MI MI - Patricia Spencer, 16, & Pamela Hobley, 15, Oscoda, 31 Oct 1969

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Missing on the last Halloween of the 1960s:

Patricia Spencer and Pamela Sue Hobley respectively 16 and 15 years old; they vanished from Oscoda, Michigan, on October 31, 1969. (Links are to Charley Project descriptions, details of disappearance, and photos.)

Haven't found much on the two - the Oscoda newspaper evidently ran an article in July, but it may not be online. While Topix is not something I'd ordinarily link to or recommend, the "Pamela Hobley & Patricia Spencer Missing since October 1969" page seems actually very informative, and civil. The last entry was in July '11. That page - 17 comments right now - is here.

CarlK90245 has links to the girls's NamUs pages (posted in relation to a UID in Florida, 1973), second entry here.

Interesting case. I'd never heard of it.
 
Anybody think the peace symbol found while metal-detecting is anything worthwhile? I kinda do.
 
Iosco County News-Herald and Oscoda Press
SECTION B
August 10, 2011
by Holly Nelson


WILBER TWP. – For more than four decades, a story has persisted that two missing Oscoda teenagers were buried in a Wilber
Township barn. There have been many variations over the years, including the location of the barn. Oscoda Township Police Chief
Mark David said he recalls hearing the story as a teen and, later, as a new police oficer. He took action last week af- ter locating a tip in the ile on the girls’ disappearance. The anonymous tip was given to the Oscoda-AuSable Police Department, now the Oscoda Township Police Department, in 1985, 16 years after the girls went missing, according to David. According to the informant,
the girls were murdered by two area men, then buried under Jack Searle’s barn on Brooks Road. There was nothing in the report
to indicate that the tip was ever investigated, David said. The Searle barn was well known to area youth, reportedly the site of both teen horse shows and wild parties. Searle is now dead and his farm has been divided and sold.

David located the site of the old barn, which had deteriorated and fallen down years earlier. Its roof remained, as did a concrete slab poured over ield stone ill. After David obtained permission from the owner of the barn site, the owner of the neighboring old Searle house, Fred Roulo, volunteered his equipment, labor and time to clear debris from the slab. The chief then asked Sgt. David
Yount, commander of the Michigan State Police Canine Unit in Lansing, if it would be possible to check out the scene with a cadaver
dog. While Yount said it was possible that his dog, a 3-year-old black German shepherd named Lightning, might be able to detect
the unmistakable odors which linger at grave sites for many years, it would be a stretch. But he agreed to give it a try.
Lightning is one of 32 MSP dogs and is used only for searches of dead bodies. Other of the dogs are trained to track the missing,
such as the one which found an alleged abductor and his victim in Oscoda Township last month; while some dogs scent explosives
or drugs. Yount raised Lightning since he was 8 weeks old and says he is a successful cadaver dog who likes to work.
According to Yount, this is likely because the dog located three bodies on one of his first assignments, a fire scene in Ann Arbor.
He was 11 months old at the time. Yount brought Lightning to the Searle barn site on Friday, where he, David and OTPD Sgt. Erik
McNichol were met by Roulo, who brought both a tractor and backhoe, along with volunteers. As a dozen members of the
Roulo family watched, joined at times by neighbors, the site was probed, scraped and the concrete was lifted from the earth.
“It’s just like C.S.I.,” one of the spectators said, also later expressing appreciation at the time Yount took to explain how cadaver dogs work. Lightning found nothing, but David said that only means scent is no longer viable. Further excavation is planned, according to the chief. Meanwhile, he and the department are following up on other leads, as is former Oscoda resident (SNIPED OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION) a volunteer group which assists families and law enforce- ment in inding the missing.
As previously reported, new attention has been focused on the disappearance of Pamela “Pam” Sue Hobley, 15, and Patricia “Patty”
Ann Spencer, 16, at the urging of Hobley’s younger sister, Mary Buehrle. The girls vanished, apparently without a trace, almost 42 years ago on Oct. 31, 1969. They were last seen around 2 p.m. as they walked along River Road between Oscoda High School, where they were students, and the business district. Foul play is suspected and both the family and police believe the girls were murdered. Information about the case can be phoned to David at 989-739-9112 or, if anonymity is sought,
emailed to otpd@oscodatwp.com
Iosco County Crime Stoppers is also accepting tips at 1-800-422-5245. Callers remain anonymous
and may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.
 
LOCAL NEWS
6A - Oscoda Press, Oscoda, Mi., Wednesday, July 13, 2011

by Holly Nelson
OSCODA – Pamela “Pam” Sue Hobley, 15, and Patricia “Patty” Ann Spencer, 16, disappeared, apparently without a trace, almost 42 years ago on Oct. 31, 1969.
The Oscoda High School students were last seen around 2 p.m. as they walked along River Road from the high school toward the business district, according to the
Oscoda Township Police Department report.
Hobley’s family is still looking for closure and answers. Her sister, Mary Hobley
Buehrle of Osseo, said she and her other two sisters believe the answers are in the Oscoda area, locked in the memory of whomever killed the girls. “Pam and Patty are dead. The families know this in the deepest valleys of our souls. We do not know why. We do not know how. But someone does,” she said. If there were any lingering
doubts, those vanished when her mother, Lois, was on her death bed in October 2008. As she drew her last breath, Lois said, “I see Pam,” Buehrle related. When the girls were reported to be missing, they were first thought to be runaways with a destination
of Flint, according to sparse newspaper reports of the day. The girls, however, were close to their families and, after a few weeks without any contact or sighting of either teen, the focus changed to foul play.
Hobley was 5 ft., 7 in. and weighed 110 pounds. She had brown eyes and hair, a birthmark in the left corner of her mouth and a scar on the bridge of her nose.
She wore glasses; however, that day they were in for repair. The day she went missing,
she was wearing a three-quarter length white faux fur coat with
brown trim, a long-sleeved blouse, plaid skirt, white knee socks and chunky shoes.
Spencer was 5 ft., 4 in. and 125 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. She had a dog bite scar on the back of her leg and always wore a chain around her neck from which a peace symbol hung. That day, she wore a tweed or brown plaid skirt, a brown sweater and a green-and-gray plaid jacket.
The girls’ mothers found nothing out of place at home. The girls had not taken any clothing and Patty’s purse was still in her room. After the case was changed
from runaway to foul play, the detective notiied law enforcement agencies in every state in the country.
Over the decades, there has been much speculation and at least one purported eyewitness account, that from a man now dead who, after telling this reporter what
happened, was deemed non credible by the case investigator, now also dead.
Based on the police report, some leads were followed, including
one which led to the excavation of a grave in the woods. A Shetland pony was found. Other tips lie in the ile, but nothing could be found to indicate whether
pursued. Buehrle said she was saddened that her sister and Patty’s lives are now deined only by the 36-page police report. “Pamela Hobley and Patty Spencer were loved, they were cherished,” said Buehrle. “They were not angels, they were young girls struggling in a fast changing world of drugs, pressures and expectations. They were cherished
as a child, a sister, a grandchild, a friend. They are still cherished and missed.”Buehrle said her grandparents and parents died never knowing what happened to Pamela. The
mystery especially plagued her mother, who worked at an Oscoda restaurant, and her grandmother, May Jones, who owned another restaurant downtown.
After two or three years without a word, the family moved to Hale. There was no longer a feeling of safety for them in Oscoda. Over the years they pursued answers, never with success. Lois Hobley even sought out a psychic. Mary said the family thought the mystery was over in 2002, when the FBI contacted Lois for a DNA sample to compare with bones found in an AuSable Township woods.
No one ever got back to them, but they subsequently learned the bones had been planted and were not those of either girl. “After the bones, she was really
devastated,” Buehrle recalled. She and her sisters daily wonder what could have been, wishing she had been there as they married and had children. Instead,they learned to accept that she was gone and found a way to live their lives without her, Buehrle said.
“ F o r t y - two years later, we still miss our big sister. We still ask, ‘What happened
to Pam?’ Imagine 15,360 days of asking oneself the same horrible question, day after day, year after year and never getting an answer.” Buehrle said she hopes the girls did not suffer and that the person or persons who snuffed out their young lives have experienced consequences. “We do pray he has cried once in a while for what we believe he did. We pray his guilt is a blanket that has dampened every good moment in his life. We pray the tapestry of his life has always had the thread of guilt and shame woven
intricately through it,” she said. “He knows what happened and so do the people who were there with him. We know he covered it up. We know he has succeeded for
42 years to keep the secret buried. “What was it? Someone got pregnant? Someone got mad? Someone could not cope with the reality of statutory rape?” Buehrle
asks some of the questions, some spawned by rumors, that daily plague her. “Please find the courage and strength to give peace and closure to the families your actions ripped
from our lives 42 years ago,” Buehrle said in a public appeal to the murderer or murderers.
According to Buehrle, she and sisters Becky and Betty are deter- mined to ind the answers and the identity of the murderers. “I’m not going to let it die,” Buehrle stressed.
She has enlisted the help of Oscoda Township Police Chief Mark David and pleads that anyone with any information, no matter how seemingly trivial, contact him at 989-739-9112.
David said the case has never been closed and, after reviewing it, plans to follow up on several possible leads.
 
Tips sought in 42-year-old case of missing Oscoda girls

OSCODA – In the wake of the July 13 article about the two
Oscoda girls who went missing on Halloween 1969, Oscoda Township
Police Chief Mark David says some tips and one potential
piece of evidence have been received, but more is needed.
Information may be phoned to him at 989-739-9112 or, if
anonymity is sought, emailed to otpd@oscodatwp.com
As previously reported, new attention has been focused on
the disappearance of Pamela “Pam” Sue Hobley, 15, and Patricia
“Patty” Ann Spencer, 16, at the urging of Hobley’s younger sister,
Mary Buehrle.
The girls vanished, apparently without a trace, almost 42 years
ago on Oct. 31, 1969. They were last seen around 2 p.m. as they
walked along River Road between Oscoda High School, where
they were students, and the business district. Foul play is suspected
and both the family and police believe the girls were murdered.

Oscoda Press, Oscoda, Mi., Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 13A
 
Crime Stoppers seeking tips on missing girls

Editor,
After reading the two articles
about the missing girls from 42
years ago, I noticed that Crime
Stoppers was not mentioned as a
source of tips. This letter is written to remind all residents who
may have knowledge about the
case can call Crime Stoppers at
1-800-422-JAIL (5245), and remain completely anonymous, as
well as be eligible for a reward of
up to $1,000 for tips that lead to
the felony arrest of criminals and
fugitives.
Tipsters are provided a code
number for the purpose of insuring anonymity. Based on this criteria, if anyone has knowledge
about the disappearance of Pamela “Pam” Hobley (15) and Patricia
“Patty” Ann Spencer (16), please
call Crime Stoppers at the number
above.
In addition, our Board of Directors is also looking for new
members to join with us in solving
crime in Iosco County.
If anyone would like more information, they can call me at 989-
747-0363, or send me an email at
lzucal@charter.net. I will answer
any questions and send them an
application, as well as the date
and location of our next meeting.
We look forward to hearing from
members of the public.
– Larry Zucal, President
Iosco County Crime Stoppers
 
Sorry this is the best I can do for a photo.

6A - Oscoda Press, Oscoda, Mi., Wednesday, July 13, 2011 By: Holly Nelson
photo-1.jpg
 
Entering the charts in the Fall it hit #1 in Billboard the first full day after the girls went missing; its enigmatic first lines would play again and again in the days, the weeks, the months, the years to come: "We're caught in a trap, / I can't walk out...."

Here we go again
Askin' where I've been
You can't see the tears for real I'm cryin'
 
So mtrooper - what do you think happened to the girls? A situation arose and got out of hand? Surely no chance that they left of their own accord - or is there?
 
Here's another un-captioned photo from the yearbook. I think it's Pamela Hobley, although I am not entirely sure. She has glasses exactly identical to the glasses in Pamela's yearbook portrait. And her hair and nose are similar too. I'm a little hung up on her mouth though. Her mouth looks a little wider than the other photos of Pamela.

<modsnip>
 
So mtrooper - what do you think happened to the girls? A situation arose and got out of hand? Surely no chance that they left of their own accord - or is there?

I think at first the police thought that they had ran away. Mind you Oscoda back in the 60-70's was a completely different town. The Wurtsmith Airforce base was still open the population was more than triple than what it was after the base closed in the 1990's. Drugs were common in Oscoda, and some of the friends that they kept were definitely known as belonging to a bad crowd.

The girls were not angels, but had managed to stay out of trouble for the most part. A couple of months earlier one of the girls was found hallucinating out in the woods by a bus driver. A guy from the base was charged with a crime (I would have to look up the exact charge. I am not sure if he slipped her something or if it was furnishing to a minor).

I personally believe that the girls met with foul play. I wish there was some way to see where sex offender's used to live back in the day. This is not the only case of unsolved disappearances in Oscoda. There was also-

1- Charlotte Loomis- 09/01/1972 (technically she went missing from NJ, but she was returning home to Oscoda when she went missing. I do not buy the DOE network version of the story)
2- Harold Covey-12/25/1977
3- Cherita Thomas- 8/3/1980
This is probably not related to the girls but a guy by the name of Robert Lepsy that went missing October 29, 1969 from Grayling.
 
Here's another un-captioned photo from the yearbook. I think it's Pamela Hobley, although I am not entirely sure. She has glasses exactly identical to the glasses in Pamela's yearbook portrait. And her hair and nose are similar too. I'm a little hung up on her mouth though. Her mouth looks a little wider than the other photos of Pamela.

<modsnip>

Can I ask what yearbook this was from? I would like to send the link to her sisters so they can look and see if they think that it is her. I tried to find it on class mates, but was not able to find it.

Thanks!!!
 

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