LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75

[jenstar]

WOW. Maybe he was prominent. For some reason, the way he spoke made me think he went to private school. Is anyone looking into any unexplained disappearances of Political/Public Figures' children? I don't see PEOPLE getting "swept under the rug" as much as their "issues." This would require a lot of physical legwork. Do we have any voluntary PIs in the area?

 

[jenstar]

Well, just for giggles I stumbled upon an All-Boy's Private school called Arden Cahill Academy founded in 1968. Located in Gretna, La. Happens to be 19 minutes by car (16 if the traffic is good), and about an hour walking distance. Maybe someone could call the school and ask if there was any boys that didn't show up for roll-call, or were "withdrawn" after that date?https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Belle+Chasse,+LA/Gretna,+LA/@29.8907235,-90.0616083,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x889e1fb37301176f:0xba9bf50837aad778!2m2!1d-89.9906253!2d29.8549287!1m5!1m1!1s0x8620a6935065e5f1:0xc00e8b1ff0f6d0a7!2m2!1d-90.0539603!2d29.9146493!3e0

 

[ktgirl]

Arden Cahill Academy is co-ed and only goes up to 8th grade.
http://www.ardencahillacademy.com/about

 

[jenstar]

Hmm! Oops. I wonder why google didnt' pick up on the "all boys" part and only listed the "private" part? Thanks for that. I'll be looking at other schools, then.

 

[jenstar]

I guess it doesn't have to be an all- boys school. Maybe I was "thrown off" a bit because he didn't show any interest in the life he had ahead of him. He had girls to look at, studies to do and a very brilliant mind. There was something preventing him from seeing all this, though. Religious beliefs or a troubled mind? I can't quite put my finger on it. JMO

 

[jenstar]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/stagg_hilary.html

Has anyone brought up this guys yet? This would bring him to 21 if he were still alive in '75.

 

[bessie]

Well, just for giggles I stumbled upon an All-Boy's Private school called Arden Cahill Academy founded in 1968. Located in Gretna, La. Happens to be 19 minutes by car (16 if the traffic is good), and about an hour walking distance. Maybe someone could call the school and ask if there was any boys that didn't show up for roll-call, or were "withdrawn" after that date?https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Belle+Chasse,+LA/Gretna,+LA/@29.8907235,-90.0616083,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x889e1fb37301176f:0xba9bf50837aad778!2m2!1d-89.9906253!2d29.8549287!1m5!1m1!1s0x8620a6935065e5f1:0xc00e8b1ff0f6d0a7!2m2!1d-90.0539603!2d29.9146493!3e0

Check my maps in a previous post. The distance from Belle Chasse is about 16 miles, not eight. Road structure was much different 40 years ago, as well. One also must consider that the location is far off the beaten path and very remote. It's an area one only would travel to for a spcific purpose, mainly access to the Gulf, and work in the oilfield or fishing industries.

 

[jenstar]

ok, thanks. It said in the article that you posted 16 miles South of Belle Chasse. So, that's just the nearest co-ordinates that they could practically pin point, to give readers an idea how remote the location was. (I was thinking it was still within the "city". I think I get what you're saying now. JMO

 

[jenstar]

Puritan Shirt and Arrow Trousers? Sounds mighty fancy.

 

[carbuff]

With that shirt and trousers, I would guess he was probably wearing loafers or topsiders or something along those lines. So his shoes could easily have fallen off and been carried away by animals.

He looks a heck of a lot like Steven Arrowood, who went missing from North Carolina but was having an affair with a woman in New Orleans. But he didn't disappear until April 1975, so there's no way the timeline works. Weird coincidence though.

 

[jenstar]

I think he really looks like this kid. He's on the lower end of the age spectrum. Timeline fits. But distance doesn't. I mean, Canada to Louisiana?! But i guess, anything's possible. http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1944dmsk.html

 

[ktgirl]

I guess it doesn't have to be an all- boys school. Maybe I was "thrown off" a bit because he didn't show any interest in the life he had ahead of him. He had girls to look at, studies to do and a very brilliant mind. There was something preventing him from seeing all this, though. Religious beliefs or a troubled mind? I can't quite put my finger on it. JMO

I feel like it's very possible this young man was gay and his family wouldn't accept it (and society in general in many places in the US in 1975 was also not as accepting of gays as it is today). Something about the sadness in his letter makes me think of a couple of gay friends who have had tried living in denial of their sexuality, then were in the closet, and then faced problems when they did attempt to come out. The letter is familiar to me in that way...somehow it seems to speak of this trouble without actually speaking of it.

Sad. Whatever his reasons were, he did indeed seem from the letter to have a brilliant mind. I've seen some theories that more intelligent people are more likely to commit suicide than people of average intelligence (http://suicideproject.org/2010/08/p...re-the-more-likely-you-are-to-commit-suicide/). Sometimes I think some troubled brilliant people are just too brilliant and sensitive for this life.

Sadder yet to me is that surely his parents were/are out there and he left this final note for them that they may never get to read. In a way, his dying wish must have been to explain to them what he was doing and why.

 

[ktgirl]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this young man technically found in Naomi, Louisiana? Naomi is past Belle Chasse proper. Mapquest says it's about 11 miles south of Belle Chasse on Hwy 23 (about 15 minutes from Belle Chasse). I know this area is generally called "Belle Chasse" (as is nearby Jesuit Bend, etc). I only bring up that it was in Naomi because once you get down past Belle Chasse proper and past the naval airbase (Naomi is past the air base), it gets really rural really quick (with the expectation of some McMansions that I don't think were there in 1975). Naomi is basically a little bit of land on both sides of the highway and then the river on oneside of the highway and marshland on the other.

I think Bessie is right that this is a place not just anyone would know about. Locals, fishermen, maybe hunters, and oil workers would be the ones most familiar with this land- yet I don't think our young gentleman was any of these. It's perplexing.

I do wonder now if maybe he was somehow connected to the airbase? Not as an airman himself, but son of an airman or something. Or perhaps his family was stationed there when he was young and he loved the land, so he returned there to commit suicide. Just thinking aloud....

This case makes me really sad. I read the letter some time ago and the pain in his writing is so palpable.

 

[ktgirl]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/stagg_hilary.html

Has anyone brought up this guys yet? This would bring him to 21 if he were still alive in '75.

Allegedly he left a suicide note in his car near Plaquemine (not the parish where Belle Chasse is -Plaquemines - but the town in West Baton Rouge Parish - Plaquemine w/ no "s"). I wonder if the suicide note sounds at all like our Naomi Doe's suicide note? Perhaps he was going to commit suicide but disappeared instead then later on did commit suicide?

 

[Lindley]

New to this section of the forum, but I was thinking about the theory of his insanity or homosexuality (a mental illness at the time)
I'd like to say that psych hospitals take your shoes and that the bed sheet might've been the only thing he could grab I kill himself. There is purposely as little as possible to hurt yourself with for obvious reasons.

 

[bessie]

snipped

With a nationwide search, it's strange that his parents didn't identify him. Unless they did after he was buried. There's a large naval air station in Belle Chasse, so I wonder if he was part of a military family. Maybe they were stationed here at some point, but transferred, and the boy returned. Just a thought.

Bumping for ktgirl. I still believe this is a fair possibility although Naomi is farther south than the air base.

 

[ktgirl]

New to this section of the forum, but I was thinking about the theory of his insanity or homosexuality (a mental illness at the time)
I'd like to say that psych hospitals take your shoes and that the bed sheet might've been the only thing he could grab I kill himself. There is purposely as little as possible to hurt yourself with for obvious reasons.

This is a good thought. Maybe he had recently left a mental institution or psych hospital (not sure how he'd get to Naomi from one, though).

 

[bessie]

This is a good thought. Maybe he had recently left a mental institution or psych hospital (not sure how he'd get to Naomi from one, though).

I thought about this idea once, too. If he had a pass from River Oaks, and hitched a ride, or even walked, across the Huey P, he could have made his way down the river by hitchhiking. But, the hospital would have reported him missing. And when the body was found, I have to think a connection would have been discovered.

ETA: For that matter, Jo Ellen Smith in Algiers had an adolescent program. That would have been a straight shot to Belle Chasse Hwy. I can't remember if it was open in 1975, though. I think it opened later than that.

 

[DayLea]

I thought about this idea once, too. If he had a pass from River Oaks, and hitched a ride, or even walked, across the Huey P, he could have made his way down the river by hitchhiking. But, the hospital would have reported him missing. And when the body was found, I have to think a connection would have been discovered.

ETA: For that matter, Jo Ellen Smith in Algiers had an adolescent program. That would have been a straight shot to Belle Chasse Hwy. I can't remember if it was open in 1975, though. I think it opened later than that.

http://www.joellensmithlivingcenter.com/PageDisplay.asp?p1=7950

Jo Ellen Smith Living Center became a member of the community in 1986

 

[carbuff]

But, the hospital would have reported him missing. And when the body was found, I have to think a connection would have been discovered.

Not necessarily. There have been a bunch of cases where the missing person's body was found not long after they went missing, and not very far away, and the connection wasn't made. One woman in Texas was found in the next town over, only four miles from where she went missing.