NY NY - Camden Sylvia, 36, & Michael Sullivan, 54, Manhattan, 7 Nov 1997

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mysteriew

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They are the lost souls of New York City.
Three thousand, eight hundred twenty-one people are listed as missing across the state. In the city alone, somebody vanishes every 83 minutes.

Many are found hours or days later. But others are never seen or heard from again.

The startling figures, compiled by the FBI's National Crime Information Center, include unsolved cases stretching back decades.

Scores of the missing are suspected murder victims while others are feared abducted.

Some are believed to have planned their own disappearance, and many others are children who have been whisked off by one of their parents without permission.

All have one thing in common: They cannot be found.

Camden Sylvia and her boyfriend left their downtown Manhattan apartment for an evening jog on Nov. 7, 1997. They never returned.

Camden Syliva, 36, and Michael Sullivan, 54, were known to have been having problems with the landlord of their Pearl St. loft at the time of their disappearance.

On July 15, 1977, Audrey got dressed and said she was walking one block to buy cigarettes. She never came back.

Audrey was a schizophrenic who had been hospitalized a number of times, though Nerenberg said she was medicated and capable of walking to the store alone.

Kristine Kupka, 28, was five months pregnant when she left her apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn, on Oct. 24, 1998.

She was last seen with the baby's father, one of her professors at Baruch College. He was married, had made it clear that he did not want the child - and remains a major suspect in her disappearance.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/369292p-314210c.html
 
They are the lost souls of New York City.
Three thousand, eight hundred twenty-one people are listed as missing across the state. In the city alone, somebody vanishes every 83 minutes.

Many are found hours or days later. But others are never seen or heard from again.

The startling figures, compiled by the FBI's National Crime Information Center, include unsolved cases stretching back decades.

Scores of the missing are suspected murder victims while others are feared abducted.

Some are believed to have planned their own disappearance, and many others are children who have been whisked off by one of their parents without permission.

All have one thing in common: They cannot be found.

Camden Sylvia and her boyfriend left their downtown Manhattan apartment for an evening jog on Nov. 7, 1997. They never returned.

Camden Syliva, 36, and Michael Sullivan, 54, were known to have been having problems with the landlord of their Pearl St. loft at the time of their disappearance.

On July 15, 1977, Audrey got dressed and said she was walking one block to buy cigarettes. She never came back.

Audrey was a schizophrenic who had been hospitalized a number of times, though Nerenberg said she was medicated and capable of walking to the store alone.

Kristine Kupka, 28, was five months pregnant when she left her apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn, on Oct. 24, 1998.

She was last seen with the baby's father, one of her professors at Baruch College. He was married, had made it clear that he did not want the child - and remains a major suspect in her disappearance.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/369292p-314210c.html
 
“I think about this every day, of course,” she said. “Every time anybody disappears, I go, ‘Oh, one more person.’ ”

She followed the news when the Patz case re-emerged last month, as federal agents dug up a cellar floor. “When they were digging down there, I was like, ‘Oh, I wonder if they’ll ever find anything.’ ”

She saw an outcome that she was very familiar with: nothing.

But the arrest last week of Pedro Hernandez, who the police said confessed to killing Etan, gave her hope, particularly because of the manner in which he came to their attention: a tipster had called the authorities.

“Other people must know something about Camden and Michael,” she said.” I hope somehow they’ll find some sort of evidence. I think somebody could speak. How do you get rid of two people?”

She has not spoken to the police, who have always said the case remained open, in a long time. “This is what they usually say: ‘We’re working on it, and we’ve got boxes of evidence, we’re looking at it,’ ” she said.

“The other side of the coin is, do you really want to know what someone did to your loved ones?” she said. “To hear the gruesome details might not be something you want to do.”

The apartment building on Pearl Street looks about the same, just as Etan’s building does, not very far away.
 
Eight Cold Cases That Still Haunt the NYPD

Double Disappearance in the Financial District
Michael Sullivan, an actor working in an art gallery, and girlfriend Camden Sylvia, then working in a real-estate office, were last seen taking off for an evening run in November 1997. A relative who entered their apartment days later found their wallets, passports, and a rented movie (Addicted to Love), evidence the couple hadn’t planned to go anywhere. The police questioned their landlord, who’d been feuding with Sullivan and Sylvia over the lack of heat in their $300-a-month rent-stabilized loft. The landlord later served time in prison for tax evasion and credit-card fraud, but the pair are still missing.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/eight-cold-cases-that-still-haunt-the-nypd.html
 
The landlord definitely sounds fishy! I mean what are the chances they go missing the DAY they tell him they arent paying rent if he turns off the heat.
He could have known they jog and waited til they left to follow them.From the sound of it they didnt die in their apartment.Unless he asked them to meet him somewhere and killed them.
 
"Mom seeks new leads in 1997 vanishing of daughter and boyfriend"

http://pix11.com/2015/07/07/mom-seeks-new-leads-in-cold-case-of-missing-daughter-and-fiance/

Laurie Sylvia took two buses from Cape Cod to New York’s Port Authority, shortly before the July 4th weekend, hoping to keep the case of her missing daughter alive.

“As time went on, I accepted the fact that they’re dead,” Laurie Sylvia told PIX 11 Investigates in her West Side hotel room, with an emphasis on the word, “dead.” “I’m not happy that someone got away with killing two people down in the Wall Street area,” she added
 
The landlord definitely sounds fishy! I mean what are the chances they go missing the DAY they tell him they arent paying rent if he turns off the heat.
He could have known they jog and waited til they left to follow them.From the sound of it they didnt die in their apartment.Unless he asked them to meet him somewhere and killed them.

plus there's someone else he knew who disappeared, along with this couple - a co-defendant in a court case

what are the chances?

scary dude
 
Police tried to get Rodriguez to give them keys, so they could search the basement and other parts of the 5-story building for the couple, but he vanished for ten days, early in the investigation. When he returned to town, he got a lawyer and refused to cooperate. He also refused to allow a search of his large property in upstate Orange County.
http://pix11.com/2013/11/20/see-it-reporter-confronts-landlord-in-missing-tenants-mystery/

When a missing persons case goes unsolved—or a murder case—it can torment the relatives left behind. Laurie Sylvia will turn 74 this year; she’s the same age as the landlord who refuses to talk.
“There are days when I go, ‘Oh, I’ll go to my grave; I won’t know,” Sylvia told PIX 11. “It makes you crazy.”
http://pix11.com/2015/07/07/mom-seeks-new-leads-in-cold-case-of-missing-daughter-and-fiance/


Camden Anne Sylvia
profiles

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/754/10
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/sylvia_camden.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2068dfny.html
http://www.nampn.org/cases/sylvia_camden_a.html
 
Cases like this are so infuriating when it seems like there is a clear suspect but no evidence, no clues, no bodies. One would have to believe in extreme coincidences to not be suspicious of the landlord, between this couple vanishing right after threatening a rent strike to his sudden two week absence and lawyering up. I hope that someone knows something and that their conscience will compel them to talk. Bumping for Camden and Michael.
 
Camden Anne Sylvia – The Charley Project
Camden Anne Sylvia
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''Sylvia, circa 1997; Robert Rodriguez, circa 1998
  • Missing Since 11/07/1997
  • Missing From Manhattan, New York
    • Age 36 years old
    • Height and Weight 5'4 - 5'7, 125 pounds
    • Clothing/Jewelry Description Possibly a black jacket with a brightly-colored stripe on the front.
    • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Black hair, brown eyes. Sylvia wears eyeglasses with dark-colored frames. Her nickname is Camie.''
    • ''The couple had been having problems with their landlord, Robert "Bob" Rodriguez, who owned their apartment building at 76 Pearl Street in Manhattan and had a locksmith shop on the ground floor. A photo of Rodriguez is posted with this case summary.

      Authorities believe that Rodriguez was having financial problems and wanted to increase the rent for all of his tenants in his property in late 1997. Sylvia and Sullivan paid only $300 a month for their rent-controlled apartment; it would later command ten times that amount.

      Rodriguez apparently threatened to turn off the heat if the renters did not agree to an increase. Sylvia presented Rodriguez with a petition signed by tenants at 76 Pearl Street on the day of their disappearances. The petition stated that the tenants would withhold their rent payments if Rodriguez followed through with his threat.

      Investigators theorized that Rodriguez believed he could receive his desired rental payments from other prospective clients and murdered Sylvia and Sullivan on November 7. There is no evidence to support this hypothesis, but authorities also believed Rodriguez may have dumped the couple's remains in a body of water in the New York City area afterwards.

      Extensive searches failed to produce any evidence of the couple's whereabouts. Rodriguez disappeared for two weeks afterwards without explanation. He returned to Manhattan by the end of November 1997, hired a lawyer, and refused to cooperate with law enforcement investigating Sullivan and Sylvia's disappearances.

      Sylvia's mother maintained the rent for the couple's apartment from the time of their disappearances. Rodriguez was arrested on unrelated larceny, tax fraud and credit card fraud charges later in 1997. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison. 76 Pearl Street was sold to another landlord, who promptly raised the rent and forced Sylvia's mother to give up the loft.

      David King was an associate of Rodriguez and was a co-defendant in a lawsuit with the landlord in 1991. He disappeared from New York City during that year around the time he and Rodriguez had an argument. King has never been located, but it is believed he met with foul play.

      It is not known if Rodriguez is involved in Sylvia, Sullivan or King's disappearances. There have not been any arrests in connection with the cases, which remain unsolved. Rodriguez was scheduled to be released from prison in the fall of 2002, but the New York State Parole Board reversed its decision in October of that year.

      The Board stated that Rodriguez was "evasive" about the whereabouts of a gun cache that disappeared from his property in the late 1990s. The Board labeled Rodriguez "intentionally deceitful" and he was returned to prison for an additional two years.

      He has since been released and maintains his innocence in Sylvia and Sullivan's disappearances. He now lives in the East Harlem neighborhood in New York City.

      Sylvia was employed at a Manhattan real estate office for 14 years at the time of her 1997 disappearance. She also worked as a painter. She is a native of the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. Investigators searched the Hudson River for the couple's bodies, but turned up no evidence. Their cases remain unsolved.''
 
Michael Sullivan – The Charley Project
  • michael_sullivan_1.jpg
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''Sullivan, circa 1997; Robert Rodriguez, circa 1998
  • Missing Since 11/07/1997
  • Missing From Manhattan, New York
    • Age 54 years old
    • Height and Weight 5'7, 135 pounds
    • Clothing/Jewelry Description Sneakers.
    • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Gray hair, blue eyes. Sullivan's name may be spelled "Micheal."
    • Sullivan was an actor, dancer, choreographer, and art museum director in 1997. Investigators searched the Hudson River for the couple's bodies, but turned up no evidence. Their cases remain unsolved.''
 
Yeah, not exactly rocket science what happened here. We have three people who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and the only common denominator is the crook they were in dispute with. Are you telling me that a couple were randomly kidnapped while jogging on the streets of NYC? Not a chance. Rodriguez had them all bumped off. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's ever been enough for law enforcement to charge him.
 
by: Mary Murphy Posted: Nov 7, 2022
''The main clue to the couple’s last movements was a video rental from J & R Music World. The receipt showed the couple picked up the movie “Addicted to Love” at 4:20 p.m. on Nov. 7, 1997.

''After learning about the landlord/tenant problems, detectives quickly zeroed in on Rodriguez as a person of interest. ''

Ronan Downs, a prominent restauranteur on Pearl Street, remembered Rodriguez as a nice guy. When we asked what he thought when Rodriguez disappeared for 10 days in November 1997, he replied, “I have to admit that was a little bit strange.”

When Rodriguez resurfaced 10 days later, he went back to work at his locksmith shop at 76 Pearl Street with private security, and he’d retained a lawyer.

When Joel Seidemann and police dug into the landlord’s background, they learned one of his business associates, David King, had disappeared several years before the two tenants did.
Joel Seidemann ended up prosecuting Rodriguez for identity theft.''


“I don’t have that long to live,” Laurie Sylvia said. “I’m 81 years old. I’d like to go to bed one night knowing what happened.”

Senior investigator Robert Delaney, a former NYPD detective who’s now working the case for the Manhattan district attorney, said he’s made two trips to Cape Cod to visit Camden Sylvia’s mother.

“I don’t think there’s any case that’s unsolvable,” Delaney told PIX11 News. “My hope is that somebody sees this and has information…and finds it within themselves to do the right thing, morally.”
 

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