We've looked into Mark Wilson on the Keddie Forum, and he's listed on the "Possibly Related Crimes" thread http://keddiemurdersfilm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=293&p=12944#p12944
My research from a year or two back also said he was hitching from Meadow Valley (located east of town) into Quincy. The Town Hall was/is the only theatre in town, and it's only a couple blocks from the eastern edge of town. Nobody at the theatre recalled seeing him there that day, so the assumption is he never made it that far.
Unlike the four victims of the Keddie Murders of 1981 (three of which attended local schools), both Wilson and murder victim Kathy Ann Howard were given tributes in the school yearbooks. Kathy was 14, disappeared while hitching at Quincy's Cemetery Hill Oct 7 1973, and her body found 6 days later, sexually assaulted, throat slit, head crushed, and right eye stabbed.
Salem, do you recall who you spoke with at PCSO concerning Wilson? Was is an idiot by the name of Bill Elliott? IF so, you've been lied to and strung along by a guy that honestly doesn't have the brainpower to remember his name. He's been telling conflicting lies (many of them concerning DNA) about the Keddie case for a looooong time.
Hi- I did a lot of scrounging for information when researching Mark Wilson, but there was nothing really to find. I had a folder dedicated to him, but that computer died and fried all my drives, so I had to start from scratch. I remember the circumstances were he lived in MV, which is barely a community NOW, much less in 67. I've recently read about his case at markwilson.projectjason.org (who wrote the personal account found there?), and I never heard about him usually biking back and forth. There's a lot of good info in that account, so let me try to weave what I know in and out of the personal memories found on projectjason.
First, the distance is only a few miles west of Quincy. Here's a link to a map I made dealing with many of the major landmarks in the Keddie Murders from 1981. At the bottom of the map is a cluster of pinpointed landmarks on right, which is Quincy. On the bottom left is a sole blue icon, pinpointing "downtown Meadow Valley" in 1981.
Keddie Murders Map
Understanding the crime has a lot to do with understanding the terrain and the roads and the era when it happened. The main road through Plumas, where traffic was consistently found, is HWY 70/89. The road to Meadow Valley was a small road (since widened, slightly) that winds through canyons, with occasional small breaks mainly to the north. It expands into a small and sparsely-populated valley area, but the main route between MV and where that road connects to 70/89 (which is also Quincy's Main Street) is thickly lined on both sides of the road with tall pines. I drove the widened version of the road two years back, and I know anyone walking on that road has few places to go in case of trouble. Also, the south side of the road, where he would have been if hitching into town, is often carved out of the mountainside, leaving nowhere to run if he didn't like the look of the ride he'd thumbed down. Literally on the side of the road and nowhere to run where the driver can't jump out and catch you first.
Once you get into Quincy from the road to Meadow Valley, it's only 150 yards (1.3 blocks) from where that road connects to 70/89/Main St. until you hit the theatre.
Click here for a photo gallery I made of Quincy through the decades. Look at the gallery's Main Street section closely, because you can see the theatre was only 150 yards down Main from where the MV road connected to Main Street/70/89. In fact, the Main Street Gallery has many photos taken at that corner where the MV road connected to the corner of Crescent and Main. Those were taken from the corner of where historic Hotel Quincy once stood, which was burnt down by arson months prior in 1966. Also, others were taken next door at the County Courthouse, which housed the Plumas County Sheriff's Office and Jail at the time (I find it very doubtful he disappeared within eyeshot of the courthouse, but PCSO are a pretty corrupt lot...) You can see the theatre on the left (north) side of the road a block down, with the tall, pillar-like sign declaring 'TOWNHALL'. When looking at the gallery, turn on the "i" caption button because I added explanations for many of the photos, including the names of the movies on the marquee on Town Hall photos I could decipher.
Take a peak around the gallery and the map link I gave above. Use Google Maps' Street View to see the layout of Quincy and how the road to MV is still small and winding. If Mark Wilson was hitching and caught a ride, it was long before he hit Quincy, so he was picked up by somebody on a very low-traffic road. 1967? Much lower traffic then, and keep in mind the weather and specific location. The mountains were to his south as he walked to Quincy. Literally at his feet, since he was walking on a cutaway. Quincy is very far north of the equator, so the earth's curvature means the sun is very weak and the azimuth/apex is always very far to the south in Plumas, and it gets much weaker in winter. In 67, there was no Daylight Savings Time, so 6 pm in 1967 is like 7 pm without DST, much darker. Meadow Valley and most of the road into Quincy is already in shade shortly after noon by that time of year, so Mark would have been walking in shade, in low very light, if he left at five. My guess is sundown in Quincy in 67 would have been around 5:45 pm, based on my experiences in England at that time of year. Had it already snowed? It often does by that time of year. It would take time, but would be easy to find the facts about weather and sundown/sunup and other factors to calculate weather circumstances and walking conditions in November 1967, but they were not good circumstances. I did it for the Keddie Case, so test my math and logic by double-checking it here. Even considering how it was a quiet town where nothing ever happened, that road was very dangerous to walk. Period.
The movie theatre was tiny, and still is. It shows two movies, and they are usually 3-6 months old. Quincy couldn't afford premiere, first-run flicks, so they have one theatre, one screen, and two films that are months old. If he was going to the Matinee, it probably meant a cheaper price and maybe both films for the cheaper fee. If you want to know what was playing at the theatre that evening, I would research the Plumas papers from Oct/November 67, or try the Plumas County Library or Plumas County Museum. I don't find the title(s) he was going to see as very important, but I do find it very odd he was not meeting any friends there. Either he loved film, was a loner, or something else was going on.
Looking at films I would expect to possibly be booked at the Town Hall, I'll choose top releases that were hits months earlier and were not too daring or controversial, and usually one was for guys and the other more romantic.
El Dorado (John Wayne), You Only Live Twice (007 Connery), Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Dirty Dozen, The Jungle Book, Wait Until Dark, Cool Hand Luke. I doubt Quincy played top films like Bonnie and Clyde or In the Heat of the Night or Born Losers or even To Sir With Love because they were too controversial or too intelligent, to be blunt. A lot of the times they wouldn't even pick up A-List movies, as you can see from photos posted in the photo gallery. I don't know what it was like in 67, but they often ran b-movies in the 50s and early 60s.
I've learned a lot about the Plumas/Quincy area over the years I've spent working the Keddie case, and the area is beautiful. Between 67-81, that "wonderful community" sure went to hell.
I'll talk about other aspects, if anyone's interested, but look into what I've posted above because this case cries "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!" A very weird place AND wrong time of year AND wrong time of day to grab a ride from someone you don't know. Who else would be on that road between MV and Q?
Other than that, the sunlight is thin and the roads were narrow and he was on the tiniest of roads when he disappeared. This is about Mark Wendell Wilson, and the focus is that he was abducted on a tiny winding road. I think the runaway theory is pure BS.
I found out that LE interviewed people at the theater, to which Mark said he was going, but no one saw him there, and it is assumed that he tragically may have gotten a "bad ride."
I am going to try to find the name of the theater.
Satch
I remember the name of the theater. It is called the Town Hall Theater and it's in Quincy California. It is one of the oldest theaters around. The website says it originated in 1874! Here you go:
http://www.quincytownhall.com/
I wish I could find the link to the information, but I distinctly remember reading that this was where Mark said he was going.
Satch
We've looked into Mark Wilson on the Keddie Forum, and he's listed on the "Possibly Related Crimes" thread http://keddiemurdersfilm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=293&p=12944#p12944
My research from a year or two back also said he was hitching from Meadow Valley (located east of town) into Quincy. The Town Hall was/is the only theatre in town, and it's only a couple blocks from the eastern edge of town. Nobody at the theatre recalled seeing him there that day, so the assumption is he never made it that far.
Unlike the four victims of the Keddie Murders of 1981 (three of which attended local schools), both Wilson and murder victim Kathy Ann Howard were given tributes in the school yearbooks. Kathy was 14, disappeared while hitching at Quincy's Cemetery Hill Oct 7 1973, and her body found 6 days later, sexually assaulted, throat slit, head crushed, and right eye stabbed.
Salem, do you recall who you spoke with at PCSO concerning Wilson? Was is an idiot by the name of Bill Elliott? IF so, you've been lied to and strung along by a guy that honestly doesn't have the brainpower to remember his name. He's been telling conflicting lies (many of them concerning DNA) about the Keddie case for a looooong time.
I am starting a thread for Mark. I know he is a long shot, but I have submitted him to the local LE and they are looking into it. I received an email from the detective this morning that says they are still looking at the DNA and doing some research. If the detective gives me permission I will post his entire update.
I have trouble keeping up with Mark because he doesn't have a thread and I always have to go find him :crazy:
I will try to move the previous posts to this thread if I can figure out how
Salem
I am starting a thread for Mark. I know he is a long shot, but I have submitted him to the local LE and they are looking into it. I received an email from the detective this morning that says they are still looking at the DNA and doing some research. If the detective gives me permission I will post his entire update.
I have trouble keeping up with Mark because he doesn't have a thread and I always have to go find him :crazy:
I will try to move the previous posts to this thread if I can figure out how
Salem
The news report mentions that the unnamed well that got three independent hits from different cadaver dogs is located in or near the rural community of Meadow Valley, on private land. Of course, there must be an informant or other impetus that gave Hagwood, et al., cause to put the first dog on the ground near that well in the first place. After nearly fifty years, the dog was put on the ground specifically looking for him, otherwise there's no logical reason for the conclusions drawn or the news article itself. They could have played it like Cache County SO did when they located Tina Sharp's skull, three years and thirty miles from where she was murdered in 81. In that instance, LE tried to play it off as ancient remains from Native Americans, until science shot them down and they had to, instead, work the case.
Being familiar with Hagwood and PCSO's ways, I'm fairly certain this search is the result of new info, and they knew going in any 'hit' would indicate Wilson. That said, we still don't know where Mark's home was, where he was officially last seen, nor where the well is. The person who described Mark on projectjason.org appears to be close, possibly one of his three sisters. It would be nice if family would come forward here to elucidate.
If this is indeed Mark, the new details indicate he likely didn't end up in that well due to misadventure. Had it been an accident and he was alone, there would be no new details coming forward because there would be no witness. Therefore, a perp is involved who was from the area and knew it well enough to know the location of the well (was it already abandoned when he disappeared? From the article, it seems PCSO is still trying to determine the basics on the well, so my guess is it was abandoned by 67).
So many things may have happened- he may have been picked up by the perp promising a ride into Q, or he may never have made it to the main road to start hitching. This new info (if it is, indeed, related to Mark) further substantiates the earlier conclusions: this crime was not committed by some traveling killer; The perp is a local person very familiar with the immediate area and quite possibly familiar enough with Mark to have used that community sense of trust against him.