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

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family said they seemed ill at ease before they left for the concert. She took 80.00 she had been saveing for a bicycle. She was haveing trouble with the family she was working for. Were they looked at? Was it fact they left for the concert? Is there a chance maybe she needed the money for an abortion and the concert was a cover story?
 
louisy42445 said:
family said they seemed ill at ease before they left for the concert. She took 80.00 she had been saveing for a bicycle. She was haveing trouble with the family she was working for. Were they looked at? Was it fact they left for the concert? Is there a chance maybe she needed the money for an abortion and the concert was a cover story?
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Reportedly they caught a ride from the Welmet camp Bonnie worked at in a truck with someone who worked or delivered there.
They had drawn a large cardboard sign that said 'Watkins Glenn' on it and were dropped off on the side of the highway.
So at least it would appear they were headed for the concert.
Mitch had been going to go with a friend when he bought the tickets but his friend's Mom vetoed it so then apparently he decided to go with Bonnie.
 
kline said:
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?
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Whether or nor not bodies were likely to be found may depend on the particulars of that specific river downstream from the incident site. In some rivers objects tend to become snagged underwater in deep "pots" at the foot of rapids where rushing water exerts constant downward pressure. Because the bottom of the pot is strewn with waterlogged trees and other large objects carried down the rapids over time a lot of the stuff that gets pushed to the bottom never comes up. Beaver dams also tend to sink and snare large objects because beavers build them to allow water to flow underneath, which can cause pressure to suck down floating objects in a similar way a hydro dam intake does.

Also when a river doesn't traverse densely populated areas near a drowning site chances of bodies being spotted before decomp and current breaks them up are greatly diminished.

With regards to the case at hand it appears that the young couple was the victim of an unfortunate accident due to their own temerity, as is the case for a certain percentage of missing persons cases.
 
Could they have been hiding in plain sight all these decades? According to privateeye.com, there is a "Frederick G. Weiser" associated with a "Bonita J. Weiser," both living in the same Pennsylvania city. The middle initials don't match and (if it is Fred), Mitchel has become Fred, but it's quite a conicidence, I think. Remember, at the time that they vanished, massive electronic databases hadn't made it so hard to change one's identity.

Food for thought.
 
iconoclast, that's really interesting. Google shows 2 Fred Weisers listed in Pennsylvania. I wonder if they have ever been checked into. That would be a great ending to this case.
 
Some time back,meggilyweggily mentioned her friend seeing a woman named Bonnie in a bookstore that looked like Bonita, and, the post is in this thread, but what is weird is i remember a fairly lengthy discussion with someone about this, and they had mentioned the city, which I think was in PA - now my notebook from that time accidently got put in a box in my attic, so I can't easily get it out, but, as I said, I talked about this online with someone and ended up searching out that near that area I found a Bonita Weiser, married to a Fred Weiser and she worked at a college as I recall, can't recall what he did. And off the top of my head, I can't recall how I determined they were together, but, somehow I did. I actually found a fair amount on them.

Anyway I called and spoke with Mitchell's sister, just a lovely woman, and gave her all the information I found. She said if it was them, she would let me know and I know she had my number as she did call me back to begin with. Since I never heard anything and they are both still listed as missing, and in fact the site went up since then, I assume nothing came of this.


ETA - I have searched WS and tried to find if there was another thread on this, but, am not finding one. I am so certain the discussion was on/through WS, but, there is nothing on this thread commenting back to meggilyweggily about what she said. And while I think the discussion was via a thread, maybe it was chatting/private email. Meggilyweggily, do you recall this or do you know if you or your friend posted elsewhere about this?
 
There was a huge rainstorm after the concert, I recently learned. So if this man truly saw them on the way back in the same clothes with the sign, that is an odd detail. Obviously that's not enough to discount the whole story but it's another detail that doesn't really add up.
 
forthelost said:
There was a huge rainstorm after the concert, I recently learned. So if this man truly saw them on the way back in the same clothes with the sign, that is an odd detail. Obviously that's not enough to discount the whole story but it's another detail that doesn't really add up.
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Yes, it is.
 
This is the first time I've taken a look at this case. Medusa, it would be great if you had something there on the Bonnie lookalike.

I found a lot about Smith's story that bothers me. First of all, if these kids were last seen on the 27th. that was before the concert, not afterwards. So I'm assuming none of their friends saw them at the concert? Likely they never made it that far. If a person was describing what happend on the way back from the concert, it's not likely he'd say he was going to the same concert. He'd say we were coming back from the same concert.

Another thing that's troubling is the difference in age and worldly experience between a 24 yr. old Navy vet, and these 2 teens, short in stature, 15 & 16 yrs. old. Wonder how old the van driver was, if indeed, there was a van driver. A concert that large would've been a killer's dream come true. Easy pickings.

Growing up, I knew brainy Jewish kids, and most had little in the way of street smarts. Not that I did either at that age. Just saying from the looks of these two kids, they could have hitched a ride with the devil, and not known it until too late.

Two other things bother me about his story. One is that Bonnie and Mitch were alive when last seen floating down the river. Who the heck leaves two people in the water alive who are in need of rescue? My hinky meter went through the roof on that one. As small as she was, someone with a sick sense of humor could have tossed her into the water, and Mitch jumped in trying to save her. Perhaps the van driver did this while the other guy stood by and watched. If nothing else, his conscience should be eating at him.

Another thing that bothers me is the VW van driver saying he would place an anonymous call at the next town. Did they not pass any other people whose help they could have enlisted? And why would the driver say he was going to place the call "anonymously?" Why wouldn't he just say he'd call at the next town? That to me seems the more natural statement even if he did plan to call anonymously. Maybe he was wanted for something already, had a warrant out for his arrest?

This story is very fishy, no pun intended. I say this Smith guy's conscience got to him, and he had something he needed to get off his chest. Red flags on this one all the way around.

I grew up during the hippy era so I can't fault LE for not looking for these kids too hard. There were so many runaway children and teens during that period, If you weren't around back then, it's doubtful you can imagine just how many there were. Runaways were a common occurence, but I don't think these two are the kind of kids who'd have run away. Neither had a driver's license.

My parents wouldn't have let me go off to a concert overnight nor on a camp out with my boyfriend at age 15, not in a million years. Can't think of any of my friends who would've been allowed to do that either. I would bet the parents didn't know what these two had planned.
 
Personally, I don't think the driver stated 'I will make an anonymous call at the next town.' I think the group from the van quickly discussed it and it was decided that the van driver would make an anonymous call at the next town. And I believe it was discussed before that the reason the call had to be anonymous was because of the likelihood that they were carrying drugs. And by 'they', I mean the individuals in the van and not Bonnie and Mitch.
 
I was going by what was said in the Doe Network file that Richard posted.

"After the incident the witness and the driver drove away from the scene. The driver said he would make an anonymous call to the police from a gas station. Police have no record that a call was made.
The witness account has yet to be verified."
 
Medusa said:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewTaggedPhotos&friendID=236005644

Check out the pix on this myspace. Her age is about five years off, but, hey, I personally do that sometimes.
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Holy Crap!!!
Im sure it cant be her but wow........
This is one of the main cases ive followed and Ive posted quite a bit about it.
Smiths story has always buried the needle on my B.S. meter.
In my opinion its one of two things:He wanted to insert himself into the case after seeing it on that TV program for whatever reason weirdos do that or he wanted to bring some kind of 'closure' to himself or the family out of guilt...without getting himself or others in trouble over what REALLY happened to Bonnie and Mitch.
Ive felt that way from the get go and I still do.
If youve seen pictures of the crowd at Watkins Glenn in 1973 (There is a link on Bonnie and Mitch's website) you would realise that the fact none of their friends ran into them doesnt mean much.
Ive been told in this thread that some of the rivers can get pretty high in New York but I still find it improbable that two bodies would never have shown up downstream especially in July.
We have some rough rivers here in Idaho believe me and plenty of drowning victims what with my area being a fishing tourist destination but I cant think of a single instance where the body has never turned up...especially in the summer when the rivers are low.(relatively speaking)
And then he cant quite remember where it happened?
I cant believe investigators let him get away with that story.
Of course he's just offering a Witness Statement...if he's lying he's lying its his statement and probably not much they can do about it.
If only we could interview him here on this forum.....
 
I think someone needs to turn the photobucket pics in to the police. It's probably not her, but it's a hell of a coincidence.
 
justthinkin said:
I was going by what was said in the Doe Network file that Richard posted.

"After the incident the witness and the driver drove away from the scene. The driver said he would make an anonymous call to the police from a gas station. Police have no record that a call was made.
The witness account has yet to be verified."
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Oh oh, I understand that, justthinkin. I was just trying to reinterpret it, I guess. No disrespect intended.
 
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