MI MI - Cynthia Coon, 13, Ann Arbor, 19 Jan 1970

[Richard]

Missing for over 53 years...

Cynthia Coon, age 13, Missing since 19 January 1970.


Ann Arbor News, January 23, 1970
Day


Ann Arbor News, January 27, 1970


Ann Arbor News, January 28, 1970


LINK:

858DFMI - Cynthia Coon

www.doenetwork.org

 

[Richard]

Ann Arbor News, February 5, 1970


Ann Arbor News, February 14, 1970


Ann Arbor News, February 17, 1970


Ann Arbor News, April 17, 1970

LINK:

Cindy Coon | Ann Arbor District Library

aadl.org

 

[Brotherfudz]

Being local, this case has always really bothered me. Missing in January, supposedly seen walking around Ann Arbor a couple weeks later then supposedly made a couple phone calls home from Detroit months later? Not sure I believe the sightings were her or the phone calls.

 

[Richard]

Being local, this case has always really bothered me. Missing in January, supposedly seen walking around Ann Arbor a couple weeks later then supposedly made a couple phone calls home from Detroit months later? Not sure I believe the sightings were her or the phone calls.

I agree. The supposed sightings were probably from well meaning people who were on the watch for her, since it was a well publicized case. Perhaps a case of mistaken identity. The phone calls could have been either a hoax - or could have been real and made from the home of a kidnapper or at an opportune moment by Cindy herself.

 

[spartanx]

I understand that that trash Arthur Nelson Ream has kidnapped her because she is a ... but she lets her mother call her mother knowing that she is suffering for her daughter... and she doesn't give the location of the body if she is already in prison for life. prison..
Little one, I hope that one day you can rest in peace.

 

[Brotherfudz]

I understand that that trash Arthur Nelson Ream has kidnapped her because she is a ... but she lets her mother call her mother knowing that she is suffering for her daughter... and she doesn't give the location of the body if she is already in prison for life. prison..
Little one, I hope that one day you can rest in peace.

Highly doubt Ream was responsible. Have never seen anything connecting him to the case.

 

[Nina Michigan]

Highly doubt Ream was responsible. Have never seen anything connecting him to the case.

police tracked a lot of his carpet laying jobs. If he had a job in A2 at the time she vanished....

 

[Richard]

Is it possible that Cynthia Coon's disappearance is related to the abduction and murder if Eileen Adams?

Eileen was abducted in her hometown of Toledo. Ohio in December 1967. Her body turned up a few weeks later in Monroe County, Michigan near US-23 just south of Ann Arbor.

Eileen had been kept prisoner, tortured, and abused, before being murdered and her body discarded. The case remained unsolved for decades until one Robert Bowman was charged and convicted of her murder. Investigation determined that Bowman had kept Eileen in the basement of his Toledo home.

 

[Caring1]

22 Unidentified Person Exclusions

 

[Richard]

Up thread, I mentioned Robert Bowman as a potential suspect in Cynthia Coon's disappearance. Here is some more information on him in regard to his trial and conviction for the 1967 murder of Eileen Adams.

He lived in the Toledo, Ohio area until about 1980 and was known to travel into southern Michigan, as it was there that he disposed of Eileen's body, just south of Ann Arbor.

LINK:

Man convicted in 1967 schoolgirl slaying

Robert Bowman, now 75, tied up, sexually assaulted and killed 14-year-old high school freshman; "Cold case" reopened 5 years ago

www.cbsnews.com

Ex-wife says she saw Ohio girl before 1967 killing

TOLEDO (AP) — The ex-wife of a man accused of killing a schoolgirl in 1967 recounted at his trial Monday that she was hanging baby clothes in their basement four decades ago when she heard mu…

www.news-herald.com

 

[dotr]

By: Meghan Daniels
Posted 37 minutes ago

Family of suspected victim says there's no closure in Arthur Ream's death

It's been over 16 years since suspected serial killer Arthur Ream was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Cindy Zarzycky almost 40 years ago.

www.wxyz.com

'(WXYZ) — It's been over 16 years since suspected serial killer Arthur Ream was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Cindy Zarzycky almost 40 years ago.
Ream died of cancer last month in prison, but the investigation into 5 different cold cases continue. Officials say all of them have roads that lead to Ream.'

“If there was anyone out there that was fearful of Art Ream now that he was passed if you know anything, just if you had a conversation where he references Kim, maybe he didn’t make any admissions maybe he just made a couple comments, we don’t know what small thing may help,” she says.''

 

[mlhenn]

Cynthia Coon – The Charley Project

Updated Oct 8 2024

Details of Disappearance​

Cynthia departed from her family's residence in the 1400 block of Warrington in Washtenaw County, Michigan, west of Ann Arbor, at 7:30 a.m. on January 19, 1970. She was en route to her school, Forsythe Junior High School in the 1600 block of Newport Road in Ann Arbor. She didn't like to ride the bus and preferred to walk the one-mile route.

Cynthia never arrived as scheduled and has never been seen again. She had no prior history of running away from home and she was a good student. She was carrying only two or three dollars in cash when she vanished. There were possible sightings of her in the Ann Arbor area in the days following her disappearance, but none were confirmed.

She called her parents twice during a two-hour period on April 1 or April 2, 1970. The calls reportedly came from the Detroit, Michigan, but during the conversations Cynthia claimed she didn't know her exact whereabouts. She has not been heard from again.

Her relatives received an extortion-type phone call on May 5, 1970, nearly four months after she disappeared. There has not been any other communication regarding her case since that time.

In 2018, authorities announced Arthur Ream was a possible suspect in Cynthia's case and in the disappearances of Kimberly King, Kim Larrow, Nadine O'Dell and Kellie Brownlee. A photo of Ream is posted with this case summary.

He was convicted of sexual assault in the 1970s and, in 1986, murdered Cindy Zarzycki, a thirteen-year-old girl who was dating his son. He was convicted of her murder and afterwards, in 2008, he lead authorities to her body, which was buried in a shallow grave 30 miles from Detroit, Michigan.

While in prison, Ream reportedly told cellmates he was serial killer with four to six victims. In May 2018, police began digging at the same property where Cindy had been buried, expecting to find the bodies of other missing girls there. No human remains were located, however, and the digging stopped after a week. Ream died of cancer in prison in August 2024.

All the cases remain unsolved.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this thread up.

 

[Richard]

Cynthia Coon has been missing for 55 years.

 

[Richard]

Missing for over 53 years...

Cynthia Coon, age 13, Missing since 19 January 1970.


Ann Arbor News, January 23, 1970
Day


Ann Arbor News, January 27, 1970


Ann Arbor News, January 28, 1970


LINK:

858DFMI - Cynthia Coon

www.doenetwork.org

It has been over 55 years since Cynthia went missing.

 

[Brotherfudz]

Would really like to know what was said and how long the two phone calls were. Also who identified the caller as Cynthia. If the case was hitting newspapers could see the calls being an imposter.

 

[Pennysmom1]

 

[Brotherfudz]

Her father a Dr had been at U of M for a very long time and even has an annual award named after him. He passed in 2000, her mother in 1984. It appears she had two siblings, a sister who was 11/12 when she went missing and a brother who was 17/18. Very odd to me is she was not mentioned in the father’s obituary. Wonder what the family thinks happened to her and if the siblings have ever been in contact with law enforcements

 

[tilomagnet]

Thought some of you might be interested in the Ann Arbor News coverage at the time of Cynthia's disappearance:

January 23, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700123-police_seeking_girl_missing.jpg
January 27, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700127-missing_girl_13.jpg
January 28, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700128_missing_girl_reported_seen.jpg
February 5, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700205-police_still_seek.jpg
February 14, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700214-township_girl_still_missing.jpg
February 17, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700217-still_missing.jpg
April 17, 1970: http://oldnews.aadl.org/aa_news_19700417-missing_girl_calls_parents.jpg

Interesting to note that police discounted foul play because of reports that Cynthia was seen in the Ann Arbor area after she was reported missing.

This is an interesting and baffling case, mostly due to the phone calls 3-4 months after her disappearance. Unfortunately the old articles above are no longer online. It would be interesting to read the April 17th edition that mentions the call to her parents apparently.


"Eventually, she made contact with her family twice within a two-hour period in April of 1970. She did not know her whereabouts at the time of the calls, but the calls apparently came from Detroit. An extortion-type call was received by the family on May 5, 1970. "


This begs so many questions...

What exactly was said in those calls?

Were the parents 100% sure it was her?

How do they know the call came from Detroit?

Extortion call? What did the caller say?

Then what? Did the parents try to exchange the ransom?

To me the available information does not add up at all....the calls make it unlikely that it is linked with the other murders of girls in the area. But if she was really abducted, which kidnapper would wait 4 months to make any contact and try to collect the ransom?! And then the communication just stops and nothing has ever been heard since?!

 

[Richard]

This is an interesting and baffling case, mostly due to the phone calls 3-4 months after her disappearance. Unfortunately the old articles above are no longer online. It would be interesting to read the April 17th edition that mentions the call to her parents apparently.


"Eventually, she made contact with her family twice within a two-hour period in April of 1970. She did not know her whereabouts at the time of the calls, but the calls apparently came from Detroit. An extortion-type call was received by the family on May 5, 1970. "


This begs so many questions...

What exactly was said in those calls?

Were the parents 100% sure it was her?

How do they know the call came from Detroit?

Extortion call? What did the caller say?

Then what? Did the parents try to exchange the ransom?

To me the available information does not add up at all....the calls make it unlikely that it is linked with the other murders of girls in the area. But if she was really abducted, which kidnapper would wait 4 months to make any contact and try to collect the ransom?! And then the communication just stops and nothing has ever been heard since?!

Good questions. In many cases, persons contacting parents demanding a ransom payment are just scammers who are only trying to cash in on the tragedy of a child's disappearance.

There were indeed a number of abductions of girls and young women in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area just prior to Cynthia's disappearance. Most of those cases involved murder, with bodies being found shortly after the abductions took place.

John Norman Collins was arrested at the end of July 1969 and charged with one of those abduction/murders, although he was suspected of others. He was still in jail awaiting trial when Cynthia went missing.