Potentially Related Crimes

[Ausgirl]

Over on the John Douglas forum, a poster has asked a Very Good Question, which I'll paraphrase here:

Why is it that nobody seems to be exploring similar crimes of the era, in case there's a link between those and Keddie?

Of course, people have. So I think perhaps it deserves a thread.

I have files of full of stuff for California 1978-1983, and plan to sift through them as I get time. Please do add any records of crimes which fit the time period or shares similar elements. Unsolved or solved - the perp(s) could be/could have been in jail for violent crime before...

[not sure]

At the risk of being a broken record (others have heard me mention this one before) I'd like to post a similar case I feel may be related.

The case I'm referring to is the unsolved murder of Joan Elizabeth Kennedy Galbreath who was killed June 26, 1979 in Susanville, CA (about 60 miles from Keddie).

All that I have about the case was taken from her sister's memoir, Approaching Neverland. In the book her sister said she was found with a phone cord wrapped around her neck, had been stabbed all over (she'd put up a hell of a fight, it was said) and her clothes had been ripped off. There were 2 glasses of orange juice sitting out on the counter that the police believe belonged to the perps ( she was allergic to orange juice and her husband, Dan, said he didn't pour any juice before leaving the house). Her husband was a known drug dealer and the local authorities believed her murder may have been revenge for a drug deal gone bad. Her husband passed the lie detector test and all of his known clients were questioned to no avail. The only thing missing from the house was a small amount of gold jewelry but other valuables were still present. Unfortunately, there were no prints found.

The reasons I think this case may be related are:

1) Use of a phone cord from the victim's house to tie her up/strangle her (Dana was strangled, presumably by some of the phone cord used to tie them up)

2) Glasses of liquid present that didn't belong to the victim (there was a glass of liquid (soda?) left on a table at Cabin28)

3) Stabbed multiple times then strangled (similar to the wounds and cause of death of the Sharps and Dana)

4) 2 perps involved (2 glasses of oj)

5) The mention, by authorities, of a drug deal gone bad (Doug Thomas said some believed the Keddie murders were a drug deal gone bad) although no connection to drugs was ever found nor did she have drugs in her system, as far as I know.

6) Items taken from the house were minor, as if the perps were taking souvenirs (other than Tina, only her showbox/Johnny's toolbox or both, were said to be missing)

I know Susanville is an hour away from Quincy but to me that's not such a stretch. Joan may have been killed because of something she knew about or threatened to expose. It's been mentioned Sue may have been killed for similar reasons. It could also be Sue and the kids were killed as a warning to the community. Joan may have been killed for similar reasons. (the "see what happens when you mess with us" kind of warning)

There has also been mention made of a large drug ring stretching from as far east as Montana and west to Eureka, places like Livermore, Oroville and Reno being stopping points. If Joan's husband was viewed as a threat to the territory, well, you get my drift. Not saying this was the reason, nor the reason for the Keddie murders. Just wondering if they may be related somehow.

At this time it's still unsolved although her family has started a new campaign to catch the perps who killed her. I've asked around, even asked a few people here if they have ever heard of this case or read anything in the local papers, but to no avail.

Anyway, this is a case I feel may be similar or related that's gone unsolved from that time frame.

And let's not forget about Lynette Mollath (Keddie's owner's daughter) who was murdered in a similar fashion in 1978 in Oakland. Both of these cases are strangely similar and both fell from public view very swiftly after they happened.

[Ausgirl]

I'm really glad the case isn't going to sink out entirely of sight, NS. I tried finding it on the net, and found only scraps of information, nothing as useful as what you've written here. Thank goodness for her sister's book, or there'd be nothing at all. Like the Mollath murder, but I believe that has been deliberately buried.

I don't at all think 60 miles away is too far to have the case considered as possibly connected. Tina's body was further than that from Keddie, so that demonstrates a pretty firm case for the perp(s) being willing to travel. The guy on the JD forum found the Keddie murders because they matched search-words for crimes committed in Reno.

There's just so many...

Anyhow. I'll start with the crime that Kevin Cooper says he didn't do in 1983.

[meankitty]

Not Sure, I also got to thinking about the difference between the crime you mentioned and Keddie. Sue was gagged in an odd way that suggests S&M stuff. I don't know if the other victim was, but if the perps who did Keddie committed other crimes, perhaps they gagged others in a similar way.

[Ausgirl]

Good point, MK, about the gag being reminiscent of S&M stuff.

On the change in details - if the perp(s) have comitted other crimes, there's nothing at all to say they had to be identical in every detail. They could have used a gun in others, or not bound the victims, or left no survivors - they could have transitioned from rape to murder, or from armed robbery. We have so little to go on -- but if a rash of violent crimes against women and/or children seem to pop up wherever a suspect goes, then perhaps they are worth looking into. Who knows, maybe there's dna on record, or fingerprints, or a witness we don't know about.

It's certainly worth checking out other crimes where a gag was used.

[dmac]

but it is important to distinguish how poorly and stupidly the "gags" (multiple) were used in the Keddie case. And how the hammer was used to stop Sue from talking.

Bits of tape to hold a gag in place? Same tape used on other victims ? Tape ran out and they went to electrical extension cords?

Does that degree of flash-in-the-pan anger and stupidity match the other crimes?

[Ausgirl]

It's precisely that, dmac, which we need to look for, I think. While I believe at least one of the perp(s) has surely committed violent crime before, there's nothing much practised about this one.

In fact, the more I look at it, the more I see the reality of what actually happened not at all matching up to whatever was going on in the perp(s) mind. The gag was supposed to keep Sue quiet. But it didn't. Then it didn't again. Then more desperate measures were taken and the gags, along with the violence, escalated.

The bindings too show signs of inexpert application, though the tape on John and Sue was firm enough.. makes me wonder if one perp took off (with Tina?) and left the other, less practised perp to 'finish up'. I mean, what idiot leaves evidence in a public bin? One who was freaking the hell out, probably, and could have been on foot after his mate up and left him there.

It would be good to know where Sue's car keys are, and whether the car was left open or not... Anyways, back to potentially related crimes. For the idiot perp, the next crime would not have been so unprepared, nor would they make the mistakes they made in this one. And the ones prior would be half-assed rape attempts or child molesting, something against those weaker than him. I think whoever it was, based on that gag, had been fantasising about rape - whether that involved Sue or Tina or not - for some time.

As to the one who had a clue? I'm still working on him...

But as an example of a violent son of a bitch who hated women and liked to cross state boundaries a lot, take a look at Cowboy Mike, who committed rape and murder from California all the way to Washington state.

Lotta reading to do....

[jhancock]

We explore this avenue briefly in Part II of the documentary. One of the similar cases that police did study was the murder of Kathy Howard that took place in Plumas County. Here is a report that unites the two cases:

[Ausgirl]

Not much information around about poor Kathy, Josh

Local/not highly unlikely weirdos:

David James McIntosh who is... yeah, way creepy,

and

Michael Adams who bludgeoned a mother to death in her car,

and

Ward Weaver Sr., who committed a LOT of crimes and whose son also became a serial killer.

Weaver made me sit up a bit. He was a Vietnam veteran (did he ever go to the VA hospital in Reno, I wonder...) who liked to gag his victims. On being bitten by one, Ward would completely zone out:

Defendant' s first wife, Patricia Budrow, testified that defendant hates to be bitten. She testified she once bit his hand when they were wrestling in the car and he became very angry and began choking her. Another time, she bit his hand when they were wrestling on the floor. He grabbed her by the neck and looked dazed and glassy-eyed. He later told her he did not know why he choked her, but that he hated being bitten, and that when he was a child his mother would bite him until he bled as a means of disciplining him.

His last known crime was a double murder - in April, 1981. The one before that - another double murder, Feb. 6th, 1981.

His son, Ward Weaver III, followed in his dad's footsteps and there's reason to suspect that Ward Jr. took his son out on "hunting" expeditions. He was known to definitely be present for some of his dad's crimes, at least, around ages 10-12 or so. Ward III would later move to Oroville.

Ward Jr. was also known to involve "a friend" in his crimes. I'd really like to know who that was.

Was he familiar with Keddie? Well, he also liked to go by the name of Ward F. Bernardo. Ward "Bernardo" had relatives in ... Quincy.

There's links between Ward Sr. and a pile of places that folks who've been around this board a while will be very familiar with:

- Portland, Oregon
- Eugene, Oregon
- Chico, CA




These, among some other assholes I found, but I haven't verified whether they were out and about in '81 or not. I'll update this post as I find 'em.

[ForensicGirl]

Side Note:

I would have thought they would have, especially of the prints. I have thought if they found a usable one, perhaps it wasn't on file in 1981.

It was all manual ten-print cards at the time, which made searches much more difficult and time consuming. IAFIS didn't launch until July 1999. Any latent prints they found probably would have only gone through California State fingerprint repository.

That isn't to say they should not have pulled the latents to run them through IAFIS by now. The problem with the current system is that a lot of state repositories for AFIS only check against the state repository. You typically have to request a run through IAFIS. A lot of smaller county and local agencies do not know this and they assume the print was ran through IAFIS when they submitted it.

Also, in order for an entry to be searchable on IAFIS it has to be able to be limited to less than 30% of the fingerprints on file.

Another question I have is if California does lights out matching or if they still require manual identifications.

[not sure]

Found this in the Redding Searchlight archives:

http://www.redding.com/news/2010/may/16/ray-cold-case/

Terri Lynn Ray, 15 yo, stabbed to death in Redding, CA, 7/8/76. Unsolved. Similar to Kathy Howard's murder.

[ache]

Another case of a child disappearing from the Quincy area is that of Mark Wendell Wilson. Mark went missing in 1967 at the age of 13. He is reported as being missing from Quincy, although it is unclear if he was seen at all after leaving his home in Meadow Valley en route to Quincy. As in Kathy Howard's case, there seems to be very little mention of this child in the media.

[dmac]

Mark Wilson was last seen hitching from Meadow Valley to catch a movie at the Town Hall Theater. Nobody reported seeing him there, so it's assumed he caught a bad ride.

Wilson did get a memorial mention in the yearbook, though. So did Kathy Howard. Johnny, Tina, and Dana were never afforded similar recognition.

[TREELAND]

David James McIntosh originally from Cottonwood with eight previous felony sex convictions in Sacramento, Shasta, and Plumas counties was linked to the 1984 rape and murder of thirteen year old Heidi Marie Fredette of Portola in 2001 by DNA evidence. He was serving a two year sentence at the time for failing to register as an sex offender in Shasta County and waived his right to a jury trial so he could avoid the death penalty. Heidi was found on June 7th in eighty-four near Red Bluff right off HWY 36 by Payne's Creek she was raped, strangled, beaten, and repeatedly stabbed in the face and head. Her body was discovered one day after she was reported as a run-away.

[dmac]

Here's one that I've known about for a long time, but finally found an article that lays it out somewhat clearly. Not that I think it's remotely related, but it's yet another unsolved murder in Plumas, this one happening weeks after Tina's skull was 'discovered':

SKULL FINALLY LINKED TO MISSING S.J. MAN GOLD COUNTRY CASE STILL MYSTERIOUS
San Jose Mercury News (CA) - Wednesday, April 19, 1989
Author: BILL ROMANO, Mercury News Staff Writer

The skull of a murder victim who was shot to death five years ago in California's Gold Country has been identified as that of a San Jose man.

Authorities in Plumas County told San Jose police Tuesday that the remains are those of Ivan Michev, a 44-year-old prospector who vanished in May 1984 on a gold-panning trip.

Michev's vehicle was discovered in a remote region along the middle fork of the Feather River not long after his disappearance. The vehicle was near Hartman's Bar, a spot in rugged wilderness 50 miles east of Oroville.

A friend reported Michev missing after he failed to return home.

The skull was found several months afterward, about five miles from the place searchers had located the vehicle.

At that point, the case took a weird turn.

Plumas County sheriff's Lt. Don Stoy said the man who found the skull, an unidentified backwoods miner, apparently kept quiet about the remains until October 1987, when the skull was turned over to authorities.

Stoy declined to discuss how officials came into possession of the skull or why the man had kept it for so long. He also would not say whether the person was a suspect in Michev's killing.

Stoy said detectives culled missing persons reports with the California Department of Justice and focused on Michev but were unable to make a connection until recently.

The cause of death was also uncertain for some time, until trace amounts of metal were detected in the skull, leading investigators to conclude that Michev had been killed by a bullet.

According to San Jose police Sgt. Douglas Bergtholdt, Michev was a legal immigrant from Bulgaria who entered the United States in 1969 and settled here. His primary occupation was a truck driver, police said.

A bachelor, Michev frequently visited the Gold Country to camp and prospect and was quite familiar with the area, Bergtholdt said.

The day after the car was found, Michev was to have appeared in federal court in connection with a 1983 arrest for dredging on national parkland.

[dmac]

Mark Wilson Update

Students investigate well site
Two students from the California State University of Sacramento collected DNA evidence from a well in Meadow Valley on March 28 to determine if it could be the final resting place for 13-year-old Mark Wilson. The teen left his Meadow Valley home on foot 46 years ago and was never seen again.

[azucena]

A number of people are interested in the possible remains in this well. A number of years before Mark Wilson's disappearance, Eliza Stratton disappeared from The Stratton Ranch in Meadow Valley. An extensive search yielded no clues. Eliza Stratton was grandmother to Shaun and Roger Stratton, who have been mentioned in this forum as possibly having an "acid " party at their home on the night of the murders of the Sharp family. Coincidentally, this alleged party happened pretty much where Eliza disappeared while the family went to see the movie in Quincy.

Mark Wilson allegedly was hitchhiking to Quincy to go the the movies with a friend when he disappeared. He also supposedly did not have a good relationship with his step dad.

[dmac]

Here's some other details on Mark from posts I made on other [horrible] forums, hoping to get the word out:

From Sept 2013:

My research from a year or two back also said he was hitching from Meadow Valley (located east of town) into Quincy. The Town Hall was/is the only theatre in town, and it's only a couple blocks from the eastern edge of town. Nobody at the theatre recalled seeing him there that day, so the assumption is he never made it that far.

Unlike the four victims of the Keddie Murders of 1981 (three of which attended local schools), both Wilson and murder victim Kathy Ann Howard were given tributes in the school yearbooks. Kathy was 14, disappeared while hitching at Quincy's Cemetery Hill Oct 7 1973, and her body found 6 days later, sexually assaulted, throat slit, head crushed, and right eye stabbed.

Salem, do you recall who you spoke with at PCSO concerning Wilson? Was this cop by the name of Bill Elliott? IF so, you've been lied to and strung along by a guy that honestly doesn't have the brainpower to remember his name. He's been telling conflicting lies (many of them concerning DNA) about the Keddie case for a looooong time.

=============================================

I did a lot of scrounging for information when researching Mark Wilson, but there was nothing really to find. I had a folder dedicated to him, but that computer died and fried all my drives, so I had to start from scratch. I remember the circumstances were he lived in MV, which is barely a community NOW, much less in 67. I've recently read about his case at markwilson.projectjason.org (who wrote the personal account found there?), and I'd never heard about him usually biking back and forth. There's a lot of good info in that account, so let me try to weave what I know in and out of the personal memories found on projectjason.

First, the distance is only a few miles west of Quincy. Here's a link to a map I made dealing with many of the major landmarks in the Keddie Murders from 1981. At the bottom of the map is a cluster of pinpointed landmarks on right, which is Quincy. On the bottom left is a sole blue icon, pinpointing "downtown Meadow Valley" in 1981.

Keddie Murders Map

Understanding the crime has a lot to do with understanding the terrain and the roads and the era when it happened. The main road through Plumas, where traffic was consistently found, is HWY 70/89. The road to Meadow Valley was a small road (since widened, slightly) that winds through canyons, with occasional small breaks mainly to the north. It expands into a small and sparsely-populated valley area, but the main route between MV and where that road connects to 70/89 (which is also Quincy's Main Street) is thickly lined on both sides of the road with tall pines. I drove the widened version of the road two years back, and I know anyone walking on that road has few places to go in case of trouble. Also, the south side of the road, where he would have been if hitching into town, is often carved out of the mountainside, leaving nowhere to run if he didn't like the look of the ride he'd thumbed down. Literally on the side of the road and nowhere to run where the driver can't jump out and catch you first.

Once you get into Quincy from the road to Meadow Valley, it's only 150 yards (1.3 blocks) from where that road connects to 70/89/Main St. until you hit the theatre.

Click here for a photo gallery I made of Quincy through the decades. Look at the gallery's Main Street section closely, because you can see the theatre was only 150 yards down Main from where the MV road connected to Main Street/70/89. In fact, the Main Street Gallery has many photos taken at that corner where the MV road connected to the corner of Crescent and Main. Those were taken from the corner of where historic Hotel Quincy once stood, which was burnt down by arson months prior in 1966. Also, others were taken next door at the County Courthouse, which housed the Plumas County Sheriff's Office and Jail at the time. You can see the theatre on the left (north) side of the road a block down, with the tall, pillar-like sign declaring 'TOWNHALL'. When looking at the gallery, turn on the "i" caption button because I added explanations for many of the photos, including the names of the movies on the marquee on Town Hall photos I could decipher.

Take a peak around the gallery and the map link I gave above. Use Google Maps' Street View to see the layout of Quincy and how the road to MV is still small and winding. If Mark Wilson was hitching and caught a ride, it was long before he hit Quincy, so he was picked up by somebody on a very low-traffic road. 1967? Much lower traffic then, and keep in mind the weather and specific location. The mountains were to his south as he walked to Quincy. Literally at his feet, since he was walking on a cutaway. Quincy is very far north of the equator, so the earth's curvature means the sun is very weak and the azimuth/apex is always very far to the south in Plumas, and it gets much weaker in winter. In 67, there was no Daylight Savings Time, so 6 pm in 1967 is like 7 pm without DST, much darker. Meadow Valley and most of the road into Quincy is already in shade shortly after noon by that time of year, so Mark would have been walking in shade, in low very light, if he left at five. My guess is sundown in Quincy in 67 would have been around 5:45 pm, based on my experiences in England at that time of year. Had it already snowed? It often does by that time of year. It would take time, but would be easy to find the facts about weather and sundown/sunup and other factors to calculate weather circumstances and walking conditions in November 1967, but they were not good circumstances. Even considering how it was a quiet town where nothing ever happened, that road was very dangerous to walk. Period.

The movie theatre was tiny, and still is. It shows two movies, and they were usually 3-6 months old. Quincy couldn't afford premiere, first-run flicks, so they have one theatre, one screen, and two films that are months old. If he was going to the Matinee, it probably meant a cheaper price and maybe both films for the cheaper fee. If you want to know what was playing at the theatre that evening, I would research the Plumas papers from Oct/November 67, or try the Plumas County Library or Plumas County Museum. I don't find the title(s) he was going to see as very important, but I do find it very odd he was not meeting any friends there. Either he loved film, was a loner, or something else was going on.

Looking at films I would expect to possibly be booked at the Town Hall, I'll choose top releases that were hits months earlier and were not too daring or controversial, and usually one was for guys and the other more romantic.

El Dorado (John Wayne), You Only Live Twice (007 Connery), Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Dirty Dozen, The Jungle Book, Wait Until Dark, Cool Hand Luke. I doubt Quincy played top films like Bonnie and Clyde or In the Heat of the Night or Born Losers or even To Sir With Love because they were too controversial or too intelligent, to be blunt. A lot of the times they wouldn't even pick up A-List movies, as you can see from photos posted in the photo gallery. I don't know what it was like in 67, but they often ran b-movies in the 50s and early 60s.

I've learned a lot about the Plumas/Quincy area over the years I've spent working the Keddie case, and the area is beautiful. Between 67-81, that "wonderful community" sure went to hell.

I'll talk about other aspects, if anyone's interested, but look into what I've posted above because this case cries "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!" A very weird place AND wrong time of year AND wrong time of day to grab a ride from someone you don't know. Who else would be on that road between MV and Q?

======================================================

I must retract my understanding the theatre ran doubleheaders. Every photo and every bit of info I have says that theatre ran b-movies, one at a time, no double features. And the A-list movies I mentioned? Not in Quincy. Anyone in Plumas had to go way out of town to see a REAL movie.

Other than that, the sunlight is thin and the roads were narrow and he was on the tiniest of roads when he disappeared. This is about Mark Wendell Wilson, and the focus is that he was abducted on a tiny winding road. I think the runaway theory is pure BS.

=====================================================

From 4/14:

http://plumasnews.com/index.php?opti...-news&Itemid=6

Potential lead found in 1967 case of missing boy

Mark Wilson was 13 when he disappeared in 1967.
BY Dan McDonald
Managing Editor
3/28/2014

Trained dogs detect scent at abandoned well in Meadow Valley


More than 46 years ago, 13-year-old Mark Wilson left his Meadow Valley home on foot. He told his parents he planned to try to hitch a ride to Quincy to watch a movie.

The eighth-grader was never seen again.

Shortly after Mark — his friends called him “Wilson” — disappeared without a trace Nov. 4, 1967, a search began.

An all-points bulletin was issued by the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office to law enforcement agencies throughout the region.

As the days and weeks passed, Sheriff W.C. Abernethy personally traveled the state searching for any possible leads to Wilson’s whereabouts. The sheriff would eventually distribute fliers nationwide.

Wilson’s mother, Betty Wilson, offered a $500 reward for information that could help her find her son.

Weeks, months and then years passed without a single credible lead. Wilson had simply vanished.

Current sheriff Greg Hagwood said that despite having absolutely no clues to work with, his office revisited the Wilson case every year.

“We haven’t had any actionable leads in the 26 years that I’ve been at the sheriff’s department,” Hagwood said.

Until now.

“I want people to know that regardless of how old the case is, we haven’t forgotten about it. And the family hasn’t forgotten about it. And we are going to take whatever efforts to conclusively determine what is at this site.”

Last October, a specially trained dog (known as a cadaver dog) zeroed in on abandoned well in Meadow Valley. The dog and its handler, which were brought in by friends and family of Wilson, were definitely on to something.

The Sheriff’s Office followed up by bringing in a cadaver dog of its own. That dog made “a positive alert” at the same location.

In January, a third “highly credentialed” dog was enlisted by the sheriff. According to Sheriff Hagwood, the dog that specialized in the recovery of human remains picked up a scent in the same spot.

“It was kind of a triple-blind test,” Hagwood said. The sheriff emphasized that the three dogs weren’t led to the site. They found it on their own.

“We wanted to be completely objective about this,” Hagwood said. “Given that three dogs have independently alerted to human remains at this site, and its proximity to the area where Mark Wilson was last seen, we have an obligation to find out what’s in there.”

Hagwood said he didn’t want to give the exact location of the well, which is on private property in Meadow Valley.

“We aren’t identifying the property specifically at this time in the interest of the actual case and in the interest of the current property owners,” Hagwood said.

The sheriff also cautioned that because the dogs were trained to detect “historic and prehistoric” human remains, whatever attracted them could be more than 100 years old.

“That is important to bear in mind,” he said. “We have no evidence at this point to be able to say the dogs are alerting on (Wilson’s) remains. We don’t have that.”

Excavating the well site

Hagwood said an excavation at the well site would likely happen in May or June. He said the team of experts needs to be assembled. And it is important to have relatively good weather.

He expects the excavation to take seven to 10 days.

“Once this process starts, it won’t stop until it is completed,” Hagwood said. “It’s not a situation where we can work for a couple days and take a week off. Once it starts, it will go daily until it’s completed.”

The cost of such an operation, which could involve as many as a dozen specialists and technicians, could total more than $100,000, according to the sheriff. However, Hagwood said he has enlisted the help of FBI experts from across the country.

“They have what is known as an ‘evidence recovery team.’ They are FBI agents and specialists and technicians whose expertise is in processing, recovering and excavating historical sites,” Hagwood said. “And with that, it brings a level of expertise that is world-renowned at very little, if any, cost to Plumas County.”

The sheriff said his office is fortunate to have the expert help. But he said he would have dug up the well even without it.

“I’m gonna find out what’s in that well, come hell or high water,” Hagwood said. “That’s just the bottom line.”

Little known about the well

Hagwood said there are no records to indicate when the well was dug or when it was last used.

“I know it was there in 1926. I’ve got photographic evidence that it was there in ’26,” he said. “But that’s about all we know.”

Hagwood said his office has been trying to contact local people who might have some knowledge of when it was built.

Wilson remembered

The sheriff said people in the community have been very helpful in the case.

“There are a lot of people still in the Quincy area and Plumas County who knew the young man and who were close to the family,” Hagwood said. “There is a high level of interest in a case like this.

“I want people to know that regardless of how old the case is, we haven’t forgotten about it. And the family hasn’t forgotten about it. And we are going to take whatever efforts to conclusively determine what is at this site.”
Recently posted articles

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Here's the photo of Mark from the 1967 yearbook. This would have been taken near the beginning of the school year, in mid-1966. The photo of Mark most often seen seems to be his yb photo for the following year (1968); however, his photo does not appear in that book. It seems to have been pulled prior to the book going to print, as a result of his disappearance. As for the memorial, I can't find it in glancing through the 68 yearbook, which is not surprising as it was a small, single-line blurb... much less prominent than the Kathy Howard memorial I posted above.

In case it disappears from markwilson.projectjason.org, and simply to consolodate the info here:

Clothing: He was wearing dark jeans, a sweat shirt, a white nylon windbreaker jacket and sneakers.

Circumstances of Disappearance: He left his home in Meadow Valley in the early afternoon on Saturday to hitchhike to the matinee show in Quincy. (7 miles away) He asked his mother for some money out of his small saving account which she refused, so it is thought that he only had a few dollars with him.

ABOUT MARK WILSON
I would describe Mark as having a pleasant personality, easy-going-with a sense of humor. He could solve all kinds of puzzles. He was interested in bikes then and had a three speed stingray. He always wanted a ten speed. He often rode the bike to town seven miles away, but not that Saturday when he disappeared because it would have been dark after the show.

I understand that at the time all the boys in the small boy scout group had put Mark’s name down as one of the boys they wanted to be in their patrol group. He was shy and was having trouble with his school work. He may have been dyslexic.

I asked him once if he would be interested in being an astronaut. He said ‘no’, but he might be interested in helping to build the space ship! He had drawn a picture of a peace sign, but didn’t seem too interested in all the protests and politics of the times then. He was only in the eighth grade. He had made some ‘glasses’ out of the reflectors on the road posts which gave sort of a psychedelic look when you wore them, breaking up the light. He may have been interested in mechanical things more than philosophical things.

We had a swimming pool at the house we were living in when he disappeared. The house was in foreclosure then and after Mark disappeared we moved back to a smaller house next door. Dick, Mark’s stepfather, had gotten some high school boys through probation to do some work clearing roads in a subdivision we were trying to develop, and they would come and swim after ‘working’ Some could swim the length of the pool underwater and Mark was trying to do that too.

=================================================

That's a lot to digest, but I'm sufficiently satisfied that valuable leads must have come forward to lead to the dogs' search and hits, so I'm satisfied this could be Mark and not necessarily a crime. My Qs are about how a lead such as this can't mean foul play or at least personal knowledge of an accident.

[dmac]

It's widely believed Mark's step-father killed him and disposed of his body.

[nekogirrl]

if the road, the light and the weather were bad enough...might not even be a deliberate murder....could be a hit and run where the driver panicked and hid the body...poor kid...