VT VT - Lynne Kathryn Schulze, 18, Middlebury, 10 Dec 1971

[Mountaingazer]

In the meantime, here are some photos I took today in the Ripton area.

 

[Zephyranth]

Here's a very interesting article looking at something that has probably occurred to all of us: Did Durst really take and almost 20-year break in his killing spree--something that would be atypical by serial killer standards?

http://anewdomain.net/2015/03/22/killed-robert-durst-kill-three-victims/

 

[Zephyranth]

Thank you for those photos, Mountaingazer - beautiful country!

 

[carbuff]

Do you or your husband know which trailhead it was? There are two maybe three I can think of on 17 that tie in with the long trail. I am guessing probably Lincoln Gap area or else Appalachian gap.

If Lincoln Gap, then yes you would have driven right by where the health food store was on your way to Rutland.

If Appalachian Gap/Buell area, then you probably would have traveled south on the other side of the mountain then up and over near Killington ski resort then down into Rutland.

My favorite portion of the long trail is actually the hike from Lincoln Gap to Appalachian Gap, it's one of the more difficult stretches but has the highest peaks and best views!

Lincoln Gap, I think. But I'm sure I drove down Rt. 7. It was only a year or two after Hurricane Irene and there was some construction and repair north of Killington that I wanted to avoid. We had to make quite a few adjustments to what would have been normal routes because of the hurrican damage, often going around the long way. The devastation was shocking.

The whole state is just stunningly lovely, but it's a long way between places and some areas were almost creepy in their isolation. I grew up with the wide open spaces of the west but the more treed and closed-in mountains make me claustrophobic at best

 

[Mountaingazer]

Lincoln Gap, I think. But I'm sure I drove down Rt. 7. It was only a year or two after Hurricane Irene and there was some construction and repair north of Killington that I wanted to avoid. We had to make quite a few adjustments to what would have been normal routes because of the hurrican damage, often going around the long way. The devastation was shocking.

The whole state is just stunningly lovely, but it's a long way between places and some areas were almost creepy in their isolation. I grew up with the wide open spaces of the west but the more treed and closed-in mountains make me claustrophobic at best

Then you definitely drove right by the store! Court street where the store was located IS route 7! They just call it court street during that stretch of Middlebury!

I think the ice cream shop you are thinking of is in Brandon if it seemed closer to Rutland. It's about halfway between Middlebury and Rutland, but there is a VT artists shop/gallery next door and a river right there.

It could have been Bristol, but that is the town right after Lincoln on your way towards Route 7. I am going to have to pay attention next time I drive to Rutland to figure it out for sure!

 

[Zephyranth]

What I'd like to find out is when, exactly, Durst bought/rented All Good Things (did he name it?)

And the bigger question--why did he suddenly go to Vermont and open this store?

 

[Zephyranth]

Interesting:

"Paula Israel, who owns the store Wild Mountain Thyme downtown with her husband, has a different memory of Durst. Her husband Allen was friendly with Durst and in 1976, she and her husband had dinner with Durst and his wife when they came back to Vermont for a visit."

http://middleburycampus.com/article/police-investigate-dursts-link-to-cold-case/

I wasn't aware the Dursts had come back to visit; I'd be very interested in the itinerary.

Edited to add some more:

Israel came to Middlebury to attend Middlebury College in 1972, the year after Schulze disappeared, and she did not hear anything about it at the time. She later married Allen Israel, who already owned Wild Mountain Thyme.

“Allen knows Robert, and with all this news, we are very interested because we know him,” she said. “I had four reporters from Houston at my house today.”

In a Tuesday press briefing, Middlebury Police declined to comment about the location of Durst’s residence, which they said they did search. Israel said the Dursts lived in Ripton at the time they owned the health food store.

http://www.timesargus.com/article/RH/20150326/NEWS01/703269883/0/news04

Interesting that she refers to Allen as "knowing" Robert, rather than saying he "knew" Robert.

 

[carbuff]

Then you definitely drove right by the store! Court street where the store was located IS route 7! They just call it court street during that stretch of Middlebury!

I think the ice cream shop you are thinking of is in Brandon if it seemed closer to Rutland. It's about halfway between Middlebury and Rutland, but there is a VT artists shop/gallery next door and a river right there.

It could have been Bristol, but that is the town right after Lincoln on your way towards Route 7. I am going to have to pay attention next time I drive to Rutland to figure it out for sure!

Ah, okay, Brandon sounds right. I did stop in Bristol once and it did have an ice cream store, but that was a different trip.

And I remember Middlebury now. It's a larger town, with a park or common or something in the middle? And there's a Shell station? That would be where I bought gas.

 

[Zephyranth]

Lynne's dad was a brilliant nuclear physicist. After her death, he and family (not sure how many of her siblings) moved from Simsbury to Iran sometime in the '70s. Acc to one family source he was "in oil." Prior to moving to Iran he worked at, among other places, the Atomic Energy Commission's Argonne National Laboratory.

At any rate, nuclear physicist+Iranian oil, in the '70s, raises at least one eyebrow.

Here's a thought: Was Durst really a "serial killer?" Or was he just a plain old hit man?

Think about it: painting him as a "wacko" means that any time a cold case is linked to him, the local/state PD go, "Whew, another case closed."

It's all chalked up to a simple tragedy.

Are the Durst murders really about Durst--or are they about the victims? Something to look at.

What sticks in my mind is the Israels' painting of Lynne as looking "exactly like Kathie."

I don't think she looks exactly like Kathie, but more importantly, Lynne was killed BEFORE Kathie.

Now think about Durst's timeline. Both he and Lynne show up in Middlesbury the same year; within 12 weeks Lynne is dead, and months later Durst leaves.

If you look at the suggested victims for Durst, in fact, it seems he has quite a history of traveling to a place, killing someone, and leaving.

Are these really random victims? Did he follow Lynne to VT?

How is it that in such a short amount of time he formed such a bond with the Israels that, 4-5 years later, he swings through for breakfast?

Just brainstorming; but in a case this cold, I think all angles have to be considered.

 

[Zephyranth]

Good God.

"AMF became a major part of what would soon be called by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower as "the military-industrial complex" after WWII. In the late 1950s, the company's vice-chairman was Walter Bedell Smith. He was a formerly a US major general, Eisenhower's wartime chief-of-staff, and Harry Truman's Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He later became the fourthDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency." (Wiki)

Flash forward to 1964: "Otto A. Schulze, vice president and general manager of AMF Atomics, said that 1,000 graduates in nuclear science and engineering would be needed in the next five years. The concern, a major designer and builder of nuclear research re*actors, has 18 reactors in operation in 13 countries."

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/05/nuclear-reactor-is-displayed-here.html

 

[carbuff]

Probably not relevant: I asked a friend who grew up across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire about Lynne. Friend doesn't remember the case, but she remembers All Good Things because it was one of the first health food stores in the upper northeast. She says people used to drive a couple of hours to pick up things like tofu, bulgur, hummus, and other food items that weren't in the grocery stores in the 70's. She says her parents made the trip two or three times a year.

She also sent me a pointer to a review of a movie called All Good Things, which was made in 2011 based on testimony in Durst's 2003 trial in Houston. http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/all-good-things/Content?oid=2142713 It sounds like it doesn't mention Lynne.

 

[Zephyranth]

"In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the company [AMF] ran neck-and-neck with General Dynamics in the construction of nuclear power reactors. AMF sold Pakistan and Iran their first nuclear reactors."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Machine_and_Foundry

Safe to say that Mr. Schulze's jaunt to Iran was not about oil--or, at least, not simply about oil.

Hence NPR's piece this past fall, Born In The USA: How America Created Iran's Nuclear Program.

http://www.npr.org/sections/paralle...s-a-how-america-created-irans-nuclear-program

With a brand-new, stress-inducing spotlight on the fact that WE are responsible for the alleged nuclear threat coming from Iran--does it make sense that the cold case involving the murder of Otto Schulze receive new attention proving that a "random mass murderer" committed the crime? It took me under half an hour yesterday to realize Lynne's dad is directly responsible for the Iranian nuclear program.

For whatever reason, the news of her suddenly being a "probably Durst victim" emerged literally at the same time as stories blaming her father's company for the situation we now (allegedly) face in Iran.

I don't think Lynne can be logically written off as an accidental victim, particularly given the fact that Durst appeared in Middlebury right when she did, and left as soon as she disappeared.

Paula Israel is right to ask: Where did the tip about Lynne eating prunes outside Durst's come from?

All of a sudden, hear death is "almost certainly" (in the media's opinion) a simple case of being unlucky enough to meet a serial killer when she and he both magically lived in Middlebury for a few months.

Let's not forget that 2015 is when Durst himself surfaced as a huge, media topic.

 

[Zephyranth]

Probably not relevant: I asked a friend who grew up across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire about Lynne. Friend doesn't remember the case, but she remembers All Good Things because it was one of the first health food stores in the upper northeast. She says people used to drive a couple of hours to pick up things like tofu, bulgur, hummus, and other food items that weren't in the grocery stores in the 70's. She says her parents made the trip two or three times a year.

She also sent me a pointer to a review of a movie called All Good Things, which was made in 2011 based on testimony in Durst's 2003 trial in Houston. http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/all-good-things/Content?oid=2142713 It sounds like it doesn't mention Lynne.

I'd be very interested in knowing when the store itself was founded--was it Durst's project from beginning to end? He only stayed there a little over a year--did it continue operation after he left, I wonder?

Also, Durst's 19 year old (some say 18) fiancee, Kathleen McCormack Durst, allegedly started college at Middlebury the semester or year after Lynne's disappearance. Is this true, or did she actually enroll when she and Durst moved there, which would be the same year Lynne enrolled? This would make her a fellow student of Lynne's, of the same age--a natural connection to form between Lynne and Durst.

 

[Zephyranth]

Might have found something.

In 1970, the Atomic Energy Commission, responding to growing concerns over nuclear reactor safety, conducted five tests on miniature cooler models; in all five tests, the emergency cooling systems failed completely.

By December 1971, a reactor licensing board declared that the Commission's reactor safety standards were so bad that it was questionable to license their operation, period.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00139157.1972.9933029?journalCode=venv20

To make matters worse, the Union of Concerned Scientists had begun to search out individual nuclear scientists who were willing to confirm the inherent safety problems plaguing the industry.

Citizens nationwide flooded to their local reactors in loud protest.

Panicking, AEC decided to hold "rule making hearings," in which reactor manufacturers--including Combustion Engineering--would face off with reactor opponents in a massive national confrontation.

The Bethesda Hearings, as they came to be known in some circles, resulted in a transcript 13 feet thick.

As a top-level nuclear scientist with Combustion Engineering (what was his position in 1971? We need to know...), it would be very, very interesting to know whether Otto A. Schulze was scheduled to testify at the Bethesda Hearings, and just what he was planning to say, if so.

https://books.google.com/books?id=PeevUWiuEwkC&pg=PA478&lpg=PA478&dq="combustion+engineering"+1971+union&source=bl&ots=tNtl0yJzVO&sig=Mbm7zC2AtxJC8kHr4PqfFeVKKOQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS9NTXod_LAhUhkoMKHX_uAbwQ6AEILzAE#v=onepage&q=%22combustion%20engineering%22%201971%20union&f=false

Whatever his plans, on December 10, 1971, six weeks before the hearings were scheduled to begin, Otto's youngest daughter vanished from the face of the earth.

 

[Mountaingazer]

Might have found something.

In 1970, the Atomic Energy Commission, responding to growing concerns over nuclear reactor safety, conducted five tests on miniature cooler models; in all five tests, the emergency cooling systems failed completely.

By December 1971, a reactor licensing board declared that the Commission's reactor safety standards were so bad that it was questionable to license their operation, period.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00139157.1972.9933029?journalCode=venv20

To make matters worse, the Union of Concerned Scientists had begun to search out individual nuclear scientists who were willing to confirm the inherent safety problems plaguing the industry.

Citizens nationwide flooded to their local reactors in loud protest.

Panicking, AEC decided to hold "rule making hearings," in which reactor manufacturers--including Combustion Engineering--would face off with reactor opponents in a massive national confrontation.

The Bethesda Hearings, as they came to be known in some circles, resulted in a transcript 13 feet thick.

As a top-level nuclear scientist with Combustion Engineering (what was his position in 1971? We need to know...), it would be very, very interesting to know whether Otto A. Schulze was scheduled to testify at the Bethesda Hearings, and just what he was planning to say, if so.

https://books.google.com/books?id=PeevUWiuEwkC&pg=PA478&lpg=PA478&dq="combustion+engineering"+1971+union&source=bl&ots=tNtl0yJzVO&sig=Mbm7zC2AtxJC8kHr4PqfFeVKKOQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS9NTXod_LAhUhkoMKHX_uAbwQ6AEILzAE#v=onepage&q=%22combustion%20engineering%22%201971%20union&f=false

Whatever his plans, on December 10, 1971, six weeks before the hearings were scheduled to begin, Otto's youngest daughter vanished from the face of the earth.

It's definitely an interesting link! Might be an explanation for why her parents didn't want any publicity of her disappearance at first.

 

[Mountaingazer]

Probably not relevant: I asked a friend who grew up across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire about Lynne. Friend doesn't remember the case, but she remembers All Good Things because it was one of the first health food stores in the upper northeast. She says people used to drive a couple of hours to pick up things like tofu, bulgur, hummus, and other food items that weren't in the grocery stores in the 70's. She says her parents made the trip two or three times a year.

She also sent me a pointer to a review of a movie called All Good Things, which was made in 2011 based on testimony in Durst's 2003 trial in Houston. http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/all-good-things/Content?oid=2142713 It sounds like it doesn't mention Lynne.

Lol! My sister's parents-in-law moved to Vermont because they visited the store on vacation and decided that they wanted to live in a state with stores like that. Everyone I know who had been to it, raves about it.

I found this which gives a tiny bit of insight into the store post-Durst.
http://vtpages.us/b.php?id=167398#axzz43UUv384I

 

[Zephyranth]

Interesting date of incorporation (1979). Granted, perhaps someone could have run the store, under that name, before incorporation, but...

It goes to show that much of what we "know" about Durst has not been vetted.

Many media accounts say, for example, that he didn't move to VT and open a store until 1972--that would be after Lynne's disappearance.

Other accounts do say 1971, at which point an 18 year old girlfriend whom he met only months prior, then moved with him to Vermont? Did Kathie attend Middlebury College, by chance?

At any rate, knowing that Otto A. Schulze was a top-level nuclear scientist as well as being top brass at various nuclear power companies makes it impossible to ignore the possibility--statistically I would say the likelihood--that her kidnapping was political.

I say statistical likelihood because while I don't have any figures in front of me, kidnappings/murders committed for personal, economical and/or political reasons are I believe more statistically likely than the chances of being nabbed by a serial killer. If her dad had just sold car tires that would be one thing, but in fact her dad was very, very uniquely powerful figure in an industry whose future hung in the balance during the EXACT timeframe she went missing.

Seven weeks before the Bethesda Hearings began--that's when Lynne disappeared. Coincidentally, it would be six weeks before her father decided to announce her disappearance.

Btw, was Lynne 17 or 18 at the time she vanished? Conflicting accounts. As far as I know no one seems to have acquired her birth date, which is a bit odd in a missing person's case.

 

[Zephyranth]

Also a little odd that we don't have a place of birth for Lynne, imo.

By some accounts her father was working at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL in 1953, so presumably her birth records would be in Illinois.

Not sure if relevant, but if she really was 17, about to turn 18, perhaps that was another reason to delay publication of her disappearance. Not sure about the 1970s, but today a missing persons case would be handled differently based on whether the missing person was legally an adult or not.

 

[Zephyranth]

I think it's worth including the parents' original notice again - in this first official release of the information, the parents have provided her age as 17. Note also that the originally listed color of her pullover was navy blue, not maroon.

---
Bennington Banner
Monday, January 24, 1972

PARENTS SEEK HELP IN FINDING MISSING
MIDDLEBURY COED

Middlebury/ A general missing persons broadcast has been issued by Vermont State Police for a Middlebury College coed who hasn't been heard from since Dec. 10.

Mr. and Mrs. Otto A. Shulze of B Brook Drive, Simsbury, Conn. have appealed to the public for help in locating their daughter. 17-year-old Lynne, a freshman at the Vermont college who was last seen walking on U.S. 7 south of Middlebury on Friday afternoon, Dec. 10.

Lynne disappeared without an explanation to her parents, college authorities, friends or fellow students in Battell Hall where she lived. According to Mrs. Erica Wonnacott, Dean of students at Middlebury, the girl left behind in her room all of her clothing and personal effects except what she was wearing, her checkbook and I.D. card and a hiking backpack.

There was little concern at first over the disappearance of the girl, who is described as a 5'3", 113 pound dark blonde, but without any word in over a month her parents have become alarmed despite the lack of evidence of any foul play.

Although Lynne left Middlebury shortly before first semester exams, the college doesn't attach any special significance to her timing. When she failed to show up for an English exam Dec. 14, which she had apparently studied for according to some students, the college became concerned and contacted her parents to see if she was home.

When her parents expressed surprise and concern, college authorities contacted Middlebury Village and state police and gave them a description of the girl. Since then her father has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the event Intersate movement is involved.

Public announcement of the case has been withheld at the request of the missing girl's parents, who expressed a fear of frightening their daughter through the publicity.

Lynne was wearing, at the time of her disappearance, blue jeans, a brown nylon ski parka, navy blue pullover sweater and hiking boots.

A quiet search of the Middlebury area by Lynne's friends failed to turn up anything, Dean Wonnacott said. Following several futile trips to Middlebury by the parents, the father authorized a public announcement of his daughter's disappearance and requested help from the public in locating her.

Mrs. Wonnacott noted that although the girl may not have been living up to the scholastic record she made at Simsbury High School, she was "far from failing." College authorities also reported that there is no evidence of any mental problems of boyfriends in the case.

Lynne has two sisters, one, a student at the University of Wisconsin and the other in High School, and two brothers, age 14 and 12. Her father is a business executive and her mother a teacher.
----

Note the date of the above press release: January 24, 1972, three days before the beginning of the ECCS (Bethesda) Hearings, during which Lynne's father's company would literally be partially responsible for the fate of the entire nuclear power industry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=t...page&q=eccs hearings january 27, 1972&f=false, p. 57] "The ECCS hearings were the US Atomic Energy Commission's technological Vietnam." [p. 62]

 

[Zephyranth]

I just can't believe that no investigator or researcher, to date, has commented on the fact that Lynne Schulze was the daughter of a man responsible for helping to create the United States nuclear power and weapons program, and that she disappeared only weeks before his company, Combustion Engineering, was preparing its staff to testify at federal hearings whose outcome would determine the fate not only of the company, but of the entire nuclear industry.

One thing is for certain: We need the transcripts, and witness list, from those hearings.