realanastasia
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Good questions. Since I lived in Rocky Hill at that time as a child it's crazy to think that the killer might have been a local person. My suspicions lean somewhat towards the 23 year-old man who was the last person known to have seen Jamie alive, just a mile from his house. I have to wonder how well he was questioned or scrutinized by the police, since they clearly bungled the case from the start by somehow failing to connect the almost immediate reporting of the bike being found and then treating the case as a runaway after Jamie's parents mentioned his plan to ride the bike to Florida (even though it's preposterous to think anyone would attempt to ride a bike to Florida with just the clothes on their back).
It appears to me that these desperate parents were trying to figure out what could have happened and so they mention to the cops that Jamie had said he was going to ride his bike to Florida and the cops just seem to have dismissed all other possibilities including Foul Play and stupidly ran with the runaway angle from the get-go.
So I just wonder how well the 23-year old was questioned or scrutinized since the cops were presuming that the case was about a runaway. The 23 year old was from out of town visiting. Did he see a crime of opportunity and follow Jamie after the encounter and abduct him? The fact that it was still daylight when he disappeared makes you wonder how someone could have abducted him and taken his bike as well without being seen. That was a big racing bike which could not easily be placed inside a car. Jamie was a big kid, 6 feet, 150 pounds.
As far as a person disposing the bike where it couldn't be found, if it was thrown into the canal which is apparently where it was found (in shallow water) then that's pretty much what was attempted. Otherwise, what would you do with that bike to hide it? Kind of hard to bury it. If you're trying to ditch it quickly, throwing it into the canal was the best option I would say.
I remember seeing Jamie riding that bike. I also remember he was more or less considered a troubled teen, a loner. Everybody bought the idea that he had run away on that bike because of his reputation as being somewhat troubled. Or maybe it was just that he was different. I was friends with his younger brother and when over at their house Jamie was not very social and seemed like he was angry. I had other friends who had big brothers and they were more "normal" so to speak, they would engage with you even if it was to harass you. I don't remember Jamie as having friends in the neighborhood or being social. I'm wondering if in fact as you suggested he was being stalked by someone loval who knew that he was a loner and knew that he rode his bike often and felt there was an opportunity there. But if that was the case you would think he would have planned the disposal of the bike better than just tossing it in the canal. That leads back to the idea that it was a crime of opportunity.
The road where Jamie was last seen less than a mile from his house was what we used to call "the back road." It connected Rocky Hill to Princeton. It was like a country road. But there were houses on the road, it wasn't completely in the middle of nowhere but there would be opportunities even in daylight to grab someone without being seen. Perhaps someone followed him from Princeton down that road and waited for their opportunity. But in order to do that, how are you going to take a good-sized 15 year old teenager and his large racing bike and get all of that into a car, quickly? Leads you to believe that the abductor, if it happened that way, was driving a van.
You could easily accomplish this by hitting him with a car first, no? Other child abductors have used this tactic; the case of Vicki Lynne Hoskinson is one example.
This makes me wonder, if Jamie’s disappearance might be explained as someone’s incompetent attempt to cover up a vehicular homicide? The driver likely would have disposed of the bike in the canal after removing identifying characteristics like the sticker, and taken a deceased or gravely-injured Jamie elsewhere and hide the body once he expired?