pm, Alissa was nowhere to be found.

Alissa hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Her stepfather filed a missing person’s report with the Phoenix Police Department when she failed to return home.

Investigation

Alissa left behind most of her personal belongings, including her cellphone and money. Her usually tidy bedroom was found in a mess. She left a note on a dresser, that appeared to be in her normal loopy style handwriting, saying that was running away to California.

A week later, her stepfather received a call at home from a payphone in Riverside, California, where a woman he believed to be Alissa told him to “leave her alone” before hanging up. Authorities stated the call was never traced or verified.

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Alissa Turney’s disappearance was initially classified as a runaway teenager. She had an aunt who lived in California, but she never went to her house. Approximately $1,800 was left in her savings account that remains untouched.

Stepfather Charged With Murder in Alissa Turney’s Disappearance

In 2008, the Phoenix Police Department Missing Persons reopened Alissa Turney’s case and declared that foul play was suspected in her disappearance.

Authorities received allegations of sexual abuse by at least three different people, including her boyfriend at the time, and that Michael Turney was touching her inappropriately, a claim which he denied.

On December 11, 2008, authorities executed a search warrant at the family home and recovered multiple videotapes dating back to the 1980s, including surveillance footage from around the house, but found no tapes from the day Alissa disappeared.

According to her friends and family, Michael became stricter with Alissa when she entered her teenage years. Alissa once told one of her brothers that she was “afraid” of their father and wanted to leave, just months before her disappearance.

Michael Turney had set up hidden security cameras at the family home and recorded phone conversations. He would also routinely show up an hour or two early at her job to “ensure that Alissa did not leave the premises with anybody else.”

During the search, authorities discovered 19 high-caliber assault rifles, two handmade silencers, a van filled with gasoline cans, 26 handmade explosive devices, and a 98-page manifesto titled “Diary of a Madman Martyr.”

Michael Turney had worked as an electrician in the 1980s. He accused the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of being involved in Alissa’s disappearance. He planned to blow up the union hall in revenge and kill himself in the process.

On March 30, 2010, Michael Turney pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of unregistered destructive devices, a felony offense for which he was sentenced to the maximum term of 10 years in federal prison. He was released in 2017.

On August 20, 2020, Michael Turney was arrested in Mesa, Arizona and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Alissa Turney’s death, in a case of “no-body homicide.”

On July 18, 2020, Michael Turney was cleared of the murder charges and released from custody. The judge cited Rule 20 in Arizona statutory laws, which dictates that an acquittal must be delivered if there is “no substantial evidence to support a conviction.”

Whereabouts

Foul play is suspected in Alissa Turney’s disappearance. The circumstances of Alissa’s disappearance remain unclear and her case is currently classified as missing. Her case remains unsolved.

Appearance

Physical Description:
White female born on April 3, 1984. Alissa has brown hair, brown eyes, stands 5’4 – 5’5 tall, and weighs 140 – 150 pounds.

Distinctive Physical Features:
Alissa had blond highlights in her hair at the time of her disappearance. Her ears are pierced. She has a scar on her chin.

Clothing and accessories:
Alissa was last seen wearing a white tank top, gray shorts, and gray sneakers. She was carrying a black backpack.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Alissa Marie Turney please contact the Phoenix Police Department Missing Persons Unit at (602) 262-6141. Agency Case Number: 2001-10922334

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Background

At the time of her disappearance Patricia was married to Ralph Otto, 18 years her senior. They had two young daughters, Suzanne age 3 and Natalie age 5.

She filed for divorce in the spring of 1976, but had reconciled in time for Mother’s Day.

Disappearance

Around 11:00 pm on August 31, 1976, Patrica picked up her daughters from their grandmother’s house and headed home.

According to her husband, Ralph Otto, Patricia left their home following an argument and never returned.

Patricia’s daughter Suzanne recalls seeing her father hit her mother, and seeing him “pick her up and put his hands around her neck” before carrying her out of sight. 

Patricia was reported missing to the Lewiston Police the next day by Patricia’s sister after Ralph dropped the kids off at her home, saying he was going out to look for her.

Investigation

Authorities believe Patricia was murdered by her husband Ralph Otto, though he was never charged in connection to her case.

According to various accounts, Ralph believed Patricia had been cheating on him. After Patricia’s disappearance, Ralph told their two young daughters that their mother had abandoned them.

During their investigation Ralph claimed investigators were harassing him, and hired a hitman to kill the Lewiston Police Captain in charge of the case.

The hitman he hired turned out to be an undercover cop, and Ralph was was arrested for attempted murder on October 27, 1976.

He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In 1981 his conviction was overturned by a Supreme Court ruling which cited the fact that Idaho did not have a law acknowledging hiring to have someone killed was the equivalent of attempted murder.

He died a few years later while being held in the Clearwater County Jail on unrelated charges.

Their daughters were raised by their paternal aunt and uncle after their father’s death.

Finley Creek Jane Doe

On August 27, 1978, the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman were found near Elgin, Oregon at Finley Creek, about three hours away from Lewiston.

The Finley Creek Jane Doe was wearing red polyester pants and a white blouse, similar to what Patrica was reported to be wearing when she went missing.

However, the Finley Creek Jane Doe case in Oregon was labeled as a murder case, and thrown out and closed in 1990 when no cause of death or identity was confirmed.

The body was cremated by the State of Oregon, and the clothing she was wearing was destroyed.

When Patricia’s daughter Suzanne Timms came across a forensic drawing of the Finley Creek Jane Doe done by Redgrave Research Forensic Services she was convinced it was her mother, and has been working with various agencies to verify her identity.

To date the Finley Creek Jane Doe remains unidentified.

Whereabouts

Foul play is strongly suspected in Patricia Otto’s disappearance, with her husband Ralph Otto (now deceased) being the prime suspect.

The location of Patricia Otto remains unknown.

Patricia’s daughter Suzanne is still looking for answers in her mother’s case, and runs the Patty’s Voice facebook group.

Appearance

Caucasian female born on August 4, 1952. Patricia has blonde hair, hazel eyes, stands 5’3, and weighs 140 pounds.

Her nickname is Patty and she has a scar on her back.

Patricia is believed to have been wearing red slacks and a white shell blouse when she went missing.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Patricia Otto please contact the Lewiston Police Department at (208) 746-0171.

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