NY NY - Christopher Wojnowski, 23, Fort Montgomery, 08 April 2000

[Tuck]

Name - Christopher Joseph Wojnowski (Missing Person Case)

Last Seen - 04/08/2000

Missing From - Fort Montgomery, New York

Age - 23

Race - White

Sex - Male

Hair Color - Brown

Eye Color - Hazel

Height - 71

Weight - 170

Medical Details - Clean shaven.

Clothing - Light tan jacket, possibly wearing a backpack.

Circumstances - The MP was last seen by family leaving his mother's home in Eastchester. At the time, he was driving his father's 1989 Toyota Corolla, which was later found abandoned on the southern side of the Bear Mountain Bridge in the eastbound lane. The engine was still running, the passenger side door was open, and the hazard lights were flashing. Inside the car, police found the MP's wallet with $30, his driver's license, a Visa card and two bank cards.

A witness testimony and a functional surveillance camera allowed authorities to piece together the following timeline of events leading up to the disappearance:

20:25 - The MP's car pulls off to the side of the bridge, and the MP can be seen on tape exiting the driver's side of the vehicle. He is seen to walk to the edge of the bridge railing and back to the car several times.

20:26 - MP returns to vehicle, and around thirty seconds later, the hazard lights of the vehicle are activated.

20:30 - A toll collector for the Bear Mountain Bridge notices the flashing hazard lights of the vehicle, and drives over to investigate.

20:32 - The toll collector attends the scene and questions the MP, who is now sitting in the passenger seat and tells her that the driver of the vehicle has gone to search for a payphone.

20:35 - The toll collector departs the scene to search for the supposed driver of the vehicle.

20:35 - The MP resumes pacing back and forth to the rail, then appears to walk away from the camera in an easterly direction. This is the last recorded sighting of the MP, and the image depicted in the surveillance footage is unclear due to the quality and darkness which makes it difficult to ascertain what is going on in the tape. The footage does not at any point capture a clear image of the MP jumping off the bridge, nor does it depict him scaling the railings.

20:40 - The toll collector returns to the vehicle, and determines that the MP is no longer at the scene.

20:43 - The toll collector is unable to locate the MP after three minutes of searching, and immediately departs the scene to return to her booth to notify authorities.

20:51 - The police and the toll collector return to the vehicle, and despite further searching are unable to locate any sign of the MP.

At the time of the disappearance, the MP appeared to be depressed according to his father. He had recently lost his job in Connecticut, had a drinking problem, and stated that he needed to go away for a few days to 'straighten out some things in his life'. However, no suicide note was located in the car, or anywhere in the vicinity of the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Investigators theorise that the MP may have worn a backpack containing some of weights to ensure he would not be located if he jumped from the bridge. His mother stated that he always carried the backpack on him, and that it was not located in the car which was searched in the aftermath of his disappearance.

A number of searches have taken place in regard to the missing person. In the immediate aftermath of the disappearance, the New York State Police conducted a waterfront search of the Hudson River which turned up no conclusive results. The waters directly beneath the Bear Mountain Bridge were also searched, but this had to be suspended due to snow and bad weather. The use of sonar and side-scanning was later implemented in 2004 to search for his remains, which was hampered by a swift current in the Hudson River that stirred up sediment and made the use of an underwater camera difficult. After the sonar search in 2004, later potential efforts to solve the case include scouring the shoreline with dogs, or placing a weighted model of the MP's dimensions into the Hudson River to determine where to and how far it travels on the currents.

It remains unclear what happened to the MP. Investigators for the case continue to run his details through national databases to search for unidentified remains, and to ensure that his driver's license and Social Security number haven't been used. It has been noted that the case of the MP is the only instance of a suspected suicide on the bridge in which the body has not surfaced and been located. His family continue to seek closure about his disappearance.

Hi-tech Search

 

[Borley]

BMB is 360 feet (110 m) high. Wojnowski most probably jumped over 18 years ago. I am not sure if his remains are likely to be discovered at the bottom of the Hudson now, no matter what the technology.

 

[Tuck]

BMB is 360 feet (110 m) high. Wojnowski most probably jumped over 18 years ago. I am not sure if his remains are likely to be discovered at the bottom of the Hudson now, no matter what the technology.

I agree. Someone investigating it also noted that the sediment flow in the Hudson River would probably mean that any remains would be covered by mud after four years when they conducted their sonar search, let alone eighteen years. If he was wearing the backpack (which may have had metal attachments such as zippers), a magnetometer or metal detector search may bear some fruition, but I think that would be unlikely due to the depth of the river, the size of the metal fittings and the dispersion of other random ferrous material on the river floor. However, if the backpack was indeed weighted, these weights could have been metal, which could lead to a possible result.

 

[Borley]

I agree. Someone investigating it also noted that the sediment flow in the Hudson River would probably mean that any remains would be covered by mud after four years when they conducted their sonar search, let alone eighteen years. If he was wearing the backpack (which may have had metal attachments such as zippers), a magnetometer or metal detector search may bear some fruition, but I think that would be unlikely due to the depth of the river, the size of the metal fittings and the dispersion of other random ferrous material on the river floor. However, if the backpack was indeed weighted, these weights could have been metal, which could lead to a possible result.

Good point, though rocks might achieve the same purpose.

 

[Tuck]

Good point, though rocks might achieve the same purpose.

Types of Rock in the Hudson River:

Stretch from Albany to Beacon - Contains Shale and Limestone (Sedimentary)

I'm assuming as the Hudson River is an estuary, this is where all the sediment that inhibited the search is originating from, and flowing downstream from Upstate to NYC.

Highlands (Bear Mountain Area) - Granite and Gneiss (Igneous)

Granite is felsic, containing higher quantities of feldspar and quartz than iron and magnesium.

Gneiss is banded, containing different quantities and types of minerals within the bands. The problem is, that as gneiss is one of the two main types of rocks appearing in the Bear Mountain Area, some of the gneiss banding can tend to be of a form mafic composition, which means that it has higher quantities of magnesium and iron in the banding. As you said, that means the rocks inhibit the use of a magnetometer or metal detector search, which is probably why they didn't do one.

Palisades (Lower Hudson) - Basalt (Metamorphic)

The presence of basalt would further inhibit this search I guess, because basalt is rich in iron content, and assuming that the MP did jump off the bridge and float downstream, it wouldn't be possible to use a metal detector.

 

[DS2021]

0 Unidentified Person Exclusions