CT CT - Connie Smith, 10, Salisbury, 16 July 1952

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
I tried to email a few people about this.But I have not heard an answer.May I please ask if they ever found the unidentified Jane Does remains in Arizona.She seems to fit Donnis Marie Redman missing in 1958 from California last seen in Las Vegas Nevada.It says her boyfriends car was found in Williams Arizona.That is not far where this Unidentified Jane Does body was found near Grand Canyon National Park.Did they say what happened to her boyfriend?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2409dfca.html

suzanne

 

[Truly]

I have just read this news for the first time and am shaken. There is another girl, named Sara Storms, who had attended Camp Sloan in the late 1970's, and returned as a camp counselor in 1979. Her family was told that she had received a phone call, then borrowed a camp van. She was found dead next to the van which had been crashed near the camp.

 

[Truly]

If anyone finds any news about Sara, please let me know. Sara was my childhood friend, and I never have read anything that was published about her death. I only know what her mom and dad said the camp had told them. Supposedly, a phone call came from someone saying he was her boyfriend, and that she took the camp van without asking. She did not have a boyfriend at home, and she was a super responsible person.

 

[Truly]

yes omg i totaly forgot that its been 53 years i remeber when i found out about the case of connie smith. it hit home again another girl from ct vanishes without a trace from summer camp.

Smile22, what was the name of the other girl from CT who vanished without a trace? I have learned that a man named Bushey was the caretaker who lived at the gatehouse until 1979, and that the current maintanance director, Chris Wadsworth, started in 1978. Also, I cannot find the name of a local paper. Sara died in early summer of 1979.

 

[phenolred]

This is all I found so far, a mention of her in a flyer for the camp a scholarship in her name....

here is an execerpt
These include the Sara
Storms Campership Fund, designed for
annual contributions, and the Alison
Weingarten Memorial Campership Fund,
designed to fund one child at camp each
summer for one-two-week session.

http://www.camp-sloane.org/assets/files/birchbark-spring2004.pdf

 

[Truly]

:blowkiss: :blowkiss:
Thank you, phenolred!! It has been so long since I have seen her name! I have a letter she wrote to me from Camp Sloane that I will locate and print here; just kid stuff, but she was one amazing friend. I have a bunch of pictures of her, too. She was so beautiful. Her mom was so devastated, it was terrible, and nobody believed that Sara would take a vehicle without permission.

One reason I posted the names of the caretakers was that the guy LIVED in the gatehouse. And, they had the most famous missing person case of Connie Smith (whom I had never heard of before stumbling upon this thread), so it seems they wouldn't let campers just disappear out the front gate. Especially driving a camp van. And the anglefire Connecticut Missing Persons site said; "Police had numerous potential suspects, including the camp cook, the camp caretaker, nearby workers, and deliverymen" in the case of Connie Smith.

But Thank you again. The only thing I really found in 20 pages of google was that Denzel Washington was a counselor in 1975.

 

[smile22]

Smile22, what was the name of the other girl from CT who vanished without a trace? I have learned that a man named Bushey was the caretaker who lived at the gatehouse until 1979, and that the current maintanance director, Chris Wadsworth, started in 1978. Also, I cannot find the name of a local paper. Sara died in early summer of 1979.

oh i ment that another girl from ct vanishes without a trace i was refering to the case of Janice Pockett she is listed in the cold case section she vanished riding her bike in 1973 at the age of 8

 

[talelights]

One thing that has always bothered me about this case is this:

She supposedly left Camp Sloane to head to Lakeville, CT, going so far as to ask directions from some people. However, when she was last seen she was hitch-hiking in Salisbury, walking as if she was headed towards Lakeville. I know that area pretty well as I attended the Hotchkiss School for four years. Hotchkiss is located at the corner of Route 112 and 41, less than half a mile from Camp Sloane. I know Lakeville well. In order for Connie to have been seen hitch-hiking to Lakeville in Salisbury, she would have had to already passed through Lakeville. In other words, where she was last seen was on Route 44 past Lakeville center. Why would she have headed to Lakeville, passed through it, then turned around once she reached Salisbury and hitch-hiked in the opposite direction.

For those that cannot picture the area, here is a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=124+Indian+Mountain+Rd,+Lakeville,+CT+06039,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title
The place-marker at 124 Indian Mountain Road shows where Camp Sloane is.

I think the reason for the confusion is, the camp is located in the town of Salisbury, but in the Lakeville section of town. So what Connie did was when she walked out of the drive way of Camp Sloane she turned right onto Indian Mountain Road, crossed the intersection of Interlaken Road, and walked until she got to Route 44 where she turned right again. She did not know the way and stopped to asked directions before crossing Interlaken Rd and again before getting to Route 44. She was last seen near Belgo Road looking to hitch a ride, just about 1/4 of a mile before the town of Lakeville. The couple who saw her, the wife wanted to pick her up but the husband said they would be late for work, so they didn't.

 

[talelights]

Were there witnesses who actually saw her sustain these injuries? They both seem rather suspicious to me. It is possible one the camp employees was targeting her sexually because of how physically mature she was and when she fought back she received the injuries. That would explain why she left so suddenly. Perhaps she was trying to get to the nearest town to inform the police. Were any of the employees unaccounted for at any time during that day? Maybe the perp saw her leaving, became scared, tracked her down, maybe played nice and offered to give her a ride back to town and then killed her to save themselves from being revealed.
Does this seem plausible?

I agree with you, the injuries seemed suspicious to me also. I have not been able to find anyone who was in camp at that time, but wish I could. There was a camper who, I think, was in Connie's tent, but I don't have her name. I think she may have been a friend as she helped Connie's father by supplying the photo of Connie that is seen on her poster, today. By the way, it is my understanding that Connie Smith may have been one of the very first missing children who's posters were distributed around the country. The commissioner of the Connecticut State Police seemed to have been a real advocate at a time when the police were not charged with finding missing persons. It was the attitude of the day to say "it's a family matter and not to get involved."
Connie's father even appeared on Art Linkletter's show asking for assistance in locating his daughter and passing out poster to all the schools in the LA area. Connie was the granddaughter of a former governor of Wyoming. No stone seemed to be unturned by her father, yet still she is missing.

 

[talelights]

Hi
I tried to email a few people about this.But I have not heard an answer.May I please ask if they ever found the unidentified Jane Does remains in Arizona.She seems to fit Donnis Marie Redman missing in 1958 from California last seen in Las Vegas Nevada.It says her boyfriends car was found in Williams Arizona.That is not far where this Unidentified Jane Does body was found near Grand Canyon National Park.Did they say what happened to her boyfriend?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2409dfca.html

suzanne

Suzanne4444, no the remains have not been found yet. They think they know where she might be buried, but now that you supplied additional name perhaps I can get some movement on this. Do you have any other information besides the doenetwork?

 

[talelights]

I have just read this news for the first time and am shaken. There is another girl, named Sara Storms, who had attended Camp Sloan in the late 1970's, and returned as a camp counselor in 1979. Her family was told that she had received a phone call, then borrowed a camp van. She was found dead next to the van which had been crashed near the camp.

Truly, I will see if I can find anything further on this case and let you know, it may take a few days.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
There is this link.I thought of Donnis Redman because on the Doe network site it says her boyfriends car was found a few days later in Williams Arizona.I see that is not far where they found these remains in Arizona not long after she came up missing.Can you please keep me posted on this?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/redman_donnis.html

suzanne

 

[talelights]

I will contact my LE person to see if we can get some movement on this case. I don't know if you have access to any old newspapers on line but you might be able to find out more information on the Little Miss X case, in a Flagstaff AZ. newspaper. I think Little Miss X's hair was blond, but I am not for sure. there are a lot of mis-information out there.

Do you have any other information besides what you sent me in the link? I would be interested in knowing if they have anything further to help id her, like jewelery or dental or anything,

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Hi
I am just bumping this up to see if you found out any more on this?

suzanne

 

[KarlK]

I have just read this news for the first time and am shaken. There is another girl, named Sara Storms, who had attended Camp Sloan in the late 1970's, and returned as a camp counselor in 1979. Her family was told that she had received a phone call, then borrowed a camp van. She was found dead next to the van which had been crashed near the camp.

Just to clarify something: by "she was found dead next to the van" I assume it was determined that Storms had not died as a result of the crash?

 

[talelights]

There is nothing to report on the Connie Smith case, I am sorry to say. I am still looking for someone who lives in the Flagstaff area and can do some research at the sheriff's office on two UID's. One, Little Miss X and the other Valentine Cutlip.

Any information would be helpful.

 

[Mischa]

http://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.bl...-max=2009-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=29

Please, scroll down to the entry of February 26., 2008


Quote: "On the morning of July 16, 1952, 10-year-old Connie Smith walked away from a YMCA camp near Salisbury, Connecticut. Other than two brief sightings later that day, she has never been seen since. Sandy Bausch, a native of the area, has done extensive research on the case. This story is a compilation of her work. If you have more information, please contact her at conniesmithstory@mindspring.com."



Starless found another long article:

http://www.officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?t=1323

Please, scroll down


Quote: "Charleston Gazette
Sunday, July 11, 1954

CASE OF THE VANISHED CHILD

Friday of next week will mark a second anniversary filled with regret for nine Connecticut residents. These men and women will look at the calendar and say to themselves "If I only had."

Their distress concerns Connie Smith, daughter of Helen and Peter Smith, wealthy ranchers, and grandaughter of Nels H. Smith, former Governor of Wyoming. On July 16, 1952, 10-year-old Connie was at Camp Sloane near Lakeville Conn. A half mile of winding dirt road led from the camp area to it's gate on Indian Mountain road. Here, the gate-keeper, August Epp, had his house, (figure 1 on the map above). He was the first of nine people who regret not having done something about the child."

 

[talelights]

What great information, some of it I had not seen in publication before. I went to Starless page but was unable to get any further information, the paged seemed to be locked out. I was looking to contact Starless but... I noticed a reward posted for information on a hacker who's hacked the page, perhaps it has been taken down.

I am still working on this mystery, small pieces of the puzzle seem to come from some of the most surprising places... Thank you for bringing me back to this page.

 

[Mischa]

I copied the article from Starless Site of the Google-Cache.

Starless, if you mind me copying the full article please send me a PM and I'll remove it. (I hope you find out who destroyed your page. There are such brainless idiots out there ...)


Quote:

"
Charleston Gazette
Sunday, July 11, 1954

CASE OF THE VANISHED CHILD

Friday of next week will mark a second anniversary filled with regret for nine Connecticut residents. These men and women will look at the calendar and say to themselves "If I only had."

Their distress concerns Connie Smith, daughter of Helen and Peter Smith, wealthy ranchers, and grandaughter of Nels H. Smith, former Governor of Wyoming. On July 16, 1952, 10-year-old Connie was at Camp Sloane near Lakeville Conn. A half mile of winding dirt road led from the camp area to it's gate on Indian Mountain road. Here, the gate-keeper, August Epp, had his house, (figure 1 on the map above). He was the first of nine people who regret not having done something about the child.

About 8:15 a.m. Epp was working in his yard when, according to the account he was to give later, "I saw this girl come out of the gate and head North towards Lakeville. I think she stopped to pick some flowers, then continued."

"I didn't think it was one of the camp girls. She was so tall I thought it was a counselor That's why I did not pay much attention to her."

Connie's shoulder length brown hair was cut in bangs and tied with a red ribbon. Her jacket was bright red and long sleeved. Her shorts were blue with plaid cuffs. Her shoes were tan.

A quarter of a mile north of the gate a Lakeville couple, Mr. and Mrs. E. Hobbs of Hortsman, out for an early morning walk, passed the girl.

"We didn't speak," Hortsman said. He and his wife will remember this with regret.

Further along the road, about half a mile from camp, Mrs. William Walsh, a housewife, answered a knock on her door.

"Could you tell me the way to Lakeville?" the girl asked.

"Continue on up the hill and turn right on route 44," Mrs. Walsh directed briskly.

"Do you mean straight up the hill ?"

"That's right, straight up the hill."

The child looked as though she had been crying but that wasn't any of Mrs. Walsh's affair. Girls from the camp were always stopping at the house and asking the way to Lakeville.

A couple of minutes later, Mrs. Walsh returned to the front porch, Mrs. Walsh returned to the front porch to pick up the morning paper. She glanced out to the road. The little girl in the red jacket and blue shorts was walking up the hill.

"To think I might have stopped her," Mrs. Walsh chides herself today. "If only I had said something, but then others saw her, and nobody did anything about it."

Two maids at the servants cottage adjoining the Frederick L. Cadman house watched the child trudge up the driveway to them. Again she asked directions to Lakeville. They told her to turn right at the top of the hill and watched her trudge down the driveway to Indian Mountain Road, little suspecting that they were number 5 and 6 destined to lament their failure to befriend Connie Smith.

At that time of a Wednesday morning, traffic was heavy on Route 44 leading into town. Shopkeepers were hurrying to their businesses. Summer residents, abounding in the area, were bustling about.

Near Belgo Road, (At figure 5 on the map above) Connie tried to hitchhike a ride from Mr. and Mrs. John Brun, heading for their Lakeville business establishment. They became no. 7 and 8 to regret because they passed her by as she stood on the right (South Side) of the road. Through the rear view mirror Brun could see her walking along towards Lakeville.

At 8:45 Mrs. Frank E. Barnett, a housewife, was driving from Millerton on Route 44 and just before turning into Belgo Road and said she saw the little girl walking east on the north side of Route 44 (No. 6 on the map above.)

At that point, on Route 44, Connie Smith's trail ended.

Any one of these nine people who saw her or talked with her during that two mile walk which took her from the camp gate to within a half mile of Lakeville, might have saved her.

About 8:45, when Mrs. Barnett saw Connie, the seven girls who occupied a tent with the Smith child returned from Mess Hall. They were a little worried because Connie hadn't shown up for breakfast.

During the early morning giggling and romping, Connie had got a bloody nose when a tentmate climbing down from the bunk above her accidentally kicked her in the face. It was Connie's second injury within 24 hours (She'd had a fall the day before, but nobody thought much of it, including Connie.) Within a few minutes she left the tent for the infirmary to return the icepack she had been using.

"See you at breakfast," she said.

But, she didn't go to breakfast and when the other girls returned to the tent, found the icepack still on the bunk and Connie nowhere about.

As the minutes ticked by and Connie didn't return, the girls reported her absence to Carol Baker, their group leader. She, in turn, called Camp Director E. P. Roberts, who had the entire camp area searched. By 11:30 a.m. it was obvious Connie had left the camp.

"Call the State Police," Roberts directed.

The State Police, checking hastily, learned immediately about the importance, wealth and difficulties of the Smith family. Peter and Helen Smith were divorced and lived on adjoining ranches at Sundance, Wyo. Mrs. Smith, who had custody of Connie, brought her east to spend the summer with Helen's mother, Mrs. Carl C. Jensen in Greenwich, Connecticut. Then Connie was sent to Camp Sloane, which is operated by the Westchester County (N.Y.) YWCA.

Connie, tall for her age, measured 5 feet and weighed 85 pounds. Her arms were long and her feet were flat. She was so nearsighted that even with her glasses on she had to hold a comic book close to her blue eyes to read. But she quickly made friends with the other children.

She got along well with the camp adults too. She had traveled widely and could converse intelligently on subjects unfamiliar to most ten-year-olds. Her life on a ranch had developed her love for animals, especially horses.

But did Connie get on with herself?

She had a vivid imagination and surrounded herself with make-believe companions, particularly animal friends. Her creations included a pet rattlesnake and a white mare named Toni which could twirl a baton.

On Sunday, July 13, Connie's mother and grandmother visited her and deposited $5 to her account at the camp.

(The children were not allowed to have cash but could charge purchases or small cash advances against their accounts.)

Connie was excited about a Square Dance that the Camp Sloane girls and boys were to have the next Friday and about a horse show scheduled for Saturday. She wanted to stay at the camp longer than originally planned, but her mother said that was impossible, because they were to leave for Wyoming. Connie, however, seemed to take this disapointment in stride.

"But she seemed homesick after her mother left," one of the counselors recalled.

On Tuesday afternoon, the day before she left camp, Connie slipped and fell on the steps which led to her tent platform. She bruised her hip, and a nurse at the camp dispensary gave her an icepack to apply during the night. On awakening Wednesday, Connie told Miss Baker "I feel better this morning. I'll return the icepack. I don't need it anymore."

Instead, she set out for Lakeville.

By mid-afternoon, through the reports of the nine eye-witnesses, police picked up the child's trail, only to lose it on Route 44 near Belgo road. There she vanished, disappeared as if she was part of a magician's act.

This was not just a lost child case, the police decided. Barracks over the state were alerted. Crack detectives were rushed in. Jeeps were used in woody terrain. Bloodhounds were put on the trail. Overhead droned airplanes from the Connecticut Wing of the Civil Air Patrol and Air Force planes from Westover Field, Mass. A national alarm went out.

Connie's frightened mother drove up from Greenwich; her frantic father flew in from Wyoming. Had either one kidnapped the child from the other ?

" Nonsense!" both parents told police. They couldn't believe their daughter was lost in the woods for she had been taught to walk downhill and find and follow a fence or a road. They considered kidnapping a possible motive, but no ransom demands arrived.

Nobody in Lakeville had seen the child. She had ridden in no bus or taxi. She had entered none of the town's stores, all of which are clustered in a tight little group. "We couldn't have missed her if she came into town," said one shopkeeper. "She just never reached her."

Where did Connie go then ? There were several possibilities.

She might have been a hit-and-run victim and a panicky driver could have stuffed her body in the trunk of the car before he fled. But investigators found no trace of blood, no signs of accident along Route 44.

She might have wandered down to Wononskopomuc Lake, one of the deepest waters in that part of the country, 90 feet in some spots. But none of the many people in and on the lake that morning saw her, and she was such a good swimmer, drowning would have been improbable.

The strongest possibility of all was that Connie got a ride. Preparing for her childish mind to hitchhike to Wyoming, maybe she got a ride from the wrong kind of guy.

All of the known criminal suspects from miles around were gathered in by police. All were cleared.

A report came from Cooperstown N.Y. that a child resembling Connie had passes through town with a band of gypsies. Connie's father thought she might be headed for the home of relatives in Chicago. He grabbed the next plane for that city and waited in vain.

The gypsy story was just one of scores of reports and rumors that the state police tracked down patiently in the months that followed. No tip was too insignificant to investigate.

A housewife in upstate New York saw Connie Smith riding a horse in front of her house; An upstate New York construction worker shared his lunch with the runaway girl; A woman from Great Barrington, Mass, saw Connie at the annual Fall fair; A service-station operator in Mabbetsville, New York saw her with another band of gypsies.

One group of itinerant orchard workers who had spent the summer in New England was trailed to Los Angeles.

Mrs. Smith posted two offers of reward. $3,000 if Connie were found alive, $1,000 for the recovery of her body.

There was a rush to claim the $3,000 when a girl picked up in Texas said she was a runaway from an indian reservation in New York. Her picture was distributed by the services, and telegrams from people who thought they recognized Connie poured into the Connecticut State Police Headquarters.

Texas Rangers exploded these hopes by announcing that the girl, who called herself Kim, was actually from Massachusetts. Kim had a hankering for the Wild West and hitch-hiked to Texas.

The Connecticut State Police clung doggedly to the search for Connie. Day after day, police from the barracks at Canaan rode mountain trails, circled reservoirs and lakes, drove through woods, searched on foot, alongside the roads. They even donned hip boots and waded through the swamps.

The Connecticut Trail Riders Association was enlisted in a big weekend ride through the timber country, but there was never a trace of a body or so much as a thread of Connie's clothes.

More than 11,000 circulars were printed and tacked up in service stations, post offices, restaurants and schools and fish and game departments throughout the country.. Connie's dental was printed in the Journal of the American Dental Association.

Christmas of 1952 approached, still no word from Connie. Mrs. Smith pleaded with hunters to look in old wells and deserted buildings.

"Whether she is alive or dead I want her back. I've got to know what happened to her. Christmas was always such a big event in our house. "But this year I feel I can't stand it. Each day is a little harder to face."

 

[talelights]

On July 11 Connie Smith would have been 66 years old. What happened to her when she walked away from summer camp July 16, 1952?

Why would she have left, and where was she headed?

Is there anyone out there with information?