NY NY - Colin Gillis, 18, Tupper Lake, 11 March 2012

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State police Capt. John Tibbits said they're trying to figure out why Gillis left the party.

"That's a lead that we're following up on right now," Tibbits said.

Police are in the process of trying to construct a timeline of where Gillis was and when, as detailed as they can make it.

They've been interviewing and re-interviewing people who were at the party, who Tibbits said have been very cooperative.

One rumor going around is that Gillis was assaulted at the party.

"That's something that we're following up on," Tibbits said. "We've heard that story, too."

He said police haven't yet ruled out the possibility of foul play being involved in Gillis' disappearance.

Tibbits said the police investigation will continue until Gillis is found.

"We never close the book on a missing persons case," Tibbits said.
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http://adirondackdailyenterprise.co...arch-for-Gillis-mostly-complete.html?nav=5008

also says ground searches mostly done and they are now doing technical water searches but have the weather to contend with
 
At first, I thought he probably got lost in the woods or fell into the water... but I really believe they would have found him/his body by now if that were the case...they seem to have done a very thorough search and they have also used search dogs. I would like to know if the dogs picked up any trail.
Now, I am starting to wonder...did someone come along and do something to him? Did he accept a ride from the wrong person.
I also wonder what his state of mind was...I am guessing that he was drinking...but was he drunk? Did he use drugs? I am not judging...just trying to figure out if he was of clear mind...
I am so very sorry for the family, and I really hope they find Colin safe and sound.
I want more details as to what happened at the party....
Also, where is his cell phone, and did it work in that part of the Adirondacks?
Where is Colin?

ETA: Also, was it cloudy or clear in the area that evening, because it was a full moon that night and if it was clear...the light of the moon should have helped him find his way. IMO
 
TGIRecovered said:
I am trying to figure out what time the news editor who saw a man walking in the cold actually reported the sighting to the police. The articles say he reported seeing him at 1:45 AM. This could mean:

A. He saw the man without a coat walking on the road at 1:45 AM, drove straight to the police station and reported it. Later made the connection to the Mom's Sunday evening report of her missing son.

B. He saw the man at 1:45 AM, then he realized it might have been the missing young man after seeing police reports later that evening, so he went to the station and told police about seeing a guy walking in the area without a coat.

Anyone know which scenerio is correct?

I hate to sound suspicious of the witness, but it would be good to know if anyone can verify his whereabouts after 1:45 AM Sunday just to rule out any possible involvement, since he is the last known person to see the missing young man.
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I agree - check him out on fb - not sure I believe any of what he said... just saying
 
http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2543358.shtml

"...Despite a massive search this week, 18-year-old Colin Gillis is still missing. ... have found two of his belongings one of which was a shoe...."

The above quote was in the story when I first read it, but the story has since been updated to remove the quote about the shoe...I wonder why?...was the information incorrect or did the police not want that information to be released publicly? I did not get a screen cap of the original story...what I quoted above is what I got on search results page when I googled Colin Gillis shoe....the story today says nothing about a shoe.

http://brockport-spencerport.whec.com/
"...Forest rangers and family members are still working to find a missing student..."

I am starting to be really worried that foul play was involved...what happened to Colin?

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2535269.shtml

"..News10NBC talks to the person who may have been the last to see the missing Brockport student..."

I do not think this witness had anything to do with Colin's disappearance...in fact the witness was traveling with his elderly mother in the car and drove straight to the police station after seeing Colin.

What happened?
 
TGIRecovered said:
I am trying to figure out what time the news editor who saw a man walking in the cold actually reported the sighting to the police. The articles say he reported seeing him at 1:45 AM. This could mean:

A. He saw the man without a coat walking on the road at 1:45 AM, drove straight to the police station and reported it. Later made the connection to the Mom's Sunday evening report of her missing son.

B. He saw the man at 1:45 AM, then he realized it might have been the missing young man after seeing police reports later that evening, so he went to the station and told police about seeing a guy walking in the area without a coat.

Anyone know which scenerio is correct?

I hate to sound suspicious of the witness, but it would be good to know if anyone can verify his whereabouts after 1:45 AM Sunday just to rule out any possible involvement, since he is the last known person to see the missing young man.
Click to expand...

He drove straight to the police station...I am not personally suspicious of him. I am sure he wishes he had stopped, but going to the police, under the circumstances, was the right thing to do... IMO.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2535269.shtml

Rosentreter thinks it was missing College at Brockport student Colin Gillis.

"I saw somebody walking along the side of road. They were almost in the road actually. As I passed them by I noticed he was, he seemed to be acting a little odd and he and no coat on and that warranted some concern on my part," Rosentreter said.

Rosentreter, the editor of Lake Placid News, said he drove the two miles into Tupper Lake and immediately went to the police department. He said the police called state police and a trooper was at the location in 10 minutes.
 
State police investigators are looking into whether a missing Tupper Lake teenager may have been involved in an altercation at a party shortly before he went missing more than a week ago.

Authorities say foul play has not been ruled out in the disappearance of 18 year old Colin Gillis, but there is no indication that is what happened to him.

State police investigators have interviewed close to 100 people, including several who attended the same party Gillis attended before he disappeared.
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http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/Se...Shifts-From-Land-To-Water--Air-143332366.html
 
I have been following this story and took the time to read the several possible related stories someone linked. I came on to share my thoughts on this if I said I dreamed of Colin I would sound nuts so I won't.

We know something happened at that party , something bad enough to make this young man leave on foot knowing it was a two hour or more walk at best and seems cell phone reception could be an issue . He was not stupid as described he was bright and knew the area . To me this means something significant occurred at that party.

I do not think he decided on which direction to head by mistake I think he choose the closest town to him for help to head to I believe he may of thought he could meet up with the person or ride he allegedly called along his way or was walking against traffic to do just that , or to avoid someone who was following him by car. Its what I would do.

Furthermore, I read above they found a couple of his belongings onside of road I looked that up on Google maps along with rest of cited locations. His drivers license was found on ground. Some blame hypothermia I do not. There are only couple reasons one takes out they're drivers license. A cop or someone stating they are police demand to see it. Someone with reason asked you for it such as a cab driver to confirm credit card is yours .
yes i am insinuating a cop gone bad , its possible and i understood a car was sent out to locate the young man on roadside.... yet stated found nothing...what about cabs have they looked into that option was one called?
Who did he call that would be in direction he was heading , and I do not believe he rejected to offers for a ride from that other youngster and his cousin. Something is up with that story and that person.

So there is why I became a member here for what it is worth.
d
 
Various news stories about Colin Gillis's disappearance have been posted stating that his shoe and ID were found along the road but were almost immediately changed with this info removed. Not sure why the cops don't want that info out there but I know of other disappearance cases in my own city over the years where this type of information was openly reported by the media and not hushed up by the police. It is possible he could have encountered someone posing as a cop...that sort of thing has been reported in other areas over the years. I realize the 'Smiley Face theory' cases are often dismissed as urban legend but if you read the book written by the mother of Minneapolis 21 year old victim Chris Jenkins called "Footprints of Courage" or the website of Vance Homes "drowning in coincidences" or the posts by victims' friends under the Smiley Face Gang article written by former FBI profiler Cliff VanZant found at his website there is very compelling evidence to the contrary. The Minneapolis police who originally declared Chris's case to be accidental drowning or suicide issued a public apology to Jenkins' parents and reopened his case as a murder investigation after a jail house snitch talked. There are so many other cases with nearly identical circumstances (easily Googled), athletic, college guy in the northern states leaves a bar or party upset over something that happened there, disappears...info on this found at above mentioned websites. Wondering if there were any 'outsiders' present at the party, someone who would be considered a stranger to most of the party goers or if there were any 'crashers' present? I just saw breaking news at ynn.com that a young missing Ithaca man was just found in water by Cornell crew team. No details yet available but he was reported missing on January 30 of this year.
 
As we have found out from other tragedies, hypothermia causes people do get confused, lose sense of direction, take of clothes in odd orders and burrow underneath things. So I think that might be the case and the fight was unrelated.
However, not willing to rule out fight, stranger abduction, bad cop etc.
 
I can vaguely remember being around 18 or 19 years old and leaving a party drunk and disoriented. I remember deciding that I was too drunk to be there and that no one was sober enough to give me a ride, so I left and walked home. I lived at least 5 miles from the party, it was at least midnight or later, it was raining and I had no coat. I hitch hiked and was picked up by an off-duty taxi driver who was smoking weed. Since that was only one of my many drunken nights of bad decisions, I consider myself lucky to be alive today. Sadly, I do not think Collin was as lucky. I think he likely drowned and that fairly soon he will be found along the shore. Tupper Lake is still seasonally uninhabited, but that will change in the next month or so and then I am sure we will have answers.
 
It isn't really that far from the party to Tupper Lake. About 3.5 miles. A good hour walk. It is about the same distance to Piercefield in which direction he was walking. The difference is that on the way to Tupper Lake you already pass houses after about 1.5 miles. Towards Piercefield there doesn't seem to be anything.

He might have been hit in the head, drank too much, or suffered from hypothermia. It does not make any sense he said he was waiting for a friend, was walking in the other direction from his home, and his stuff ended up on a deserted side road. He was seen wearing a shirt in freezing weather, pointing his arm in one direction and then another. Strange behavior. I think drowning is what most likely happened to him.

On the other hand, what if there was a 'friend'? He rejected a ride towards Tupper Lake so normally he would have realized he was walking in the other direction. Strange.

Search for Tupper Lake teen scaled down; police investigating a skirmish
 
From the above link:
Some of the investigation has taken police to SUNY Brockport, where Mr. Gillis lives in a dorm room and was expected to return.
Click to expand...
That could be interesting if Collin somehow thought he would get a ride back to his dorm then he was walking in the right direction.
 
welcome to websleuths curiousreader!!!! :cheer: great first post!
 
The State Police should be looking for outsiders, checking convenience store security film, or fast food places, especially on the day or two before Colin disappeared and the day after, looking for vans, out of town plates, run them, looking for criminal backgrounds. I'd look as far as Star Lake and Harrisville and east toward the Northway and south toward Utica. I guess that would take a lot of man power. But seems like that's what needs to be done. Wow, that new story of the two missing people is weird coming so close on the heels of the Colin case. I just read that the missing 23 year old woman was found on a road in Piercefield and was taken to the hospital. Makes me want to avoid going up there until they get a handle on what's going on! I hope that girl is ok and can provide the police with details that will help them.The entire community up there should remember "see something, say something".
 
My family is from Gouverneur and Tupper Lake is very small town everyone knows everyone type place. Not alot of crime from what I know. I could see that there could be a like to his disappearance and the other missing people but then again could be coincidence. Could be an outsider too.
 
Neplusultra said:
I have been following this story and took the time to read the several possible related stories someone linked. I came on to share my thoughts on this if I said I dreamed of Colin I would sound nuts so I won't.

We know something happened at that party , something bad enough to make this young man leave on foot knowing it was a two hour or more walk at best and seems cell phone reception could be an issue . He was not stupid as described he was bright and knew the area . To me this means something significant occurred at that party.

I do not think he decided on which direction to head by mistake I think he choose the closest town to him for help to head to I believe he may of thought he could meet up with the person or ride he allegedly called along his way or was walking against traffic to do just that , or to avoid someone who was following him by car. Its what I would do.

Furthermore, I read above they found a couple of his belongings onside of road I looked that up on Google maps along with rest of cited locations. His drivers license was found on ground. Some blame hypothermia I do not. There are only couple reasons one takes out they're drivers license. A cop or someone stating they are police demand to see it. Someone with reason asked you for it such as a cab driver to confirm credit card is yours .
yes i am insinuating a cop gone bad , its possible and i understood a car was sent out to locate the young man on roadside.... yet stated found nothing...what about cabs have they looked into that option was one called?
Who did he call that would be in direction he was heading , and I do not believe he rejected to offers for a ride from that other youngster and his cousin. Something is up with that story and that person.

So there is why I became a member here for what it is worth.
d
Click to expand...

WELCOME TO WS!!!

Bolded By Me

I do find the story about the kids stopping to offer him a ride a bit odd. Ugh...which link was that? Do we know if that was supposedly before or after the news editor passed him by?

I do not personally feel hypothermia would have gotten to him in such a way to lose his belongings (which I will call a shoe and his license.. although I can not verify as the shoe story has been pulled). Adirondack kids are a pretty tough lot when it comes to the outdoors...He grew up in that region, I am guessing he knew something about combatting the elements on a cold night...also, it was a full moon, or close to it, that night...anyone know how to find out if it was a clear evening in Tupper Lake that evening? Because if so, IMO surely the light would have helped him...I think.
The fact that they found his stuff on the side of a road and have found no sign of him in the woods sorta leads me to believe he left that area in a car, just not sure if it was by his own accord or not. I tend to lean towards not.

And what is the deal with that other missing couple In Tupper Lake, sure seems odd. If there were any connection, could it be that they passed by Colin walking that evening and....? Is that too big of a leap?
 
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