MA MA - Catherine Ruth Malcolmson, 16, Stow, 13 Aug 1985

Catherine Ruth Malcolmson
Missing since August 13, 1985 from Stow, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: April 17, 1969
Age at Time of Disappearance: 16 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5; 110 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes. Malcolmson bleached her hair blonde prior to her disappearance.
Marks, Scars: She has a Chicken pox scar on her forehead, a mole on her left cheek and a dimple on her right cheek. Her ears are pierced.
Clothing: Malcolmson was wearing light blue jeans; a short-sleeved striped shirt; sneakers; a silver ring; and two bracelets when she was last seen. She was carrying a gray pocketbook.
Dentals: X-Rays available
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/313dfma.html

Catherine Malcolmson was last seen riding her bike to work on Route 62 in Stow, Massachusetts on August 13, 1985. In 1987, her bike was recovered just a few miles away in neighboring Hudson, MA.

Two months later Sarah Pryor, 9, was kidnapped and murdered while riding her bike in nearby Wayland, MA.

John Robert Whirty is considered a prime suspect in the case and as of 2005 was serving time in prison due to attacking a woman in Newton, MA shortly after the Pryor murder and Malcolmson disappearance. He murdered a 15 year old in TX in 1967.

Updated NCMEC poster:

CATHERINE MALCOMSON
DOB: Apr 17, 1969
Age Now: 44
Missing: Aug 13, 1985
Missing From:
STOW
MA
United States
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'5" (165cm)
Weight: 110lbs (50kg)

Catherine's photo is shown age-progressed to 44 years. She was riding her bike to work and has not been seen since. Catherine's hair is naturally brown but it may be bleached blonde. She has a scar on her forehead, a dimple on her right cheek, and pierced ears. Catherine was wearing a silver ring and two bracelets when she was last seen. FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED.





http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseNum=601807&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

still missing:



http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/06/110_missing_children_from_mass.html

Catherine Malcolmson, Stow
Missing since Aug. 13, 1985 at age 18. Photo on right is age-enhanced to age 49.


Faces of the missing: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cases involving Massachusetts children and teens

This missing person story caught my eye as I was looking up another case. I guess two references alerted me, My brother in law lives in Stow and maybe it's my imagination but so many missing child cases from the 1970s and 80s contain the sentence "last seen riding his/her bike on..."

There doesn't seem to be much press about the case

Catherine Ruth Malcolmson – The Charley Project
Catherine Ruth Malcolmson

• 
• 

Catherine, circa 1985; Age-progression to age 44 (circa 2013)

• Missing Since08/13/1985
• Missing FromStow, Massachusetts
• ClassificationNon-Family Abduction
• Date of Birth04/17/1969 (49)
• Age16 years old
• Height and Weight5'4 - 5'5, 110 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionA short-sleeved striped shirt, blue jeans, two bracelets and a silver ring. Carrying a gray pocketbook.
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Catherine's hair had been bleached blonde prior to her 1985 disappearance. She has a chicken pox scar on her forehead, a mole on her left cheek and a dimple on her right cheek. Her ears are pierced. Catherine's nickname is Cathy.

Details of Disappearance
Catherine was last seen riding her Murray bicycle in her hometown of Stow, Massachusetts. She headed to her part-time job as a supermarket cashier at the IGA store two miles away, on Route 62 in Hudson, Massachusetts. She was reportedly in good spirits; her brother had just graduated high school and there was going to be a celebration later. She has never been heard from again.

Catherine's case was first classified as a runaway, but authorities later admitted that she had probably not left of her own accord. She left her first paycheck behind at her workplace. Her family never believed she ran away.

Her bicycle was located in 1987, nearly two years after her disappearance. A motorist located the bicycle in a wooded area along Gleasondale Road off of Route 62, about 500 yards past the Stow town line. The man did not know whose bicycle it was and gave it to a friend, who suspected it belonged to Catherine and contacted police.

Searches of the location were delayed several times due to inclement weather, and no evidence related to Catherine's whereabouts was discovered.

Authorities believe Catherine's case may be connected to the 1985 abduction and murder of Sarah Pryor, who vanished from the same Massachusetts area two months after Catherine's disappearance. John Robert Whirty has been considered the prime suspect in both girls' cases. He served seventeen months in a Texas prison for the 1967 murder of a fifteen-year-old girl. After being released from prison he moved to Massachusetts.

Records from Whirty's job place him in the area at the time Catherine disappeared, but there has never been any evidence to link him to her or Pryor's case. Whirty is currently incarcerated in Texas for parole violation, which stems from the kidnapping and assault of a Newton, Massachusetts woman which occurred three months after Catherine's disappearance and one month after Pryor's murder.

Foul play is suspected in Catherine's case due to the circumstances involved. Seven years after her disappearance, her family held a memorial service for her and erected a tombstone at the family burial plot in Dover, New Hampshire.

Bumping

From 1998, article on Catherine’s case and Sarah Prior case

Stow, Pryor cases may be linked

Bumping this thread for Catherine.

Still missing:

Missing kids in Massachusetts

The images on the right have been age-progressed to 34 and 44 years.

Name: Catherine Ruth Malcolmson
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 13, 1985
Location Last Seen: Stow, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Physical Description​

Date of Birth: April 17, 1969
Age: 16 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Scar on forehead, dimple on her right cheek, Pierced ears

Identifiers​

Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: a striped shirt and light blue slacks
Jewelry: two bracelets and silver ring
Additional Personal Items: sneakers, silver ring and two bracelets, and she was carrying a handbag

Circumstances of Disappearance​

Malcolmson was last seen riding her bicycle to her summer job at a supermarket on Route 62 in Stow, Massachusetts on August 13, 1985. She never arrived for her cashier's shift. Her bike was found in 1987, dumped in the woods along Gleasondale Road in Hudson. Foul play is suspected.

Investigators think Malcolmson's disappearance may be linked to that of Sarah Pryor, a 9-year-old Wayland girl who vanished two months later and was found murdered.

Investigating Agency(s)​

Agency Name: Stow Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Michael Sallese
Agency Phone Number: 978-897-8615
Agency E-Mail: stowpolice@stow-ma.gov
Agency Case Number: 85-5840

NamUs Case Number: 6340
NCIC Case Number: M874445197
NCMEC Case Number: 601807

Information Source(s)​

NamUs
CA DOJ
NCMEC

Admin Notes​

Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr

June 15, 2003

Identifiers​

Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available

Archived article from The Boston Globe dated Aug 4, 2022 (John Whirty dead)

The Stow Police Department shared the news on Friday, just a day before National Missing Persons Day, which is Saturday.

Authorities said Catherine “Cathy” Malcolmson was reported missing on Aug. 13, 1985. At the time, she was riding her bike to work.

Police said her bike was found about two years later in Hudson, but there haven't been any substantial leads or developments since.

Cathy’s disappearance has always remained on the minds of our department members and this town,” Chief Michael Sallese said in a news release. “I am glad that we were given the opportunity to bring more attention to this case. There have been both technological and investigative advancements since her disappearance and we are looking forward to utilizing those tools. Our hope is that given the time that has passed, people who may not have come forward then will come forward with information now and we can finally get some answers as to what may have happened to Cathy.”

Click to expand...

Police received funding for the task force and podcast through the Edward J. Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.

"Cathy's disappearance has always remained on the minds of our department members and this town" said Chief Michael Sallese in a statement. "Our hope is that given the time that has passed, people who may not have come forward then will come forward with information now and we can finally get some answers as to what may have happened to Cathy."

Pennysmom1 said:

Malcolmson was last seen riding her bicycle to her summer job at a supermarket on Route 62 in Stow, Massachusetts on August 13, 1985. She never arrived for her cashier's shift. Her bike was found in 1987, dumped in the woods along Gleasondale Road in Hudson. Foul play is suspected.

Click to expand...

BBM

I just encountered this case for the first time due to the news about the new task force looking at Cathy's disappearance. I was a resident of Stow, MA in the 2000s so it caught my eye. In all the sources I read about her bicycling to work to an IGA grocery store in Stow or maybe Hudson. Probably bicycling on Route 62. Her bicycle found 2 years later on or near Gleasondale Road in Hudson very close to Stow but the area couldn't be searched due to deep snow.

Gleasondale Road is Route 62. They are the same road.

She went missing in August 1985, there was no deep snow in August. I assume this means when the police identified the bicycle in 1987 it was winter. One article says the bicycle had changed hands more than once before the police ID it as Malcomson's bike. Do the police publish who found it, when it was found, or where exactly it was found?

My first thought in remembering the Stow/Hudson town line on Route 62 is the Assabet River is almost exactly there. The Assabet doesn't seem like a great place to, God forbid, dispose of a body because it was more of a slow, narrow stream in the 2000s. But I do wonder what it was like in the 1980s. Earlier in history there were plenty of mills that got power from the river in Hudson and Maynard. Was it a more significant river in 1985 than it is today?