txsvicki
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I'm hoping that the young man may have staged a suicide and has just ran away somewhere.
IL IL - Lee Cutler, 18, Buffalo Grove, Oct 2007
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Here's some info about the river.
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/gmu/lowerwis/baraboo.htm
I sure hope he staged it all, too. Just don't know what to think.
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/gmu/lowerwis/baraboo.htm
I sure hope he staged it all, too. Just don't know what to think.
Doesn't seem very likely, does it?
SeriouslySearching
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I don't know what to think about this either. Finding his pants, wallet, belt hooked on a tree branch after the water started to go down sounds odd even. You would think he would have been IN them when they found them. The only thing I can think of is that he wore his jeans bigger and baggy so they slid easily off his body. This does point to him being in the river.
However, if the pants are rather tight fitting and the belt was found undone...I would have to question if they were simply thrown into the river. This could mean either he took them off before he went in or there was foul play involved.
This doesn't look very encouraging tho.
However, if the pants are rather tight fitting and the belt was found undone...I would have to question if they were simply thrown into the river. This could mean either he took them off before he went in or there was foul play involved.
This doesn't look very encouraging tho.
chicoliving
Former Member
Buffalo Grove Police are now taking the lead in the search for a missing teenager from the northern suburb.
Wisconsin police have ended their search near the town of Baraboo because they are confident Lee Cutler is not there.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5740048
Wisconsin police have ended their search near the town of Baraboo because they are confident Lee Cutler is not there.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5740048
EdinburghLass
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It seems as if the police have maybe decided that Lee left of his own accord? There is very little media coverage, particularly over the last few days?
chicoliving
Former Member
I haven't been able to find a thing. Best case scenario is that he took off and left all behind. I hope there's answers soon for his family and friends.
UM&AMWfan
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But didn't the family say he wouldn't just disappear without telling anyone?
And I can't find anything in the media either. Nancy Grace only covered him that one or 2 times. Isn't it pretty obvious that attractive women or just women drive most if not all of the stories? That missing wife of the cop is ALL OVER the news yet Lee is just a guy and there is no woman involved so it's not a lurid, sexy storyline therefore there is nowhere near as much coverage.
UM&AMWfan
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Update on Lee???
His mom was crying and frantically appealing for him on NG and yet there's hardly been any national exposure since. I guess with the Natalee Holloway arrests and the missing wife story it's going to be next to impossible to get airtime for anything else! LOL!
His mom was crying and frantically appealing for him on NG and yet there's hardly been any national exposure since. I guess with the Natalee Holloway arrests and the missing wife story it's going to be next to impossible to get airtime for anything else! LOL!
chicoliving
Former Member
BARABOO, Wis. -- A private investigator is sorting through possible leads in the case of a missing Illinois teen whose car was found in a roadside rest area near the Baraboo River more than a month ago.
Searchers have found possessions of Lee Cutler, 18, in and around the river, but searches of the river itself failed to find him.
Friends and family members have held out hope that he is alive, possibly after trying to fake his own death.
"It doesn't appear that he's in the river," said Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill.
"I'm contacting people that know him and getting to know Lee through other peoples' eyes," said Clobridge, who is a friend of Cutler's mother and is working on the case for free.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/p...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
Searchers have found possessions of Lee Cutler, 18, in and around the river, but searches of the river itself failed to find him.
Friends and family members have held out hope that he is alive, possibly after trying to fake his own death.
"It doesn't appear that he's in the river," said Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill.
"I'm contacting people that know him and getting to know Lee through other peoples' eyes," said Clobridge, who is a friend of Cutler's mother and is working on the case for free.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/p...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
SeriouslySearching
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Do they still NOT suspect foul play?!
UM&AMWfan
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Isn't it very hard to search the entire river?? Couldn't his body have drifted downstream? They haven't ruled out the river completely, have they?
It's just that didn't it sound like a suicide based on the notes he left or the way he spoke or something?
It's just that didn't it sound like a suicide based on the notes he left or the way he spoke or something?
hoppyfrog
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http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/258928
11-28-07
An investigator is looking at new leads in the disappearance of an Illinois teen whose possessions were found in and around the Baraboo River last month. Friends and family of the high school senior cling to hope that he is still alive, and some are speculating he may have faked his own death.
"It doesn't appear that he's in the river," said Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill.
Though she is still waiting for details from police documents, Clobridge said local authorities told her they received tips from two people who think they saw 18-year-old Lee Cutler while driving by the Highway 33 wayside east of Baraboo on the weekend of his disappearance.
Clobridge said one person reported seeing a light brown Pontiac Bonneville parked at the wayside with Cutler's gray Toyota Corolla. That person said Cutler might have been speaking on a cell phone, Clobridge said.
But Cutler's family says his cell phone was last used the night before he disappeared. If Cutler borrowed someone else's phone at the wayside, the number he dialed could provide a valuable lead, Clobridge said.
and
She said Cutler's three favorite books, "The Catcher in the Rye," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and "Into the Wild," all involve characters who leave their everyday life and seek isolation.
"(Cutler) is kind of hippie-ish," Clobridge said. "He's his own thinker and he's very introspective."
and
Smolensky raised the possibility that Cutler wanted people to think he was in the river.
"It looks like he was setting all this up," she said.
But Daniel De Grazia, a longtime family friend, said he's not ready to go that far, though he doesn't want to dispute anyone else's position.
He said the notes found by authorities did not specifically mention suicide.
And if Cutler was trying to make people think he killed himself, he would have spelled it out in plain language.
more at link
11-28-07
An investigator is looking at new leads in the disappearance of an Illinois teen whose possessions were found in and around the Baraboo River last month. Friends and family of the high school senior cling to hope that he is still alive, and some are speculating he may have faked his own death.
"It doesn't appear that he's in the river," said Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill.
Though she is still waiting for details from police documents, Clobridge said local authorities told her they received tips from two people who think they saw 18-year-old Lee Cutler while driving by the Highway 33 wayside east of Baraboo on the weekend of his disappearance.
Clobridge said one person reported seeing a light brown Pontiac Bonneville parked at the wayside with Cutler's gray Toyota Corolla. That person said Cutler might have been speaking on a cell phone, Clobridge said.
But Cutler's family says his cell phone was last used the night before he disappeared. If Cutler borrowed someone else's phone at the wayside, the number he dialed could provide a valuable lead, Clobridge said.
and
She said Cutler's three favorite books, "The Catcher in the Rye," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and "Into the Wild," all involve characters who leave their everyday life and seek isolation.
"(Cutler) is kind of hippie-ish," Clobridge said. "He's his own thinker and he's very introspective."
and
Smolensky raised the possibility that Cutler wanted people to think he was in the river.
"It looks like he was setting all this up," she said.
But Daniel De Grazia, a longtime family friend, said he's not ready to go that far, though he doesn't want to dispute anyone else's position.
He said the notes found by authorities did not specifically mention suicide.
And if Cutler was trying to make people think he killed himself, he would have spelled it out in plain language.
more at link
EdinburghLass
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This one baffles me.
I found a site with alot of comments about Lee -
http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/...ions-including-a-backpack-found-in-wisconsin/
I found a site with alot of comments about Lee -
http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/...ions-including-a-backpack-found-in-wisconsin/
EdinburghLass
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The mother of a missing Illinois teen whose car was found in Sauk County in October has set up a reward fund for anyone offering information that leads to her son.
Beth Frazin, mother of 18-year-old Lee S. Cutler of Buffalo Grove, Ill., has set up the "Find Lee" fund at Buffalo Grove Harris Bank, she said.
A recent candlelight vigil organized by family and friends of Cutler in Buffalo Grove raised more than $300 for the fund, Frazin said.
"We all believe that he's out there still," she said.
The money would go to anyone offering information leading to the whereabouts of Cutler, who was last seen the morning of Oct. 20 after dropping his friend off in his hometown after a birthday party the night before.
His car was found along Highway 33 east of Baraboo two days later. A search by the Sauk County Sheriff's Department turned up personal possessions, letters, an empty pill bottle and clothes in and around the nearby Baraboo River.
An investigator hired by Frazin to look into Cutler's disappearance said she has been getting information from interviews with Cutler's friends. But Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill., said she couldn't provide that information for publication.
Frazin said she may work with a group of supporters to establish a group that would work to prevent teens from running away, or provide shelter for teen runaways.
More at link - http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/260609
The last line above may be telling?? "Frazin said she may work with a group of supporters to establish a group that would work to prevent teens from running away, or provide shelter for teen runaways. "
Beth Frazin, mother of 18-year-old Lee S. Cutler of Buffalo Grove, Ill., has set up the "Find Lee" fund at Buffalo Grove Harris Bank, she said.
A recent candlelight vigil organized by family and friends of Cutler in Buffalo Grove raised more than $300 for the fund, Frazin said.
"We all believe that he's out there still," she said.
The money would go to anyone offering information leading to the whereabouts of Cutler, who was last seen the morning of Oct. 20 after dropping his friend off in his hometown after a birthday party the night before.
His car was found along Highway 33 east of Baraboo two days later. A search by the Sauk County Sheriff's Department turned up personal possessions, letters, an empty pill bottle and clothes in and around the nearby Baraboo River.
An investigator hired by Frazin to look into Cutler's disappearance said she has been getting information from interviews with Cutler's friends. But Penni Clobridge, director of investigations with ETS Investigative Services in Wilmette, Ill., said she couldn't provide that information for publication.
Frazin said she may work with a group of supporters to establish a group that would work to prevent teens from running away, or provide shelter for teen runaways.
More at link - http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/260609
The last line above may be telling?? "Frazin said she may work with a group of supporters to establish a group that would work to prevent teens from running away, or provide shelter for teen runaways. "
UM&AMWfan
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Interesting comments from people who actually KNOW Lee. Thanks for posting it.
It's just so rare for someone to disappear and start a new life that it seems highly unlikely that he could've done that. Then again I don't know him but he really doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would just disappear and not contact anyone even his own MOM!!
Lee must KNOW his mom's heart is breaking as she was crying on national tv. Knowing that, why would he put his mom through that???
It just seems like there is a higher percentage that it was either suicide or foul play. And what happnened to the national coverage in this case?? It's been ZERO since NG's first report. The media is too obsessed with the cop's missing wife and the same ol "jail and release" Holloway news. LOL!
hoppyfrog
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http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/1426406.php?
3 Jan 08
Found inside Lee Cutler's Toyota Corolla, which was abandoned in rural Wisconsin: a copy of the book "Into the Wild," the true story of a young man who leaves his parents and lives off the land in Alaska - until he dies either from eating poisonous plants or from starvation.
more at link
3 Jan 08
Found inside Lee Cutler's Toyota Corolla, which was abandoned in rural Wisconsin: a copy of the book "Into the Wild," the true story of a young man who leaves his parents and lives off the land in Alaska - until he dies either from eating poisonous plants or from starvation.
more at link
jodierenee
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I read somewhere that that was required summer reading for one of his classes.
It is possible it was just left in his car, maybe?
It is possible it was just left in his car, maybe?
MeoW333
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Has the empty bottle of AdvilPm been tested to see what was actually inside it? If anything other than Advil shows up i would question.
Otherwise, i think that this young man committed suicide. Maybe he set it up the way he did thinking that people wouldn't know as he didn't want to hurt his family by killing himself, yet didn't see his way around problems or hurt at the time? If the river is swift and his pants were baggy, he could have drifted to any random point (i'm not familiar with the river). My guess is he took the bottle of pills, and once they were kicking in, went into the river. We had a case here of someone committing suicide near a rest area before the GW bridge, and months later was found washed up in the East River.
It's just a very sad, scenario, my prayers for the family.
Otherwise, i think that this young man committed suicide. Maybe he set it up the way he did thinking that people wouldn't know as he didn't want to hurt his family by killing himself, yet didn't see his way around problems or hurt at the time? If the river is swift and his pants were baggy, he could have drifted to any random point (i'm not familiar with the river). My guess is he took the bottle of pills, and once they were kicking in, went into the river. We had a case here of someone committing suicide near a rest area before the GW bridge, and months later was found washed up in the East River.
It's just a very sad, scenario, my prayers for the family.