NY NY - Mitchel Weiser, 16, & Bonita Bickwit, 15, Narrowsburg, 27 July 1973

[kline]

Ive been going around the net reading what there is about this case and Ive got to say I hope the powers that be looked into this witness real closely.
Frankly his story just doesnt ring right with me.
Its just alittle too pat.
'Yep away they went down the river never to be seen again'
Absolutely for the life of him cant remember exactly where on the river it happened.
So of course it cant be verified that something like that could even happen in that part of the river.
Come on, if you or I had seen something like that even if youd never been back I dont think it would take much driving around to find the spot again.
And its one thing to stop and splash around near the shore to cool off quite another to end up in the rapids.
How the hell did that happen?
Did she bring a bathing suit or just decide to swim to the middle in her jeans and Tshirt?
I wonder if her family thinks that would be in character for her?
And of course the phantom driver(Driving a period correct VW hippie van of course.No doubt he was bushy haired and pock marked wearing a Levis jacket too) is never seen again?
I dont know.He may very well know what happened to those kids but I have a very serious reservation about the story he's telling.
I think there may be a lot more to the story.

 

[Cymro]

Fair point Kline - I can see that it might be a bizarre hoax; but if he was involved and is holding something back, why come forward at all? Guilt - wanting to let the families know that they are dead but without wanting to admit involvement? Or just attention seeking?

 

[kline]

Fair point Kline - I can see that it might be a bizarre hoax; but if he was involved and is holding something back, why come forward at all? Guilt - wanting to let the families know that they are dead but without wanting to admit involvement? Or just attention seeking?

Thats the first thing that came to my mind exactly as you put it"Guilt.wanting to let the family know they are dead without admitting involvement."
Kind of personal absolution without the consequences.
I could be wrong but if that is the case...his story is almost exactly what one would expect.
I hope the powers that be werent so happy to put a close to this longstanding case that they neglected to go over him with a microscope.
Of course I imagine he just made a witness statement.
He came forward and wasnt under arrest.
His story is his story and thats prety much where they have to leave it im sure without any kind of legal reason to wring him out like dishrag.
All I have to go on is my B.S.meter(which has a pretty good track record.) and I think his 'story' is just that.
It would be good to know what really happened.
Alot of the crowd at Watkins Glen probably came from the four corners of the compass and in those preCNN and pre internet days im sure the vast majority of them probaly never saw the news stories about the disappearance.
Of course its questionable how much good it would have done if they had.
Notwithstanding the fact most of the potential witnesses would have been drunk and or high ....two teenagers one wearing glasses with a ponytail and one small girl with long dark hair both wearing jeans and tshirts...how many thousand concert goers do you think that description fit?
That became very apparent when I looked at the concert photos on the Watkins Glen site its not that you cant see anybody who could be them,the problem is there are dozens that could be them in those pictures alone.
I am glad this case got bumped up,I cant beleive I missed it before.

 

[kline]

P.S. there is a website for the Welmet camp Bonnie worked at in Narrowsberg.
In one of the photo galleries is a photo of Bonnie with some other campers though she has her face turned away from the camera.
Its entitled '1971 Pioneers'
A few photos earlier is another featuring two girls carrying a trunk down a stone walkway im pretty sure the one on the right in the white shirt is her too.
Its kind of an interesting site their are alot of guestbook entries from former councilers and kids who spent the summers there kind of gives some insight into what things would have been like for her there.
It seems like it was a pretty close knit group which makes it interesting That Bonnie did a 'take this job and shove it' number over a concert.
I wonder if the concert trip was planned or whether Mitchell just showed up there at the camp?
Then when she couldnt get the time off she just said 'Bye'?
Having a 15 year old son I know trying to second guess motivation, which at that age can be pretty situational,might be futile.
It says the previous week she had skipped the camp to grab $80 she was saving for a bike from home while her parents were away.
That was a nice little chunk of change in 1973 dollars maybe that was to pay for the trip.
Its too bad they didnt jump a Greyhound to a spot near Watkins Glen,it shouldnt have cost much back then.
Its too bad there isnt more info to go by.

 

[kline]

Bumping Mitch and Bonnie.

 

[froggierintexas]

Nothing is mentioned in the Doe Net account, but what I always found interesting, was the report on Charley Project, of a truncated phone call from "Bonnie" that her family received years later. It does not seem to have been a hoax...why did the caller hang up before they were connected? And how would the hoaxer know Bonita's nickname was Bonnie? On the other hand, Smith's story sounds credible. But they can't both be true, unless the couple (or one of them) survived the rapids.

You have to wonder. If one or both of them are still living, what has kept them from calling home after all this time?

What year was this call made?


And if files were lost have the parents submitted their DNA for a profile?

 

[kline]

I beleive it was the late '70's early '80's.
Though I wish it werent so I think it unlikely that they are alive.
As much as I would like to see all of these cases solved this one would be one of my top three.
There are plenty of living relatives for DNA.
The police managed to lose the only existing copies of thier dental records years ago.
I still feel a good portion of Alynn Smith's story is horse product.
You know Led Zepplin was playing Madison Square Garden the same weekend as the Watkins Glenn festival.
I wish Mitch had scored tickets for that instead.

 

[froggierintexas]

If I had to venture a guess (as a reformed romantic) I would say that they did indeed runaway to be with each other and that the friend's story sounds fake because it is. Perhaps he thinks they deserve to run off into the sunset.

That being said, were they still alive, they would almost certainly have contacted their families by now. Time goes by, your now an adult. You can do as you please. You miss your families during holidays, you gain maturity and experience life and realize what pain they must be in and may reach out and contact them.

And I think if they did runaway for love they probably stayed at some campsites and might have taken from others to get by, telling fantastic stories about who they are. So no one finds out. And not being wary of all the dangers in this big, bad world and thinking only of love and survival they may have let their guards down and harm befell them.

Again just a wild guess with my tired brain. But it did get me to thinking about the Sumter Co Couple. I know it's a long shot and probably has been discussed already but I can see a young couple getting by for a few years and then meeting with harm. The jewelry from Sumter could have just been some jewelry that Bonita and her 'man' took from someone to get by.

 

[kline]

It would indeed be nice if they were off somewhere happy and alive.
I think Alynn Smith knows what happened I just think he's done some highly creative editing for reasons known only to him.

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

This is the first ive really read about this case,there is a website created by family members that has alot of pictures of the pair(Heartbreaking)and articles that have been printed about the disappearence over the years.
There is also alink to a site about the 1973 Watkins Glen concert with lots of crowd photos.
I couldnt help looking for them in the photos which im sure many have done,needle in a haystack.
Every once in awhile one of these cases really reaches out and touches your heart ,this one certainly did mine.
I think that photo of Bonnie smiling with the flag did it for me.
I dont know what to make of the hitchikers story...its plausible but it raises so many more questions then it answers.
I hope LE follows up with him from time to time.
Given the time and the mood of the subculture the van driver may have had some very good reason (at least to him) to not contact police especially if he thought the pair were already dead.
I do find it hard to belive the bodies wouldnt have washed up,it had rained over the weekend off an on. Summer showers mostly it sounds like.
But this was July you wouldnt think the river would have been a raging torrent.
Even most of the rivers here in the Pacific Northwest arent that time of year.
I hope a real answer comes some day,they left so many friends and family that still miss them deeply they must have been an exceptional couple of kids.
I dont belive they ran off together though I wish that were true.

Do you have a link to the website the families created? Thanks!

Never mind, I found it - http://www.mitchelandbonnie.com/

 

[kline]

Do you have a link to the website the families created? Thanks!

Never mind, I found it - http://www.mitchelandbonnie.com/

Yeah its a really nice website.Though the pictures are heartbreaking.
The links to the '73 Watkins Glenn concert are interesting there is also the media coverage of the case reproduced there.

 

[Shecky]

The rapids story is pretty suspect, to me. You'd think that you'd remember the location of a river in which you saw two people be swept away. So the fact that he claims he can't recall this bit of information seems a bit convenient. Maybe it is all true, but something seems hokey to me.

I certainly hope their families find some answers one day.

 

[kline]

The rapids story is pretty suspect, to me. You'd think that you'd remember the location of a river in which you saw two people be swept away. So the fact that he claims he can't recall this bit of information seems a bit convenient. Maybe it is all true, but something seems hokey to me.

I certainly hope their families find some answers one day.

While not 100% my B.S.meter has always been pretty reliable and stood me in good stead during the years i worked in corrections and Alynn Smith's story pinged the needle right into the red zone.
A point Ive made before I find it unlikely that there are too may rivers in New York that in the middle of July would be conduscive to some 'River Of No Return' scenario such as he described.
But if you witnessed something like that you would never forget where it happened.Never.
It felt to me like he did know what happened but didnt want to get himself or others in trouble but for some reason, guilt or whatever,wanted to say to the family:"They are gone you can quit looking."
"They were swept out of the picture painlessly by an act of benign fate and its nobodys fault ."
"Enjoy your closure."

 

[Shecky]

While not 100% my B.S.meter has always been pretty reliable and stood me in good stead during the years i worked in corrections and Alynn Smith's story pinged the needle right into the red zone.
A point Ive made before I find it unlikely that there are too may rivers in New York that in the middle of July would be conduscive to some 'River Of No Return' scenario such as he described.
But if you witnessed something like that you would never forget where it happened.Never.
It felt to me like he did know what happened but didnt want to get himself or others in trouble but for some reason, guilt or whatever,wanted to say to the family:"They are gone you can quit looking."
"They were swept out of the picture painlessly by an act of benign fate and its nobodys fault ."
"Enjoy your closure."

I know next to nothing about rivers in New York, but you make an interesting point. If he were to give the name of a specific river, authorities could very well check records of that river for years past. Perhaps finding out that said river was no where near rapid conditions at the time he says they were swept away. By being so vague about things, he doesn't give much room for his story to be checked out.

That said, I find it odd that if he personally did something to these kids, that he would come forward and let authorities know his name. But who knows, maybe he does have a guilty conscious over something awful he did or witnessed in his youth.

 

[Mr. E]

Maybe they did run off together romantically, but since they haven't been heard of since, I think the chance that they are still alive is small. I remember an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, and a girl (from Indiana? Illinois?) ran away with her boyfriend. There were even sightings of her later, after the boyfriend was found dead by some railroad tracks. It wasn't until much later that the girlfriend's body was found (really not far from the same railroad tracks). She and the boyfriend had both met their end shortly after leaving home. I wonder if something similar happened to Bonita and Mitchel.

I also think the drowning story sounds implausible. Kline's reasoning sounds good to me.

 

[KarlK]

Makes you wonder why the driver wasn't a witness too? And why the driver wanted to remain anonymous when reporting the incident...

I can see a few reasons why back in '73 the owner of a VW bus on his way back from a rock festival wouldn't be particularly keen on having cops pay too much interest to him and the contents of his vehicle even if he had nothing to do with the alleged drowning.

 

[MaryLiz]

I can see a few reasons why back in '73 the owner of a VW bus on his way back from a rock festival wouldn't be particularly keen on having cops pay too much interest to him and the contents of his vehicle even if he had nothing to do with the alleged drowning.

LOL..Excellent point. I can think of more than a few reasons why the driver wanted to remain anonymous. I rode in a few of those VW buses myself back in the good old days.

 

[kline]

I can see a few reasons why back in '73 the owner of a VW bus on his way back from a rock festival wouldn't be particularly keen on having cops pay too much interest to him and the contents of his vehicle even if he had nothing to do with the alleged drowning.

Yeah that occured to me too!
Calling the cops in 1973 if you were a member of the youth culture was not something one did lightly.
Perhaps Im reading too much into his 'story' but even that...what a central bit of period perfect cliche casting:" Uh yeah...we were with this long haired guy,no...didnt get his name...what was he driving? ...uh you know, hippie VW van!...yeah thats it..... and there was this talking dog and some guy named 'Shaggy' or something riding with us...."
Also I live right on the Clearwater River in Idaho and it can get rough and run high(Though it isnt even that bad in July and you can wade it in some spots in the summer.)
And in the decades Ive lived here there have been quite a few drownings because we have lots of stealhead fisherman during the cold weather when it can be nearly 50 feet deep in some places and cruise along at about 30MPH...yet I cant think of a single time even when the River is up that the body didnt turn up down stream and this river runs through 40 miles of pretty much nothing before it hits the next town.
So even if one accepts Alynn Smiths story its like,OK...where are the bodies then?

 

[KarlK]

Yeah that occured to me too!
Calling the cops in 1973 if you were a member of the youth culture was not something one did lightly.

Indeed not, most cops back then made little distinction between potheads and heroin pushers. Nowadays most cops have actually smoked the stuff in their youth and won't get as excited at the sight of it. This could be an important consideration in this case.

That said, the police having no record that an anonymous call was made doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. No computerized records back then, and state police and sheriff depts didn't always share this type of info, especially if it wasn't taken seriously. If a call was made maybe the record never left the office where it was received, and it eventually got lost.

I don't see why Smith would have invented the story, apparently police believe him so he must be credible. This wasn't a huge national story, it only had local interest to most people, it's not your typical attention seeker magnet.

Also I live right on the Clearwater River in Idaho and it can get rough and run high(Though it isnt even that bad in July and you can wade it in some spots in the summer.)
And in the decades Ive lived here there have been quite a few drownings because we have lots of stealhead fisherman during the cold weather when it can be nearly 50 feet deep in some places and cruise along at about 30MPH...yet I cant think of a single time even when the River is up that the body didnt turn up down stream and this river runs through 40 miles of pretty much nothing before it hits the next town.
So even if one accepts Alynn Smiths story its like,OK...where are the bodies then?

Some rivers are less generous than others when it comes to giving back the dead. Here in Maine the Kennebec River takes its toll every year and doesn't always give the bodies back as some end up in mill intakes and dams. But that's nothing compared with the St. John River up north, which is very fast, wide, deep and rough even in the summer. Apparently the majority of bodies from drowning victims in that river are simply never recovered. One must keep in mind that unlike most lakes many rivers cannot be searched safely and thus aren't. That doesn't mean that clothing items and such are never seen again but from childhood experience I know that river folk pay little attention to old shoes and "rags" that could have been clothing at one time, so much garbage floating around in there.

 

[kline]

Indeed not, most cops back then made little distinction between potheads and heroin pushers. Nowadays most cops have actually smoked the stuff in their youth and won't get as excited at the sight of it. This could be an important consideration in this case.

That said, the police having no record that an anonymous call was made doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. No computerized records back then, and state police and sheriff depts didn't always share this type of info, especially if it wasn't taken seriously. If a call was made maybe the record never left the office where it was received, and it eventually got lost.

I don't see why Smith would have invented the story, apparently police believe him so he must be credible. This wasn't a huge national story, it only had local interest to most people, it's not your typical attention seeker magnet.

Some rivers are less generous than others when it comes to giving back the dead. Here in Maine the Kennebec River takes its toll every year and doesn't always give the bodies back as some end up in mill intakes and dams. But that's nothing compared with the St. John River up north, which is very fast, wide, deep and rough even in the summer. Apparently the majority of bodies from drowning victims in that river are simply never recovered. One must keep in mind that unlike most lakes many rivers cannot be searched safely and thus aren't. That doesn't mean that clothing items and such are never seen again but from childhood experience I know that river folk pay little attention to old shoes and "rags" that could have been clothing at one time, so much garbage floating around in there.

Thats one thing ive wondered about because Im not familiar with the Rivers in the Northeast.
Still I can see one body not showing up down stream but two?
Sadly I doubt well ever have an answer baring some miraculous new development in the case.
I do wish the original investigators had been more thorough though that was pretty much the norm back in those days just assume they ran away.
As a parent of children that age this case touched my heart Bonnie and Mitch and their families will remain in my Prayers.