MD MD - Katheryn Quackenbush, 17, Delmar, 14 July 1981

[HmmMysterious]

Sadly, I may have the answer, but unable to prove it. Follow with me. My late wife (cremated) always claimed she had been kidnapped and had ties to Geogia and Maryland. Her birth cert said Anne Annundrel hospital in MD but her social would bring up a dead person when she was younger when she tried to get her card. She was brought into a family that lived in Colorado, Illinois and Montana. Claiming she knew they had killed their daughter who looked very similar to her in looks. They moved around a lot. When I saw the pic of kitty, as crappy as it is, they could have almost been twins. Caity went by Cat and had switched her name that was on her birth cert from Dody to Caitlyn in 1991 or 1992 to make sure someone could not track her that meant harm. I did an overlay of her pic and Kathryn's pic and yeah, it is damn close. But, she passed In 2018 and I have no DNA.

Hello welcome to Websleuths. Yeah it really is a shame you don't have DNA to do this comparison. The part about your wife's SS being that of a dead person's is intriguing.

 

[chaddylex]

Sadly, I may have the answer, but unable to prove it. Follow with me. My late wife (cremated) always claimed she had been kidnapped and had ties to Geogia and Maryland. Her birth cert said Anne Annundrel hospital in MD but her social would bring up a dead person when she was younger when she tried to get her card. She was brought into a family that lived in Colorado, Illinois and Montana. Claiming she knew they had killed their daughter who looked very similar to her in looks. They moved around a lot. When I saw the pic of kitty, as crappy as it is, they could have almost been twins. Caity went by Cat and had switched her name that was on her birth cert from Dody to Caitlyn in 1991 or 1992 to make sure someone could not track her that meant harm. I did an overlay of her pic and Kathryn's pic and yeah, it is damn close. But, she passed In 2018 and I have no DNA.

Hi - I just saw your post when I was coming here to add Katheryn's age progression picture.
Do you know what year she was born or if she was about the same age as Katheryn? How about her height and eye color?

 

[chaddylex]

Katheryn's Age Progression if she is still alive she would be 61.

 

[methodwriter85]

Glad to hear her brother and that uncle of hers are still actively looking for Kitty and keeping their radar up for any news. I wonder how her parents are holding up. An obituary for her grandmother a few years back only mentions her grandsons (incl. Kitty's brother), no granddaughter is mentioned.

Clipping from The Daily Times (newspaper based out of Salisbury, MD), dated April 3, 1985:
Clipping from The Daily Times - Newspapers.com

"Roland Quackenbush said he still hopes his daughter will be found, but is glad Tunney will be talking to Lucas about the case.

Quackenbush said he was not at home when his daughter left to go to the bowling lanes, but found out about it through his son, then 14, who was the last person to see Karen [sic] before she disappeared. Quackenbush said he called the police to report Karen [sic] missing, but wasn't too worried at the time.

'At first I wasn't really upset, but as time went on it got harder and harder,' he said, 'I don't think you ever get used to it. Every day I just have to adjust myself more and more.' He said that he was close to his daughter, who had been living with his ex-wife in Georgia during her school years, but decided to move in with him in May 1981.

'This is about as traumatic as anything that can happen to you,' he said about Karen's [sic] disappearance. 'It's next to having somebody die. The anxiety of not knowing is the worst part,' he said, 'The trip is something that has to be done. It's all I have to go on.'"

So that answers my question about how Kathryn had a boyfriend. She had been with her dad since at least May before she disappeared, so she had plenty of time to start up a summer fling with a local boy.

 

[ekardh]

So that answers my question about how Kathryn had a boyfriend. She had been with her dad since at least May before she disappeared, so she had plenty of time to start up a summer fling with a local boy.

Also enough time for her to make acquaintances with a neighbour who might have offered her a ride.

 

[methodwriter85]

Also enough time for her to make acquaintances with a neighbour who might have offered her a ride.

Exactly. Somebody knows something- I've checked and the population of Delmar was about 1232 in 1980. Salisbury which was the "big city" in the area was about 16,000 in 1980. So yeah, pretty small, rural area. Kathryn was described as a well-liked, pretty teenager. Add her being new in town and I could totally see her attracting attention from the locals.

This what I've been able to parse out from the narrative:
1.) Kathryn and her brother were at home. The dad was out, possibly at work or whatever, therefore giving a ride was out. (The brother was 14 and definitely would have not had a license. He was also old enough that he probably wouldn't have tried to tag along.)

2.) Kathryn had made a date with her boyfriend. That boyfriend was late.

3.) Impatient, Kathryn decides to leave the house and start walking towards the bowling alley. I'm guessing she told her brother to tell the boyfriend to just start driving towards the bowling alley and pick her up along the way.

4.) Kathryn's boyfriend makes it to the house 5 minutes later. We can surmise that he left after her brother told him that Kathryn was walking towards the bowling alley and to just pick her up along the way. Of course, the boyfriend did not see Kathryn along Route 13.

5.) The logical explanation is that Kathryn didn't make it far and she was kidnapped in that short time span.

6.) Most likely, as you said, a Neighbour acquaintance who saw the opportunity and took it.

 

[t.nichevo]

Long shot, but Mike Debardeleben was very active in Maryland and Delaware. It would be good to know where he was at the time of this disappearance. Especially, because Salisbury mall

 

[ekardh]

6.) Most likely, as you said, a Neighbour acquaintance who saw the opportunity and took it.

I'm open to both possibilities. It may have been a random predator who was driving down the highway when he saw a young girl alone and seized the chance. However, out of the two, I prefer the theory that it was someone closer to home. Someone whom Kathryn would have been more comfortable catching a ride from.

Perhaps Kathryn was offered a ride to the bowling alley, and she decided to take it to spite her boyfriend. She complains about her boyfriend during the ride. The driver sees this as an invitation to make a move, so he drives them off the beaten path and makes his move, only for a struggle to ensue, and Kathryn is killed.

 

[methodwriter85]

Long shot, but Mike Debardeleben was very active in Maryland and Delaware. It would be good to know where he was at the time of this disappearance. Especially, because Salisbury mall

Huh, not a bad possibility at all. This is link that I found about his timeline.

He had pretty strong activity in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. There's nothing on it that rules out him being in Delaware in July 1981.

 

[methodwriter85]

However, out of the two, I prefer the theory that it was someone closer to home. Someone whom Kathryn would have been more comfortable catching a ride from.

Perhaps Kathryn was offered a ride to the bowling alley, and she decided to take it to spite her boyfriend. She complains about her boyfriend during the ride. The driver sees this as an invitation to make a move, so he drives them off the beaten path and makes his move, only for a struggle to ensue, and Kathryn is killed

Yeah, I can really see this being the case. Maybe Kathryn was annoyed at her boyfriend for some other reason than just him being late, and that's why she made the impulsive decision to start walking towards the bowling alley that was miles away. Maybe she was venting to an acquaintance who knew about the issues and took it as their shot to try and make some headway with her. She says no, and things go from there.

 

[t.nichevo]

Huh, not a bad possibility at all. This is link that I found about his timeline.

He had pretty strong activity in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. There's nothing on it that rules out him being in Delaware in July 1981.

Yes, that timeline is useful. The secret service definitely have a more complete timeline of his whereabouts based on where he was passing fake money though. If we knew he was in Maine passing a bad $20 bill the day before, it would rule him out. If he was in Delaware or Maryland passing fake cash around that time, it may rule him in.

My only hesitation is that the murder victims strongly linked to him were not "disappeared." He did not seem that worried about having them found. On the other hand, he committed money counterfeiting, kidnapping for ransom, murder, rape, grand theft auto. He has such a variety of crimes that it is hard to say what he is/isnt capable of.

 

[methodwriter85]

Yes, that timeline is useful. The secret service definitely have a more complete timeline of his whereabouts based on where he was passing fake money though. If we knew he was in Maine passing a bad $20 bill the day before, it would rule him out. If he was in Delaware or Maryland passing fake cash around that time, it may rule him in.

My only hesitation is that the murder victims strongly linked to him were not "disappeared." He did not seem that worried about having them found. On the other hand, he committed money counterfeiting, kidnapping for ransom, murder, rape, grand theft auto. He has such a variety of crimes that it is hard to say what he is/isnt capable of.

Yeah, he had a general MO, but not that established. The area that Kathryn went missing from was pretty rural at the time so if it is him, he wouldn't have had to go far to dispose of her body in an isolated area. There's also a lot of water in the area. But again, that goes back to what you're saying about how he didn't seem to care much about trying to conceal the murders.

I do think that Kathryn disappeared quickly enough (she starts walking to the bowling alley; her boyfriend gets to the house and leaves 5 minutes later) that she had to have gotten in a car pretty much immediately after leaving her house. Most likely voluntarily, which points to someone she knew. Or maybe Kathryn was being like, "You know? Screw my boyfriend! I'm going to hitchhike!" It's still the early 1980's, and Kathryn may have felt safe precisely because it was a rural area.

 

[ekardh]

Just throwing this out there, but was the boyfriend cleared?

She was clearly annoyed with him at the time. Maybe there was more to it than him just being late? At any rate, he manages to catch up with her, she gets into the car, but their fight continues during the ride. He pulls over into a secluded area and it escalates to murder?

In this scenario, the boyfriend has an alibi. He could claim he went to the bowling alley and was looking around for Kathryn at the time, when in reality he was dumping the body somewhere and covering his tracks.

Who was it that actually reported Kathryn missing? And how soon did it happen?

 

[t.nichevo]

Just throwing this out there, but was the boyfriend cleared?

She was clearly annoyed with him at the time. Maybe there was more to it than him just being late? At any rate, he manages to catch up with her, she gets into the car, but their fight continues during the ride. He pulls over into a secluded area and it escalates to murder?

In this scenario, the boyfriend has an alibi. He could claim he went to the bowling alley and was looking around for Kathryn at the time, when in reality he was dumping the body somewhere and covering his tracks.

Who was it that actually reported Kathryn missing? And how soon did it happen?

Yes, these are important questions. The write up/report makes it seem like the boyfriend drove to find her, couldn't locate her, and went back to her house very quickly and told her family who reported her missing. If this is not the case, it is worth looking at the boyfriend

 

[methodwriter85]

Yes, these are important questions. The write up/report makes it seem like the boyfriend drove to find her, couldn't locate her, and went back to her house very quickly and told her family who reported her missing. If this is not the case, it is worth looking at the boyfriend

Those are definitely important questions. If he went to the bowling alley and then quickly went back to the house, that would rule him out, but it's really unclear.