NJ NJ - Mark Himebaugh, 11, Del Haven, Cape May County, 25 Nov 1991

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I have access to an online newspaper archive database through my college. There are over 100 articles about Mark's case so I thought I would post things I found out that haven't been discussed in this thread yet.

1.) The brush fire was on Bayshore Road.
2.) A custodian (another article said he was a ranger) at Cape May County Park South reported seeing Mark with a young girl sometime between 3:30-4:00 (Different articles give different times)
3.) Mark's sneaker was found 75 yards from his house
4.) Mark lived at Sun Ray (Beach) Road.
5.) A girl who lived on the same street as Mark, and was friends with him, was locked in a dirty closet for hours every night by her grandmother. LE was looking for a possible connection between the two cases (1993).
6.) A sketch of Mark's abductor (according to LE) showed a man in his 20's with dark, greasy hair, and wide-rimmed glasses. He was believed to be a Philly resident, and was driving a white compact car. In the sketch, he was wearing a plaid shirt. Witnesses described seeing this man talking to Mark (1993).
7.) Before he went to see the brush fire, Mark told his mom that was excited about a visit he was going to make that evening to the home of one of his teachers. He had a crush on the teacher's daughter.


Here's an archived version of a website Mark's parent set up for him: http://web.archive.org/web/20050410074133/http://www.markhimebaugh.com/
 
eileenhawkeye said:
I have access to an online newspaper archive database through my college. There are over 100 articles about Mark's case so I thought I would post things I found out that haven't been discussed in this thread yet.

1.) The brush fire was on Bayshore Road.
2.) A custodian (another article said he was a ranger) at Cape May County Park South reported seeing Mark with a young girl sometime between 3:30-4:00 (Different articles give different times)
3.) Mark's sneaker was found 75 yards from his house
4.) Mark lived at Sun Ray (Beach) Road.
5.) A girl who lived on the same street as Mark, and was friends with him, was locked in a dirty closet for hours every night by her grandmother. LE was looking for a possible connection between the two cases (1993).
6.) A sketch of Mark's abductor (according to LE) showed a man in his 20's with dark, greasy hair, and wide-rimmed glasses. He was believed to be a Philly resident, and was driving a white compact car. In the sketch, he was wearing a plaid shirt. Witnesses described seeing this man talking to Mark (1993).
7.) Before he went to see the brush fire, Mark told his mom that was excited about a visit he was going to make that evening to the home of one of his teachers. He had a crush on the teacher's daughter.


Here's an archived version of a website Mark's parent set up for him: http://web.archive.org/web/20050410074133/http://www.markhimebaugh.com/
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting these bits of info. The little girl who was locked in the closet-do you know if charges were brought against the grandmother? Do you know if there was ever any explanation given as to why the little girl was locked in the closet? How did the witnesses know the man was from Philly? I wonder if anyone noted his lic plate number?
 
marie-chantal said:
Thanks for posting these bits of info. The little girl who was locked in the closet-do you know if charges were brought against the grandmother? Do you know if there was ever any explanation given as to why the little girl was locked in the closet? How did the witnesses know the man was from Philly? I wonder if anyone noted his lic plate number?
Click to expand...

The girl's grandmother and grandmother's live-in boyfriend were charged with simple assault, unlawful restraint, endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment and conspiracy. However, I believe the charges were later reduced to just unlawful restraint. They both pleaded guilty and got 5 years probation plus counseling.

The grandma got custody of the 11-year-old because her mother had a drug problem. The Del Haven home was actually the grandma's summer home. The grandma is described as being a neat freak, with even LE commenting on how immaculate the house was. The girl was forced to sleep in the closet on weekends.

The grandmother says that they locked the girl in the closet because they were scared she would climb out the window and go into the pool. :waitasec: She also blamed her lack of judgment on menopause...

The sketch of the man that LE believed had abducted Mark was shown during a 1993 news conference. LE said that he is "believed to be a Philadelphia-area" resident. I know that traffic was routed near Mark's house on the day he disappeared, was that traffic coming or going to the Philly area? LE has stated many times that they believe Mark was a victim of a stranger abduction, so maybe they figure that the traffic detour could have brought this abductor to Del Haven.
 
Sounds like grandma and her boyfriend needed to be locked up themselves. What a bunch of weirdos.

It just horrifies me to think of someone using a child to lure another child. It sounds like Mark may have been taken in broad daylight since there seem to be a few witnesses. I thought that maybe that man spoke with someone and that was how they knew he was from Philly. If this is a resort community, then it's highly likely that there were many people coming and going from this town regularly. I wonder if the police searched Philadelphia?
 
I always found it strange that they were never able to identify the girl who was seen talking to Mark. I'm going to assume that every parent in Cape May County knew about Mark's abduction, and if their child fit the description of this mysterious girl, they would call in. Like you said, this girl was probably used to lure Mark. I know that Steven Staynor was used to lure another little boy for his abductor. I'm going to look at missing children who were believed to be abducted by strangers, and fit the description of the mystery girl later on.

Del Haven is right near the beach, and it is close to resort communities like Cape May and Wildwood. However, since Mark's abduction was during the off-season, I don't know how many tourists would be in Del Haven. It sounds like the reason why LE believes that Mark was taken by a stranger is because traffic was rerouted past his house that day. I think the reason they believe the abductor was from the Philly-area is because perhaps that's the direction the traffic was headed towards? Also, the Philly metro area is the closest metro area to Mark's house, so LE could just be making guesses about where the abductor was from.
 
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – Law enforcement officials haven’t given up in the search for Mark Himebaugh, who disappeared 20 years ago.

Neither has his mother, Maureen Himebaugh of Middle Township.

She said Mark, 11 at the time, could be alive today but also concedes that he may not be. What she wants is peace, she said.

Maureen had reported to Middle Township Police that Mark was missing Nov. 22, 1991, after he didn't return home in Del Haven, Middle Township. His shoe had been found along the Delaware Bay, she said.

http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/n...ng-20-years-says-all-she-wants-is-peace-.html

I wonder if this could be our Grateful Dead Fan?
 
just saw the article how sad someone mention in another post that they though some collin i believe guy was involved if so did his picture match the one of the composit that was drawn from the witnesses that saw him. also was mark a very trusting person someone who would go with just anyone even a stranger?
 
Something sort of strange.... Over on the Jessica Ridgeway thread, there is a current discussion about a horrible facebook page that has popped up in support of her killer, Austin Sigg. It isn't unusual for those kind of facebook pages to pop up after a high profile case like Jessica's, but one of the people who responds frequently to questions on that page, and one of the biggest apparent trolls on the "Help Free Austin Sigg" facebook page, has the initials of "DS". When I view information on his page, he has subscribed to one other page: "Missing Mark Himebaugh". It just seems strange for a troll to be posting horrible things on a page for Jessica Ridgeway, yet subscribing to a page in support of MH. The "Missing Mark Himebaugh" page is listed as 'living in' Philadelphia and the "Works At" section of facebook says "missing child/not a family member". Wasn't Philadelphia, the location where a man was from that was seen talking to Mark before he went missing? Does anyone know who in LE cares enough about the case of Mark to follow up on who created this facebook page? It is just strange to me..... how can you be closely following the case of Mark, and then jump over to a page about Jessica and support the teenager who kidnapped, rapped, sexually assaulted, and dismembered her? Something is off..... maybe just off in the head and not involved, but I want it looked into.
 
At one time it was believed a Philadelphia prostitute could hold the key to what happened to Mark. He was taken to an apaprtment by a man who showed him a sex tape of him having sex with a very frightened boy who looked just like the boy on the posters.



http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...6okAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1310,4146843

It's archived and the guy name is right on there. Police from Philly and Delco searched for the tape.

Not sure if I can use the guys name, but in 1998 a horrific case came to light this guy was sexually assaulting numerous 9 year old boys, and taping them and photographing them. He showed one boy a tape of himself having sex with the boy's friend's mother as the child was in the background.

He was out on bail, but I can not find anything about him being sentenced. Also, he has a somewhat relative connection to Cape May County.
 
Just read the following in one of the reports about the Cleveland girls being found. This is so sad!!

Himebaugh knows about what happened in Cleveland, but has avoided the details. His son Mark disappeared in 1991, at age 11.

"Every time I watch this kind of stuff, it rekindles the last 23 years," he said. "All it does, it just gives us hope again."
For Himebaugh, hope hurts. Whether hope is more painful than saying a permanent goodbye - that's impossible to figure.
"For the past 23 years, I've been happy for the families over that time who have recovered their kids, dead or alive," he said. "At least they've got closure. My biggest fear is I'm going to go to my grave and never know what happened to Mark, and why."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...-cleveland-house/story-fnd12peo-1226637932316
 
meggilyweggily said:
Perhaps the child's family didn't want to get her involved in a police investigation. Or maybe she was frightened by all the talk about the case around town, and didn't tell anyone of her part in the story.

I'm guessing Mark lost his shoe in a struggle.
Click to expand...

New to this thread - first post here... and this is the first I've ever heard of Mark. The little girl not coming forward makes me wonder if perhaps the abductor might have had some little helper? What if a grown up used another (smaller?) child to lure Mark away? It certainly wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened.
 
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