Great Disappearances

[GUT]

This case fascinates me, too. The last thing I read was Michael Madigan's excellent book. Do you know if there's been any recent progress?

They are digging today, last I heard they had slowed right down as getting close to where the Ground penetrating radar indicated the disturbance was.

[John G]

They are digging today, last I heard they had slowed right down as getting close to where the Ground penetrating radar indicated the disturbance was.

Thanks GUT. I'm assuming this is related to Harry Phipps, Alan Whitiker's suspect. I believe he lived near to Glenelg Beach and he clearly resembles the sketch. But, of course, numerous other suspects have also been named over the years.

Do you think there's any connection between this case and Wanda? Or the Adelaide Oval disappearances?

[GUT]

Thanks GUT. I'm assuming this is related to Harry Phipps, Alan Whitiker's suspect. I believe he lived near to Glenelg Beach and he clearly resembles the sketch. But, of course, numerous other suspects have also been named over the years.

Do you think there's any connection between this case and Wanda? Or the Adelaide Oval disappearances?

Yes Phipps, the dig is at his factory.

I don’t think it’s connected to Wanda but Adelaide oval is, I think likely.

[Robert St Devil]

This is still my pet missing persons case and one that I can't get my head around. A young man takes a short walk on a summer morning through a residential neighbourhood and vanishes into thin air. No clues, no leads, nothing.

I simply can't find an angle for this case. Jason was apparently an introverted but good-natured kid, he had no trouble with the law or any drug problems etc. It's possible he was targeted by some kind of sexual predator but he doesn't fit the usual victim profile. He was 19 years old and over six foot tall. He doesn't really have the usual risk factors of a missing person. I did suspect his workplace, as they were the only ones privy to his change of schedule that morning but what reason would a pizzeria have for conspiring to murder one of their porters? Unless he fell through some kind of manhole, I got nothing!

Hi Harry D

Truly a sad case. I followed it last night after this thread was updated. I was listening to his mother's interview on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyCZse_dzWA] and found his Benson High Senior yearbook picture [http://ybh.stparchive.com/, 1999 p.44]. Took the GoogleMaps street-view walking tour; tried to plot out a route from 48th & Bedford to Benson High; didn't see many manholes.

His mother describes him as "a good kid", and nothing suggests that he ran away. She said he was bullied in high school; im trying to determine if Benson High had a reputation as a gang-school; thinking he may have been victim of neighborhood violence.

[GUT]

Nothing found but some animal bones.

[Harry D]

Hi Harry D

Truly a sad case. I followed it last night after this thread was updated. I was listening to his mother's interview on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyCZse_dzWA] and found his Benson High Senior yearbook picture [http://ybh.stparchive.com/, 1999 p.44]. Took the GoogleMaps street-view walking tour; tried to plot out a route from 48th & Bedford to Benson High; didn't see many manholes.

His mother describes him as "a good kid", and nothing suggests that he ran away. She said he was bullied in high school; im trying to determine if Benson High had a reputation as a gang-school; thinking he may have been victim of neighborhood violence.

Hello Robert,

Thanks for your reply.

Whatever happened, I don't think Jason got far before he vanished, because there were no sightings of him en route to the school. And since there was no evidence of a struggle, I think he went with someone he knew, either by car or into a neighbour's home.

We know that one of the neighbour's homes was searched by police, but we don't know on what grounds. Also, someone recently found out that one of Jason's neighbours sold up two months after he vanished. That's probably completely innocent and unrelated but in a case starved of any clues it's worth latching onto. Was it the same neighbour whose house was searched, I wonder?

Perhaps the neighbour caught Jason taking in the trash and asked him to help with something. In return he offered to drive Jason to the school. But instead he drove him somewhere and killed him, or maybe Jason never left the neighbour's house alive to begin with?

[Harry D]

Since this thread has been bumped, one case that's weighed heavily on me recently is missing teen Alexandria Lowitzer.

Almost eight years ago, 'Ali' got off the school bus near her home in Spring, Texas and headed to the local burger bar where she worked to collect a paycheck. It was only a quarter of a mile away but she never made it there and no one knows what happened to her.

Unfortunately, the police didn't take her family's concerns seriously and classed her as a runaway, despite no evidence she left voluntarily. Ali had no previous history of running away, and she had left behind her essentials (purse, make-up, phone charger etc). This meant that the family had to self-finance a lot of searches through fundraisers.

Tomorrow will be Ali's 24th birthday. Her mother has commemorated this date as Texas's first National Missing Persons Day to increase awareness for the families of missing people.

I hope Ali's still alive out there somewhere and can be reunited with her family but sadly the odds are she's dead. I think of all the things that girl was looking forward to, her future that was stolen, and it makes me want to weep.

[Robert St Devil]

Hello Robert,

Thanks for your reply.

Whatever happened, I don't think Jason got far before he vanished, because there were no sightings of him en route to the school. And since there was no evidence of a struggle, I think he went with someone he knew, either by car or into a neighbour's home.

We know that one of the neighbour's homes was searched by police, but we don't know on what grounds. Also, someone recently found out that one of Jason's neighbours sold up two months after he vanished. That's probably completely innocent and unrelated but in a case starved of any clues it's worth latching onto. Was it the same neighbour whose house was searched, I wonder?

Perhaps the neighbour caught Jason taking in the trash and asked him to help with something. In return he offered to drive Jason to the school. But instead he drove him somewhere and killed him, or maybe Jason never left the neighbour's house alive to begin with?

All very good probabilities, Harry, since his sudden disappearance appears like an oportunist-abduction; iow, noone seems to be setting up Jason for an abduction. The whole scene seems random, like someone(s) is taking last-minute advantage of sighting him. A pervert neighbour, punks or a prowler. It would seem like the list of neighbors could be whittled down to those residents who didn't go to work that morning (if they worked at all).

I don't know which way he walked. By his mother, I get the impression that he walked up Bedford St. bc she says that he would have passed the middle school to reach the high school parking lot But, I also see a route across the park (she mentions) up Sigwert St. to the high school entrance off Maple St. Since the coworker didn't know where he lived, it would be key to know where at the high school Jason said he would meet her.

Being mid-June, schools had to have been on summer vacation. It was a Wednesday, so most parents were at work. If we're taking the "mystery van" angle, there could have been prowlers circling the little park, looking for kids at play.

Or. Some person(s) living at a house along his route encountered him. I considered youth violence. Somebody who knew him, saw him pass by the house, and confronted him for x reason. His mother said he was bullied in school by kids.

It was disturbing to hear her say that the investigation didn't begin until 10 days after his disappearance.

Apologies for ologizing the case. Hopefully justice will be served.

[sdreid]

Harold Holt hit the 50 year mark about 6 weeks ago.

[GUT]

Harold Holt hit the 50 year mark about 6 weeks ago.

Yeah, but I don’t really Class that as a disappearance.

[Ginger]

This is still my pet missing persons case and one that I can't get my head around. A young man takes a short walk on a summer morning through a residential neighbourhood and vanishes into thin air. No clues, no leads, nothing.

I simply can't find an angle for this case. Jason was apparently an introverted but good-natured kid, he had no trouble with the law or any drug problems etc. It's possible he was targeted by some kind of sexual predator but he doesn't fit the usual victim profile. He was 19 years old and over six foot tall. He doesn't really have the usual risk factors of a missing person. I did suspect his workplace, as they were the only ones privy to his change of schedule that morning but what reason would a pizzeria have for conspiring to murder one of their porters? Unless he fell through some kind of manhole, I got nothing!

What if someone accidentally ran him over, panicked, threw the body into the car and drove off, without anyone seeing?

[Harry D]

What if someone accidentally ran him over, panicked, threw the body into the car and drove off, without anyone seeing?

This is an oft-mooted theory in Jason's case, but it's not one I've ever bought into. Bodies have been moved before in hit-and-run cases, but I don't see someone bundling a grown man into their car, incriminating themselves further, instead of simply driving away.