IL IL - Lee Cutler, 18, Buffalo Grove, Oct 2007

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Hi Gustavthecat!

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Lee's stepfather died of a heart attack, so there wasn't much chance of him participating in the show.
 
I was so puzzled by this when I saw the show. It's just hard for me to imagine that someone could commit suicide in such a manner that their body was never found, does anyone know of cases where someone committed suicide and their body was not found at first? Maybe this is more common than it seems, but it’s hard for me to imagine. At the same time there doesn't seem to be any signs of foul play. Also it’s really hard for me to imagine that a kid this age who was very obviously not the "street smart" hustler type to be living somewhere else undetected. He left with at most $700 and in today’s world that’s not getting you too far. If he had run off to live with someone or with someone’s help you would think there would have been some trace of the preplanning that would be involved.

This one has me stumped suicide would be the obvious answer, it's clear from the show there were some issues, but I just can't see him committing suicide and them not being able to find his body.

The only other option I can think of is maybe he went there with the intention of camping out for a few days and just getting away from it all and then maybe he was trying to bath or something in the river and slip or had some other type of accident. Who knows? I'd be searching everywhere for any record of use of his SSN or other such things, but I'm sure they have been doing that and I guess there's been no hits.
 
Le Singe said:
I was so puzzled by this when I saw the show. It's just hard for me to imagine that someone could commit suicide in such a manner that their body was never found, does anyone know of cases where someone committed suicide and their body was not found at first? Maybe this is more common than it seems, but it’s hard for me to imagine. At the same time there doesn't seem to be any signs of foul play. Also it’s really hard for me to imagine that a kid this age who was very obviously not the "street smart" hustler type to be living somewhere else undetected. He left with at most $700 and in today’s world that’s not getting you too far. If he had run off to live with someone or with someone’s help you would think there would have been some trace of the preplanning that would be involved.

This one has me stumped suicide would be the obvious answer, it's clear from the show there were some issues, but I just can't see him committing suicide and them not being able to find his body.

The only other option I can think of is maybe he went there with the intention of camping out for a few days and just getting away from it all and then maybe he was trying to bath or something in the river and slip or had some other type of accident. Who knows? I'd be searching everywhere for any record of use of his SSN or other such things, but I'm sure they have been doing that and I guess there's been no hits.
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the kid might have wanted to pull a stunt and make people think he killed himself. Then reality hits, he has no means to support himself and something bad happened to him in another town in another state where his identity is unknown.
 
Maybe he's away in some commune or has joined some travellers, given up a 'normal' life for one of solitude.
 
Is this show available online anywhere yet? Can't find it and don't get ID.
 
KaylynnCouture said:
You're right. I watched the show, and I just don't see how it's possible. Israel is very different than like England, for instance, where it's easy to get in and out of. Israel is not.
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I wouldn't say that's really true. You need to have a proper passport and ID and the customs authority in England must be satisfied as your reason for being there.

I saw the show and there's a pretty good chance Lee killed himself. The strong river currents can carry all sorts of objects away never to be seen again.

Is there any update on this case? What are Lee's mom and family/friends doing at this point?
 
I saw this show as well and kind of agree that this kid was an oddball, and so is his mother; it seems he was encouraged to be "different" even if that included the occassional suicide attempt and risky behavior (i.e. hanging at truckstops-not something most teens do).
I think it is very possible he fell or went into water and never surfaced. I think it is very unlikley he made it to Israel. Post 9/11, no one is going anywhere without proper ID and probably more so to areas of conflict. There may be underground grounds to facilitate this but unsure how Lee would have found such contacts.
Am also curious as to status of case...if anyone knows.
 
ps
sidereel.com seems to have episodes on-line...his is called A Lost Soul, if it works for you...
 
Gustavthecat said:
My point here is that Lee seemed like a very sensitive young man, and he would have been intensely aware of the family dynamics. Anyone who identified with Holden Caulfield at his age needed psychiatric treatment. He seemed to have regarded himself as some kind of misunderstood intellectual, but what I saw was a spoiled rich kid from a dysfunctional home.
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That was basically Christopher McCandless in a nutshell.

I don't remember offhand how long it was between his disappearance and the discovery of his body, two years? It would not surprise me if Cutler, at least intended, to pull a McCandless.

It would be very ironic if the river ended up killing Cutler, because a river basically killed McCandless as well (it prevented him from walking out while he still had the strength to do so.)
 
PaulR said:
That was basically Christopher McCandless in a nutshell.

I don't remember offhand how long it was between his disappearance and the discovery of his body, two years? It would not surprise me if Cutler, at least intended, to pull a McCandless.

It would be very ironic if the river ended up killing Cutler, because a river basically killed McCandless as well (it prevented him from walking out while he still had the strength to do so.)
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I completely agree with this. When I was watching the show and they mentioned Into the Wild, I just said that the kid probably did survive and he might be out there somewhere.

I don't think we should underestimate this kid. He might be smart enough to survive in the wild. Also you never know, he could have found people to stay with etc. I am really interested to see how this case turns out.

Did anyone else notice that the girlfriend didn't even seem to care that he was missing? I don't know if it was her attitude but she just came off as odd to me.

I wanted to add that this story didn't get much coverage. I think if he did go off to start a new life, people probably wouldn't recognize him as someone who was missing. Now that the show disappeared aired, there might be a bigger chance that someone will identify him.
 
I think it's a little harsh to call him just a "spoiled rich kid" for identifying with Holden Caulfield - plenty of people experience depression, particularly at that age, and it's not necessarily something easily controlled or indicative of the kind of person they are. I struggled with depression for years, and still do, and it's not enough to recognize that people love you and that you have a lot of good things going for you. Lee's prior suicide attempt seems to point toward depression being a real issue in his life. I empathize, it makes me ache to think of anyone being depressed enough to go to these lengths and then be missing for years after ending their life.

I still hope that they find him alive, but it does look like suicide.
 
kind of unrelated to the current conversation, but...
when i was in high school one of the popular ways to get messed up was to take coricidin (high blood pressure box) pills in copious amounts. it was like doing acid, you "tripped", hallucinated, etc.
apparently a box of coricidin and advil pm was left behind by lee.
ive taken advil pm before, as have members of my family, and i remember my brother and i talking about waking up before the pills worked through your system,because you'd wake up "tripping".
as a high school kid i'm sure lee was aware of these cheap ways to get high, like robo-tripping (guzzling robotussin to "trip") etc. if he had taken the coricidin and advil pm, after about an hour he'd be hallucinating. and if he was, its not a stretch to imagine lee taking off his pants, writing nonsense, whatever. -z :twocents:
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just recently became aware of this case and just watched the Disappeared episode on Lee Cutler..

IMHO, I feel very strongly this was a suicide. The other possibilities just don't add up for me. If he supposedly walked off, "Into The Wild" like the book, he did so without clothes, money, a cell phone, hunting/camping gear, and a car?? How long could a person last in a Wisconsin winter without such items? Wouldn't he be better prepared if that was his plan?

The whole theory of possibly traveling to Israel seems far fetched to me. He would need documents, ID's, and money to fly and with his case already in LE's hands within 24 hours of his disappearence, wouldn't a customs agent have spotted him?

I personally believe he jumped into the Baraboo river and the current took him away and/or animals got to his remains. I have a neighbor whose 16 year old son drowned in the Des Plaines river while swimming with friends and his body was sadly never found. Many, many LE and volunteer search teams looked for him for quite some time and despite eye witnesses knowing the exact spot where he was last seen, they were never able to find his body.

My heart goes out to Lee Cutler's family.
 
unfortunately i'm leaning towards the same, eziligede. the writings, the "drugs" and clothing found around the river. doesn't add up to a runaway.
 
Hucklepie said:
I think it's a little harsh to call him just a "spoiled rich kid" for identifying with Holden Caulfield - plenty of people experience depression, particularly at that age, and it's not necessarily something easily controlled or indicative of the kind of person they are. I struggled with depression for years, and still do, and it's not enough to recognize that people love you and that you have a lot of good things going for you. Lee's prior suicide attempt seems to point toward depression being a real issue in his life. I empathize, it makes me ache to think of anyone being depressed enough to go to these lengths and then be missing for years after ending their life.

I still hope that they find him alive, but it does look like suicide.
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i agree and find other parts of gustav's post harsh and disturbing.
 
In July, someone posted on Lee's Facebook group that he was seen in Minnesota after his disapperance. Here is the info:

July 28, 2010:
There is confirmation that Lee was alive in late 2007. Someone made contact with him at a homeless shelter in Minneapolis, MN. He talked about going to California. While this is still almost three years ago, it is confirmation that he survived outside of WI. It is confirmation that he most likely staged the items found in the river. If you have any contacts in the California area, please send them to this page or email them a picture. We are hoping for all your help in locating our friend and family member. We just want to know that he is alive and happy. We all miss him so much.

Feel free to message any administrators with any questions.

Thank you,
Katrina

The person that wrote that is one of the Admins for the Facebook group named Katrina. I believe she is also the one who has the WordPress blog about Lee (http://letsfindlee.wordpress.com/). On the blog she seems to suggest that she thinks Lee is gone, so it's hard to know what conclusions to draw.
 
Has anyone heard any updates? I know the wordpress blog hasn't been posted to in a long time because so much time has lapsed since any news.

I tried to google Lee Cutler and Minnesota to see if I could find a news article or anything about someone seeing him at a homeless shelter.

I did find his name on this website which I think was mentioned earlier...http://smileyfacemurders.com/
I know this case may be old and have no new leads but it still bothers me for some reason. For some reason I'm not necessarily buying the suicide theory.
 
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