NY NY - Colin Gillis, 18, Tupper Lake, 11 March 2012

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Just going to brainstorm a bit here.

Colin W. Gillis – The Charley Project
Colin had an orange LL Bean backpack with him the night he went missing. Orange! The color specifically used for hunter safety. Literally one of the easiest colors to spot in the woods. I assume it was not found because it was never in the woods because (in my opinion) Colin was never in the woods.


Theories on why 2 personal items were found on the roadway.
- A struggle? Did Colin have those items in his pockets and lose them in a struggle?
- Did Colin purposely drop those items because he saw the police and was scared?
- Did someone else drop the items to lead the investigation askew?

Following is total speculation on my part!!
The police report: I would be curious to know what officer went to search for Colin after the newspaper editor reported him missing. There was a connection between AT and a part time Tupper Lake Police Officer at the time. I have no way of knowing if that is the officer who went out on the call but I sure would like to know. This has bothered me since day one.

The search/fire at Noble's farm:
If anyone here has any mainstream media information about the fire at the farm they searched we would love to see it!

my opinions only
 
I believe tupper pd called the state police when the motorist reported him walking on the highway. It was state police who drove out and didn't find anything.
 
Redbird3 said:
I believe tupper pd called the state police when the motorist reported him walking on the highway. It was state police who drove out and didn't find anything.
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Aha! Thank you thank you thank you @Redbird3
Does that mean they would have come from Ray Brook?
Still wanting to see that police report.
 
A little search leads me to believe there is a state trooper station at 1963 Route 30 in Tupper Lake. It would be about a 12 minute drive from Setting Pole Dam Rd. The motorist said he didn't think it took them longer than ten minutes to get out that way but the family said in another article that it took thirty to sixty minutes for a trooper to drive to that area.
 
Redbird3 said:
A little search leads me to believe there is a state trooper station at 1963 Route 30 in Tupper Lake. It would be about a 12 minute drive from Setting Pole Dam Rd. The motorist said he didn't think it took them longer than ten minutes to get out that way but the family said in another article that it took thirty to sixty minutes for a trooper to drive to that area.
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You know, I swore that I always pass one through there and couldn't remember if it was in Tupper or Long Lake, but it didn't come up when I Googled NYSP barracks. Maybe it isn't classified as a barracks so Google didn't show it on the map, but either way, thank you for the correction.

ETA: And that would make sense, since Ray Brook is a fair drive from Tupper Lake, at least 40 minutes.
 
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andalso said:
Just going to brainstorm a bit here.

Colin W. Gillis – The Charley Project
Colin had an orange LL Bean backpack with him the night he went missing. Orange! The color specifically used for hunter safety. Literally one of the easiest colors to spot in the woods. I assume it was not found because it was never in the woods because (in my opinion) Colin was never in the woods.
Click to expand...

I had waffled back and forth about the likelihood of Colin getting lost in the woods or hypothermic/never found and foul play so many times but it always came back to the missing orange backpack ... I cannot think of any explanation for why that wouldn't have been found after extensive searches or why, if it was left at the house of the party or in the vehicle Colin arrived at the party in, wouldn't someone have turned it in to the police to be helpful in the search/investigation efforts. Even if it contained anything illegal, couldn't they have simply removed whatever illegal stuff it contained and turned it in? Why conceal his backpack? The fact that they could find his ID card, etc but could never find a bright orange backpack never made sense to me, except for your explanation that Colin was never in those woods. (Edited to add ... I don't mean to imply Colin had anything illegal in his possession. I realize my post wasn't carefully worded. If he left it in the car he rode in with his friends to the party, and no one had anything to hide, surely one of them would have turned the backpack in at some point ... so maybe it actually was turned in and we don't have knowledge of that? If it was taken from Colin at the party, and no one there had anything to do with his disappearance (thus nothing to hide), again ... surely it would have been turned in to aid search efforts. One would think.)
 
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I wonder if Colin was flailing his arms at the newspaper editor because he thought it was the ride he was waiting for? Perhaps the vehicles were similar.
Just a thought.

(Oh, and fyi NT was arrested and released - yet again - possession of a controlled substance. Dec. 4 in Edwards, NY.)

Justice for Colin!
 
Possibly, or because he was desperate for help from anyone who would come along. I wonder if he didn't have the coat or the backpack because he had to leave the party quickly for his safety. Any car coming from the west would be a safer bet because it wouldn't be coming from the direction of the party. I think Ian said at one point Colin stepped over the guardrail and turned the opposite direction(the direction he was coming from). I can't think of any other reason he would do that except for the possibility that someone was coming from the direction of the party that he didn't want contact with. It's possible he went over the guardrail, crouched down to hide himself and then also turned around to see who was coming.
 
The following quote is from an article I found on tapatalk. It is one of the first accounts from the motorist about what exactly Colin was doing with his hands. Any thoughts? Also, If you have a chance to looks at the articles on tapatalk, give them a read. Many of the links on here seem to no longer exist and tapatalk has many articles dating back to the first days of his disappearance. Maybe they could be helpful.

"Possibly one of the last people to see Colin Sunday morning, a motorist driving to Tupper Lake on state Route 3, said the man he saw was acting erratically. Rich Rosentreter of Lake Placid said he and his mother passed a pedestrian who looked like he was hitchhiking at first, holding his arm up in the direction of Tupper Lake, then switching arms and pointing the way to Piercefield. It was 1:45 a.m., and while Rosentreter passed the pedestrian, he immediately drove to the Tupper Lake village police station and reported the unusual occurance, though state police drove out shortly thereafter and saw nothing."
 
Good thoughts @Redbird3
Made me wonder - if Colin was hiding from these motorists how is it that AT was able to stop and talk to him twice and offer him a ride? If Colin was afraid of folks at the party wouldn't Colin also be hiding from AT's vehicle?
 
That is a great question, @andalso. Something I didn't even think about. Probably because I don't know if I believe AT's story.

I'm trying to figure out who the last person who saw Colin was. According to AT's story he came back from dropping off his cousin and talked to Colin again. If his story is correct he would have seen Colin the second time before the motorist who reported Colin walking saw him. I have read there was also a woman and a son who saw him. Does anyone know when and where she saw him? I wonder if it was before or after AT and the motorist.
 
After making the comment about possibly hiding behind the guardrails I went and looked at a street view of the area. The guardrails are not heavy duty metal ones that one could crouch down and hide behind. They are small metal poles every so often with two thin metal wires attached. One could not easily hide behind them at all.
 
Redbird3 said:
That is a great question, @andalso. Something I didn't even think about. Probably because I don't know if I believe AT's story.

I'm trying to figure out who the last person who saw Colin was. According to AT's story he came back from dropping off his cousin and talked to Colin again. If his story is correct he would have seen Colin the second time before the motorist who reported Colin walking saw him. I have read there was also a woman and a son who saw him. Does anyone know when and where she saw him? I wonder if it was before or after AT and the motorist.
Click to expand...

BBM
I would like to know more about how that supposed 2nd interaction went down, logistically speaking.


According to google maps its about a 5 minute drive from Paskagunamah Road to Piercefield. So let's say AT stops and asks CG if he wants a ride and he declines. Then AT drops off his cousin and just 10 minutes later drives back by and asks CG again if he wants a ride? OR, did AT hang out in Piercefield a while and then head back towards TL? Just trying to figure it out.
Then there is Setting Pole Dam Road, where some of CG's personal items were found.
Paskagunamah Rd. to Setting Pole Damn is about 2 miles.
That would be about 45 minutes walking for Colin but just 5 minutes driving. So, where was Colin when AT stopped the 2nd time? The newspaper guy said he saw him closer to Setting Pole Damn Rd.

I'm just throwing thoughts out there hoping to hit on something that will make a difference.

Justice for Colin!
 
On tapatalk I read an article that said AT saw Colin the second time near Bruce Richards and son Logging. When I map that to Paskagunamah Rd. It says .5 miles. But I don't know exactly where the party was on that road so it's give or take that much. The motorist said he saw Colin near the snowplow turnaround near the county line of St. laurence and Franklin County before Setting Pole Damn Road which means he would have seen Colin after AT the second time. I find it interesting he dropped the items near an intersection and the snowplow turn around....the only real places a car could turn around or park on that stretch.
 

Hmm. Interesting. According to this news video from 3/13/12 the last sighting was a woman who saw him when she was driving by on route 3 in Piercefield, NY. No mention of the newspaper guy. @Redbird3 you mentioned reading about a woman who saw him.
 
Oh! The video said the woman saw him around 2 am. If this is true and the newspaper guy saw him at 1:45 very close to setting pole dam rd then you would think she saw him after setting pole dam rd. Could that mean he made it past there and dropped his items on accident, instead of in a scuffle with someone? I wish we knew exactly where she saw him.
 
Redbird3 said:
Oh! The video said the woman saw him around 2 am. If this is true and the newspaper guy saw him at 1:45 very close to setting pole dam rd then you would think she saw him after setting pole dam rd. Could that mean he made it past there and dropped his items on accident, instead of in a scuffle with someone? I wish we knew exactly where she saw him.
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And in a total stretch of things to consider, I started to wonder who exactly found those items of Colin's? Could they in fact have been planted there? I know it's doubtful but I wouldn't be a good sleuther if I didn't at least mention that it has recently crossed my mind.

We often hear about perpetrators joining the search teams.
Or they could have been planted that evening before the searches even began.
Unlikely... but also possible.
In my opinion.
 
andalso said:
And in a total stretch of things to consider, I started to wonder who exactly found those items of Colin's? Could they in fact have been planted there? I know it's doubtful but I wouldn't be a good sleuther if I didn't at least mention that it has recently crossed my mind.

We often hear about perpetrators joining the search teams.
Or they could have been planted that evening before the searches even began.
Unlikely... but also possible.
In my opinion.
Click to expand...

My thought/opinion is that they fell out of his pants pocket when he pulled his hands out. If I put my license and other items in a front pants pocket (I've tried it with chapstick, keyfob, camera remote, lighter, and other things that size) and put my hands in that pocket, when I take them out the other items tend to try and escape, and it's worse if my hands are wet or my jeans are tight. A couple of weekends ago I was photographing fireworks and it was really cold that evening, so cold that my fingers didn't want to work. When I reached into my pants pocket to retrieve my lens cap, my fingers were numb and it took a while to get the cap and pull it out, and when I did, the whole pocket came along -- if I had other items in that pocket, they would have fallen out, too. MOO.
 
deadfoot13 said:
My thought/opinion is that they fell out of his pants pocket when he pulled his hands out. If I put my license and other items in a front pants pocket (I've tried it with chapstick, keyfob, camera remote, lighter, and other things that size) and put my hands in that pocket, when I take them out the other items tend to try and escape, and it's worse if my hands are wet or my jeans are tight. A couple of weekends ago I was photographing fireworks and it was really cold that evening, so cold that my fingers didn't want to work. When I reached into my pants pocket to retrieve my lens cap, my fingers were numb and it took a while to get the cap and pull it out, and when I did, the whole pocket came along -- if I had other items in that pocket, they would have fallen out, too. MOO.
Click to expand...

I concede that makes a lot more sense.
Although I don't rule out a struggle of some sort.
 
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