MA MA - Abbie Flynn, 60, went for walk before Super Bowl party, Gloucester, 2 Feb 2020

I read somewhere (news outlets) the door was unlocked. It must be a pretty safe area. I still think she drowned.
The Chief wouldn't commit to any info on the door in the FB live that he did. I also wonder how she would have fallen in the water if she were walking along her street? Will take a google stroll and see the possibilities but the weather on SB Sunday was clear and seas were calm based on everything reported on the weather. MOO
 
In my opinion, the odds in this case point strongly to tragic accident/accidental death. She was known to go for walks in nature and had told her son she was going to do that very thing that day. With there being a major body of water nearby, that increases the odds of a drowning scenario.

The only other outcomes would be self-harm, murder by stranger, murder by hired killer, murder by acquaintance, or still alive and just needing time away or a fresh start due to a mental break.

While suicide has occurred in multiple cases before where the victim seemed like a totally happy person, this case just really doesn’t seem like it lines up with that. She had scheduled a Super Bowl party for that night. If she wanted to kill herself, it would have almost had to have been a decision she made that day when it was too late to cancel the party. Odds are slim she would have planned a big get-together knowing all along she was going to harm herself that day and leave her guests wondering what was happening.

Murder by stranger is a possibility, but it just seems like a lower probability, given all the circumstances. Did a random murderous stranger just happen upon her house or stake out her place, just waiting for his/her chance to commit the crime? Did she happen upon a psychopath along her walk who decided she needed to die? Was it a kidnapping or robbery gone wrong? Those all seem pretty far-fetched, given that this was a sweet 60 year old woman living in a relatively safe area. Plus the house was reportedly in order and there were no disturbances reported in her neighborhood. The police say no signs point to murder right now, too. Plus, most sickos target younger women as victims. When older women are murdered by strangers, it is most often as part of a home invasion, robbery, or carjacking turned violent. It just doesn’t feel like the likeliest of scenarios.

Murder for hire is an option, too, as it always is when someone goes missing without explanation and there are family/friends/acquaintances out of town at the time who could have ordered the killing to avoid suspicion. It’s happened plenty of times in other cases. But again, that just doesn’t seem like what happened here. Everything that has been reported says that she had a wonderful relationship with all of her family members and that she was the kind of person who was loved by everyone. Without knowing all of the inside details or having personal knowledge of all of the people involved, I’d still put the odds of this scenario at less than 1%.

And lastly there’s the chance she’s still alive and is either trapped somewhere or hiding out due to having some sort of mental breakdown. But if she’s trapped, it would need to be somewhere outside of the elements where she somehow has access to water. And on the extremely low chance she had a complete meltdown just before the party and needed to get away from it all, you’d think she would have come to her senses by now and at the very least notified her kids that she was ok. I’m afraid that neither of those scenarios seem even plausible at this point.
 
Nice to see that Abby has Family around her and they have flown in to be local and follow the investigation.

'We just want Abbie back'
Thank you for the link afitzy. This is a great article and Abbie seems like such a lovely woman. My heart goes out to her family. MOO

Some excerpts:

[...]

"The people of Gloucester and Abbie's neighbors on Eastern Point have thrown a blanket over us," Brian said. "That also includes Chief (Ed) Conley and Detective (Thomas) Quinn because the family believes that Gloucester has an extraordinary police department."

He said that the family is not going to speculate on what has happened.

[...]

"They are doing everything they could as if they were family members," Brian said, adding that he considers the city's Police Department his friends.

[...]

Abbie Flynn "is a very normal person," her brother said Friday.

Normal, as described by Brian and Leslie, encapsulates weaving baskets, knitting and dyeing wool, photographing wildlife, and cooking and baking.

[...]

The couple reflected on the variety of treats Abbie would create in the kitchen, listing homemade macaroons, croissants, bagels, and ice cream as just a few.

"She brought all of her friends together through her love of food and just really did it for her kids," Leslie said. "It was love being poured out of her through her food."

[...]

"We have been attached to Gloucester since 1963," Brian said. "We both passionately love Gloucester."

Brian remembers he and Abbie spending many days at the Eastern Point Yacht Club and Brace Cove.

"It is no accident that Abbie bought a house overlooking Brace Cove," he smiled.

[...]
 
It's anyones guess as to where she is, but my thoughts are she's not in the water.
Unless she jumped off the draw bridge, which is not close to Brace Cove, but guessing about 5 miles away, (unless you went west past Ten Pound Island by boat, then much closer) I can't see anyone walking in the water from shore deliberatly this time of the year. The water temp averages between 35 and 45 degrees. I use to swim those waters when I was a teenager, and and even in June, it was painful. Within 5 minutes, you turn blue. I still scuba dive there and in Rockport, and even with a 7 mil. wet suit, it gets cold.
It was nice for the MSP to search the water, however, after ten days, what are the chances she'd be dragged out to sea and in a different location with the tide changes? Sonar is great, but unless she was weighted down, my guess is she'd be floating by now.
Again, all a guess, but mo is she's in the woods someplace. Maybe suffered a heart attack or another type of injury and although it's been unseasonalbly warm in New England, she could have still surcome to hypothermia.
I hope I am wrong, and I hope she shows up safely.
 
Please link the article. TIA
Please link the article. TIA
I have no idea where I read this since I had read lots of articles on this case. I was taken aback by reading the door was unlocked and wondered if she came back from her walk and someone was in the house, that is, IF she left it unlocked while she went for her walk.
 
I thought about this half the night (jet lagged).
I think it’s very unlikely that she was murdered.
It’s possible that she drowned or that she died from a medical event alongside a walking path. But I think it’s equally possible that she was abducted.
 
I thought about this half the night (jet lagged).
I think it’s very unlikely that she was murdered.
It’s possible that she drowned or that she died from a medical event alongside a walking path. But I think it’s equally possible that she was abducted.
It’s strange that there was never any sign of her. Searching began quickly and heavily. Water, woods, neighborhood.
I can understand why she’s not located in current searches of the water. It’s been so long and currents etc could have moved her offshore. The mystery remains as to why nothing in the very beginning. IMO
 
In my opinion, the odds in this case point strongly to tragic accident/accidental death. She was known to go for walks in nature and had told her son she was going to do that very thing that day. With there being a major body of water nearby, that increases the odds of a drowning scenario.

The only other outcomes would be self-harm, murder by stranger, murder by hired killer, murder by acquaintance, or still alive and just needing time away or a fresh start due to a mental break.

While suicide has occurred in multiple cases before where the victim seemed like a totally happy person, this case just really doesn’t seem like it lines up with that. She had scheduled a Super Bowl party for that night. If she wanted to kill herself, it would have almost had to have been a decision she made that day when it was too late to cancel the party. Odds are slim she would have planned a big get-together knowing all along she was going to harm herself that day and leave her guests wondering what was happening.

Murder by stranger is a possibility, but it just seems like a lower probability, given all the circumstances. Did a random murderous stranger just happen upon her house or stake out her place, just waiting for his/her chance to commit the crime? Did she happen upon a psychopath along her walk who decided she needed to die? Was it a kidnapping or robbery gone wrong? Those all seem pretty far-fetched, given that this was a sweet 60 year old woman living in a relatively safe area. Plus the house was reportedly in order and there were no disturbances reported in her neighborhood. The police say no signs point to murder right now, too. Plus, most sickos target younger women as victims. When older women are murdered by strangers, it is most often as part of a home invasion, robbery, or carjacking turned violent. It just doesn’t feel like the likeliest of scenarios.

Murder for hire is an option, too, as it always is when someone goes missing without explanation and there are family/friends/acquaintances out of town at the time who could have ordered the killing to avoid suspicion. It’s happened plenty of times in other cases. But again, that just doesn’t seem like what happened here. Everything that has been reported says that she had a wonderful relationship with all of her family members and that she was the kind of person who was loved by everyone. Without knowing all of the inside details or having personal knowledge of all of the people involved, I’d still put the odds of this scenario at less than 1%.

And lastly there’s the chance she’s still alive and is either trapped somewhere or hiding out due to having some sort of mental breakdown. But if she’s trapped, it would need to be somewhere outside of the elements where she somehow has access to water. And on the extremely low chance she had a complete meltdown just before the party and needed to get away from it all, you’d think she would have come to her senses by now and at the very least notified her kids that she was ok. I’m afraid that neither of those scenarios seem even plausible at this point.

Wonderfully written and I agree!
An accident/ tripping or slipping/ falling seems most plausible.

The only thing I can add is that my husband thinks there is a slim chance that Abbie was accidentally hit by a car and then loaded into the vehicle to avoid detection.
Hopefully police have carefully walked every inch of roadway checking for any sign of blood spatter or anything out of order.

My heart is aching for dear Abbie and her precious, lovely family. Praying this mystery will be solved quickly.
 
My thought pattern goes like this:
At first blush, I thought she was in the water for sure. Then I started thinking. A 60ish year old avid walker/hiker goes out for a walk on a nice day. What are the chances she falls? 1 in a hundred? If she falls what are the chances that she hits her head hard enough to become unconscious? Another 1 in a hundred? And if she does that, what are the chances she rolls into the ocean? Another 1 in a hundred? So combined, it looks to me like a one in million chance that she falls, hits her head, becomes unconscious, falls into the water and drowns.
There's got to be, in my opinion, an equal probability that she was abducted. We've read that some believe the K9 dogs tracked her to the end of the driveway and her scent disappeared. The family is wealthy and she was apparently staying there alone, albeit with guests expected. I just hope it's being considered by LE.
 
My thought pattern goes like this:
At first blush, I thought she was in the water for sure. Then I started thinking. A 60ish year old avid walker/hiker goes out for a walk on a nice day. What are the chances she falls? 1 in a hundred? If she falls what are the chances that she hits her head hard enough to become unconscious? Another 1 in a hundred? And if she does that, what are the chances she rolls into the ocean? Another 1 in a hundred? So combined, it looks to me like a one in million chance that she falls, hits her head, becomes unconscious, falls into the water and drowns.
There's got to be, in my opinion, an equal probability that she was abducted. We've read that some believe the K9 dogs tracked her to the end of the driveway and her scent disappeared. The family is wealthy and she was apparently staying there alone, albeit with guests expected. I just hope it's being considered by LE.
From post #20
It is not a particularly isolated area, homes are close enough, although it is isolated in that it’s on a point out into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a very wealthy neighborhood with year-round locals knowing each other well, but many houses are seasonally vacant.

The terrain can be very rocky and dangerous in some places, and there is ocean on three sides plus a pond (which was mostly frozen when I was there a couple of weeks ago).

It wouldn’t be impossible for someone to fall off the rocks at Eastern Point or into the pond (Niles Pond) if they went out on the ice. There are also some other inhospitable, rocky areas. The roads in and out are narrow and one-way in some places.
 
My thought pattern goes like this:
At first blush, I thought she was in the water for sure. Then I started thinking. A 60ish year old avid walker/hiker goes out for a walk on a nice day. What are the chances she falls? 1 in a hundred? If she falls what are the chances that she hits her head hard enough to become unconscious? Another 1 in a hundred? And if she does that, what are the chances she rolls into the ocean? Another 1 in a hundred? So combined, it looks to me like a one in million chance that she falls, hits her head, becomes unconscious, falls into the water and drowns.
There's got to be, in my opinion, an equal probability that she was abducted. We've read that some believe the K9 dogs tracked her to the end of the driveway and her scent disappeared. The family is wealthy and she was apparently staying there alone, albeit with guests expected. I just hope it's being considered by LE.
I’m with you, just doubtful that LE is considering anything but accident at this point. MOO
 
My first post. I live in the area. Did not notice this article posted. Rumors are running rampant. News has been somewhat quiet, which is odd. My gut says lost/hurt or suicide. I hope I’m wrong and Abbie is okay.
Link to story:
'Zero connection to any other missing person'
Welcome @skybluesea (great name BTW)!

I keep searching for news or even an update to the original podcast with the Chief and am finding nothing. I've done the google walk a dozen times and don't see how a water fall might have happened or even a freak wave as the marine forecast for SB Sunday was calm based on every report I found online including NOAA. I looked for sailor reports of random large waves which sometimes get reported and I found none in the area.

The response from LE IMO was impressive and I think you are lucky to have engaged LE as for a missing case I think they responded quickly and in a very comprehensive and methodical fashion. It was encouraging to see local friends rally around the case as well. I've followed missing cases for a good long while and helped out on many as well and so its always interesting to see who it is that reports the person missing and what the response is from those closest to the victim.

What is so puzzling is that the area where the victim lived had so few options that I can see for a vehicle to enter/exit and you would think with security cameras present (even at houses not occupied off season) that some camera would have captured something? Or, someone would have remember seeing a lone walking person? I also wonder if she would have not just stayed on the road for a basic walk vs heading into woods or walking on the beach or around the other inland water areas?

I just continue to pray for her family that LE can find some trail of her path that day as people don't just evaporate off the face of the earth!
 
I’m with you, just doubtful that LE is considering anything but accident at this point. MOO
Yes, but the Chief in the podcast was quite clear I thought that LE was looking at every possible angle. At the time of the podcast, they had already done a good bit of searching and I think the Chief might have been surprised to have not turned up any clues. I do think its strange that LE seemed to be holding back info on the house and so perhaps she had home security or other clues there that might lead LE in a different direction. But, I was impressed with the Chief as he seemed IMO more open minded to alternative theories than many in LE that I've heard speak publicly about in a case.
MOO
 

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