CA CA - Jennifer Wilmer, 21, Willow Creek, 13 Sept 1993

[MysticJynx]

Bump For Jennifer/Jade.

who knows the happiness that cowboy fred lived with? what was Happiness's legal name? Was he a younger man that allowed the vet to stay with him or a fellow vet? I ran out of leads to look into. Would love LE to re question that Mingo who was mentioned by name in her "see ya later" note.

 

[MysteryMaven]

Bumping for Jennifer.

 

[los2188]

THE HUMBOLDT FIVE: “SO MANY MISSING FROM SUCH A SMALL AREA”

To raise awareness of local women who’ve disappeared under suspicious circumstances, a new graphic was recently released.

Today, hoping to get answers for the families of five Humboldt women that disappeared under suspicious circumstances, missing person activists launched a social media campaign. The campaign includes a Facebook page for the five missing women, share-able graphics (see image above,) a hashtag (#‎HumboldtMissingFive&#8236 and an interactive map (see photo below) of where the women disappeared. So-Cal Advocates For The Missing and their partners urge community members to share these images and this story in hopes that clues to the whereabouts of the women might emerge.

Heather Miller, a family advocate for NorCal Alliance for the Missing, designed the map. She said she was asked by a colleague to create it and was surprised by how much she learned in the process. “I was already familiar with the cases from research I had done on …Humboldt and the surrounding counties….I think [this] gives a new perspective, by combining their information and photos with a map showing you the locations that they are missing from.”

Who Are the Missing Women:

A spokesperson for the Humboldt Missing Five page said she found it curious that “so many were missing from such a small area.” She had recently formed a successful campaign around five men who had vanished in the Bay Area and has hopes that grouping the women together will help the community think about the disappearances in new ways–ways which might lead to uncovering what happened to them.

http://kymkemp.com/2015/04/01/the-humboldt-five-so-many-missing-from-such-a-small-area/

 

[MysticJynx]

I still think that in Jennifer/Jade's case, they need to re-question the roommates. Mingo especially, since Jennifer mentions him by name in her note. The roommates, all in their early twenties in 1993, may not have been saying something vital back then. Out of fear maybe, or maybe a small detail they didn't think to mention. The answers may come from what she did prior to going missing. What did she do that weekend? I think her case was mishandled from the start, sadly. If you read up thread you will find a post by me about a local man named Mingo. There have been local news stories about this man being arrested several times over the past several years. Stories about being mixed up in drug rings and such. He is around the same age as Jennifer, And wonder if he is the same Mingo that lived with Jade back in 1993. A Mingo of the same name had an address in Willow Creek in 1995.

I also think if they decide to reopen this case, they should question some of the locals that were also in their early to mid 20s at that time in 1993, to see if anyone knew happiness. If memory serves, Happiness was the hippie name of the person who gave the man known as Cowboy Fred a place to live. Fred was said to have been stalking Jennifer. Where did happiness live? Someone had to know. Did he live in a tent in the woods? In a van down by the river? Where did he live? Maybe LE can find out who lived there at that time, If Someone could point out if happiness had an actual apartment address. I don't think law enforcement really looked hard at anything. I did my best to find possible Cowboy Freds in the area, Unfortunately I fell short of finding anything out about who this Cowboy Fred really is.

The third reason to reopen many of these missing girls cases, not just Jennifers,is Ernest S. Christie Jr. He is the man responsible for Lysandra Turpin's Death in 1988, and the only one who was with his wife Claire when his boat capsized in March of 1977. She is missing at sea, however there is no missing persons report that are public on any of the common sites we web sleuthers use, such as DoeNetwork, Charleys Project, and Shes only recently been added to namus, but still is not viewable to the public. There is vital information needed for Claire Christie that I wish her family or LE would come forward and give, so that she can be made public. Maybe even matched to unidentified remains found over the years. As far as we know, the LE there hasn't even bothered to add her to the California Missing persons website.

All just my own thoughts and opinions.

 

[MysticJynx]

Bump for Jennifer "Jade" Marie Wilmer......

Came across something doing with the Mingo that has been in the news over the past few years mentioned above in post #257. He was again arrested for drugs and even abandoning his own baby.
http://m.krcrtv.com/update-two-arrested-in-abandoned-baby-case-in-eureka/30182458

 

[MysteryMaven]

I wish someone out there could ask mingo what he knows about Jennifer, tro patterson, and Happiness.

 

[RCR]

hello to everyone on this thread. i have been haunted by this case ever since I went to interview Jade's mom, Susan, about a year after the disappearance. I was an editor/reporter for Nassau Community Newspaper Group on Long Island, specifically for the publication Baldwin Citizen.

She was devastated, of course.

I've provided links to scans of an article I wrote. I think I wrote another one that went into more depth about the case, but this is the only one I have. When I met with Susan Wilmer, I was not a good reporter, I was just out of college, did not know how to ask good questions, the right questions, etc. Hence, the article is quite light. There's not much in there that hasn't already been brought up, but maybe there's some tidbit.

do know that I have Martin Haskell listed as the PI. Also, the article states that a friend of Jade's phoned Susan to tell her she had not been home in 5 days, so there seemed to be an expectation that she would be home soon, rather than staying at the farm indefinitely. Indeed, it does appear that the local LE agencies did not give this case proper attention, to say the least. I can't confirm, but I remember my attempts to contact them were fruitless or met with resistance. I don't remember exactly. Sorry. Also, LaFranchini has been named here, but I remember a Detective or Officer named Tranquilio or something like that.

To make clear, I was really there during the interview as a listener, someone who was willing to listen to her.

P. 1: https://500px.com/photo/108012909/010_10-jpg-by-ralph-raiola
P. 2: https://500px.com/photo/108012689/013_13-jpg-by-ralph-raiola

Please feel free to ask me any questions, and I hope what I've provided helps in some way. I can also provide the scans regular image attachments. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do that.

Thank you.

Ralph Raiola

 

[MysteryMaven]

hello to everyone on this thread. i have been haunted by this case ever since I went to interview Jade's mom, Susan, about a year after the disappearance. I was an editor/reporter for Nassau Community Newspaper Group on Long Island, specifically for the publication Baldwin Citizen.

She was devastated, of course.

I've provided links to scans of an article I wrote. I think I wrote another one that went into more depth about the case, but this is the only one I have. When I met with Susan Wilmer, I was not a good reporter, I was just out of college, did not know how to ask good questions, the right questions, etc. Hence, the article is quite light. There's not much in there that hasn't already been brought up, but maybe there's some tidbit.

do know that I have Martin Haskell listed as the PI. Also, the article states that a friend of Jade's phoned Susan to tell her she had not been home in 5 days, so there seemed to be an expectation that she would be home soon, rather than staying at the farm indefinitely. Indeed, it does appear that the local LE agencies did not give this case proper attention, to say the least. I can't confirm, but I remember my attempts to contact them were fruitless or met with resistance. I don't remember exactly. Sorry. Also, LaFranchini has been named here, but I remember a Detective or Officer named Tranquilio or something like that.

To make clear, I was really there during the interview as a listener, someone who was willing to listen to her.

P. 1: https://500px.com/photo/108012909/010_10-jpg-by-ralph-raiola
P. 2: https://500px.com/photo/108012689/013_13-jpg-by-ralph-raiola

Please feel free to ask me any questions, and I hope what I've provided helps in some way. I can also provide the scans regular image attachments. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do that.

Thank you.

Ralph Raiola

Wow, thank you so much taking the time to scan the article and post here. It's great to know Jennifer has not been forgotten. The article did have some more details that have not been brought up-that Jennifer's friend called Susan after Jennifer had not been heard from in 5 days, and also that Jennifer hid in a corner from Cowboy Fred. It does point to the fact that Jennifer was not planning on staying at the farm indefinitely, and this Cowboy Fred sounds like a very scary person.
Did Jennifer's Mom have any theory she felt was the strongest? Did she have any suspicions of Tro Patterson? He commited suicide under strange circumstances 10 years after Jennifer's disappearance. Did Jennifer's Mom talk about her roommates at all? I know she only met them after the disappearance, but I wonder if she thought they were on the up and up? One of them, the Mingo that was mentioned in her note, has an extensive criminal record. Mystic Jynx found a lot out about him and has posted it here.
Do you have an idea about what happened to her? I am glad to know people are still thinking about her.

 

[RCR]

Forgotten? Not by me. Like I said, I wished I'd had the ability to do something back then, when it might have mattered. Anyway, from what I remember, at the time I interviewed her, Jennifer's mother really thought the Cowboy Fred thing seemed strong. There was never a suspicion about Tro communicated to me (something in me remembers her saying that maybe they were having problems???, but I can't be sure about that. they were in their 20s, in a relationship, there are always problems). I saw that about his suicide; what a tragic turn of events. Nor were suspicions cast about the roommates. She always spoke of them as if they were this happy little bunch of kids, so I don't remember any suspicions there. Keep in mind, I am a year or two older than Jade, so at the time I would've admired her attitude about this band of neo-hippies. With a bit more life under my belt, I realize that all may not have been wine and roses.

Regarding my theories:
The Cowboy Fred thing was always a list-topper, although, that doesn't jive with this whole farm thing. What was he just waiting for her to leave the house to walk to the farm?

A hit-and-run seemed quite plausible, especially in this area of misfits, ne'er-do-wells, and such.

A random abduction? Maybe, but that implies some sense of coincidence.

Looking back now however, I do think the note/farm thing is suspicious, only because from my article, the roommate told her mom that she hadn't been back for five days. That means she was expected to be back before then, which blows out the whole "going to live/work on a farm for months, won't see anyone anymore" idea. Within this context, Cowboy Fred starts to sound like a very convenient, creepy, scary scapegoat who may not have done what people think.

This Mingo dude that Mystic Jynx found seems like a shady character, huh? If that's the same one, maybe there's something to it. Those roommates need to be found. They need to come out and speak.

Other than that, I don't have any other theories. I will try to head over to the local library to view the articles we wrote on this side. I'm not sure how much coverage there was in that area at the time. That whole area annoys me now. LOL

 

[MysteryMaven]

Forgotten? Not by me. Like I said, I wished I'd had the ability to do something back then, when it might have mattered. Anyway, from what I remember, at the time I interviewed her, Jennifer's mother really thought the Cowboy Fred thing seemed strong. There was never a suspicion about Tro communicated to me (something in me remembers her saying that maybe they were having problems???, but I can't be sure about that. they were in their 20s, in a relationship, there are always problems). I saw that about his suicide; what a tragic turn of events. Nor were suspicions cast about the roommates. She always spoke of them as if they were this happy little bunch of kids, so I don't remember any suspicions there. Keep in mind, I am a year or two older than Jade, so at the time I would've admired her attitude about this band of neo-hippies. With a bit more life under my belt, I realize that all may not have been wine and roses.

Regarding my theories:
The Cowboy Fred thing was always a list-topper, although, that doesn't jive with this whole farm thing. What was he just waiting for her to leave the house to walk to the farm?

A hit-and-run seemed quite plausible, especially in this area of misfits, ne'er-do-wells, and such.

A random abduction? Maybe, but that implies some sense of coincidence.

Looking back now however, I do think the note/farm thing is suspicious, only because from my article, the roommate told her mom that she hadn't been back for five days. That means she was expected to be back before then, which blows out the whole "going to live/work on a farm for months, won't see anyone anymore" idea. Within this context, Cowboy Fred starts to sound like a very convenient, creepy, scary scapegoat who may not have done what people think.

This Mingo dude that Mystic Jynx found seems like a shady character, huh? If that's the same one, maybe there's something to it. Those roommates need to be found. They need to come out and speak.

Other than that, I don't have any other theories. I will try to head over to the local library to view the articles we wrote on this side. I'm not sure how much coverage there was in that area at the time. That whole area annoys me now. LOL

Thanks for your insight! Yes, the whole area of Humboldt/Arcata has some issues when it comes to missing people, as in they don't seem to do a lot to find them.
Also, there seem to have been an inordinate amount of seriously evil people connected to the area at the time-Speed Freak Killers, Ernest Christie, A serial killer in Arcata who preyed on hitchhikers. I don't know how closely those people were looked at. I know the serial killer was questioned but apparently they couldn't find any evidence against him.
I am so glad to see interest in Jennifer's case, the more people making noise about it, the better.
If Jennnifer hitchhiked and got a "bad ride" as speculated, who was the person who picked her up? And why did they get away with harming her? If we could find out who Cowboy Fred really was that would be a good start. MysticJynx made some progress on that but couldn't crack it.

 

[MICHIALACU12]

The note that was left behind was not just strange but I found it to be very impersonal. In my opinion, the note all but screams out that all is not well in the household. That is the type of note I could see myself leaving if I were in an uncomfortable situation and no longer felt welcome. She either didn't write that note herself or she wrote it to a household that could care less about her. Sorry if this is a repeat but it is something I feel strongly about every time I read the note.

 

[MysticJynx]

Bumping for Jennifer/Jade....

Listened to the last of the Dead Shows Live online last weekend, I had Jennifer on my mind.

Found a Reddit Thread about her recently, Found it interesting one user said she knows or knew "Happiness" and he had been in touch with the family at some point in the past 20 years. If so many knew of Cowboy Fred and his somewhat odd behavior. I feel the police should have at least got had a Sketch done of this man. Especially since he too disappeared shortly after Jennifer did.


Sadly I still get the feeling that the Roommates know more then they let on. I really wish they'd re-open her case.

Reddit link is not working here. But google Reddit Jennifer Wilmer and I'm sure you will find the page.

 

[MysticJynx]

Bumps for Jennifer

September 13th marked 22 years since Jennifer "Jade" Wilmer went missing. When will they give her case another look. Re-question the roommates. Etc.... I cant get over the weirdness of that note. Can we even know if she wrote it? And where was this MINGO going for a few months? Following the dead? To jail? Vacation?

 

[Thefacelessman]

Sorry,but can't find anything strange or suspicious about the note....Mingo could have been going anywhere for any reason, best guess would be travelling (to meet/stay with friends?) considering their 'no ties living'.
I read it that she is only going for the day and returning....Kittens need feeding 'little & often' through the day,so that part is understandable .I use 'hopefully see you later' alot if im coming back very late (she was working all day and hitching!) or others maybe going out,and may miss them on her return (and then back to farm at 7am next day?) may miss them again? She didn't seem to plan to stay at the farm at all at that time or surely would have taken sleeping bag?
JMO

 

[MysticJynx]

Sorry,but can't find anything strange or suspicious about the

note....

Respectfully snipped by me.



Its not just the note I find strange in the Jennifer Wilmer case. It's the roommates that seem suspicious to me.

Friend told her about the farm, but she knew they were NOT hiring. Yet she going to her FIRST DAY. Is this the FIRST DAY on the job? or to introduce herself? Either way why not bring her ID? We do know she was planning on going back home. She did have a kitten and left her belongings including her sleeping bag.

The word HOPEFULLY, To hopefully see them later. Well she was bound to see them later, wasn't she? she was going back to the house where all her belongings were. Where she lived. So why the hopefully? When she mentions Mingo, a roommate going away for a few month, she stated SEE YOU IN A FEW MONTHS. As matter of fact, but to the people she lived with she writes HOPEFULLY SEE YOU FOLKS LATER. To me that is strange.

Susan Wilmer, Jennifer's mom meets 3 of the 4 roommates. Tro Patterson, Opie and Rebecca. All of them had recently shaved their heads. WHY? why shave their heads? I do not think she ever met Mingo. Tro Patterson committed suicide 10 years almost to the day after Jennifer disappeared. Believe it was Late August 2003. What happened to the other 3 roommates, 22 years later?

Roommate Mingo conveniently went missing for MONTHS the day she went missing. Was he ever questioned by anyone? I have to wonder about the roommate Mingo, whom was gone for a few months. Was he in trouble with the law. And if so, was the trouble with drugs? Were the roommates involved in drugs, even Jennifer. Even if that means they were just doing them, what kind of drugs?

There is a Mingo Gaitan in trouble with the law as recently as Dec 2014 in Eureka. He has been linked to Meth and Heroin. Mingo and his Girlfriend also abandoned their baby trying to flee the police. http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20141211/couple-arrested-in-eureka-child-abandonment-case I am not sure if Mingo the roommate is the same Mingo Gaitan that has been arrested multiple times for drugs, however he is around the same age as Jennifer. And from the area of Humboldt County Ca. that she is linked to. It just makes me wonder.

What if Jennifer overdosed and the young roommates freaked out? Especially being in a Rural area without a car and phone. Possibly being high themselves just hid her body. Then shaved their heads to rid themselves of evidence.

The thing is, I believe they should revisit this case and ask questions to the roommates who were last to see her alive. As when they were first questioned, the police believed Jennifer to be a walk away. Reopen the case its been 22 years. JMO

 

[MysticJynx]

I just had a random question pop in my head. I was thinking about her today, and I remembered it said she was wearing Blue Jeans and Black Tshirt when she went missing. Who was the one that reported what she was wearing? I thought the point of the note was because no one was awake or there when she left? So how does anyone know what she was wearing that morning? Process of elimination from the clothing she left behind? Did she not wear any other color, just black tshirts and jeans?

 

[MysticJynx]

Happy Birthday Jennifer Wilmer! Gone to long and missed by many, almost 23 years since she went hitch hiking in northern California and hasn't been seen since.

Bump for you girl! My wish for your birthday is that you are found soon.

 

[MysteryMaven]

Has anyone looked at Doe Network for UIDs that could be Jennifer? I am afraid to look at it because I don't want to see actual post mortem photos. Do they just show reconstructions or do they mix in post mortems too? If someone has done a lot of research on there let me know what is on there. If we start in the area Jennifer went missing and work out maybe something would come up. I would assume her family has done this but maybe they stopped looking after a certain amount of time.

 

[Lilibet]

Thanks for keeping the thread alive, MysticJynx (and Mystery Maven too). Some of these threads get pretty lonely when you feel like you're talking to yourself. I don't have anything to add except support. :seeya:

 

[MysteryMaven]

I am glad this thread has been active and appreciate all of the research that has been done.
I wish we had some answers though.
Still think the serial killer who preyed on hitchhikers and lived in a trailer in Arcata needs another look.
Wayne Ford-
There were some UID remains on his property. Don't know if they were ever compared to Jennifer.
He was a long haul trucker, lived in Arcata and picked up hitchikers.
Not sure where exactly he lived in 1993 though.
This and Jason Jolkowski are my 2 cases I focus on the most and I want them to be solved so bad.