CA CA - Peter McColl, 16, Berkeley, 28 Aug 1995

[augustday]

Thank you.

 

[Dixie811]

Is it not possible to communicate with Nichole while in prison? Since she is in prison for drug charges, she will likely become 'unreliable' again or go off the grid when she gets out. While she is in prison she may have plenty of time on her hands and actually be sober. It may be the best time to get some answers from her.

Were the bus driver/cab driver/anyone else who claimed to have interacted with or seen Peter on 8/28/95 shown just a picture, or was anyone shown a recent video of Peter to confirm their sighting?

Were the businesses near the bus stops he is believed to have used checked for exterior security cams to help confirm or deny his route/sightings from the day? Or video from the airport entrance/terminal to determine who Nichole may have entered with?

What did Peter typically carry in his wallet? A library card? School ID? Bus pass?

Had Peter ever had a job? Did he have a summer job in 1995?

The Goodwill employee claims Peter came in and bought a shirt. Could she describe the shirt? Did it sound like something Peter would have worn?

Just some questions that popped into my mind while reading this thread. If the police had investigated more thoroughly when Peter went missing, I feel his family would have gotten answers much sooner. But I do think there is a lot to go on in this case.

 

[augustday]

I don't believe there is any connection with Nichole. I have since communicated with her.

 

[Danaya]

I don't believe there is any connection with Nichole. I have since communicated with her.

Hi, thank you for the update. Are there any more updates on your brothers case?

 

[augustday]

No updates, unfortunately.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Thinking of Peter and his loved ones.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

May the new year, the 20th year since Peter disappeared, bring answers.

 

[dotr]

Bumping and subscribing for Peter and wondering if his ear lobes would be consider attached or detached?

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Good question, dotr...I'm not an ear lobe expert though so maybe someone can help us.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Thinking of Peter.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

I hope there will be an anniversary article this month.

I think of Peter's case often, may his family get answers soon.

 

[dotr]

Cannot find any new articles, so bumping with this older one.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15915847
rbbm.

"The case strikes us as a significant mystery," Kusmiss said. "We do need the community's help, possibly nationwide help, to get to the bottom of this. Cases like this that get a lot of attention and have a real air of mystery to them never leave a detective's mind."

At the time of Peter's disappearance, he had won a spot on Berkeley High's varsity crew team and regularly rode his mountain bike in the Berkeley hills.

The teen was described by family members as a quiet, deep-thinking young man who had a passion for music, playing the guitar, and reading the poetry of Walt Whitman and Robert Frost.

His family, who all left Berkeley several years ago, pore over the details of their last days with the teen. They try to piece together what might have happened -- that he might have taken his own life, or been kidnapped or murdered. Or even joined a cult or just left the area of his own free will."

snip>

'Peter was nearsighted and wore glasses, but did not have his glasses with him the day he went missing. He also did not have the $100 in cash he had stashed in his room, or any clothes or personal belongings. He had passed his driver's license test a few weeks before and the license arrived in the mail several weeks after he disappeared.

"Anything could have happened to Peter," his mother said.

She said some friends and family believe he was killed."

 

[dotr]

Hi SadieJane, I am so glad that you are interested in this case. Peter is my little brother and we have had no leads for a long time. The leads we did have were weak, and have not produced any answers. There are some inconsistencies in the description of Peter and circumstances of his disappearance that you described- that I'd like to clarify:

His wallet was discovered after his disappearance, but his identification cards were missing.

His ID was not missing. In fact, his driver's license arrived in the mail two weeks after he disappeared.

My Dad and I interviewed the bus driver (the 43 bus) who claimed to have seen Peter. The driver said he saw Peter get on the bus on Solano avenue, where he asked for directions to get to Montclair and, asked the time (so he was not wearing a watch). He said Peter got off the 43 in downtown Berkeley to get on another bus to transfer to Montclair (the 51). The bus driver then said he saw Peter in Montclair later that day, while the bus driver was on a lunch break. He said Peter was with a clean cut, caucasian boy with an English accent, and that Peter approached the bus driver to ask for "change" which he did not give him. The coincidence of this astounds me and I have wondered if the bus driver made that part up, hoping for a reward (especially since my Dad has an Australian accent). The bus driver later met with a police sketch artist to make a sketch of the companion who was supposedly with Peter when he saw him in Montclair. There is absolutely no reason I can think of why Peter would go to Montclair unless there was a pre-arranged meeting. There is nothing of interest there and it is obvious he had not taken the bus there before. He had no friends there or other connections.

The other important detail is that the bus driver said Peter was talking with a girl with red-streaked hair when he was on the 43, just before he got off. The girl was confirmed to be Nichole Zotti, another high school student from Berkeley High, who knew Peter, but not well. She also was missing that day, for a few days, but her parents tracked her down in Southern California. There was no connection made between her disappearance that day and Peter's. However, another odd coincidence.

Besides these sightings the day of his disappearance, we have had very little to go on. No contact from Peter whatsoever.

Peter was a loving brother and son, responsible, smart, strong, mature in many ways. He was not at odds with my parents, and there was no argument or apparent strain between them beyond that of normal teen age independence. The idea that he would run away and NEVER contact us again is inconceivable to me. This has been so painful for the family, and there is never closure.

I WELCOME any and every body's help in taking up this cold case, thinking outside the box, looking at every angle. I'm so glad to have found this forum. I have more details I could provide about his disappearance if you have questions.





Thanks
Rebecca McColl

Rbbm.

Just wanted to highlight a couple things that stood out for me.
Ok, this probably has zero to do with Peter, but noting anyway, in a different time and place, Nancy Eaton mysteriously vanished, co-incidentally after receiving her driver's license.fwiw.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?64549-PA-Wendy-Eaton-15-Media-17-May-1975

Also wondering if indeed there was an English accented young man as the bus driver noted, is it possible that P. was quietly meeting up with someone, under the belief that he was auditioning to be in a band or other creative project, thinking of appearances and wearing his contacts instead of glasses?

 

[dotr]

After reading the info on Peter's disappearance and then reading another case of a California teen, Gayle Marks, also missing from California; there is something in common with these two cases as I see it.

Peter's license was received weeks after his disappearance and Gayle went missing after going to DMV and her license on one site says it was mailed and received days after her disappearance. But on AMW is says that it was not received until 1989, months after her disappearance.

Gayle goes missing from San Joanquin Co. in 1988 and Peter goes missing in 1995 from Berkeley, Alameda Co. These counties are neighboring and in Gayle's case there is speculation as to whether two known and convicted serial killers are responsible for her disappearance. Wesley Howard Shermantine and Loren Joseph Herzog.

After looking at there profiles, they did kill men too.

Could there be a connection?

Bumping this post and wondering..
if any more cases pop up with the driver's licence thing happening, will post here- just in case.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Peter McColl has been missing for 20 years today. Thinking of him and his loved ones.

 

[katydid23]

Heartbreaking. :candle:

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Found this SF Gate article from a few days after his disappearance back in 1995. No new information though.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Flood-of-tips-on-Berkeley-teen-3132567.php

McColl has been missing since Monday afternoon after leaving his family's Berkeley home on his way to a local bookstore.

 

[John_Doe]

I went to junior high and high school with Peter. I was friends with him in junior high. We drifted apart by the time we got to high school, probably because he did crew, and I didn't.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of distinct memories of Peter. In fact, I have only one: In seventh or eighth grade, I spent the night at Peter's house in Berkeley. After the sun went down, Peter asked me to come tagging with him at Thousand Oaks Elementary School, which was a few blocks from his house. Tagging, for those who don't know, is a form of graffiti, in which one writes one's tag name (i.e., codename) on public or private property, using pens. If I remember correctly, his tag name was "Peter”—which is ironic, because most taggers used a tag name other than their own. I didn't tag, but I remember climbing up a stairwell on the school's property with him, and watching him tag. In my experience, happy, well-adjusted kids don't, for the most part, do graffiti.

I also have a vague memory that he wasn't particularly happy with his family life. I don't remember details, unfortunately. My point in saying this is that the reports that he seemed happy, and had no significant issues with his family, don't totally match my experience. However, this was my impression a few years before he disappeared, and it's a very vague impression, so it may not be worth much. That said, I do have a vague memory that when I heard he was missing, I guessed that he had run away.

Rebecca (Peter’s sister), you wrote:

I don't believe there is any connection with Nichole. I have since communicated with her.

Would you be willing to elaborate?

Reading everything on this thread, this is the hypothesis that seems most plausible to me (to be clear, this is all hypothesizing; these are not actual allegations):

Peter met the red-headed Nichole Zotti on the 43 bus that day (so said the bus driver, as well as Nichole, allegedly). Whether the meeting was pre-arranged or not, I have no clue.

Either then, prior to then, or just after then, Nichole invites Peter to go with her to Southern California, to do drugs (I hypothesize this because Nichole allegedly admitted that she went to SoCal that very day to do drugs; she was also allegedly in prison, for drug-related crime, just a few years ago). Perhaps they meet a companion in the Montclair district of Oakland, later that day (so said the bus driver), and he's somehow connected to their trip to SoCal (I hypothesize).

Peter and Nichole take a cab to the Southwest terminal at the Oakland airport (I hypothesize, based on the cab driver’s assertion that he drove Peter with a red-headed girl thereto). They board a Southwest flight to SoCal (I hypothesize, based on the report that Nichole went to SoCal the day Peter disappeared). In my experience, the cheapest, most available, most convenient flights from Berkeley to SoCal are via Southwest, from the Oakland airport, so this part of the cab driver's story adds up.

They fly to SoCal and get high (I hypothesize, based on the report that Nichole went to SoCal to do drugs the day Peter disappeared). Peter, sadly, ODs (I hypothesize, because I can’t think of a more plausible explanation). His body is discarded (I hypothesize, because I can’t think of a more plausible explanation).

Nichole returns home, a few days later (according to reports above), and denies that Peter had headed with her to SoCal (according to reports above). If my hypothesis is correct, I would expect her to deny that Peter had headed with her to SoCal, because she wouldn't want to get in trouble for potentially being involved with Peter’s hypothesized drug use, disappearance, hypothesized overdose, or hypothesized death (I hypothesize all of this, because I can’t think of a more plausible explanation).

Rebecca, did you or anyone offer Nichole a reward—long ago or recently—for any information leading to Peter's discovery? I imagine there was or is a general reward available, but did you or anyone specifically offer her cash, in exchange for information leading to his discovery?

And again, Rebecca, would you be willing to elaborate on your communication with Nichole, which led you to believe that she has no connection with Peter’s disappearance?

As you said yourself, Rebecca, it would be a pretty remarkable coincidence that Nichole allegedly disappeared to SoCal to do drugs the day she allegedly talked to Peter on the bus, and that a cab driver said he drove Peter and a red-headed girl to the Southwest terminal in Oakland that day, if Nichole had no connection to Peter’s disappearance, wouldn’t it?

Does anyone know what the statute of limitations would be for being involved with or covering up a drug-related death—assuming that that would, in fact, constitute a crime? Perhaps if Nichole knew that there was no risk of prosecution, and she were offered cash for information, she would be more forthcoming about what happened that fateful day, yes?

I can find one, and only one, Nichole Zotti on Facebook, so it shouldn’t be difficult to communicate with her.

Her hair looks blond in some pictures, red in others.

Her profile says she went to Amador Valley High School, in Pleasanton, which is a 40-minute drive from Berkeley. I don't remember Nichole from Berkeley High, but then again, there were about 3000 students at Berkeley High, at the time, so I didn't know all of my classmates. Perhaps she transferred from Berkeley High to Amador Valley, at some point, yes?

I'm very sorry for your family's situation, Rebecca. I was infinitely less close to Peter than you were, and yet I still miss him, so I can only imagine how you and your family must feel. I'm sorry to hypothesize about his potential death, but it sounds like you want closure, here, so I hope you're ok with my speculation. I remember really liking Peter, and I still hold out hope that he turns up alive and well, some day soon.

Finally, does anyone know what sort of identification—if any—was required to board a domestic flight in 1995, in the pre-September-11 era? I understand that Peter hadn’t yet received his driver license, but I wonder whether a student ID or reasonably good fake ID would suffice. Also, forgive me if this information was already provided, but was his student ID ever found? I’m trying to remember whether Berkeley High issued student IDs at the time; unfortunately, I can’t recall.

 

[dotr]

:Welcome1:
Welcome to Ws. John_Doe, thanks for the remarkable and eloquent first post!

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Had to think of John Doe's post and thought I'd bump this thread. I see you're a verified insider now.