PA PA - Dale Kerstetter, 50, Bradford, 13 Sept 1987

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Oct 5, 2018 - Kerstetter disappearance, missing platinum more than 30 years ago still an open case

It’s perhaps Bradford’s most well known unsolved mystery: What happened to Dale Kerstetter and a quarter-million-dollars worth of platinum missing from Corning Glassworks?

The mystery began on Saturday, Sept. 12, 1987. Kerstetter, a maintenance man and security guard at Corning, went in to work as usual that day. The next morning, another security guard found Kerstetter’s lunch pail, newspaper and keys on a cafeteria table. His truck was in the parking lot.

Kerstetter was nowhere to be found.

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Kerstetter disappearance, missing platinum more than 30 years ago still an open case
 
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I am the author of the blog the newspaper referenced. I'm glad this case is getting more attention. I will also be doing a podcast in the near future discussing the case. I am hoping that some of Dale's co-workers will see the article in print and call his daughter Penny or the police with some new information.
 
Pretty interesting case here and one that i hadn't heard of before..
 
Kinda having trouble figuring out why whoever did this didn't take more than they did..
 
Hi Crystal...I really enjoyed your article. Thing only thing for me is that I can't see the third person in the photos or do you mean to say that there are two people shown, but not the same two?
 
I think Dale Kerstetter was a victim in this situation.

I also think that Corning's behavior in this case is absolutely appalling, especially for a company of Corning's size. Would there be a statute of limitations on a law suit from Dale's family? The fact that LE was not alerted immediately to Dale's disappearance, and that video was not reviewed until 4 days after, is nothing short of negligent. Had anyone bothered to follow up on the fact Dale had not checked in hourly, as he normally did, things could have been very different.

Dale Kerstetter had no reason to run off. While he may not have been wealthy, it sounds like Dale was comfortable with his life in his own right. He had a good family, a decent vehicle and a home, as well as some money in the bank and retirement to look forward to.

Corning and the Bradford PD should be very ashamed of themselves. They have denied the Kerstetter family answers due to their own lacking of caring and effort.
 
snowleopard said:
Hi Crystal...I really enjoyed your article. Thing only thing for me is that I can't see the third person in the photos or do you mean to say that there are two people shown, but not the same two?
Click to expand...
There are never two masked intruders shown at the same time. The only thing that makes us wonder if there were two of them is the time stamps on the surveillance. An intruder is shown with Dale...and then less than a minute later an intruder is shown in the exact same area alone. The theory being that if it were only one intruder, it would have been difficult for him to go around and be in that same area alone less than a minute later. Granted the 2nd intruder theory is just speculation and is mainly based on IF the time stamp is accurate.

The Bradford Era newspaper did publish a 2nd article this week about Dale Kerstetter referencing my latest blog article. It has provided a few interesting phone calls and posts and I may end updating my 2nd article in the coming weeks with the information. Here is the Bradford Era article: Kerstetter family left with more questions after video release
 
Unfortunately, I don't think Kerstetter survived that night. It's believed that the intruder was a former worker at the factory, as he had inside knowledge of the place. It could be that Kerstetter recognized who he was, so the intruder silenced him, or he was always planning to dispose of him to tie up loose ends.

I don't think Kerstetter was involved insomuch as running off into the sunset. At most, he may have been bought off to play along, or the intruder promised him a cut of the spoils, only to betray him. Either way, I have zero doubt that Kerstetter is long gone from this world.
 
I first saw the UM segment on DK & the missing platinum last year. Wow - fascinating case, especially given that DK has never been found & it's still unclear what happened.

My gut feeling is that DK was not involved in the heist & did not disappear because of any type of involvement. Not because I don't think he wouldn't have been capable of such a thing, since if enough money is involved & if someone is desperate enough - almost anyone is capable. But, I agree he probably wasn't involved because:

1) The amount of $ he would have gotten from the heist was small, especially considering he would have probably had to live on this for the rest of his life. There is no way he could have skipped town & still gotten a legitimate job somewhere else - if he had been connected to the crime. He would have been looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Who would want to put themselves in that position, especially @ age 50?

2) He was a family man, and had family members who depended on him emotionally & certainly financially in some cases (his son & possibly his mother), etc.

3) He had committed his entire adult life to that one job (30 years), and was on the verge of retiring & getting a pension from said job.

Also odd is the fact that he brought his lunch/dinner to work, and didn't eat any of it - it was untouched (his lunch box was found in the cafeteria). Why bother bringing this - and also leaving it behind - if he was involved in the crime?!

I agree that the reason he hasn't surfaced after all this time is because he was probably killed the night of the crime. Hopefully they will find the remains at some point & give the family closure. However, as with a lot of these older cases - as more time goes on the less likely this possibility becomes.

Yes, it's possible he knew the criminals who committed the robbery - but I don't think he was in on it. I do suspect that he was eliminated by the criminals, and then disposed of at another location.

Hopefully this case will eventually get solved & DK's family will get closure. But, at this point I suspect that will never happen.
 
I cannot find the "real" surveillance video....do we know why it's hard to come by?
Unsolved Mysteries used a reenactment..curious about the lack of the original.
 
Very helpful and interesting article...the poor quality of the video explains it..
Thanks for sharing that link!
 
Any updates?
Case could go either way...I go back and forth questioning if he was in on it and started a new life elsewhere or if he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and murdered. Even Dale looking into the camera makes me unsure if it was a...look of help and desperation or ..I'm in on this robbery and about to get one over on this company.
The items in the truck and lunch box could have been staged.
So indecisive on this one.
 
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