NY NY - Mitchel Weiser, 16, & Bonita Bickwit, 15, Narrowsburg, 27 July 1973

[thefragile7393]

Much has already been written about them, but I think that if they arrived at the concert and were kidnapped, someone in the public recognized them or perhaps they struck up a conversation and from there they passed away from trust and they are probably dead.
two young boys dead just like that...
rest in peace

People. Not 2 boys

 

[NJEverCurious]

No.

It says multiple times in this thread that their original and only dental records were lost.

It also says multiple times that family members have provided DNA samples for both of them. Mitch’s sister found his baby teeth and a sample was extracted. For Bonnie, her family member provided a sample so they have a familial profile in NamUs.

I am lazy right now and don’t feel like citing each link but I just read the entire thread tonight and it’s in here on multiple posts. I’ll just say MOO but I’m certain it’s been reported in MSM

Dated 2006, one of the first few posts on this thread says the records were lost. Apologies that I missed the "multiple times" it was clarified since then.

 

[asmi106082]

Dated 2006, one of the first few posts on this thread says the records were lost. Apologies that I missed the "multiple times" it was clarified since then.

I apologize if I came across short in my previous reply. I certainly didn’t intend it that way but reading back over my comment I see it might have read that way.
Sorry. MOO

 

[Satch]

Guys,

Here is a long article about the case, Sorry if it has already been posted:

Lost in the Crowd: What Happened to Mitch Weiser & Bonnie Bickwit?

The teenage couple left to attend a music festival in 1973 and were never seen again.

medium.com

Satch

 

[dotr]

Guys,

Here is a long article about the case, Sorry if it has already been posted:

Lost in the Crowd: What Happened to Mitch Weiser & Bonnie Bickwit?

The teenage couple left to attend a music festival in 1973 and were never seen again.

medium.com

Satch

Thank you! From lengthy link..2022

''The last time anyone saw Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser, they were standing alongside a highway in Narrowsburg, New York, attempting to hitchhike to Watkins Glen, 75 miles away. It was Friday, July 27, 1973, and the teenage couple wanted to attend the Watkins Glen Summer Jam, a large concert featuring the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and the Band. Mitch and Bonnie were among more than 600,000 people heading for Watkins Glen that weekend, but no one knows if they made it there or not. They were never seen again, sparking a search effort that is still going on nearly 50 years later.

Mitch, who was 16 years old, left his home in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday afternoon. He had originally planned to attend the concert with one of his friends, Larry Marion. Although Larry’s mother was usually very lenient with him, she decided at the last minute that she wasn’t comfortable with him making the trip to Watkins Glen and refused to allow him to go.

Mitch had already taken time off from his internship with a photography studio on Coney Island and wasn’t willing to miss the concert. He decided to give Larry’s ticket to 15-year-old Bonnie, his girlfriend of about a year.''

 

[ekardh]

Mitch, who was 16 years old, left his home in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday afternoon. He had originally planned to attend the concert with one of his friends, Larry Marion. Although Larry’s mother was usually very lenient with him, she decided at the last minute that she wasn’t comfortable with him making the trip to Watkins Glen and refused to allow him to go.

Mitch had already taken time off from his internship with a photography studio on Coney Island and wasn’t willing to miss the concert. He decided to give Larry’s ticket to 15-year-old Bonnie, his girlfriend of about a year.''

Thank you. I was not aware of this detail.

It's a curious thing to consider the vicissitudes of fate. Had Larry not been stopped from going at the last moment, there's every chance that Mitchel would've returned home safely. I believe that the star-crossed couple were targetted because the perp set sights on Bonnie.

 

[Richard]

Next month will mark the 50 year anniversary of their disappearance.

 

[Diavola]

John Lordan posted a video about the disappearance.

 

[Richard]

50 years missing...

Bonita Beckwit, 15 and Mitchel Weiser, 16
Missing since 27 July 1973

 

[Fairy1]

Two Teens Hitchhiked to a Concert. 50 Years Later, They Haven’t Come Home

Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit were never heard from again after leaving for 1973’s historic Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. Five decades on, their family and friends still want answers

www.yahoo.com

 

[dotr]

Two Teens Hitchhiked to a Concert. 50 Years Later, They Haven’t Come Home

Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit were never heard from again after leaving for 1973’s historic Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. Five decades on, their family and friends still want answers

www.yahoo.com

Thanks for the spanking new & lengthy article!
Eric J. Greenberg
Sat, August 5, 2023
''Amid recent information about a possible suspect connected to their disappearance, Mitchel’s and Bonnie’s friends and families are now calling on federal and state officials to provide the necessary resources to solve the coldest of cold cases.

“A task force is exactly what we need to solve what happened to my brother Mitchel and his girlfriend Bonnie,” Susan Weiser Leibegott, Mitchel’s sister who has been searching for him for the past half century, tells Rolling Stone. “Quite frankly, it is the only way to solve their case.”

...................
''The couple were apparently last seen leaving Camp Wel-Met, a popular summer camp in the Catskills region''

''On Friday morning, the teens had breakfast at the camp and caught a ride into Narrowsburg. Then, with little money in their jean pockets, they stood alongside the road, carrying sleeping bags and holding a cardboard sign that read “Watkins Glen.”
Of the estimated 600,000 fans who left for Summer Jam, only Mitchel and Bonnie vanished without a trace.'

''A bird’s eye view of some of the estimated 600,000 music fans who turned up for the Watkins Glen Summer Jam at the Watkins Glen, N.Y., Grand Prix Raceway, July 28, 1973.
MISSING PERSONS EXPERTS say that the case’s 50th anniversary presents an extraordinary opportunity to engage the public — particularly anyone who attended Summer Jam — to search their memories, look at photos of Mitchel and Bonnie, and try to recall any new information. “The hope is that this is going to trigger a memory, a nugget of information that nobody was aware of before,” says Leemie Kahng-Sofer, director of the Missing Children Division for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “That could help break the case wide open.”

 

[dotr]

Two Teens Hitchhiked to a Concert. 50 Years Later, They Haven't Come Home

Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit left for a historic concert in 1973 and were never heard from again. Their family and friends still want answers

www.rollingstone.com

'Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit were never heard from again after leaving for 1973’s historic Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. Five decades on, their family and friends still want answers'
BY ERIC J. GREENBERG 4 HOURS AGO

 

[ChatteringBirds]

They just look so young and innocent. Such a tragic case.

ETA: @dotr Thanks for posting that link to Rolling Stone. That was quite an article.

 

[ekardh]

Two Teens Hitchhiked to a Concert. 50 Years Later, They Haven't Come Home

Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit left for a historic concert in 1973 and were never heard from again. Their family and friends still want answers

www.rollingstone.com

'Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit were never heard from again after leaving for 1973’s historic Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. Five decades on, their family and friends still want answers'
BY ERIC J. GREENBERG 4 HOURS AGO

There's no proof that they ever made it to the festival, tbh.

 

[RedHaus]

I just read the Rolling Stone article that popped up in my news feed. My heart breaks for these two lost souls and their families and friends. I am glad to see there is already a thread on WS for their case.

I posted the Rolling Stones article in a Gregg Allman Fan group I belong to on FB, as there was recent discussion on that page about the July 1973 Watkins Glen Summer Jam (where the Allman Brothers Band played), asking for anyone's memory.

 

[Richard]

It is very possible that Mitch and Bonnie never made it to the concert, but rather were murdered by the person who picked them up hitch hiking. Just my opinion, but perhaps efforts should be focused on the Narrowsburg, NY area where they were last seen. It is some 75 miles south of Watkins Glen where the concert was held.

Were there any other abductions or murders in that area around the same time frame?

 

[psdumas]

Thanks for the spanking new & lengthy article!
Eric J. Greenberg
Sat, August 5, 2023
''Amid recent information about a possible suspect connected to their disappearance, Mitchel’s and Bonnie’s friends and families are now calling on federal and state officials to provide the necessary resources to solve the coldest of cold cases.

“A task force is exactly what we need to solve what happened to my brother Mitchel and his girlfriend Bonnie,” Susan Weiser Leibegott, Mitchel’s sister who has been searching for him for the past half century, tells Rolling Stone. “Quite frankly, it is the only way to solve their case.”

...................
''The couple were apparently last seen leaving Camp Wel-Met, a popular summer camp in the Catskills region''

''On Friday morning, the teens had breakfast at the camp and caught a ride into Narrowsburg. Then, with little money in their jean pockets, they stood alongside the road, carrying sleeping bags and holding a cardboard sign that read “Watkins Glen.”
Of the estimated 600,000 fans who left for Summer Jam, only Mitchel and Bonnie vanished without a trace.'

''A bird’s eye view of some of the estimated 600,000 music fans who turned up for the Watkins Glen Summer Jam at the Watkins Glen, N.Y., Grand Prix Raceway, July 28, 1973.
MISSING PERSONS EXPERTS say that the case’s 50th anniversary presents an extraordinary opportunity to engage the public — particularly anyone who attended Summer Jam — to search their memories, look at photos of Mitchel and Bonnie, and try to recall any new information. “The hope is that this is going to trigger a memory, a nugget of information that nobody was aware of before,” says Leemie Kahng-Sofer, director of the Missing Children Division for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “That could help break the case wide open.”

Great article from Rolling Stone. They were my contemporaries, but I guess I was too busy and into my 20s back then to even know about this story. I'm shocked I didn't know. If they ran away, as some think, I find it a little hard to believe that anyone would give a 15 year old girl and a 16 year old boy a job and a place to live without question. UNLESS, they found a commune somewhere, which is not far fetched. Back then, there were many of them. Especialy around the Woodstock and Watkins Glen area. Home to many ageing hippies today. Yes.. they loved their families.. we think. So, one never knows. I can see pulling off an escape back then.

 

[The Scarecrow]

I noticed this posted on the Robert Garrow thread. Something to think about.

NY - NY - Robert Garrow (pre-July 1974) - were there other victims?

I couldn't find a thread for Robert Garrow. Based on what is officially known he is likely better classified as a 'spree killer' than a 'serial killer', but I am questioning that. At the time (July 1973), the largest manhunt in NY state history was focused on capturing Robert Garrow. He...

www.websleuths.com

 

[RedHaus]

I noticed this posted on the Robert Garrow thread. Something to think about.

NY - NY - Robert Garrow (pre-July 1974) - were there other victims?

I couldn't find a thread for Robert Garrow. Based on what is officially known he is likely better classified as a 'spree killer' than a 'serial killer', but I am questioning that. At the time (July 1973), the largest manhunt in NY state history was focused on capturing Robert Garrow. He...

www.websleuths.com

Well found! TY.

There likely weren't many orange VWs traipsing around upstate NY in 1973. I wonder if LE put two and two together as this WS'er has done (and you) and tracked down the owners of Orange VWs in 1973 in the Northeast, U.S., let's say.

I had heard the Allan Smith drowning tale before, but not the second part - that Garrow was the possible identity of the guy driving the VW that day. And that Garrow is connected to other murders.

It does make you think if the missing link to this case isn't Garrow? And this quote makes me question Smith's story, a bit.

The police called Smith "credible" but wondered why he did not jump in to save them because he was an athletic, Navy veteran.

But like this WS sleuther opined, in what other way could Smith be intertwined with these kids other than possibly seeing them in Garrow's VW... possibly a catch in Garrow's net like a spider?

IMO.

 

[tarabull]

N.Y. Governor Orders Cops to Look at Missing-Teens Cold Case After Rolling Stone Investigation

Sen. Chuck Schumer has also asked the FBI to investigate the disappearance of Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit, who went missing in 1973

www.rollingstone.com