Cases That Haunt You

[CASuzk]

wow. very creepy story. do you know his name?

I don't but I think the historical society has the newspapers from the time and if I recall correctly, early reports did mention his name as a witness.

I think I might go over there and look it up.

 

[OilPainter]

Hi OilPainter,

I wrote to the website again and asked about the wallet and some other things. I was just going to summarize but I thought it was an interesting read. I'm forwarding it along pretty much as it came.

"We thought the wallet was interesting at first because we figured, if Mike were trying to intentionally disappear, one of the things he would do would be to completely get rid of his identify. So it would be logical that he would leave his wallet, his car, his bank account, all of it behind.

Mike lived with a large, very religious family. He was the sole member of the family who both rejected, and was a bit embarrassed by, some of the religious rituals the others practiced. Mike was also part of a blended family, and was quite a bit different from his step-siblings. He was generally an outsider in his own family.

He was close to his father. He was the "golden boy" of the family, and so they were a little jealous of him because people really liked Mike, he was smart, and everything seemed to go really well for him. It sounds funny, but it really is a good analogy: Mike's story really is very much like Cinderella.

At work, Mike had a boss who not only jumped on him for every little thing at every turn, he took great pride in humiliating Mike in front of customers and other employees. Mike was smart, charismatic, witty, kind, attractive, and really good at anything he set out to do. That included academics, drumming in the marching band, his job, you name it. His boss was the polar opposite of Mike, and he was nearly twice Mike's age. Mike never raised his voice or lost his temper, and his boss resented Mike for everything that he was. Mike always handled it well until that last day.

He wasn't going to go back to work at all after the last humiliation his boss subjected him to. His dad advised him that he should go back to work for his last remaining two weeks, since he enjoyed his job and was good at it, and not let his boss unfairly run him out of it.

His dad has never forgiven himself for that. He thinks, had he not given Mike that advice and just let him quit like he wanted to, Mike would still be here. The unfortunate thing about that is it's actually good advice for a father to give his teenage son. But on this particular day, Mike went missing.

We thought that Mike had just enough and took off. That's why the wallet was significant. But then we were able to verify that Mike had reserved and paid for a dorm room at the University he was attending, and had bought the supplies he needed for his freshman year.

We also found out, after a lot of investigating, that it wouldn't have mattered if Mike had returned to the store that day or not. Mike tended to attract people into his orbit that could be very jealous and possessive of him. Mike, for all of his book smarts, didn't seem to recognize this as fast as he could have. The men that targeted Mike had a specific need for him, and so they chose him as their victim. For what they wanted of him, they would have gotten Mike whether he had returned to that store that day or not."

I plan on writing back because now my curiosity about Michael being "chosen" is peaked. Kline, I hope I haven't hijacked your thread. If you'd like me to move Michael to his own thread just let me know.

gaia227, thanks for posting the Dyatlov Pass Incident. I hadn't read about that one before. But I'm adding it to my list of cases now. I've been scouring the internet reading up on it ever since you posted about it. It's a fascinating read.

Thanks flyboy, you clearly answered my question. However, now I'm with you on the whole "chosen" thing. Chosen for what? My mind is running the whole arena...

I'm thinking everything from satanic worshipping to prostitution to something as simple as rabid jealousy over the popularity Michael had with others.

Somebody has to know something and it sounds like that from the website. Maybe this whole thing is a lot deeper than I think.

 

[tuppence]

I don't but I think the historical society has the newspapers from the time and if I recall correctly, early reports did mention his name as a witness.

I think I might go over there and look it up.

would be very interesting to see if he has ended up connected to any cases.

 

[birdie74]

This is a solved case, but the murder of 8-yr-old Maddie Clifton in 1998 still haunts me. She had gone missing early one week, and that Saturday AM I was watching the news, and they were asking for volunteers to go help search for her. I had never done anything like that before, but since I didn't have any plans, I went down to help.

We were divided into groups of 10 or so people to search different areas. I was in a group with 14-yr-old Josh Phillips and his parents. I watched him look around like everyone else and didn't think much about it. At the time, another neighbor down the street was considered a person of interest, but Josh's dad told a few of us why he thought that man couldn't have done it because of the time frame of when he saw that man outside when he himself got home from work. He went through a whole timeline of that evening for us.

The next Tuesday AM, they found Maddie's body inside Josh's water bed. I got sick to my stomach when I heard, and I still get chills when I think about it. It was such a tragedy.

 

[tuppence]

This is a solved case, but the murder of 8-yr-old Maddie Clifton in 1998 still haunts me. She had gone missing early one week, and that Saturday AM I was watching the news, and they were asking for volunteers to go help search for her. I had never done anything like that before, but since I didn't have any plans, I went down to help.

We were divided into groups of 10 or so people to search different areas. I was in a group with 14-yr-old Josh Phillips and his parents. I watched him look around like everyone else and didn't think much about it. At the time, another neighbor down the street was considered a person of interest, but Josh's dad told a few of us why he thought that man couldn't have done it because of the time frame of when he saw that man outside when he himself got home from work. He went through a whole timeline of that evening for us.

The next Tuesday AM, they found Maddie's body inside Josh's water bed. I got sick to my stomach when I heard, and I still get chills when I think about it. It was such a tragedy.

OMG. Never heard of the case but it's wild that you ended up in the search team with the person eventually found to be the murderer.

 

[Trino]

The abduction of Jacob Wetterling (1989) is really what started a focus on missing children. Somehow, maybe because so much time has elapsed, Jacob's disappearance has been shelved to a back burner, and there has been no positive information that might lead to solving the abduction. October 22 will be the 19th anniversary of his disappearance. Say a prayer for his family.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
I agree with you the murder of 8-yr-old Maddie Clifton in 1998 still haunts me too.I watched this unfold on the TV and newspaper where I lived.The family and friends praying she would come home and searching for her.It was very sad and up to today her murder still bothers me too.It's something I will never forget.It really made me pray and think about who are my kids friends and who are they playing with.

suzanne

 

[MaryLiz]

This is a solved case, but the murder of 8-yr-old Maddie Clifton in 1998 still haunts me. She had gone missing early one week, and that Saturday AM I was watching the news, and they were asking for volunteers to go help search for her. I had never done anything like that before, but since I didn't have any plans, I went down to help.

We were divided into groups of 10 or so people to search different areas. I was in a group with 14-yr-old Josh Phillips and his parents. I watched him look around like everyone else and didn't think much about it. At the time, another neighbor down the street was considered a person of interest, but Josh's dad told a few of us why he thought that man couldn't have done it because of the time frame of when he saw that man outside when he himself got home from work. He went through a whole timeline of that evening for us.

The next Tuesday AM, they found Maddie's body inside Josh's water bed. I got sick to my stomach when I heard, and I still get chills when I think about it. It was such a tragedy.

birdie, I saw a show about Maddie on either Cold Case Files or Forensic Files, one of those. How chilling that he was in your group searching. I remember watching the show and thinking how awful the whole thing was and how bad I felt for the people in Joshua's group, really for all the searchers, and how it turned up the murderer was right among them! Gives me the chills now thinking of it.

 

[birdie74]

I heard Josh and his dad discussing a camping or fishing trip that they were planning, and they just seemed so normal. Josh seemed pretty quiet and unenthused during the search, but that's typical of a lot of teens. His dad died a year or two later in a car crash when coming back from visiting Josh in prison if I remember correctly.

 

[gaia227]

I wanted to add Lindy Biechler to the list. Her murder and events leading up to it are just so creepy to me. Lindy had started to become paranoid that someone was watching her. Then it grew into Lindy being convinced that not only was this person watching her they were also following her. She claimed that one night she saw someone peering at her through the glass sliding doors in her living room. She became terrified to be alone so her family would come stay with her until her husband got home or she would stay with family. On the last day of her life had ran some errands and got home at 7:15pm. Her relatives showed up at 8:40 and found Lindy stabbed to death with the knife still sticking out of her neck.

A year after her murder he tombstone was vandalized and a letter arrived at the police station.

The crime is described by investigators as being disorganized and that the killer may not have ever killed before. That being said, lets hope that he left DNA at the scene.

Link with all this information. Lindy's case is the one on the right. Part III contains the text of the letter sent to authorites.
http://lindyandchristy.com/articles.html

 

[shadowangel]

<snipped> I wanted to add Lindy Biechler to the list. A year after her murder her tombstone was vandalized and a letter arrived at the police station.

Link with all this information. Lindy's case is the one on the right. Part III contains the text of the letter sent to authorites.
http://lindyandchristy.com/articles.html

Just an observation...The text of the letter is oddly reminiscent of some of the Zodiac's letters, especially those from late '69 (the bus-bomb letter, the Melvin Belli letter-the use of "loosing" instead of "losing"- and the name/cryptogram letter).
I wonder if the writer was simply a "fan" who saw an opportunity for a little "fame".

 

[gaia227]

Certainly a possibility - they weren't that far apart. I am not sure what I think about it. I definetly concede it could very well be a hoax. I think LE gave it some credence because it mentioned the vandalism of the grave which apparently was not well known as it had just happened and it gave the detail about the nicks in the stone matching the number of stab wounds Lindy suffered. Most likely it was either it was the killer who wrote the letter and vandalized the grave or it was the hoaxers (is that a word?) who did both. It does make sense to me that if it was the alleged stalker who killed her that he would continue to be obsessed with her in death and derived enjoyment from desecrating her grave and taunting police.

Investigators and handwritting analyst seem to believe that the author was left-handed, possibly a female or homosexual given the way sentences were constructed, words that were used were feminine- men don't usually use the word beautiful to describe themselves. That was their reasoning anyway.

Shadowangel - do you know if there is a thread on Lindy's murder? I did a seach and didn't find it but I don't seem to have much luck with that.

 

[shadowangel]

There don't appear to be any threads dedicated to Lindy, only references to her case on the Betty Aardsma thread.

 

[Hope4Lost]

The unsolved murder of Gene Tate, Columbus, MS. "In the Cold Light of Day" was a book written about the case.

 

[kline]

Just an observation...The text of the letter is oddly reminiscent of some of the Zodiac's letters, especially those from late '69 (the bus-bomb letter, the Melvin Belli letter-the use of "loosing" instead of "losing"- and the name/cryptogram letter).
I wonder if the writer was simply a "fan" who saw an opportunity for a little "fame".

I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the text of the letter then I scrolled down and saw your post!

 

[gaia227]

I started a thread about Lindy since there was not one in the Cold Case forum.

I also wanted to add Amy Bradley to the list. I would love to know what really happened to her on that cruise ship. I have never thought the alleged photos of her that surfaced at the brothel really looked like her. The incident where a woman walked up to the Marine and said her name was Amy Bradley and she needed his help is pretty interesting. Why he didn't do anything is something I will never understand.

 

[Boomgirl72]

Ramona Price---Santa Barbara---missing 1961
Todd Collett----Santa Barbara---missing 1964

 

[gaia227]

I can't believe I forgot to add her - she has been one 'my' pet cases for a long time

Mary Shotwell Little - missing from Atlanta since 1966

This is a really good article about her disappearence. Alot of the article is told by the investigator who worked her case for years - the only case he never solved. The events leading up to and after she went missing are pretty intriguing.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1102670/posts

 

[anthrobones]

Mostly the really old ones, because I know there's basically no chance of them ever being solved, since no one who was around when the person died or went missing is alive anymore....

Sad, very sad, that they'll never be truly closed.

 

[kline]

Mary Shotwell Little is another facinating one.
I too am a sucker for the really Old cases...
There is something about the mystery with a period setting whether its 1969 or 1929 that is irresistable to my imagination.