SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
Former Member
Randy Johnson
Endangered Missing -- Missing Since: August 20, 1978
Missing From: Newark, New Jersey
Michael McDowell
Endangered Missing -- Missing Since: August 20, 1978
Missing From: Newark, New Jersey
Melvin Pittman
Endangered Missing -- Missing Since: August 20, 1978
Missing From: Newark, New Jersey
Ernest Taylor
Endangered Missing -- Missing Since: August 20, 1978
Missing From: Newark, New Jersey
Alvin Turner
Endangered Missing -- Missing Since: August 20, 1978
Missing From: Newark, New Jersey
Height: 5'4" -- Weight: 120 lbs -- Hair Color: Black -- Eye Color: Brown
Alvin Turner, Melvin Pittman, Randy Johnson, Ernest Taylor and Michael McDowell vanished after playing basketball in Newark, NJ. They were never heard from again.
The teens were seen later that evening entering the pickup truck of a local carpenter, who routinely hired city teens to help him with odd jobs. He told police he dropped them off at 11:00 pm.
Police initially believed the boys had run away, but the family said they weren't the type to do that. Several days after the boys disappeared, one of their mothers got a phone call from a man who said he would tell her where the boys were for $750. Police traced the call to a pay phone at Union Station in Washington, DC., but by the time they arrived, whoever had made the call apparently had fled.
In March 2010, The carpenter and another man were charged with 5 counts of murder and arson related to their disappearance. Investigators believe the teens were taken to an unoccupied house, forced inside at gunpoint, and restrained, and then the house was set on fire. No human remains have been recovered in that area, however.
Charley Project
Doe Network