Alex Selky

[WasBlind]

In 1983 I watched a made for TV movie called "Without A Trace" starring Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch. The movie was based on a book by Beth Gutcheon entitled "Still Missing" which leads me to believe that the boy was never found. The movie ends with the child being found alive, and the links on-line say that the true story had a different ending.

http://www.bethgutcheon.com/pgs/missing.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086593/

The movie details the story of a mother, Susan Selky, whose six year old son, Alex Selky, is allowed to walk to the school bus by himself, and never made it. The movie is based on a true story, yet I cannot find anything about this case on-line. If anyone knows how I can get a flyer for "Alex", or where this happened, please PM me, or write me at MissingProfiles@yahoo.com and thanks. I wish to have him profiled on our older cases page, Lanie

[Babcat]

This book was a novel and the movie was based on the book. The story is totally fictional and based on no real life case. But it was a great movie. :D

[Hammerized]

Many believe the book (and subsequent film) were loosely based on the Etan Patz disappearance.

[WasBlind]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I recall before and after the movie, a detective speaking, and he said it was based on a true case, not necessarily the same names, granted, but I was reading this last night, and that is why I asked. Hammerized, I agree, her book was probably based on Etan's case, since Reagan had just named the date of his disappearance "National Missing Persons Day".

http://www.filmsandtv.com/search.asp?ms=2&uq=Judd%20Hirsch
Without A Trace 1983, Drama, PG Director: Stanley R. Jaffe With: Kate Nelligan, Judd Hirsch, David Dukes, Stockard Channing, Jacqueline Brookes, Keith McDermott, Kathleen Widdoes, William Duell, William H. Macy Based on a true story (with a different ending) this is the tale of Susan Selky's ordeal when her six-year-old son disappears after leaving home to walk to school.

Thanks again, y'all and God bless, Lanie

[Up2theminute]

The movie "Without A Trace" was, as Babcat said, a movie theatre released movie in 1983. I remember seeing this film in the movies with my mother when I was 8. It is based on the book Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon http://www.bethgutcheon.com/pgs/missing.html which was published in 1981. There is no such person as Alex Selky, he is just the fictional character name for the main character in Still Missing.

But, being that Etan Patz disappeared in 1979, it's possible that Beth Gutcheon based her book on Etan's real-life disappearance. Though if that is the case it must have been conspicuously because I have checked info on Beth Gutcheon's writings and nothing is ever mentioned of this book having anything to do with an actual missing child's case or Etan Patz..unless of course she is just not allowed to publically disclose what inspired her story for legal purposes or something.

Of course all of this would depend on when Beth starting writing her book and how long it took to get it published. If she started writing before Etan's disappearance than the similarities may have been incidental. It's also possible that the movie industry just tried to angle it more towards being like a real-life well-known disappearance to help it sell (which it did) being that there were so many similarities between the novel and the disappearance of Etan. The fact that they picked a child actor who looked a lot like the real life Etan Patz kind of tells me that is what they were trying to do even if the original missing child circumstances written in the book happened before Etan was even known.

So, of course it is possible that Beth Gutcheon's book was written from May 1979 (when Etan disappeared) onward to when it was published in 1981 and was based literally on his story. Or maybe she was just partially inspired by it and then when it came time to do a movie they were trying to strike a public interest chord by associating it with a familiar case. I think it's a combination of Beth Gutcheon being partially influenced by Etan's story but at the same time not basing it fully on him (otherwise I think that would be mentioned in the descriptions of the book somewhere) and the movie industry using the similarities to Etan's case to their marketing advantage.

The online tv/movie review link that you give is the only place where I have ever seen it said this is based on a real life case and you have to keep in mind that was written by someone who may be just expressing their own perception of the movie not the actual fact of the matter. I have read several online tv/movie/book, etc reviews, descriptions and so on that contained inaccurate information but the reviewer puts the information forth as if it were true. In fact just yesterday I read an album review of an early 90's released album for a band that has been around for over a decade and some kid wrote that the band was copying off of some new band that has only been around for a couple of years. You have to look at online submissions and reviews like that with a grain of salt.

[Babcat]

Yes Up2... Maybe I should have further explained.

I saw the movie when it was released at the university theatre. I was in my first year of college. I was captivated by it and the happy ending and wanted to know all about the case it was based on. I could never find anything about it. There wasn't an internet then... at least not that I knew of.

Then one day I turned on a daytime talk show and the author of the novel was on as a guest and they were talking about the film being made from her book. She said the book was completely fictional and based on no particular child disappearance. She said she was only facinated with prospect of a child returning after being missing so long that no one believed it possible but the mother.