NY NY - Mitchel Weiser, 16, & Bonita Bickwit, 15, Narrowsburg, 27 July 1973

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Sorry to be the one to put a end to this promising lead but......Bonita J. Weiser died on 3/27/06. She was 86. I found her obit. on a Erie PA Newspaper's website.
 
Mark Franzeo said:
Medusa, I think you may be on to something. Check this pic out.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...iendID=236005644&albumID=1466&imageID=4967475

She sure looks rather short in this pic, about the right height. Look at the guy she is standing next too. Sure looks like it could be Mitch. I wonder.. I would love to know what others think.

Mark
Click to expand...

Whoa! I didn't see those. He does have a strong resemblance.

ETA - I have called and spoken with a family member who has been given the information and said would let me know what develops.
 
Looking through the pictures, It really looks like her, however, the male in the picture with her is named James, and he is listed as being 44. If you look at the posts people have made, James is one of them, and on his myspace, is a pic of his mom.
 
Medusa, next time you talk to the family, can you find out where the out of town college was that Mitchel wanted to go to? Does he family know if they actually got married, or just exchanged rings? Did they have social security numbers? Has anyone checked to see if they have been used?


Medusa said:
Whoa! I didn't see those. He does have a strong resemblance.

ETA - I have called and spoken with a family member who has been given the information and said would let me know what develops.
Click to expand...
 
COULD be hubby #2. I didn't inspect the myspaces, but if James' last name is Weiser, it could be a coincedence.
 
Julessleuther said:
Medusa, next time you talk to the family, can you find out where the out of town college was that Mitchel wanted to go to? Does he family know if they actually got married, or just exchanged rings? Did they have social security numbers? Has anyone checked to see if they have been used?
Click to expand...


Will do, unless something breaks and I get a return call, I will probably wait till next week.
 
youshouldveknown said:
COULD be hubby #2. I didn't inspect the myspaces, but if James' last name is Weiser, it could be a coincedence.
Click to expand...


Hmmm. could be hubby #2, it appears she has child(ren) so she could have kept #1's name or something.

Don't coincydinks on missing people blow your mind sometimes? I know they do for me. I have found many times so many similarities, same things, and then find out totally not the person. And, then, there is the fact, I have an extremely uncommon maiden name, and my first name is while not uncommon, not a most popular and I have learned since the Internet that there are three other women with that exact name. Two birth names, one married. One of them even has the same middle initial! And they are not in my primary family tree. They are probably related VERY distantly.
 
I think the fact that she looks so much like the age progression of Bonita is enough to call this in. And I agree, she could have kept her first last name, especially if her first husband (Mitch) was deceased now.

There is also the possibility that Mitch and James are in fact the same person, but I don't see a lot of resemblance. But that could be just me.
 
Interesting find! I'm not sure about Bonnie, but I don't think James is Mitchel. James is listed as one of Bonnie's MySpace friends and has the same family photo in his pics section that she does, along with other family members he identifies as his mom and dad. Plus he says he graduated high school in 1983 and he has arched eyebrows while Mitchel's are curved.
 
I brought the link to the attention of Stuart who runs Mitch And Bonnie's website but I havent heard back from him.
Of course he may already be aware of it.
 
Sorry to be the downer, but that has been checked out by the Sullivan County SO and it is not her. Although it really did get my hopes up too. The womans birthplace was verified through the SO and it is not her. That is all the information I can share about that.
 
froggierintexas said:
Sorry to be the downer, but that has been checked out by the Sullivan County SO and it is not her. Although it really did get my hopes up too. The womans birthplace was verified through the SO and it is not her. That is all the information I can share about that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that. <sigh> More sleuthing!
 
Reasons why the police may not have any records of a phone call from the VW van driver:

Police: "Hello, police."
VW driver: "Dude, there were like, two people, and the like fell in a driver and got swept away."
Police: "Oh, really?"
VW driver: "Yeah, and like, they're floating away on the river and you gotta do somethin'!"
Police: "We'll get right on that." <click>
 
I guess I figured the bus driver was going to make an anonymous call because he'd been smoking pot & didn't want to go to the police station. Some of the reports mentioned that there was pot involved. Also, maybe that would explain why nobody went into the water after them, cause they were high or drunk or both?
It doesn't seem like it would be so hard to pinpoint which rivers would have been along the route to & from Watkins Glen & sort of narrow down the potential area. Maybe these guys robbed & killed this couple since it was mentioned that Bonnie had taken some money from home a few days prior. People have been killed for less money than she might have had on her. Maybe their bodies were dumped or buried near a river in a remote area.
I just can't imagine them running away together & never contacting family ever again.
 
Sorry to see that the MySpace pics of a Bonnie Weiser turned out not to be her. In my opinion they looked enough alike to be twins. I know LE stated her place of birth was verified but the resemblance still makes me wonder. Nose, eyebrows & ears look identical to me.
It was my understanding that the Navy vet reported the presumed drowning after seeing a program aired on TV regarding the disappearance. That part of the story makes sense to me, that he never knew their names but saw the airing & realized it was Mitch & Bonnie who he saw swept away in the river. As for him not trying to save them, no matter how good a swimmer he may have been, if the current was strong enough to carry them away so quickly it very well could have seriously risked his life to go after them. Especially since some versions of the story state he & the bus driver had been smoking pot. That would have surely made him less able to attempt a rescue. I think it also explains why nobody was in a hurry to rush in person to a police station. If the police think this man is credible, they may know other details which have not been made public which lead them to believe he is telling the truth. And just because there is no record of a call to police being made doesn't mean there wasn't one. It was 1973. I can think of many reasons that the Navy vet would not have come forward when this incident happened: fear of consequences, drug use & possible drug possession, guilt over not attempting a rescue, distrust of the police which some felt in the 1970s, etc. He may even have hoped or thought they were OK & made it out of the river farther down. The only part of his story I have difficulty with is him not remembering which river it was. Also, if the river was that wild, why did they get in unless they misjudged the strength of the current?
Another thing which isn't explained is what Bonnie did with the $80 she took from her house. On another website, I think the one for Mitch & Bonnie, it states the tickets were $10. So that would be $20 if they were $10 each. Presumably Mitch had some money of his own. What happened to the rest of the $80? Were they using it to contribute toward gas for the people who picked them up?
I think they very likely are dead & have been all this time, though I wish it wasn't so. They just don't sound like the kind of kids who would run away & stay gone & worry their families.
 
I have a far out theory.
Do they know the true identities of everyone who died at Jonestown? Is it possible that representatives from the People's Temple were at the concert and recruited Bonnie and Mitchel? If they were looking to elope, is it possible they took the offer as a way to get to San Francisco and ended up in the group? It is know that people from the Temple drove across country in busses regularly and I would think an Allman Brothers/Grateful Dead show would be seen as fertile recruiting grounds.
 
dogperson said:
Sorry to see that the MySpace pics of a Bonnie Weiser turned out not to be her. In my opinion they looked enough alike to be twins. I know LE stated her place of birth was verified but the resemblance still makes me wonder. Nose, eyebrows & ears look identical to me.
It was my understanding that the Navy vet reported the presumed drowning after seeing a program aired on TV regarding the disappearance. That part of the story makes sense to me, that he never knew their names but saw the airing & realized it was Mitch & Bonnie who he saw swept away in the river. As for him not trying to save them, no matter how good a swimmer he may have been, if the current was strong enough to carry them away so quickly it very well could have seriously risked his life to go after them. Especially since some versions of the story state he & the bus driver had been smoking pot. That would have surely made him less able to attempt a rescue. I think it also explains why nobody was in a hurry to rush in person to a police station. If the police think this man is credible, they may know other details which have not been made public which lead them to believe he is telling the truth. And just because there is no record of a call to police being made doesn't mean there wasn't one. It was 1973. I can think of many reasons that the Navy vet would not have come forward when this incident happened: fear of consequences, drug use & possible drug possession, guilt over not attempting a rescue, distrust of the police which some felt in the 1970s, etc. He may even have hoped or thought they were OK & made it out of the river farther down. The only part of his story I have difficulty with is him not remembering which river it was. Also, if the river was that wild, why did they get in unless they misjudged the strength of the current?
Another thing which isn't explained is what Bonnie did with the $80 she took from her house. On another website, I think the one for Mitch & Bonnie, it states the tickets were $10. So that would be $20 if they were $10 each. Presumably Mitch had some money of his own. What happened to the rest of the $80? Were they using it to contribute toward gas for the people who picked them up?
I think they very likely are dead & have been all this time, though I wish it wasn't so. They just don't sound like the kind of kids who would run away & stay gone & worry their families.
Click to expand...

Weird though,because rivers in NY are low in summer. They are not usually up to their banks, or 'wild '. Also, did Bonnie go swimming with her clothes on ? Hard to believe ? If she undressed,where were her clothes ?

What could she have used the money for ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 135 more.
Total: 1,463 (members: 136, guests: 1,327)

Online statistics

Members online
136
Guests online
1,327
Total visitors
1,463
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
599,299
Messages
18,094,096
Members
230,841
Latest member
FastRayne
Back
Top