Found Deceased NY - Halle Schmidt, 21, Copake, 2 Sept 2016

[tobefrank]

I have from fairly reliable sources (albeit #RUMOR) that she was at the JML gathering.

What do you know about the JML gathering? Was it actually a party, or more like a few people getting high in a room? I know that it was said that the party primarily took place in the parking lot behind the JML, and that's why there isn't much video of it, since all of the cameras at the motel are on the side, near the entrances to the rooms.

Also, do we know any information about the male that was in the screenshot of the surveillance video from the JML, the one where Molly Arnett was pictured? I never heard anything regarding his identity, etc.

 

[wfgodot]

What do you know about the JML gathering? Was it actually a party, or more like a few people getting high in a room? I know that it was said that the party primarily took place in the parking lot behind the JML, and that's why there isn't much video of it, since all of the cameras at the motel are on the side, near the entrances to the rooms.

Also, do we know any information about the male that was in the screenshot of the surveillance video from the JML, the one where Molly Arnett was pictured? I never heard anything regarding his identity, etc.

If indeed that was Molly Arnett (no MSM confirmation but I believe it was), the person pictured with her is rumored to have disappeared soon after the party, which consisted, I think, of mostly getting high in the back lot, with a room or rooms also in play, so to speak. This last is also #RUMOR.

 

[tobefrank]

So, #RUMOR, the dude in the pictures is the one with ties to Columbia County, who might enjoy protection based on familial status?

 

[wfgodot]

So, #RUMOR, the dude in the pictures is the one with ties to Columbia County, who might enjoy protection based on familial status?

That is a surmise based on a source, though how worthy of one s/he is, is another matter. But: yes.

Though Dame Rumor always rides the night.

 

[trigger]

I suppose we're -- what? Waiting on the toxicology report?

Until then, perhaps it's worth noting, in the sense of a sort of creepy foreshadowing, if nothing else, that the last two complete words Hallie Schmidt wrote and posted on her Facebook pages, on 31 August, three days before the date given as that of her death in her obituary, were these: "I'm dead" (....).

I think toxicology report should come back around Election Day.

 

[wfgodot]

I think toxicology report should come back around Election Day.

Hmm... November 08. The sheriff is up for re-election.

 

[tobefrank]

I think toxicology report should come back around Election Day.

I think according to Sheriff Bartlett we are going to have information early this week!

 

[tobefrank]

Hmm... November 08. The sheriff is up for re-election.

****, good point.

 

[wfgodot]

****, good point.

Can't find if he faces opposition though.

 

[tobefrank]

What is the Joslen Motor Lodge's general reputation in the area? It looks pretty disreputable, but I am wondering if any local or in-the-know Sleuths have any special insight.

 

[wfgodot]

What is the Joslen Motor Lodge's general reputation in the area? It looks pretty disreputable, but I am wondering if any local or in-the-know Sleuths have any special insight.

It serves to house those otherwise homeless -- generally, women -- and fees are paid by the county (not sure where specifically funds come from). I think that the operators of JML also operate the Yorkshire Motel in Claverack for the same general purpose. I believe the family name is Anwar.

 

[tobefrank]

It serves to house those otherwise homeless -- generally, women -- and fees are paid by the county (not sure where specifically funds come from). I think that the operators of JML also operate the Yorkshire Motel in Claverack for the same general purpose. I believe the family name is Anwar.

That's pretty much what I expected to hear.

Regarding the timeline: I had gotten it confused it my mind, thinking that the police questioned "Molly" before they found the body on Old Post Rd. in Kinderhook, and that she sort of led them to it, but realized recently that I was wrong.

Instead, the police found the body on September 10th, "during the course of investigating a missing-person case, which led them to the scene," and that "after a short but extensive search" they found the remains. Actually, it was the very early morning hours of September 10th, according to Barlett, who said, “Last night [Friday] late, early morning hours of Saturday, we developed a lead of a possible body up on Old Post Road, in the Town of Kinderhook.” Another MSM report said, "They said they were led to the body by information they got while investigating a missing persons case."

Led to the body? By whom? Or what?

 

[wfgodot]

Led to the body? By whom? Or what?

snip

Yes, that's the question. One assumes it may have been a phone call about the general area -- birds of prey would have soon been circling. The area is not busy but certainly not untraveled, and the tip about the body need not have come from one otherwise related to the disappearance.

eta I posted pictures of the area earlier.
.
.

 

[tobefrank]

Don't you think the fact that the search for the body was conducted late at night suggests that the tip about its whereabouts didn't come from someone who just happened upon it, or noticed birds of prey circling, or smelled decomposition, or whatever. The time, to me, suggests a tip from someone who was at the police station - in or not in custody - or who had knowledge of the body's location, but not someone who discovered it by, say, walking through the woods, or walking their dog, or mowing the lawn.

 

[bluesneakers]

Don't you think the fact that the search for the body was conducted late at night suggests that the tip about its whereabouts didn't come from someone who just happened upon it, or noticed birds of prey circling, or smelled decomposition, or whatever. The time, to me, suggests a tip from someone who was at the police station - in or not in custody - or who had knowledge of the body's location, but not someone who discovered it by, say, walking through the woods, or walking their dog, or mowing the lawn.

Do you think this might have been someone they were already talking to, so that it wasn't so much a tip as an answer to a question?

 

[wfgodot]

Don't you think the fact that the search for the body was conducted late at night suggests that the tip about its whereabouts didn't come from someone who just happened upon it, or noticed birds of prey circling, or smelled decomposition, or whatever. The time, to me, suggests a tip from someone who was at the police station - in or not in custody - or who had knowledge of the body's location, but not someone who discovered it by, say, walking through the woods, or walking their dog, or mowing the lawn.

Good points all. My first thought was that it was an informant close to the case. But it could have come from a culmination of suspicions of people from the area. The night is indeed a inconvenience to that theory, though. But maybe. We don't know if someone was interviewed; we do know the body was left in a populated area.

 

[tobefrank]

Populated is relative in this area. Yes, the area isn't completely rural. There are some houses and businesses along Route 9H. However, there are densely wooded areas, there is brush, there are state parklands. And I believe - though I haven't seen it firsthand - that the area where the body was found was somewhat desolate, no?

 

[wfgodot]

Populated is relative in this area. Yes, the area isn't completely rural. There are some houses and businesses along Route 9H. However, there are densely wooded areas, there is brush, there are state parklands. And I believe - though I haven't seen it firsthand - that the area where the body was found was somewhat desolate, no?

Not really. It's easily found if one knows where to look, and MSM provided that information after the fact for those who wanted it. There are houses about, and they are just a casual distance away. But they are a comfortable-enough distance if one at midnight, say, with good knowledge of the area, wanted to dump a body fast.

 

[tobefrank]

Not really. It's easily found if one knows where to look, and MSM provided that information after the fact for those who wanted it. There are houses about, and they are just a casual distance away. But they are a comfortable-enough distance if one at midnight, say, with good knowledge of the area, wanted to dump a body fast.

I will have to take a closer look at the location where the body was found! Is the little balloon memorial still there?

 

[wfgodot]

I will have to take a closer look at the location where the body was found! Is the little balloon memorial still there?

I think the initial memorials have probably withered, as it were, and thus probably have been taken down. (Though other, newer, more rain-worthy items may have appeared. I'm betting something's still there.)