NY NY - Colin Gillis, 18, Tupper Lake, 11 March 2012 #2

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nursebeeme

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Colin Gillis, 18, was last seen around the Franklin-St. Lawrence county line between Tupper Lake and Piercefield at about 2 a.m. Sunday.

He wandered away from a social gathering at a private residence on Paskungameh Road, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman David Winchell.

DEC personnel were setting up a command post at the Piercefield Town Hall this morning, said Piercefield fire Chief Mike Boylan. They got there around 7:30 this morning, he said.
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Lake Placid News Editor Rich Rosentreter reported seeing a young man in the road on state Route 3 at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday as he was heading back from Massena to Tupper Lake with his mother, who lives in Tupper Lake.

Rosentreter said the young man was walking against traffic close to the white line on the side of the road and flailing his arms. At first it looked like the man was hitchhiking, but then it looked like he wasn't.

He wasn't wearing a jacket, only a long-sleeved shirt, and the temperature was in the teens, Rosentreter said. Rosentreter said state police went to look for the man after he reported the incident to them at the Tupper Lake village police station, but to no avail.

Gillis attends SUNY Brockport, according to his Facebook page. He is the son of John and Patricia Gillis.
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much more at link: News, Sports, Jobs - Adirondack Daily Enterprise


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Police are looking for a College at Brockport student who was reported missing in the Adirondacks.

Colin Gillis is a sophomore at the college. The 18-year-old was reported missing Sunday in Tupper Lake, which is located in Franklin County in northern New York. Colin is from Tupper Lake.
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http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2534142.shtml?cat=565

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"On March 11, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from Gillis's mother reporting her son missing. He was last heard from at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, based on phone records. DEC Forest Rangers and State Police worked through the evening to gather information and organized today's search effort," Winchell said.

"A New York State Police Aviation Unit Helicopter is being used in the search today, and a DEC airboat will arrive on scene shortly."

Gillis is 6-feet-1-inch tall and weighs 170 pounds. He was wearing a white shirt with black stripes, blue jeans and red sneakers.

Ray Brook-based State Police said the search was warranted because Gillis was walking along a desolate stretch of Adirondack forest in wintertime.
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Search continues for missing Tupper Lake teen

Thread #1
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey everyone,

Welcome to GWOBrother who has now been verified as Colin's brother.

As a verified family member, GWOBrother does not have to provide links to support what they state as fact.

We are fortunate to have GWOBrother join in this discussion. Please be respectful to our VI at all times. Do not argue, challenge, interrogate or badger them for information. A VI will provide information as they are comfortable with. Members are free to believe or disbelieve information provided by them but, if you do not agree with certain information, please just scroll and roll without taking issue with it.

Thank you.
 
andalso said:
Just going to brainstorm a bit here.

Colin W. Gillis – The Charley Project
Colin had an orange LL Bean backpack with him the night he went missing. Orange! The color specifically used for hunter safety. Literally one of the easiest colors to spot in the woods. I assume it was not found because it was never in the woods because (in my opinion) Colin was never in the woods.


Theories on why 2 personal items were found on the roadway.
- A struggle? Did Colin have those items in his pockets and lose them in a struggle?
- Did Colin purposely drop those items because he saw the police and was scared?
- Did someone else drop the items to lead the investigation askew?

Following is total speculation on my part!!
The police report: I would be curious to know what officer went to search for Colin after the newspaper editor reported him missing. There was a connection between AT and a part time Tupper Lake Police Officer at the time. I have no way of knowing if that is the officer who went out on the call but I sure would like to know. This has bothered me since day one.

The search/fire at Noble's farm:
If anyone here has any mainstream media information about the fire at the farm they searched we would love to see it!

my opinions only
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Even stranger still, a R post w/ sources (so not 100% fact) mentions that one of the witnesses saw he had the orange backpack on and the LL bean sweatshirt hanging from it. So I’m curious if the witness that went to the police saw the backpack or not. It would definitely make this even stranger that it hasn’t been found and he wasn’t wearing the jacket that was literally with him despite freezing weather. (All IMO only since I have no actual news sources to back it up. Mainly want to raise the question-did the witness see him with his backpack on or not?)
 
@cnmccarthy The R posts are quite intriguing but we are not allowed to bring the actual posts to WS due to TOS (I checked with a mod) so we have been sorta cryptically discussing those posts. I do tend to think that the recent searches were based on that information.
 
Thank You @andalso! I have been following Colin's case since 2013 when I drove through Tupper Lake and saw the MISSING billboards with his image and information. We were climbing a fire tower west of TL while camping in the area. We asked the summer Ranger what the billboards were about and he said:
" Colin is missing for over a year. There was a party with lots of teenagers, alcohol and fights. You know how that goes. After a large search, nothing turned up. There are many theories going around, but nothing has been proven"

I hope the Gillis family find closure. Justice for Colin!
 
Twig said:
Thank You @andalso! I have been following Colin's case since 2013 when I drove through Tupper Lake and saw the MISSING billboards with his image and information. We were climbing a fire tower west of TL while camping in the area. We asked the summer Ranger what the billboards were about and he said:
" Colin is missing for over a year. There was a party with lots of teenagers, alcohol and fights. You know how that goes. After a large search, nothing turned up. There are many theories going around, but nothing has been proven"

I hope the Gillis family find closure. Justice for Colin!
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I remember seeing the billboard a couple of times, it was impactful and I am glad it brought you here. I haven't been that way in years so I am unsure if it is still there.

re: the bolded by me above
It does not escape me that all these years later that is still really all we know. But... the theories/rumors, from what I can tell, seem to have been consistently pointing in the same direction and the recent search seems to have backed up those rumors.
I am impatiently awaiting some follow up to that search. Sigh.

Justice for Colin!
 
Hello all,

I just wanted to jump back in and comment on a few things that I've read as of late.
To start off I wanted to reply to CheerioDoggo that any publicity is good publicity, and I always advocate for more press and coverage. My video has received a wealth of views in the the last few months in the wake of all the press coverage.
The cell phone data and pings were some of the initial efforts to track Colin (a brief reminder that this was early 2012 and location tracking wasn't a given on every cell phone.) Efforts were made to ping his phone from three different towers to triangulate his location but it was a cold lead. I personally went through the cell phone records to give to my parents/police at the time and we do have records of his phone calls/texts/and voicemails he left that night.

Thank you all again for your persistence and dedication to this thread.
Peace and love,
Ian
 
andalso said:
New link, she does a good job sharing Colin's case details. 298 views on it as of now.


Justice for Colin!
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This was a good video, a very orderly presentation of the known information. A friend watched it with me, someone who has only heard me talk about the case and not done any reading or researching herself, and she feels that hypothermia set in and he succumbed to the elements. We talked about hypothermia, and some of the behaviors that go along with it, and she thinks he went off-road and burrowed in somewhere. I brought up the point that authorities were able to identify where he had stepped over a guardrail at one point, so they were able to see tracks that showed he didn't go further into the snow, but she said maybe he turned down one of the roads after Setting Pole Dam Rd and the snow was crusted enough to bear his weight until he got into the trees. She thought that the contents of his pocket may have been from him fishing out his lighter as a way to try and keep his hands warm.

I still hold to the belief that he got in a vehicle, either willingly or someone stopped and continued the fight and overcame him. BUT... I grew up in a small community similar demographically to Tupper Lake, and, other than the disappearance, it was a scene that played out many times during my teenage years. With that said, I also know how rumors and stories grew and morphed, and people would take credit for things that never happened just to puff themselves up. We had a murder happen in the 80s, an elderly couple who owned a general store, and it was amazing how many kids claimed to have seen it happen, saw the bodies, knew the killers, and on and on. Knowing that, I don't discount that maybe the folks we think are involved keep the speculation alive just for the "street cred" they think it brings.

Anyway, MOO. I just thought it was interesting to get a fresh perspective from someone who doesn't really know all of the ins-and-outs of the case.
 
deadfoot13 said:
This was a good video, a very orderly presentation of the known information. A friend watched it with me, someone who has only heard me talk about the case and not done any reading or researching herself, and she feels that hypothermia set in and he succumbed to the elements. We talked about hypothermia, and some of the behaviors that go along with it, and she thinks he went off-road and burrowed in somewhere. I brought up the point that authorities were able to identify where he had stepped over a guardrail at one point, so they were able to see tracks that showed he didn't go further into the snow, but she said maybe he turned down one of the roads after Setting Pole Dam Rd and the snow was crusted enough to bear his weight until he got into the trees. She thought that the contents of his pocket may have been from him fishing out his lighter as a way to try and keep his hands warm.

I still hold to the belief that he got in a vehicle, either willingly or someone stopped and continued the fight and overcame him. BUT... I grew up in a small community similar demographically to Tupper Lake, and, other than the disappearance, it was a scene that played out many times during my teenage years. With that said, I also know how rumors and stories grew and morphed, and people would take credit for things that never happened just to puff themselves up. We had a murder happen in the 80s, an elderly couple who owned a general store, and it was amazing how many kids claimed to have seen it happen, saw the bodies, knew the killers, and on and on. Knowing that, I don't discount that maybe the folks we think are involved keep the speculation alive just for the "street cred" they think it brings.

Anyway, MOO. I just thought it was interesting to get a fresh perspective from someone who doesn't really know all of the ins-and-outs of the case.
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Great post @deadfoot13

It is always good to have fresh eyes and I love your friends thought about the lighter, I don't think any of us had considered that. On the flip side though, I feel if he had a lighter that he would have had the ability to build an actual fire - though conditions may not have made that possible.

Did Colin usually carry a lighter with him/have one that night is a really great question!

As fas as the 2 schools of thought on what happened to Colin, I can't 100% support either because I really just don't know but I very much lean towards foul play.

I have a huge amount of respect for the search teams that were called in and the job they did. I really trust they would have found him. I also trust that Colin had backwoods survival instincts and would have a great chance of survival in the elements. I realize he may have been partying and that could affect his mindset but he was walking and calling people and reports are that those calls were coherent. He was on a road, why go too far off it?

As far as the braggado types that you mention, great point and can't be dismissed. In my opinion, there is likely some truth to the rumors that we have heard and I think there are people who know more than they have told, perhaps for the sake of self preservation.

Always hoping for the answers to come to light.

Justice for Colin!
 
For those following the T's brothers with me, NT is back in jail - according to Vinelink. I don't think it's related to this case but probably from one of his drug arrests.

Looks like he was booked in yesterday, on Colin's birthday! I am going to take that as a good sign!

Justice for Colin!
 
andalso said:
For those following the T's brothers with me, NT is back in jail - according to Vinelink. I don't think it's related to this case but probably from one of his drug arrests.

Looks like he was booked in yesterday, on Colin's birthday! I am going to take that as a good sign!

Justice for Colin!
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Must be for either 11/16/20 arrest in Tupper Lake with JB or 12/4/20 arrest in Edwards. Both by NY State Police. Both arrests involve either under the influence or possession.
I hope the Gillis family finds answers soon.
 
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