Thursday 30 March 2017

Elisa: The Documentary

Just dropping by quickly since I thought you'd all appreciate this video by Youtube user The Paranormal Scholar
It really explores every single angle and explains a lot of the theories people have.
(Also I'll update the my list of awesome youtubers later, so check back for that)

 

For my mega post on the Elisa Lam case click HERE<<

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Who was Lyle Stevik? Grays Harbor County, WA, hotel suicide.

I was thinking about the Lyle Stevik case again recently. My original write up of it was pretty generic really, and doesn’t do justice to how interested I actually am in the case.
If you’ve been visiting my morbid little corner of the internet for a while, you’ll notice that I constantly go back to cases and often re-write them or add to them later down the line. Today it’s time to give the suicide of Lyle Stevik another look.


In Fern Hill Cemetery, Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County, WA, USA, there is a grave containing the unidentified body of a man who hanged himself in a hotel in 2001. The following is an account of the final days of a John Doe who came to be known in death as “Lyle Stevik”.

On the 14th of September 2001 a man checked into a nearby motel in Amanda Park, Grays Harbor County, Washington. He looked around 25 years old, 6”2, with hazel eyes and straight, dark hair that was well maintained. He was clad in stone washed Levis jeans held up with a leather belt, a grey T. shirt with a blue flannel shirt on top and a pair of Timberland boots. Look closely and you’d notice the mole on the left side of his chin.


He scrawled his name and address on a piece of paper at the reception desk:
Lyle Stevik.
1019 S Progress Ave, Meridian, Idaho.



Nobody saw how he arrived, but there’s a possibility that he could have gotten there by bus, as he walked into the Lake Quinault Inn motel in correlation with the scheduled arrival time of the local buses that regularly stopped outside.

 I looked up the hotel name and address and as far as I can tell, it was the “Lake Quinault Inn” located at 8 N Shore Rd, Amanda Park, WA 98526.


There is two motels in a close vicinity of each other, each with a similar sounding name (the other being called “Quinault river inn”) but from comparing reports online, it seems that the one he stayed in was “Lake Quinault inn”. I’m confident it is too, seeing as there seems to be trailer homes near the back of the hotel (Lyle apparently complained of noise coming from there), there is a couple of bus stops just outside (probably where Lyle got off) some ATMS (he paid with crisp notes) and a grocery store.

When investigators enquired about Lyle, the person on the front desk who checked him in said she thought he had a bit of a Canadian accent, although he didn’t really speak much beyond the communication needed to book a room and make requests etc. She checked him into room 8 of the motel, then moved him over to room 5 after the noise from the nearby trailer park was disturbing him. He showered before changing rooms, although he denied this for some reason when asked.

When questioned about his character the reception worker commented that he made her feel uneasy and seemed “Spaced out”-she hasn’t seemed to elaborate on this anywhere else or indicated why exactly he was giving her “bad vibes” so that’s all we have to go on.

Now, according to a post on “Throwbacknews.com”, someone who claimed to be the daughter of the maid (who originally found Lyles body) posted on a FB group dedicated to uncovering the identity of the mysterious dead man, that on the second day of Lyles stay she said she apparently heard him arguing with someone in his room. She claims that she definitely heard two voices. 
  This was on the same day that she went to clean Stevik’s motel room, only to be turned away as he opened the door just a crack and rejected the service. Obviously I can’t attest to this being true or not, it’s just something I found while trawling through search results about the case online.
 It is true, though, that on Sunday 16th Lyle said he didn’t want his room cleaned, and that he instead asked for two more towels.


The following day (Saturday the 15th) numerous people see Lyle walking up and down the highway. They specifically say that he was “pacing” which to me suggests he may have looked like he was anticipating someone or something to arrive or pass. Other than that, the only other place people seemed to see him was on the porch outside of the room, although it doesn’t say anywhere what he was doing.

Sunday comes; he rejects the cleaning service and requests two extra towels. Monday rolls around and its checkout time- only Lyle doesn’t check out. The maid opens the door to see him kneeling in his closet. She calls the manager who contacts the police.

Scene photos can be viewed here. NSFW. 

It turns out that the man has hanged himself using his own belt with a small towel tucked under his chin. He has 8 $1 notes in his pocket and a pen. It’s estimated that he died late the night before or very early the next morning.


On the dressing table there is 8 crisp $20 bills in one of the hotel comment cards, with an accompanying note on the front that says “For the room”. In the draw there is loose change amounting to $2.40, a tube of tooth paste and an oral B toothbrush. In the wastepaper bin there is a screwed up note with “Suicide” written on it in upper case letters, along with a discarded copy of the most recent Daily World Sunday newspaper and an empty cup. 

The newspaper headline for that issue was apparently news of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. He had received nor made any calls from the phone in the room and the windows were covered over with the bed sheet from the bed. Probably for more privacy or to block the day light.


The name he provided is believed to be a pseudonym and the address is that of a hotel-Best Western Rama Inn 1019 S Progress Ave, Meridian, Idaho. Nobody there remembers ever seeing Lyle Stevik when they are shown the photograph. They check for the same name on the guest check in list, but there is no match. That’s not to say he wasn’t ever there- he may have used different names each time he checked into a hotel, or maybe there were different staff on shift / the staff simply didn’t remember him.

Analysis revealed that during the last year of his life Stevik had moved to several different places. It seems as though he was traveling a lot and had been doing so for at least a year, probably longer. He could have even come from / been to as far as Canada. Feel free to browse through this report at your leisure it’s a very interesting read and even gives you an insight to the process of the test.

He had an old scar from an appendectomy, was circumcised and had some scrapes that hadn’t healed yet on the knuckles of both hands. When tested there was no sign of illness and disease, so that rules out any ideas that he took his life due to sickness as we see in some cases.

So who was Lyle Stevik?

complete case here [X]
Copies of case notes 1 [X]
Copies of case notes 2 [X]

Friday 24 March 2017

How to play the elevator game / Elisa Lam update.


Hey friends.

It was only a few days ago that I posted the link to that Reignbot video about the Elisa Lam documentary kickstarter page. << click to read
Although there's very little chance that a documentary or movie could shine any more light on the series of events that lead to Elisa's death (unless they talked to someone who hadn't previously come forward) at least it didn't seem like it was going to be a straight up horror film about possession or ghosts and whatnot. 

Well I just learned of another film being based on the Lam case called "The elevator game". 
It's about a girl whose sister goes missing and last images of her were captured on the CCTV from a sketchy hotel. The missing girl goes in the hotel elevator and vanishes. 
It's nothing about the Lam case really, more about the paranormal theories that were flying around online.


As you probably know the elevator game is a game from South Korea (Japan too, so I read) that involves getting into an elevator and pushing the buttons in a particular order. If you successfully complete the steps in the correct order when you exit the lift you'll find yourself alone in another dimension or world. If you've ever listened to any scary story channels (suggestions here) you will probably have heard of stories of people using elevators in old buildings and accessing floors that were supposed to be non-existent or under construction, only to realize they have entered a strange place and are usually chased back into the elevator by a screeching, tall black shadow woman.

If you remember a few years back when the Elisa Lam case got a lot of attention due to the "creepy" last recorded video of the girl in the lift of the Cecil hotel (now "Stay on main") you'll remember the internet relating her death to the game. Which was dumb, but you know how people like to scare themselves for kicks.  


(By the way, if you want to read my post on the death of Elisa Lam, which contains every piece of information I could find online, including people who have visited previously and dispelling the idea that it was impossible to climb into the water tank etc. then click HERE<<)

So anyways the film is being directed and written by Nicole Jones-Dion and produced by Sean S.Cunningham (Crystal Lake Entertainment). Not sure when its coming out, but its in the works-I just thought I'd let you all know, as I always add to my Elisa post for the sake of completeness. 

Oh, also,if you don't know how to play the game, I'll tell you quickly here:

How to play the elevator game: 

First you find a building with an elevator that has at 10 floors or more.
Get in alone, and ride it to each floor in this sequence: 
1, 4, 2, 6, 2, 10, 5, 1.
Instead of going to 1, you'll automatically begin going up to floor 10. This is how you know it's worked.

During the sequence, you must ignore anyone who gets into the lift with you. This is especially import to note while on the 5th floor, as there is an otherworldly being in the guise of a girl who will try her best to eternally lure you from the reality you know.

To get back you repeat the process and will be taken back to reality on the first floor. Be sure to check you really are in the real world before you settle back into your life. If you pass out during the return process and awake in your own bed, you're most likely not home, so you'll have to scrutinize your surroundings to check.

Have fun visiting other dimensions everyone.  



Thursday 23 March 2017

The death of Henry McCabe


On the 7th of September 2015, Mounds view, Minnesota resident Kareen McCabe received a worrying voice mail from her husband at around 2.30am. She was 2000 miles away in California at the time she played the message and was shocked to hear what sounded like pained and distressed groaning and growling followed by the words “Stop it” before the message cut off.

The video below contains the clip. Skip to 5 minutes and 24 seconds for the audio. 
(Removed)

EDIT: News clip regarding the call



Her husband, 32 year old auditor Henry McCabe was reported missing the following day. The last images of him alive were captured on the CCTV cameras at Holiday gas station off Central Ave.  According to reports a friend had dropped him off after they came back from a club. Apparently the friend took McCabe’s wallet to prevent him from purchasing more alcohol.


His body turned up 6 miles away from where he was last seen. A man who was kayaking in Rush river discovered the decedent. Despite the suspicious voice mail that he left for both his wife and brother, investigators did not believe there was foul play involved in Henry McCabe’s death and the autopsy revealed that he had drowned. Some believe it was a homicide or possible suicide; however those who know him argue that it would not be in his nature to end his life.

 What happened to Henry McCabe that night?
What did the voice mails actually record?

(if you know anything about the case authorities can be contacted at Mounds View police on 763-717-4070)

Wednesday 22 March 2017

What really happened to Tara Calico?

The disappearance of Tara Leigh Calico is one of those cases I think about now and again. My mind always goes back to the Polaroid picture that people assumed to be her tied up with duct tape over her mouth and her favorite book sitting at her side (not to mention a little boy in the same predicament next to her on the bed) So today friends, we're going to look at the case of Tara Calico and try to find out everything there is to know. 
As always reader discretion is advised.



On the 20th of September, 1988, in Belen New Mexico 19 year old Tara Leigh Calico set off on her daily bike ride at around 9.30am. She liked to listen to her Walkman during the ride and that day she was listening to a Boston cassette.
Tara regularly rode along Mexico state road 47 as she liked to keep fit and even planned to play a few games of tennis with her boyfriend around lunch time that same day. She would never make it to her 12:30 Tennis date or her university class at 16:00, as she disappeared that same morning, never to be seen again.


The teenage girl neglected to meet her boyfriend or return home. Smashed fragments of her Walkman and the cassette tape were spread out in 3 pieces along the trail. (The tape was found 3 miles from her home, and another piece of the Walkman was found 19 miles away.)  

Tara and her pink mountain bike had completely disappeared and neither has been found 'til this day. 

(image: Charley project)

Tara’s mother, a woman named Patty Doel, said that she thought the broken Walkman was a trail or clue left behind by Tara. She searched endlessly for her missing daughter up until her death in 2006. Sadly she died without ever knowing what really happened.

Now Tara didn’t take anything with her that would indicate that she had decided to disappear voluntarily and nothing was missing from her room, rather, everything was left behind. Her life seemed to be on track- she was very organized, did well in school and university, had a part time job and was working towards a career in psychology. From all outward appearances, she had no turmoil in her life that would provoke her to leave it all behind.

The only information there is to go on is the witness accounts of a vehicle that was spotted tailing the girl (a 1953-54 Ford pickup according to allthingsweird88 blog). It was described as a pick-up truck with a camper shell roof. According to Calico’s mother, she used to ride along with her daughter but decided not to continue as she believed a vehicle was following her. She had suggested Tara carry some form of protection when cycling alone, but Tara had nothing of the sort with her the day she went missing. 
Tara’s Charley projectpage notes that there was bike tire marks on the ground where the cassette tape was recovered. Was it evidence of a scuffle?

Fast-forward 9 months and 1,400 miles away in Florida. A woman finds a disturbing Polaroid picture in the car park of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. According to the woman it was found on the ground where a white windowless van was previously parked. Below is an example of what the vehicle may have looked like.

 (source)

The photograph shows a bare-legged young woman with her hands behind her back and a piece of black duct tape across her mouth. She’s lying on a pile of mismatched blankets and pillows with various patterns, and small boy lays next to her in the same predicament. 
An empty plastic cup is near the girl’s feet. They appear to be in the back of a windowless van. Could it be the very van that drove off that day that left this disturbing Polaroid behind? A book is next to the girl, and was identified as “My Sweet Audrina” by V. C Andrews.


I’ve never read this title, however our old pal Wikipedia tells us “The story features diverse real-world subjects such as brittle bone disease, rape, posttraumatic stress disorder, diabetes, and autism in the haunting setting of a Victorian era mansion near the fictitious River Lyle.
You can read more about the book (here) if you’re looking for clues. The reason the book was of significant interest was because V.C Andrews was Tara Calico’s favorite writer, and many believe that the girl in the photo is her- including her own mother. (The book was also number one seller in the early eighties, though, so take from that what you will.)

(image from unsolved mysteries)

 For a while the little boy next to the girl was thought to be missing child Michael Henley
Henley went missing during a camping trip with his father. It turns out the little boy had wandered off and was attacked by a wild animal. His remains were discovered two years later in 1990 so the theory that the two New Mexico kids had been abducted the same year and were somehow connected was dismissed.

A couple of interesting points about the picture are that Calico’s mother claims the girl in the picture has a scar on her calf that is the same as a scar Tara Calico had sustained in a crash previously. I can’t really see what she is referring to in the image, but my best guess is the purplish line near the edge of the picture.
The girl is wearing an “Egghead” software T-shirt according to allthingsweird88, which a quick Google dates as an “80’s vintage T shirt and it appears to have little Einstein’s on it.

(As a side note, is it me, or does this picture remind anyone of the Johnny Gosch images we looked at this month?)

I’m not sure what I think about the Polaroid. It’s defiantly disturbing if it’s not staged. But is it Tara Calico? Let’s look at the similarities:

(Images of Tara)

(The polaroid)

-Both girls are Caucasian. 
-They are both brunette. 
-The girls own mother believes that it’s her and thinks they both have the same scar. 
-The book next to the girl is by one of the missing girl’s favorite authors.

What about the differences?

-Their eyebrows look really different, but so are the angles of the pictures and I’m unsure if Calico shaped and maintained her brows with makeup products or if that was their natural shape. The look very different to me, though.  
-The girls seem to have different shaped eyes and the color is not clear in the Polaroid picture. However saying that, the bound and gagged girl looks fatigued and the studio portrait of Tara is posed and lit. 
-Their jaw lines look different but again their positions are complete different angles and weigh loss can affect the shape of a person’s face. Tara apparently took care of her appearance so she may have looked different without her usual hair and makeup.  

There were also other photos found, but they weren’t released. I think one of them is floating around online, and is a topless girl (the same one from the Polaroid? I don’t know) in bondage, as well as another with a woman on a train with bandages around her head and large glasses sitting next to an unidentified adult male. I'm not sure of the connection other than they were all once mentioned in the same breath on a missing persons profile apparently. (I didn't find that page when looking)

On top of that, there this photo was anonymously mailed to police and shoes a picture of a young boy with a black sharpie “gag” drawn over the mouth. Whether or not this has something to do with anything, I have no idea.
The image can be viewed in the (link here


 So now onto something that seems more related (for lack of a better term)

When searching around online for mentions are Tara Calico being hit by a vehicle or stalked in any way I found a comment on Reddit Unresolved where someone posted a link to an incident report (which as far as I can tell was filed in the 2000's Correct me if I'm wrong)
Here’s a portion of it. Click the (link here) to view the full report.



The report seems to be revolved around an old school friend of Tara Calico, “Melinda Esquibel”, who seems to be investigating the case to make a documentary in the hopes of digging to find the remains of the missing girl. Apparently the information leading to the whereabouts of Calico’s remains was gained via word of mouth at social gatherings in the town over the years. No names of who provided the alleged location were given, suggesting it was just small town gossip.

Then further down in the report there’s a quite interesting portion, I’ll post two shots of it here and you can go to the (link here) to read the rest. But the general story is (according to former deputy Frank Methola who was informed by a “Mr. Henry Brown”) that a group of guys followed Tara in their vehicle because they knew she drove up and down that stretch of road routinely. One of the guys was a young man by the name of Lawrence Romero junior who stabbed Tara to death after they hit her with the truck and took her to an isolated area to rape her. After that they dumped her body nearby but retrieved it when the search started and decided to store it in the basement under a Trailer Romero Jr. Lived in.


The more I go through the report, the more I get the feeling that Tara was the victim of a murder and possible sexual assault, was probably hit by a vehicle and her body was disposed of either somewhere isolated or on buried on someone’s property. 
Her bike was most likely taken too, probably to erase any evidence of foul play I’m not saying that’s what I believed 100% happened but it just seems like the most obvious answer. Occam’s razor and all that.

So what actually happened to Tara Calico that day?
The case remains unsolved.

UPDATE: 
I was browsing recent true crime articles when I noticed one titled "New Leads in Teen's Cold-Case Disappearance While Biking: Why Answers May Be Hiding in Her Community". The article (HERE) states that both the local Sheriffs office and the FBI are questioning two local suspects whom Tara likely knew personally. Obviously the names have not been released at this stage.
Also, the high school friend of Tara, Melinda Esquibel, that I mentioned earlier in the post ended up working with "Casefile" podcast on a "Vanished" series dedicated to finding the missing girl. (Listen to it HERE<<)
Maybe we'll eventually see this case solved?

You may also be interested in....


Who was "Lyle Stevik?"
Lyle Stevik was the pseudonym used by an unidentified suicide victim who checked into a small motel in Amanda park, Grays Harbor county, Washington and hanged himself in a closet. The name is shared with that of a character who contemplates suicide due to failure in a book by Joyce Carol Oates titled “you must remember this”. The body was discovered on the 17th of September 2001, in a kneeling position, in the closet of room 5, surrounded by pillows with a belt acting as a makeshift noose around the victims neck. He had checked in the previous Friday 14th, killed himself and left $160 on the dressing table with a note stating “for the room”.(continue reading)

What happened to Johnny Gosch?
It started off as a Sunday like any other in West Des Moines, Iowa. It was September 5th of 1982; Johnny Gosch woke at the crack of dawn, as he routinely did for his morning paper round. With his little Dachshund at his side, he dragged his red newspaper wagon behind him, off on his early morning mission to deliver the daily news to the neighborhood. On this day, however, there was one difference- Johnny was alone. At 5:45am, he left the house without supervision. I found an interview with his mother Noreen (HERE) where she goes into more detail about the night before / morning her son went missing. Apparently there had been strange routine phone calls to the family home usually late on a Saturday night or early on a Sunday morning. Johnny's father would always hang up, or say "wrong number", but on the night before Johnny's disappearance, he suspiciously said "yes alright okay' and hung up. This made Noreen understandably suspicious and does make you wonder if he had anything to do with his sons abduction. (continue reading)

Monday 20 March 2017

One eyed Jack Doe?


There are many motivations behind the reasons why killers kill. Sometimes money is the motivation for murder, sometimes jealousy and revenge, but in the case of an unidentified John Doe murdered in Alaska in 1978, the reason for his untimely death was due to how “annoying” his travel buddy found him to be.

The man responsible for his murder (a man named Jesse Burt Bishop who died in prison in the early 2000’s) had picked him up while driving nearby Boise, Idaho. Although John Doe stated to the driver that he was making his way to Oregon, he ended up jumping in the vehicle and riding along to Alaska instead. 

Doe was described as being in his mid-thirties with long brown curly hair and a leather eye patch worn over his missing left eye. Apparently he was working as a logger and lost the eye in a work related accident. Due to this distinguishing feature the unidentified man came to be known as “One eyed Jack Doe”. According to his killer, one eyed Jack might have actually been called Jack, or John, although he couldn’t remember which. A marble was found in the dead man's pocket and was assumed to be used as a false eye.


Bishop also said that the man was a smoker and had an Oregon driver’s license, which if true narrows down the search. However bear in mind this case is from the Seventies, and this man was hitchhiking wherever he could get a ride to, which makes me wonder if / how long exactly he’d been living his nomadic lifestyle.

 I imagine the only people who would have a chance of identifying him would be those that he possibly could have worked with around various parts of the US. He was hitchhiking to Oregon originally, and his license was also from there, though, so it’s possible he has connections and maybe even roots there. Would anyone remember one eyed Jack Doe some 40 years later?

His remains were found in 1979 in Fairbanks North Star, Tok, Alaska (where from what I can gather he was murdered and tossed out onto the highway). The reports I found about his case state the cause of death as “undetermined” but a poster on Websleuths writes that Doe was stabbed and strangled. (edit: they copy and pasted from J.D's NamUs profile)
Also it’s noted that his mandible was never recovered, so in many of the composites and reconstructions his likeness is estimated from the nose down. (it was later updated)


His body had been torn apart by wildlife and his bones, hair and skin were scattered. Ripped material from the deceased's clothing at the scene corresponded with the description provided by Bishop, confirming his statement about his responsibility for the crime. 

When asked why he killed the man, Bishop simply stated “He was getting on my nerves”.

Case details have him at around 185lbs and 6ft tall. 
He remains unidentified

Thursday 16 March 2017

The Walker County Jane Doe,Orange socks and Henry Lee Lucas

Hey, how's it going?
This week I have an unsolved Jane Doe case for you. This is a case from the eighties with both an unidentified victim and killer. 
****I have to warn you that there is postmortem images contained within this post as well as one crime scene photo, so reader discretion is advised.****


In the Oakwood cemetery in Hunstsville, Walker Country, Texas, the body of an unidentified woman rests in a casket provided by Huntsville Funerals. 
Her grave is marked with a headstone given by Morris Memorials that reads “unknown white female”. 


She was murdered in 1980 and her naked, bruised and battered body was discovered by a passing truck driver making their way down interstate highway 45.
Little is known about the girl other than her physical appearance and measurements. 

(Image source: Icaremissingpersons)

She was Caucasian, of average height (around 5”5) a brunette with a winged hair style, brown eyes (scar above her right eyebrow) and pierced ears.  She was possibly from a middleclass background (judging by the condition of her body and teeth) and was around 14- 16 years old. Her Doe network page lists her weight as between 105 – 120lbs. 

She was found  “on the shoulder of I-45 north, a half mile south of FM 1696 exit, 2 miles north of Huntsville” (or 30.770025,-95.640115 if you want to look up the specific spot)

(Image from Google maps)

(Image source apparently shows the specific spot.This was posted at Websluthes.)

On the morning of November first she was found on her front, face down on the ground and naked.  It would later be determined that she had been violently beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a pair of stockings.  A pair of red sandals were next to her body.  She had met a violent and painful end, and the killer was never identified. Examination of the body shows that she was killed around 3am.


(An actual photo for ID purposes from the Doenetwork website.)

It is thought that she was dumped along the highway, as pieces of (assumed to be her) stockings and underwear were forced into her vagina and rectum. The Wikipedia article notes that this was probably to plug the bleeding that had occurred (as the result of the insertion of a large blunt object during the assault) while the killer drove the body to dispose of it.

Her attacker left behind a bite mark on her shoulder- this was later compared to the dentals of infamous serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. He was active around the time that Walker county Doe was discovered and although he liked to take responsibility for murders he did not commit, his dentals did not match those of the bite on the unknown girl. Looking at most of the reports about the Walker county Doe, though, you get the impression that the general consensus is she was murdered by a serial killer or at least someone who had a penchant for murder and had done it before.

(Henry Lee Lucas. Image from Wikipedia)

Following the discovery of the body, local authorities asked around the area in hopes that someone had seen the girl. Many people claimed to interact with her on Halloween night, all giving a similar description of her outfit and relaying conversations they had.
They all described her as wearing a dirty, long sleeved, yellow shirt with jeans and a white knitted jumper with oversized pockets. She was said to be carrying her red sandals (which, judging by the red shoes found at the crime scene indicates it was most likely the same girl)
None of these articles of clothing were found at the scene other than her shoes and her necklace which was still around her neck.

(The Hitch n' Post more recently. Image from TBC)


According to manager of a truck stop (“Hitch n’ Post), another civilian (local business owner Bobby Roach) who witnessed her step out of a blue two tone Chevrolet Caprice(at 6:30pm), and a truck stop waitress, the girl was heading towards Ellis Prison, and asked each of them for directions.  Although the waitress was concerned as the girl looked young, she drew her a map to the prison so the girl could visit a friend she claimed to have there. Police asked around the prison, but none of the inmates said they knew her.


She is possibly originally from Rockport or Aransas Pass, Texas, as this is what she apparently told the waitress, but no-one there could identify the girl. Police asked around schools in the local area too, but that didn’t turn up anything either.

Comparisons have been made between the murder of the Walker county doe and the unsolved murder of the Georgetown Doe- more commonly known as “orange socks”.
The orange socks murder happened just two years prior to the Walker county case on the 30th October.  It also happened in Texas, the cause of death was also strangulation, the victim was found completely nude except for a pair of orange socks on her feet and of course Henry Lee Lucas confessed to doing it.  So it’s quite easy to see why people often talk about a link in the two cases as there are a few similarities including the location and modus operandi. Also, both the girls were hitchhiking, although Orange socks is assumed to be from Oklahoma on account of a matchbox bearing the name of the state being found at the scene.  

(Crime scene image from wikipedia)

According to an article on this page one of the investigating officers (Dale Myers, I believe) who was at the crime scene said that when he talked to Lucas in regards to the bite marks and his dentals not matching up, Lucas claimed to have had reconstructive teeth surgery..
We had the bite mark on her left shoulder, and when I went to interview him, he told me he had dental reconstruction done. I was devastated. We had photos of him before, and his teeth looked like they would have matched the bite mark, but we just couldn't make that match. I still believe Henry Lee Lucas killed this girl.

As a final point of interest I found this on the "who was walker county doe" Facebook page.

What are your thoughts?
Until next time, friends.

Monday 13 March 2017

What really happened to Elisa Lam

Hey everyone, hows it going? I have a short post for you. 
I was just watching some ReignBot videos while getting dressed when I noticed this one.


Apparently there's a kickstarter trying to raise money for a documentary about the Elsia Lam case. 
If you read this blog occasionally you'll already be aware that this is a case I always go back to.
To read my original post where I tried to go in depth about it, click HERE <<
The video is basically the trailer and mission outline.Check it out. 

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague update

I opened up the newspaper today to see an update on missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague. 

(note: If you're not aware of the case or need to be refreshed, check out the post I originally made here)

Basically investigators have just discovered that the weight of the lorry / trash car was more than originally estimated (previously thought to have been 11kg now known to be 100kg) indicating that Corrie McKeague could have indeed been picked up by the vehicle and taken to the landfill that his mother has been urging authorities to search. I believe that the route made by Corries phone correlates with the route the vehicle would have taken from the that spot he went missing. A search for his remains is currently in progress.

(image source: the telegraph)

You can read a report by the telegraph here <<

I know they are completely unrelated cases, but the analysis of the CCTV reminds me of the case of the missing blonde in Miami. One day she was in her hotel room, the next she had completely vanished. The CCTV didn't pick up any footage of her leaving the room, but she simply wasn't there. An investigator got obsessed with the case and watched the footage over and over again until he noticed a man struggling with a suitcase in the elevator and realised that the girl was in it.

If someone mysteriously disappears in an area that has a generous amount of surveillance, it's most likely that they were concealed in something- a vehicle or even a bag.

By the way, if you're interested in reading about "the case of the vanishing blonde" you can do so here <<

Also, misleading details can totally throw off an investigation.
It makes you think back to all of those unsolved cases and wonder if the details were true to the actual events. 

Sunday 5 March 2017

Where is Johnny Gosch?

I went down such a rabbit hole when reading about this case that I'll have to do it in two parts and will probably go back to add more updates.  When I sat down to write about this I thought it would be a quick summary but with all the conspiracy theories, unconfirmed sightings and alleged contact I ended up reading about it for longer than I expected.
This is a quite popular unsolved case, so you've probably already heard about it before, but join me in exploring it in depth. 

Oh also! To everyone who comments and contacts me over at Tumblr, thank you for your kind messages!


It started off as a Sunday like any other in West Des Moines, Iowa.
It was September 5th of 1982; Johnny Gosch woke at the crack of dawn, as he routinely did for his morning paper round. With his little Dachshund at his side, he dragged his red newspaper wagon behind him, off on his early morning mission to deliver the daily news to the neighborhood. On this day, however, there was one difference- Johnny was alone. At 5:45am, he left the house without supervision.

I found an interview with his mother Noreen (HERE) where she goes into more detail about the night before / morning her son went missing. Apparently there had been strange routine phone calls to the family home usually late on a Saturday night or early on a Sunday morning. Johnny's father would always hang up, or say "wrong number", but on the night before Johnny's disappearance, he suspiciously said "yes alright okay' and hung up. This made Noreen understandably suspicious and does make you wonder if he had anything to do with his sons abduction.

(Noreen Gosch. Image source: Johnnygosch.com)

Johnny had continuously asked his parents if he could be a paper boy as he wanted to earn money in order to buy himself a dirt bike. They were reluctant at first, but eventually caved in and agreed that he could have a paper round as long as he was accompanied by either his mother or father.
It wasn’t long before disgruntled local residents made calls to Johnny’s family home, complaining that they hadn’t received their morning papers. His parents were alarmed. Usually John senior would accompany him; however this was the first day he had not.
 Johnny’s father headed out along the usual route to look for his son, only to find the abandoned newspaper wagon, still full with the untouched bundles of the Des Moines Daily Register, and the boy’s pet dog close by.

A neighbor claimed to see 12 year old Gosch conversing with a man in a blue two tone Fairmont from his window. As far as I can gather Johnny was with a couple of other paper boys at the time, and the man (described as “Stocky” in most reports) specifically asked Johnny for directions “Hey kid, where’s 86 street?”

(Pic from Wikipedia)

Johnny was described as a polite and helpful young man, however his mother said in an interview that Johnny had told one of the older paper boys that he was suspicious of the man, and felt frightened by him and said he was going home. As Johnny pulled his red wagon behind him he had no idea that he was being followed by another man on foot. This unidentified man kept his distance but an eyewitness reported that he appeared to walk out from between two houses on the street.
Johnny disappeared without a trace. 


It is believed that Johnny was possibly dragged into the vehicle by both men and kidnapped. This is certainly something his mother believes. Police searched the local and surrounding area for many weeks but found no body and no trace of the missing 12 year old. Some videos state that Johnny’s mother was unhappy with the police investigation and the response time of local authorities.

She contacted and questioned those who had seen Johnny that morning (including the other paper boys who would have seen him at the paper drop, and the father of one of the boys who picked up a bundle for his kid that day.) The cops, despite only being two streets away, took just under an hour to show up.

One detail I didn't see much in typed articles was that (according to Noreen) one of the witnesses (a sixteen year old paper boy who was with Johnny when the blue car stopped to ask directions) was that the man stopped his engine, opened the passenger door and put his feet out on the pavement. He only started up his engine again when Johnny Gosch broke away from the group as he got a bad vibe from the stranger. His mother states that before the guy drove off he apparently turned the inside light (dome light) of the car on and off a total of three times.You can listen to the radio interview talk about that detail here. 
Could the flashing of the dome light have been a signal to someone?
Was it already light that morning around 5:45am?

The same sixteen year old witness was the one to describe the other unidentified man who came out from between the houses and followed. Although the kid lost sight of all three and the car when Johnny walked around a corner out of his sight he claims to have heard a dog growling (assumed to be Johnny's Dachshund), a car door slam shut (assumed to be the blue car they had just interacted with) and a vehicle screeching away. He said that he saw that same blue car running a red light and roaring off towards the interstate.

Noreen gave a very detailed interview in 2005 where she informed the host about how unhelpful local police were regarding Johnny’s case. Despite witnesses stating that they saw the car, the man, the license plate etc. Johnny was still entered into the database as a runaway.



She claims that police went as far as to refuse help from surrounding counties, even rejecting aid in the form of helicopters, dogs, and manpower and volunteer search parties. One officer was even said to drunkenly climb a picnic table in front of volunteers and yell about how Gosch was “nothing but a runaway”.  At the start of the interview she even mentions that the day before her child went missing they were spectators at his brother’s football game. 

Apparently Johnny went to buy snacks and suddenly disappeared from view, only to be retrieved by his father who found him talking to a police officer under the bleachers. Nothing was said about the conversation other than the officer was telling the 12 year old that he should consider joining the force when he was old enough.

The FBI also said to have rejected the case. According to Noreen both branches were agitated that she was even perusing the case of her missing child.

She received a tip by phone call one day (conversation recorded she says) and after the local authorities predictably rejected it and showed no interest, she relayed the tape to 20/20 (news station)

The anonymous caller tipped Noreen off on a premeditated kidnapping of another paper boy, this ominous prophecy was fulfilled when Eugene Wade Martin went missing from Des Moines in August of 1984. (Read his Charley Project page here)

Strangely half a year later and hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma a woman reported a sighting of Johnny. She was coming out of a local convenience store when a young boy ran up to her, identified himself as Johnny Gosch and pleaded for help. Before she could react, she claimed two men dragged the boy away and bundled him into a car before roaring off. Despite their efforts to follow the lead, nothing came of it and the trail was once again cold. The Goschs hired a PI to investigate the case, and continued to follow leads on their own initiative.

A couple of year’s later two men came forward claiming that they knew Johnny. Incredibly, one of them claimed to be the driver of the blue car neighbors had seen in the street that day. (However he doesn’t at all fit the witness description of a “Stocky” man, rather he’s quite thin looking, or at least was in the interview video) He apparently broke down in tears before Johnny Gosch’s mother, apologized and admitted to her that he had helped kidnap her son.


He said that he too had been a victim and was forced to kidnap other boys. The man was a convicted felon (in jail for molesting a boy) by the name of Paul Bonacci. He is not considered a credible witness by the authorities, however Noreen Gosch believes his story that he was part of a pedophile ring and was once being held on a ranch with her son in Colorado. Apparently Noreen said that Bonacci knew details about her son that the media did not report, and that he could describe the birthmark he had on his chest. Bonacci showed her a brand he had one his skin, referred to in many reports and interviews as “The rocking X”- an X sitting on an arc, a sort of half circle.

(image source: iowacoldcases)

Looking around online for information and opinions on Bonacci some people suggest that he just read up extensively on the case and got a bit obsessed with Johnny Gosch through the media.  A poster on this thread  suggests that Bonacci was contacted by a PI and was probably financially motivated. It wouldn’t be impossible to entertain the idea that he was also relaying information not printed in the media to the convict.
(What do you think? Leave a comment with your theories!)

Later, another man came forward and confirmed Bonacci’s story, he claimed he was also a victim and he too had the rocking X on his skin. According to Noreen Gosch his name was Jimmy Gibson and she believed him.

Noreen and her husband John differed in the strength of their belief in these accounts, with Noreen fully believing and John stating that he believed less than half of the information Bonocci provided and thought that a lot of it was lies. It’s possible that Noreen simply wanted to believe, to hold on to the idea that her son was still alive and that he could be recovered.

I found a news reportfrom the Chicago tribune in 1985 that talks about a $1 bill with the words “I am alive. Johnny Gosch” written on it. Apparently the note was taken seriously and put through handwriting analysis, which came back as a positive match against Johnny’s handwriting sample. The bill was found in Sioux City, Iowa. The story also says that Johnny’s mother also received phone calls from (according to her) her son asking for help, but they were unable to trace the origin of the calls.


Astonishingly Noreen claimed to have been visited by her son during the early hours of the morning in 1997. He identified himself and asked to come in. Johnny would have been in his late twenties at this point, and she said he looked very different, with long, straight, black hair. He stayed for a total of three hours before leaving, saying it was risky for him to be there. There was another man with him, he remains unidentified but seemed to have some authority over her son. They did not discuss where he was residing.

The above picture is from abovetopsecret and Johnny is supposed to be the kid on the right.

John and Noreen eventually divorced after a decade of marriage and for a while, the case was cold until 2006 and when some photographs were dropped on Noreen’s doorstep. The pictures showed three boys bound and gagged with white rope, belly down on a bed. 

According to summaries of the case there was also another black and white photo of one of the boys, whom Noreen claims to be Johnny, and the rocking X brand appears to be on his upper arm. 
When compared to the colour version of the same one, though, there doesn’t seem to be any mark there. Noreen believes that these photos depict her missing son, despite the fact that an officer in Florida claimed that it was a sick joke and the photograph was of three children having an escape contest, and that he had made contact with the minors to check on their wellbeing. 
I found a close up crop on one forum of the boy who is supposed to be Johnny and it looks edited. Probably edited to resemble his likeness. You can visit the abovetopsecret forum here to see users discuss the images.

According to the Johnny Gosch website (which I believe is ran by Noreen) she received the package of photographs on her birthday.

EDIT: I found an old archived post regarding  the photographs HERE << The reddit user writes "I saw the photos I'm going to post, which are different from Noreen's, on another unsolved mysteries website years ago and saved them."

Johnny Gosch has never been found.