UT UT - Timothy Parry, 19, disabled, Cedar City, 17 July 1989

[MelmothTheLost]

"Children with Angelman's syndrome can't walk. Most can only crawl or walk when they are assisted by someone or something. There is no way that Timothy just walked off. "

At the very least, these children have a hard time walking. It seems they need constant supervision.

Going by the entry in Wikipedia it seems that Angelman Syndrome manifests as a spectrum of impairment from mild to profound, so Tim might well have been able to wander off if he wasn't at the extreme end of the spectrum:

Some speech and a greater degree of self-care are possible among the least profoundly affected. Walking and the use of simple sign language may be beyond the reach of the more profoundly affected.

BBM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelman_syndrome

It would be helpful to know more about how severely affected Tim was. Clearly he had multiple serious health problems, which is not uncommon for people with chromosomal disabililties.

I see he has a sister who is reported to be still living. Her thoughs and input would be so useful since there seems to be so little available about Tim and his disappearance.

 

[CMDT]

Timothy's grandfather thought that he just ran away. He wrote in his diary:

“Zeno was here for Diann’s endowment session and this is the last that we saw Timothy Scott Parry. He evidently ran away from home on the night of the 18th of July and we have heard not a word for his whereabouts since then."

Zeno is Timothy's father. Diann is an aunt.

http://herbparry.blogspot.de/2011_08_01_archive.html

 

[Alleykins]

It almost sounds like he was treated as a typical teen aged runaway, even though he was disabled.

 

[Laughing]

Grandma's obituary states that grandson Timothy is missing -- but he is included as an honorary pallbearer. I suppose Grandma loved Tim....

HEY anyone think it's interesting that Gramps went to the camp for handicapped children right before Tim disappeared?????

“Zeno was here for Diann’s endowment session and this is the last that we saw Timothy Scott Parry. He evidently ran away from home on the night of the 18th of July and we have heard not a word for his whereabouts since then. Also, the 13th I took the train to Camp Kostopolis up Emigration Canyon for the retarded kids. It was sponsored by the U. S. West Co.



ETA: that camp business

 

[Alleykins]

I noticed that entry, too.

 

[Satch]

I noticed that entry, too.

OK. Throwing this out for consideration,

Zeno was here for Diann’s endowment session and this is the last that we saw Timothy Scott Parry. He evidently ran away from home on the night of the 18th of July and we have heard not a word for his whereabouts since then. Also, the 13th I took the train to Camp Kostopolis up Emigration Canyon for the retarded kids. It was sponsored by the U. S. West Co.

According to Grandma's diary,

Grandpa went to "The camp for retarded kids" the day BEFORE Tim vanished. Tim vanished during the night. Could this have happened:

The family loved Tim deeply, but because of the scope of his disability and the care that he needed, could no longer provide for him. Maybe Tim was having problems at home and was a high risk of hurting himself. Grandpa goes to this kids camp shortly before Tim "leaves home." Could the grandfather have discussed with Tim's parents about Tim going to the camp? Maybe Tim knew he was about to go to the camp, didn't want to go, and just ran away?

Now, we need to know why Tim's grandfather went to the camp and specifically any connection to Tim for his grandfather being there.

Satch

 

[Satch]

Wow,

Tim's dad Zeno Parry is on the Internet. Out of respect to his privacy, I will not post specific links. But I found out some things:

1.) He works for an affordable housing project to help members of his community. (Or at least did at the time the data was published.)
2.) He has a quote, "Don't jump in the lake, climb the mountain. See you at the top!"

Those two elements sound like a man who was deeply loving and caring to the disabled and it seems to show that Tim impacted his life in a positive way! Even though I would certainly anticipate there was stress concerning what could have happened to Tim. I think Zeno would like some closure, who wouldn't?

This certainly does not sound like a man who would give up, and would do anything to find his son and have him back again!

Satch

 

[Laughing]

any coverage of searches in July of 1989?

 

[Satch]

Here is the camp's website that Tim's grandfather visited:

http://www.campk.org/

Satch

 

[Alleykins]

Bumping for Timothy. It's been well over a year.
Doe network states his case info was updated as of Jan 10 2018. Not sure what was updated.
Link to his DN page.

 

[Murkywaters]

I found two article regarding Timothy in the Saint George Daily Spectrum. There's some extra information in them.

Timothy walked away from his home at 5700 Airport Road Tuesday night, he was discovered missing at 10 pm. Tracks indicate he may gone to the Lund highway about a 3/4 mile from his home.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Maybe Tim knew he was about to go to the camp, didn't want to go, and just ran away?

That doesn't seem likely to me. The wiki article says that all people with Angelman Syndrome have:

• Developmental delay, functionally severe
• Speech impairment, no or minimal use of words; receptive and non-verbal communication skills higher than verbal ones

I'm going to guess that Tim's understanding of the world generally was very limited (if his basic needs were being met and people were being kind and friendly to him he was happy) but I very much doubt he could have understood complex conversations such as one about sending him away and then formulated a response to that eg "My parents are going to send me away, so I must run away".

It's possible that if he was relatively mildly affected by the syndrome he could have walked away, as well as he could with balance and mobility problems, but if that was the case he might also have been sufficiently mildly affected to have some understanding of what was going on around him.

Most affected people will not develop more than 5–10 words, if any at all.

I doubt those few words would have allowed him to communicate in any meaningful way with an outsider.

 

[Satch]

That doesn't seem likely to me. The wiki article says that all people with Angelman Syndrome have:

I'm going to guess that Tim's understanding of the world generally was very limited (if his basic needs were being met and people were being kind and friendly to him he was happy) but I very much doubt he could have understood complex conversations such as one about sending him away and then formulated a response to that eg "My parents are going to send me away, so I must run away".

It's possible that if he was relatively mildly affected by the syndrome he could have walked away, as well as he could with balance and mobility problems, but if that was the case he might also have been sufficiently mildly affected to have some understanding of what was going on around him.



I doubt those few words would have allowed him to communicate in any meaningful way with an outsider.

Given his many medical issues, I am just surprised that he would get so far away as to never be seen again. What do you think happened to him?

Satch

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Given his many medical issues, I am just surprised that he would get so far away as to never be seen again. What do you think happened to him?

When a severely disabled child or adult goes missing I would assume he or she is dead and that the parents or carers were responsible, either for killing the child (deliberately, in a rage or accidentally) or for covering up a natural or accidental death for financial reasons. In Tim's case I suspect that even if he had enough mobility to leave the house he couldn't have gone far or fast.

Given the age of this case there's just too much we don't know.

1. Anything very much about the family other than that they were Mormons. I have no idea about how the Mormons view disability, though I know some evangelical cults view it as evidence of sin etc.

2. How the parents and grandparents reacted after the disappearance. When did they report Tim missing? Did they actively participate in a search for him and co-operate with any LE enquiries or were they unhelpful or give off any red flags?

3. What happened in the weeks, months or years after Tim disappeared. Did the parents live in the same place for years hoping he'd come back, or did they move house within a short space of time? A move after a couple of years wouldn't necessarily concern me since given Tim's health issues it would be very obvious he wasn't coming back, but a move within a couple of month would.

Do you know if either of the parents are still alive? It would be interesting if the sister found her way here and was able to provide more information from her memories and what she was told.

Do you know if the case has been covered by any podcasts like The Vanished? Again, it would be interested to have the case examined and sister interviewed. If she was of a similar age to Tim she would have been more than old enough to have noticed stuff going on and would be around 50 now so recording her memories is important before it's too late.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Just a thought about this: Tim suffered from epilepsy. These days we have drugs to control the condition which would not have been available 30 years ago, but even today many epileptics still have at least occasional seizures, so it's probably fair to assume that Tim may well have suffered them at least from time to time, not least because of the complicating factors of his other health problems.

As such, we cannot rule out the possibility that Tim died during a seizure and that maybe his parents disposed of his body. We have no idea what their financial situation was, but I'm guessing that there would have been disability or social security payments receivable because of Tim's complex issues. In this scenario the story about him wandering off could simply be a ruse to cover up the lack of a body.

 

[Alleykins]

I had a few moments so I watched a few videos of folks with Angelman syndrome.
The ones I saw, the disabled persons walked pretty steadily. The only constant I observed were intellectual/development challenges. Like other diagnosis, it appears Angelmans may afflict people in varying degrees.
I wonder how severe Tim's physical impairments were. He may have had no difficulty getting around or leaving the house, but he may not have had the mental capacity to understand where he was going or what he was doing.
I don't believe there was anything nefarious done on the part of his family, but I wouldn't rule out negligence.

 

[Satch]

1. Anything very much about the family other than that they were Mormons. I have no idea about how the Mormons view disability, though I know some evangelical cults view it as evidence of sin etc.

This would be a great topic to research and post results. It might give us insight as what happened to Tim? Did they send him away because it was too difficult to care for him? And could their be something in the Mormon religion that says, "You don't talk about your children in a negative way like that." So they made up a story that Tim left home at night.

Were any of the family considered suspects in Tim's disappearance? What kind of care is required to take care of a person with Tim's medical conditions? Was a family member or caregiver, supposed to be watching him and they forgot or neglected their responsibility and it led to tragedy?

Was Tim tragically exploited in society and oh the horror of taken to a bad place where he was sexually and physically abused? It would seem that he would be an easy target for a predator or pedophile. Was Tim hit by a car that night and the driver panicked and hid the body?

Learning about how the Mormon's view disability, and what the family specifically did in the days, months, to years, following Tim leaving home that night could tell us a lot.

Satch

 

[MadMcGoo]

This case is so very heartbreaking and I tried finding additional information on Tim’s disappearance. I’m afraid I’m just left with more questions (and concerns)... maybe someone can help me put these pieces together as I don’t want to speculate much on something I’m not sure about.

I found several news articles but one in particular caught my attention. It mentions another missing person (young woman) who disappeared around the same time as Tim and was thought to have possibly been with Tim at some point! There’s a few more details in the article.

I tried looking for additional photos of him on Ancestry/Classmates and found something interesting. His brother, who passed away in 1991 (ZP), appeared in the same yearbook and class as Tim. I’m including photos of both. (FWIW- ZP was born in ‘67 and Tim in ‘69 - from records I’ve seen and one member’s public tree...)

I’m not sure what my theory is or even where to look now, but I feel something is being left out of this story...


Name: Timothy Parry
Estimated Age: 16
Birth Year: abt 1969
Yearbook Date: 1985
School: South High School
School Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Name: Zeno Parry
Estimated Age: 16
Birth Year: abt 1969
Yearbook Date: 1985
School: South High School
School Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

 

[MadMcGoo]

Newspaper articles... (I believe one or more have been posted upthread but I forget which ones, so here are the ones I found)

 

[Alleykins]

This case is so very heartbreaking and I tried finding additional information on Tim’s disappearance. I’m afraid I’m just left with more questions (and concerns)... maybe someone can help me put these pieces together as I don’t want to speculate much on something I’m not sure about.

I found several news articles but one in particular caught my attention. It mentions another missing person (young woman) who disappeared around the same time as Tim and was thought to have possibly been with Tim at some point! There’s a few more details in the article.

I tried looking for additional photos of him on Ancestry/Classmates and found something interesting. His brother, who passed away in 1991 (ZP), appeared in the same yearbook and class as Tim. I’m including photos of both. (FWIW- ZP was born in ‘67 and Tim in ‘69 - from records I’ve seen and one member’s public tree...)

I’m not sure what my theory is or even where to look now, but I feel something is being left out of this story...

View attachment 222829
Name: Timothy Parry
Estimated Age: 16
Birth Year: abt 1969
Yearbook Date: 1985
School: South High School
School Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
View attachment 222830
Name: Zeno Parry
Estimated Age: 16
Birth Year: abt 1969
Yearbook Date: 1985
School: South High School
School Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Could both brothers have been afflicted with the same syndrome? That the brothers were in the same class, ZP being older, indicates he may have had intellectual impairments, too.