OH OH - Susan Diane Wolff Cappel, 19, Newcomerstown, 16 March 1982

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Susan Wolff Cappel
Missing since March 16, 1982 from Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: March 30, 1962
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 110 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown, shoulder length hair; brown eyes. She is right handed.
Marks, Scars: Scar on upper right lip.
Dentals: Available. She has a crooked right front tooth and a discolored left front tooth.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Wolff Cappel left the Thompson IGA store in Newcomerstown, Ohio after working for 4 hours and while walking to her mother's car, was stopped by an older model blue car. She spoke a few minutes to the driver, then walked around the car and got in on the passenger side of the car. The car drove off and Wolff Cappel hasn't been seen or heard from since. She left behind an 18 month old son. Her husband obtained a divorce from her after she had been missing for 1 and one half years, though he died in an automobile accident in September of 2003. She may be going by the name of Sue and married name of Cappel or maiden name of Wolff.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Tuscarawas County Sheriff
330-339-2000
E-Mail

Agency Case Number: 8206110
NCIC Number: M-093285861
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The Official Website of Newcomerstown, Ohio
The Times-Reporter
The Doe Network: Case File 530DFOH

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/530dfoh.html
 
I hope her parents will one day find out the truth. What a wonderful service these retired law officers are doing!!

http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060621/NEWS02/606210371/1014

By Shelly Whitehead
Post staff reporter



MELVIN GRIER/The Post

Tom Loos Sr.,a retired Erlanger police officer and private investigator, with a photo of Susan Wolff Cappel who went missing March 16 1982.


COLD CASE UNIT WORKS FOR FREE
-- The Kentucky Society of Professional Investigators new Cold Case Unit will investigate cases at least 20 years old.
-- The team has 13 members from four states, including retired Erlanger police Sgt. Tom Loos Sr., the team leader.
-- Other investigators from the tri-state are from Williamstown, Cincinnati and West Chester, Ohio.
-- The team will work free.


She was 19, and a few weeks away from possibly winning custody of a toddler son who was the sole focus of her life.

That's when Susan Wolff Cappel vanished from a tiny eastern Ohio town where everybody knows everybody else's business, but somehow, nobody has ever known what happened to her since she disappeared 24 years ago.

Now, an all-volunteer unit of mostly Kentucky private investigators hoping to change that has opened a probe of the long-cold and never-solved case. It is the first investigation launched by the newly formed Cold Case Unit of the Kentucky Society of Professional Investigators, headed by private investigator and retired Erlanger police Sgt. Tom Loos Sr.

Loos said members of the unit - formed from his 50-person organization of investigators and retired peace officers - will take on cases that have been inactive for at least 20 years. He said the unit is particularly interested in helping small law enforcement agencies with inadequate resources for cold case investigations.

While searching for such a case in the Cincinnati area, Loos stumbled across a photo of Cappel's parents on a missing persons Web site. Though James and Judy Wolff live 215 miles from Northern Kentucky, Loos said he knew these were the people who needed his organization's help first.

"I came across this picture with her mom and dad holding her picture and standing right where she went missing in the IGA parking lot ... and you could just see the frustration in their eyes with everything," said Loos, now an investigator for the Monohan & Blankenship law firm in Florence.

"It was almost like this case was in some kind of suspension there. ... I felt as soon as I found it that this would be our first case."

Cold case investigations often fall to the bottom of the of case file stacks, buried on detectives' desks at smaller police departments like those in and around Tuscarawas County where Cappel disappeared in 1982. Loos said though the case was originally investigated by police in and around Newcomerstown, a grand jury failed to return an indictment.

Loos said both Cappel's family and the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Department have welcomed the new attention to her case.

"When I talked to the Tuscarawas Sheriff's detective captain, he said, 'If you could see the cases on my desk, and with the lack of personnel we have, we have very little time to get too involved in cold cases,'" Loos said.

"And really that's the way it is nationally, simply because of limited resources."

Tuscarawas Detective Captain Orvis Campbell said his agency took over the Cappel case file after the original investigative agency - the Newcomerstown Police Department - expressed no further interest in it. Campbell, who was 10 years old when Cappel vanished, said his agency as well as numerous private investigative businesses have probed her disappearance over the years. However, the Kentucky Society of Professional Investigators is the first private group to offer its services free of charge.

"We've dug up property and old wells and interviewed tons of people over the years. ... And this family has been contacted by many private investigators and paid out tons of money over the years," Campbell said.

"So I feel this family has been through so much, it can't do any harm. (Loos) promised never to charge a penny for anything. ... So I said there's nothing to lose. We absolutely support you because these people need some resolution. It has affected them their entire lives."

Susan Cappel was last seen leaving her job at Thompson's IGA in Newcomerstown - population 4,000 - the evening of March 16, 1982. A co-worker told investigators that Cappel got into an older-model blue car that pulled up beside her as she walked to her vehicle in the supermarket parking lot that night.

No trace of Cappel has been reported since.

Compounding the task of Loos' team are two factors: a handful of people considered key to the case are dead, and most of the grand jury investigation records have been lost.

When she disappeared, Cappel and her husband, Allen, were locked in a bitter divorce and battle for custody of their then-18-month-old son, Damin. Cappel was planning to spend the day after she disappeared with the boy and hoped to gain custody of him at a hearing three weeks later, Loos said.

Though Allen Cappel was never charged and always maintained his innocence, Susan's parents have always suspected him in her disappearance. But in September 2003, he was killed in a traffic accident while working for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

An auto crash also killed Allen's friends, Rick and Kelly Parish, two weeks after Susan's disappearance. Campbell said Rick Parish drove an older model blue car like the one Cappel was seen getting into the night she vanished, and investigators suspected that the Parishes might have had information about Cappel's disappearance.

Though some allege that Susan Cappel left town of her own accord, her parents flatly reject that, saying she would never have abandoned her son. But, with the loss of case records, and the deaths of key persons of interest in the investigation, James and Judy Wolff had nearly lost hope for answers.

Then, Tom Loos called.

"As the years went by, I've thought, I may have to face the fact that I may never have an answer to this. I may have to learn just to live with this," Judy Wolff said.

"Just some closure is what I want. I just want to know whether she actually was killed, because people say they're still wondering whether she was killed. I just think, 'How stupid!'... But, until they find a part of her body, I guess there'll always be a doubt in people's mind that my daughter is dead - until they actually prove that she is."

That proof will be difficult to find, even with the complete attention of Loos and his fellow investigators - all of whom are working without pay for their time or expenses on the case.

Loos said the cold case team must locate and interview almost 100 "persons of interest." The team also plans to take cadaver dogs to a Port Washington farm to search for evidence this winter. Loos said around the time of Cappel's disappearance, a witness reported seeing "suspicious digging" on the property, which he said was then owned by the Cappel family.

More at link.
Old Broad
 
Whatever happened to her son? He'd be 25 now, and I wonder if he has any information. Did the Parish's have any children? SOMEONE has to know where she is. The fact that she was involved in a "bitter" divorce is awfully suspicious. But why was the husband granted a divorce 1 1/2 years after she went missing if they were already in the middle of it?
 
Bumping this case up for your consideration. There is another thread about Ohio cases...
 
But why was the husband granted a divorce 1 1/2 years after she went missing if they were already in the middle of it?

If it's anything like Maryland divorce law, their original divorce case went into limbo after her disappearance, and he likely had it dismissed, then refiled citing abandonment after her disappearance. Since could be construed that she went willingly, I'm sure he was able to get a divorce with her absent. Much quicker than waiting to have her declared dead.

If her husband also gained custody, which seems likely, then I'm sure that is the story that he reinforced to his son. I doubt that he allowed much access from her side of the family, so that would be the only story the child heard. So sad.

If the husband did it, then it sounds like all involved are probably dead. The only way the true story would be known is if one of them told someone. It certainly sounds like she knew her killer.
 
http://www.oaaa.org/press/news/news.aspx?NewsId=288

Cold case heats up: Investigators confident they’ll solve Cappel case



New Philadelphia Times Reporter (OH)
Kathy Vaughan

August 11, 2006


I found this interesting:

She left behind her purse, her paycheck, and her 18-month-old son. Cappel, going through a divorce and fighting for child custody, had been living with her parents, Judy and Jim Wolff of Newcomerstown.

http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases.yuku.com/topic/430/Susan-Wolff-Cappel-1982-Newcomerstown-Ohio

The link above has an article copy and pasted in full that I can't find an active link for on the internet at this time. Third posting.

LE focused on her Husband. Her parents believe that whatever he knew he took to the grave with him.
 
Her Charley Project profile mentions that a Bus Driver saw her in 1983 in Cleveland and asked to be left at a filling station in Newcomerstown instead of the bus stop. The driver left her at the bus stop and she ran in the direction of the filling station where Rick Parrish worked.

Still unsolved.
 
But if the body was found the same year as Susan went missing, only 15 miles from the Ohio border, wouldn't the police have realised a connection at the time?
 
But if the body was found the same year as Susan went missing, only 15 miles from the Ohio border, wouldn't the police have realised a connection at the time?
One would assume, but she's not on the exclusions list (nobody is) so better safe than sorry ya know

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
 
SCappel.jpg

Susan Diane Wolff Cappel

Endangered Missing

Missing From: Newcomerstown, Ohio

Missing Since: March 16, 1982

Age: 19 -- Height: 5'4" -- Weight: 107 lbs -- Hair Color: Brown -- Eye Color: Brown

Susan's nickname is Sue. She has a scar on the upper right side of her lip. Her upper right front tooth is crooked. Her upper left tooth was discolored when she disappeared. She may use her maiden name, Wolff.


Susan was last seen at work in Newcomerstown, Ohio on March 16, 1982. She was walking towards her parent's car in the parking lot after her shift when a co-worker saw her talking to a man in a older model blue car. She got in the passenger side of his car and was never seen again.

Susan and her husband were in the process of a divorce and fighting over custody of their young son when she disappeared. Her family suspects that he was involved in her disappearance.

Resources:
NAMPN: nampn.org - nampn Resources and Information.
NAMUS: Missing Person Case
Doe Network
Charley Project
 
http://www.timesreporter.com/article/20150221/NEWS/15022984

On Christmas Day, the parents of Susan Wolff Cappel sought to declare their missing daughter dead.

Dec. 25, 2014, was among the dates of required legal notices to the public regarding a hearing Feb. 2 in Tuscarawas County Probate Court in New Philadelphia.

For James and Judith Wolff, of Newcomerstown, it marked a legal end to their nightmare that began March 16, 1982. Their personal nightmare continues, as they still seek an answer: What happened to their daughter, Susan?
 
By Lee Morrison
Posted Feb 22, 2015


On Christmas Day, the parents of Susan Wolff Cappel sought to declare their missing daughter dead.

Dec. 25, 2014, was among the dates of required legal notices to the public regarding a hearing Feb. 2 in Tuscarawas County Probate Court in New Philadelphia.

For James and Judith Wolff, of Newcomerstown, it marked a legal end to their nightmare that began March 16, 1982. Their personal nightmare continues, as they still seek an answer: What happened to their daughter, Susan?

“It’s still not closure for us,” said Judith “Judy” Wolff. “We still hope that somebody who knows something will finally tell us.”

On the evening of March 16, 1982, Susan, then 19 years old, was walking to her car in the parking lot of Thompson’s IGA in Newcomerstown. She had just finished her shift there. It was 9 p.m.

“A car drove up and cut her off,” said James Wolff, while testifying at the recent court hearing. “She talked to the driver, and went around and got into the car. That’s the last anyone (has) ever seen her.”

He learned those details from a co-worker.

Earlier that day in 1982, when getting ready to leave for work, Susan told a friend, “I have good news. I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Susan’s mother recalled. “She was just so upbeat.”

It had been a long journey.

STARTING OVER

Susan had moved back home on Jan. 3, 1982, after she separated from her husband, Allen Cappel. They had lived in an apartment in the Bolivar area.

“When she showed up, she had the clothes on her back, and that was it,” Susan’s father said. “She asked us about going on welfare, and I said, ‘You do not do that. We’ll provide a place to stay and food.’ ”

Susan began working part time at the IGA. She also worked two nights per week at Timken-Mercy Hospital in Canton and expected to become full-time once an expansion project was completed.

Even though Susan didn’t yet have custody of her son, Damin, she listed him on her insurance.

“She was making plans for the future,” her mother said.

Especially on the day she disappeared.

Susan’s mother said that Allen “had control of when she got to see Damin,” and Susan was planning to get him that Sunday for a visit after work, but Allen refused.

Susan called her attorney.

“Mom, it’s the best news,” Judy Wolff recalled her daughter saying that a custody hearing would be held, after being delayed twice. “I’m so happy.’”

Susan spent the day painting the room she had grown up in for her own baby, who she’d hoped to bring home.

“She was very upbeat,” Judy said about her daughter as she prepared to start work at 4 p.m. in the IGA’s deli.

“The last thing she said to me, I remember very clearly, was ‘I will be at that custody hearing.’ ”

But Susan never made it.... (much more including photo at below link)

LINK:

T-R SPECIAL REPORT: Death decree issued; Disappearance of Susan Wolff Cappel unsolved after more than 30 years
 
Susan Diane Wolff Cappel
cappel_susan.jpg
susan_diane_wolff_cappel_2.jpg
susan_diane_wolff_cappel_4.jpg
susan_diane_wolff_cappel_3.jpg

Susan, circa 1982; Age-progression to an unknown age

  • Missing Since 03/16/1982
  • Missing From Newcomerstown, Ohio
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 03/30/1962 (59)
  • Age 19 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'4, 107 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A white turtleneck sweater with brown stripes, a red smock with the letters "IGA" printed on the front, brown corduroy jeans and reddish-brown oxfords. Carrying a blue nylon windbreaker.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Susan has a scar on the upper right side of her lip. Her upper right front tooth is crooked. Susan's upper left front tooth was discolored at the time of her 1982 disappearance. Her nickname is Sue. Susan is right-handed. She has a healed fracture to her nose, which she sustained in a car accident. She may use her maiden name, Wolff, and her married name, Cappel, in tandem or separately.
Details of Disappearance

Susan was last seen at Thompson's IGA supermarket in her hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio on March 16, 1982. She had just gotten off her shift at work there and was walking toward her parents' car in the parking lot when an older model blue car pulled up. A co-worker saw Susan speak to the driver, a man, then get in the passenger side of the car. She has never been heard from again.

A county grand jury's investigation records into Susan's case were misplaced sometime during the proceeding years. The documents have not been located. Susan's parents have never given up the search for her. They suspect that her ex-husband, Allen Cappel, who was employed with the Ohio Department of Transportation, was involved in her disappearance.

Allen died in a car accident in September 2003, twenty-one years after Susan's disappearance. He had always maintained his innocence in Susan's case and stated he believed she left town voluntarily. Susan and Allen were high school sweethearts who married in her senior year and had an eighteen-month-old son, Damin Cappel, in 1980. Susan left him behind when she vanished.

Allen and Susan were in the process of a divorce and fighting over custody of Damin when Susan went missing Allen was granted the divorce in 1983, a year after Susan vanished, and got custody of Damin. He remarried five months later.

Susan's parents stated at the time of her disappearance, Susan was hoping to get custody of Damin and was refurbishing her old room at her parents' home for that purpose. She had been hoping to spend March 17, the day after her disappearance, with Damin. The custody hearing was scheduled for three weeks after Susan went missing.

Allen had friends, Patrick "Rick" and his cousin Robert "Kelly" Parrish, whom Susan's parents suspect were involved in her disappearance. Rick owned an older model blue Plymouth Satellite similar to the car Susan was seen getting into the day of her disappearance. Two weeks after Susan's disappearance, Rick, Kelly, and another individual were killed inside that vehicle in a single-car crash.

Susan's parents speculate that Susan got into the car with them and they threatened Damin's life, so she agreed to disappear and drop her custody plea for him to keep him safe.

In 1983, a Greyhound bus driver believed he saw Susan. He said the woman had purchased a ticket from Reno, Nevada to Newcomerstown and the driver picked her up in Cleveland. The woman who resembled Susan carried only a satchel and asked to be let off at a filling station in Newcomerstown instead of the bus stop.

The driver refused and stopped the bus at the bus stop, where the woman got out and ran in the direction of the filling station. Rick Parrish worked at that filling station at the time of Susan's disappearance. The driver reported his sighting to police immediately, but an extensive search of the area turned up no signs of Susan.

Susan's case remains unsolved. The investigation into her disappearance was reopened in 2006. Foul play is suspected in her case.

Investigating Agency
  • Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office 330-339-2000
  • Newcomerstown Police Department 740-498-6161
Source Information
 
The below linked thread discusses an unidentified woman, estimated age 18 to 22. Her skeletal remains were found in Indian in December 1982 - just 15 miles west of the Ohio/Indiana border, near I-70.


Unidentified woman found in Indiana December 1982

One post indicates that Susan was "ruled out" as a match, but the link that the post refers to does not now exist.

Even if this unidentified woman is NOT Susan, it would appear that they are of similar description and age and would have disappeared around the same time. Could the two cases be related?

LINK:

IN - IN - Wayne Co., WhtFem Skeletal 491UFIN, 18-22, in woods, opal ring, Dec'82
 
The below linked thread discusses an unidentified woman, estimated age 18 to 22. Her skeletal remains were found in Indian in December 1982 - just 15 miles west of the Ohio/Indiana border, near I-70.


Unidentified woman found in Indiana December 1982

One post indicates that Susan was "ruled out" as a match, but the link that the post refers to does not now exist.

Even if this unidentified woman is NOT Susan, it would appear that they are of similar description and age and would have disappeared around the same time. Could the two cases be related?

LINK:

IN - IN - Wayne Co., WhtFem Skeletal 491UFIN, 18-22, in woods, opal ring, Dec'82


Here is the NamUs link for the UID The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
- Susan is listed as being ruled out

Vicki Maynard MP43314 04/01/1981 Union OH
Lauren Andersen MP12043 11/15/1981 Hennepin MN
Denise Beaudin MP36410 11/26/1981 Hillsborough NH
Cynthia Anderson MP10491 08/04/1981 Lucas OH
Judy Martins MP7266 05/24/1978 Portage OH
Susan Cappel MP7928 03/16/1982 Tuscarawas OH
 

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