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

[CelticFrostie]

Thanks for your post! To me it has always felt like there might have been depression etc involved. Especially after reading from people who actually knew Peter and think he was troubled...I think something was going on.

CelticFrostie, can you elaborate, what do you mean with "personality change far from the common teenage angst"?

I didn't know him personally or talk to him, but he didn't always have long hair or black boots. Even if Berkeley is a "hip place", it's an unconventional appearance for an honors student from a well-to-do family in the Hills. I went through a similar phase and witnessed it on other students - attire very much correlates with psyche/behavior.

 

[CelticFrostie]

Oh, a little background on Berkeley High School. Hearing good reviews about its academic rankings, I tried to transfer myself in 1996 and couldn't get in because of a waiting list. A well-wisher classmate from the school I was already attending remarked, "good luck, try not getting murdered at Berkeley!"

Here's a digest of comments about the atmosphere at BHS over the years:
https://www.berkeleyparentsnetwork.org/recommend/schools/BHS/violence

An amalgam of parental denial and raw experience, but this one I find particularly interesting:

"I had four children attend Berkeley High (from 1990 to 2005)...Today the school is SIGNIFICANTLY calmer than it was in the nineties."

If this is how "calm" it is today, I'd say the waiting list saved my life:
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/my-town/ci_17725536

There would be a WebSleuths thread about my abrupt vanishing, too.

 

[Lilibet]

Oh, a little background on Berkeley High School. Hearing good reviews about its academic rankings, I tried to transfer myself in 1996 and couldn't get in because of a waiting list. A well-wisher classmate from the school I was already attending remarked, "good luck, try not getting murdered at Berkeley!"

Here's a digest of comments about the atmosphere at BHS over the years:
https://www.berkeleyparentsnetwork.org/recommend/schools/BHS/violence

An amalgam of parental denial and raw experience, but this one I find particularly interesting:

"I had four children attend Berkeley High (from 1990 to 2005)...Today the school is SIGNIFICANTLY calmer than it was in the nineties."

If this is how "calm" it is today, I'd say the waiting list saved my life:
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/my-town/ci_17725536

There would be a WebSleuths thread about my abrupt vanishing, too.

My husband graduated from Berkeley in '63...less troubled times. This sounds awful! I wonder if Peter just couldn't face the fear and trauma for another year. My husband's much younger cousin (male) was traumatized by junior high in Berkeley in the early '70's but never spoke of it until well into adulthood. He ended up becoming a school psychologist...maybe because of it? Perhaps Peter couldn't speak of it either and just suffered in silence, becoming depressed. I do hate to think of suicide though, but I've been on enough threads here that ended that way so it's always something I consider.

 

[dotr]

Wow, Berkeley sounds like the kind of place that if you survive the scary stuff, and no doubt, heavy competition, you can become very successful.
Never realized until reading this wiki entry, just how many films were based on the school.
imo, speculation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni

 

[CelticFrostie]

Wow, Berkeley sounds like the kind of place that if you survive the scary stuff, and no doubt, heavy competition, you can become very successful.
Never realized until reading this wiki entry, just how many films were based on the school.
imo, speculation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni

I'm not sure the campus culture of University of California, Berkeley (linked) shares the same problems as Berkeley High School (the school referenced).

 

[Lilibet]

Wow, Berkeley sounds like the kind of place that if you survive the scary stuff, and no doubt, heavy competition, you can become very successful.
Never realized until reading this wiki entry, just how many films were based on the school.
imo, speculation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni

We're actually talking about crime at Berkeley High School, not U.C. Berkeley, but that is an impressive list of U.C alums.

It gets confusing when we refer to BHS as "Berkeley" which usually means UC. Berkeley High School is the only high school in a city that is diverse racially and economically. As crime has increased in the community, it has increased at the school. Such a shame.

 

[dotr]

I'm not sure the campus culture of University of California, Berkeley (linked) shares the same problems as Berkeley High School (the school referenced).

Thanks for the tactful correction of my glaring error!

 

[CelticFrostie]

We're actually talking about crime at Berkeley High School, not U.C. Berkeley, but that is an impressive list of U.C alums.

It gets confusing when we refer to BHS as "Berkeley" which usually means UC. Berkeley High School is the only high school in a city that is diverse racially and economically. As crime has increased in the community, it has increased at the school. Such a shame.

Last I checked, the crime rate in Berkeley (as a whole) is statistically average. Certain beats are worse than others, but generally, you won't find the "Sirrup" connoisseur in the same neighborhood as the artisan wine importer.:laughing:

The issue with Berkeley High is the school allowing nefarious characters onto its campus for the sake of administrator pay. Working only nine months out of the year is tough, but it's selfish to risk the well-being and lives of students under a false guise of promoting "diversity". The high school I attended was better enforced but still had the same open transfer policy, and it was clear that the teachers didn't enjoy the "diversity" of dealing with these kids. As a matter of fact, the school had a "zero tolerance" model when it came to discipline - even if there was only one aggressor, it always took "two to tango", just to be fair.

So as far as my high school choices went in California back then, it was either a maximum security prison, or Snake Plissken's New York.

 

[Lilibet]

Last I checked, the crime rate in Berkeley (as a whole) is statistically average. Certain beats are worse than others, but generally, you won't find the "Sirrup" connoisseur in the same neighborhood as the artisan wine importer.:laughing:

The issue with Berkeley High is the school allowing nefarious characters onto its campus for the sake of administrator pay. Working only nine months out of the year is tough, but it's selfish to risk the well-being and lives of students under a false guise of promoting "diversity". The high school I attended was better enforced but still had the same open transfer policy, and it was clear that the teachers didn't enjoy the "diversity" of dealing with these kids. As a matter of fact, the school had a "zero tolerance" model when it came to discipline - even if there was only one aggressor, it always took "two to tango", just to be fair.

So as far as my high school choices went in California back then, it was either a maximum security prison, or Snake Plissken's New York.

I'm sure crime is pretty average for a city that size. I was thinking of violent crime in the early '60's when my husband attended Berkeley High School probably being statistically less than it was in the mid '90's or now. At least it felt that way when my dh went there. We live in an increasingly violent world, so I would think crime at Berkeley High would have increased since the '60's (even if it's still average), especially if there are policies in place that create an environment where it can flourish.

That's why I wonder if Peter had been victimized and feared going back to school, and didn't see any way out. But that doesn't explain the bus ride to Montclair. Such a mystery and so sad for his family.

 

[CelticFrostie]

I'm sure crime is pretty average for a city that size. I was thinking of violent crime in the early '60's when my husband attended Berkeley High School probably being statistically less than it was in the mid '90's or now. At least it felt that way when my dh went there. We live in an increasingly violent world, so I would think crime at Berkeley High would have increased since the '60's (even if it's still average), especially if there are policies in place that create an environment where it can flourish.

That's why I wonder if Peter had been victimized and feared going back to school, and didn't see any way out. But that doesn't explain the bus ride to Montclair. Such a mystery and so sad for his family.

I'm fairly sure Montclair was a false lead. In fact, web results only suggested someone matching Peter McColl's description asked for directions to Montclair, and not referring to the ritzy Oakland neighborhood, but the city in San Bernardino County (Southern California). Without security cameras on the bus there's no way to confirm the sighting for sure, but I lean towards hoax or false I.D. When I was sixteen, I was full-grown, had facial hair and was often mistaken for being someone else or older.

I understand the need for a happier outcome and the ambiguity of mystery. A recent news article reported that Peter's mother often scanned the Seattle streets for young men playing guitar, yet when her son left, he didn't bring his own. Or his money. Or a rucksack. He declined a family breakfast invitation to a restaurant that would have been on his way if he really had business at the destination(s) he was headed to. Another red flag: loss of appetite.

There's only one mystery to me: why the family didn't interview pedestrians on Marina Drive in San Francisco's Presidio on the morning of the disappearance. Circa Monday, someone like the teenager would have stood out. If there were no sightings, that would at least leave the door open he was a runaway and not a causality. But even if Peter McColl was private about his emotions, I do believe there was common knowledge about what went on at home and school, and confirmation bias permeated the investigation.

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

Peter has been missing for 21 years.

 

[Archangel85]

I wonder what happened with the investigation John Doe was leading?

 

[CelticFrostie]

I wonder what happened with the investigation John Doe was leading?

Just my humble opinion, but unless you're a P.I. or press, the likelihood BPD would discuss an open case with a member of the public who isn't related to the family is slim to none.

Over 21 years since the story broke, and a few things to expand on:

* In regards to the "bookstore mystery" which probably still intrigues people, I view it the same way as a parent who says they're going to a store "around the corner" to buy milk, never to be seen or heard from again. This was a real-life incident involving long-time family friends, and the story had an interesting twist: the couple were going through bitter, drawn-out marital difficulties before the husband walked out. While it's still open-ended as to what happened, the disappearance probably DID NOT involve a convenience store purchase (especially if there were no witnesses).

* I could be mistaken, but I'm nearly certain McColl's sister mentioned on this thread that the bus girl from Telegraph ("Nicole") had no idea who Peter was. For those unfamiliar with 'Telie', the squatter kids are coarse and undomesticated in their lifestyle and ways. Any business with pedestrians, for the most part, is limited to begging. The people Peter talked to were presumably hawkers of beads, buttons and t-shirts; same street attitudes, but older and warmer with strangers. It's doubtful they had any knowledge of what happened and if Nicole had a rendezvous in southern California, it was amongst people in her world ... no evidence Peter was one of them. Beyond a brief sidewalk interaction, you'd have to go out of your way to closely associate with someone like that.

* It pains me to recount on this story (as it might also reveal my identity) but before finishing school in the Bay Area, I struck up a conversation with another student. He was a year behind me and I later discovered he was the nephew of my dad's late college roommate (the boy's uncle, a semi-famous oil painter, drowned while vacationing in Australia). The lad was bright and introspective but struggled to hide a melancholy streak; his home life was unstable and he was often targeted by schoolyard aggressors. Then, during the first month of my last school year, his lifeless body was found floating off Kirby Cove.

The most shocking part of the news was other student's reactions: many speculated he probably got "high" and slipped into the water. I remembered the strange coincidence involving his uncle and briefly went into "tin foil hat" mode. But eschew the conspiracies and connect the crime scene with all the facts preceding his death, and the remaining possibility may not be a happy one, but denial is more about not wanting to accept the same tragedy if it happened to a loved one of your own.

Try this angle: What if a body was never discovered? Before the student left, he just told his siblings he was going to the mall arcade, but didn't take any money with him, and left his asthma inhaler at home? Even if I didn't know the peer in the capacity I explained, his disappearance still wouldn't puzzle me.

 

[Ozoner]

Try this angle: What if a body was never discovered? Before the student left, he just told his siblings he was going to the mall arcade, but didn't take any money with him, and left his asthma inhaler at home? Even if I didn't know the peer in the capacity I explained, his disappearance still wouldn't puzzle me.

If you're implying that Peter committed suicide, what's your evidence? I saw very little in this thread that would point in that direction. If he actually did buy a shirt from Goodwill, that would argue against suicide. He didn't have his large stash of money with him, but he had his wallet and likely had some money.
I haven't seen anything in the thread about Peter's sexuality. If he was a closeted homosexual, that would lend credence to the suicide theory.
If he was straight, then I think the most likely scenario is an accidental overdose that was covered up.

 

[CelticFrostie]

If you're implying that Peter committed suicide, what's your evidence?

That's been mentioned ad nauseam: Lack of appetite, saying you're going somewhere you didn't end up going to, and leaving important provisions behind (money and eye wear). In addition, 1995 was one of the worst years for GG Bridge deaths (and that's just the ones tracked).

If he actually did buy a shirt from Goodwill, that would argue against suicide. He didn't have his large stash of money with him, but he had his wallet and likely had some money.

Are you thinking of the same case? He said he was going to a bookstore, not a thrift store, and DID NOT bring money with him.

I haven't seen anything in the thread about Peter's sexuality. If he was a closeted homosexual, that would lend credence to the suicide theory.

Only gays and lesbians commit suicide? I smell troll.

I think the most likely scenario is an accidental overdose that was covered up.

I'm going to debunk the overdose theory (which also made its way to Reddit) and hopefully once and for all:

When drug users fatally O/D, how many times do the dealers go through Jimmy Hoffa lengths to hide bodies? I would say none. If Peter McColl was a mafia associate that might be somewhat believable, but this was a 16-year-old honor student from the affluent Berkeley Hills. Assuming the O/D theory was credible, his body would have been dumped somewhere and located a long time ago.

Second, getting a hard fix on a Monday morning would imply McColl was a really bad kid. One also has to suspend disbelief for the fact he didn't bring money to pay for it. Drug dealers deal for a reason - profit. They're not charities.

When you guys get a chance, please check out the movie River's Edge. It was a true crime film about a murder (not a suicide, the plot-line is nowhere close to the McColl case) but the themes of denial and desensitization are very similar to what I'm talking about here.

 

[dotr]

1995 sadly seems like it was a big year for suicide at GG.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-07-12/features/1995193144_1_golden-gate-bridge-makes-the-bridge-bridge-suicides
[h=1]Golden Gate Bridge suicides reach 1,000 and counting[/h]
July 12, 1995|By Jane Meredith Adams | Jane Meredith Adams,Special to The Sun The New York Times also contributed to this story.

 

[Ozoner]

That's been mentioned ad nauseam: Lack of appetite, saying you're going somewhere you didn't end up going to, and leaving important provisions behind (money and eye wear). In addition, 1995 was one of the worst years for GG Bridge deaths (and that's just the ones tracked).

You make way too many assumptions. Is this your first time using the site?
1) He left his eyeglasses; he had his contact lenses.
2) He did not take his large stash of cash with him. That was pointed out as evidence that he did not run away. It was never stated that he had no money.
2) Not wanting to have breakfast with his mother doesn't mean that he didn't have an appetite. No one with any critical thinking skills whatsoever would jump to that conclusion. Many teenage boys are not eager to spend time with their mothers. Maybe he had already eaten. Maybe he had other plans.
4) Do you have a witness who can place him on the GG Bridge? Is your theory that he jumped off of it in broad daylight without being seen?

Are you thinking of the same case? He said he was going to a bookstore, not a thrift store, and DID NOT bring money with him.

Again,NOWHEREhas it been stated that he did not have any money. Just because he did not take his life savings with him, in your mind that means he had no money? The point about him not taking his $100 was made as evidence that he did not run away. It was never brought up to suggest that he had no money.Get it?

Have you read the entire thread? A Goodwill employee who had waited on McColl before and recognized him remembers selling him a shirt on the day he disappeared. (That doesn't mean he didn't also visit a book store; I feel I have to point that out because of the way you like to jump to conclusions.)

Only gays and lesbians commit suicide? I smell troll.

Don't put words in my mouth. I did not say that ONLY gays and lesbians commit suicide. It is MORE likely within that group: "Researchers have found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) youth is comparatively higher than among the general population." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suic...ong_LGBT_youth
(I don't usually quote Wikipedia, but that article quotes several good sources.)

I'm going to debunk the overdose theory (which also made its way to Reddit) and hopefully once and for all:

When drug users fatally O/D, how many times do the dealers go through Jimmy Hoffa lengths to hide bodies? I would say none. If Peter McColl was a mafia associate that might be somewhat believable, but this was a 16-year-old honor student from the affluent Berkeley Hills. Assuming the O/D theory was credible, his body would have been dumped somewhere and located a long time ago.

You haven't debunked anything. A dealer could dump, or bury, a body in a random spot; it might be found or it might not, depending on the luck of the draw. The fact that it wasn't found doesn't mean that any great effort went into hiding it. You also can't assume that only a professional dealer could have supplied drugs to McColl.

Second, getting a hard fix on a Monday morning would imply McColl was a really bad kid. One also has to suspend disbelief for the fact he didn't bring money to pay for it. Drug dealers deal for a reason - profit. They're not charities.

So in your mind, anyone who experiments with drugs is "bad"? I guess you see the world in black and white. Maybe McColl tried something for the first time and had a bad reaction to it. And again, NOWHERE WAS IT STATED THAT MCCOLL HAD NO MONEY WITH HIM. Please get that misconception out of your head, and please stop jumping to conclusions if you intend to use this site in the future!

 

[dotr]

It does seem odd that Peter would go to a bookstore without his glasses or contact lenses, but then how would he be able to navigate the walk/transportation to GG bridge,
or anywhere else without the ability to see well?
He did not take his wallet, but did take his identification, why?
Wondering why they think Peter may have gone to those other cities in particular?
As an apparently very religious guy, and it certainly does happen, but, would suicide be something he would really do?
Since Peter ditched his glasses and inhaler, wondering if he was heading out to meet some kind of faith healer and thought he would not need those items?
speculation, imo.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1175dmca.html

• 
  [*]Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; blue eyes. Shoulder length hair, sometimes worn in a ponytail.
  [*]Marks, Scars: He has 20/400 vision and needs contacts or eyeglasses for distance vision. He did not have his glasses with him. He has slight scarring near the tip of his right little finger.
  [*]Clothing: Black jeans, a light grey "Berkeley Crew" t-shirt, a light grey sweatshirt with "US Rowing" on the front and Doc-Marten brand boots.
  [*]AKA: Rainbow
  [*]Dentals: Dental X-rays available
  [*]DNA: Available in CODIS

---

Circumstances of Disappearance
McColl was last seen in Berkeley, CA on August 28, 1995 as he was leaving his home near The Alameda walking toward Telegraph Avenue to go to a bookstore. Several bus and cab drivers say they spotted the boy the day he vanished.
He plays guitar. He was wearing contacts when he left but did not have his glasses with him. All identifying information had been taken out of his wallet.
He may no longer be in California. He may be in Oregon, Florida, Louisiana or Washington state.

rbbm.

 

[CelticFrostie]

It does seem odd that Peter would go to a bookstore without his glasses or contact lenses, but then how would he be able to navigate the walk/transportation to GG bridge

It was mentioned that he was uncomfortable wearing his contacts for an extended period of time, and Berkeley-San Francisco isn't a significant commute for a late Monday morning.

He did not take his wallet, but did take his identification, why?

Not relevant, IMO.

Wondering why they think Peter may have gone to those other cities in particular?

What cities?

As an apparently very religious guy, and it certainly does happen, but, would suicide be something he would really do?

Is suicide something humans would really do, regardless of their age, gender, religion or sexual orientation?

Since Peter ditched his glasses and inhaler, wondering if he was heading out to meet some kind of faith healer and thought he would not need those items?

You misread. The inhaler referred to the student I knew.

P.S. McColl's sister also mentioned that some of the "facts" on the missing poster were wrong (e.g. he never used "Rainbow" as a nickname).

 

[dotr]

Wonder if many murders occur at the bridge, or bodies that need to disappear are thrown there and assumed to be suicides?
imo, speculation.