Found Deceased OR - Owen Klinger, 18, University of Portland, 6 Oct 2019

I have an 18 year old college freshman and you bet I have access to her bank account. We opened it for her, and we’re the ones who put money in it for her. Mostly we just add more spending money when it gets low. We don’t track where she’s used her debit card or anything, but if she’s spending a lot we’ll ask. I realize that’s not how all parents/college students do it, but we want her to concentrate on school and not working her first year. She likes that and she’s adjusting well. 18 year olds are still teens with not much life experience. I don’t see any reason to think his parents were smothering him with regards to the bank account.

 

It was uplifting to hear the parents say google was getting involved with Owen’s phone. Google’s Sensorvault program is very awesome! It has assisted LE in the past! They can actually detect phones that were in an area at a certain time. I hope this brings Owen home safely!

 

Great for stalkers, too, if they have a friend at Google.

 

Unless a stalker had the highest security clearance at Google, that 99.9% won’t happen. Nothing is ever impossible.

 

My dad still has access to my (daily use) bank account, and I'm in my 30's. If we did not have an open and honest relationship I'd have removed his access as soon as I could, but because I have 100% trust in him and nothing to hide I've been too lazy to go to the bank to have it sorted out. He absolutely does not monitor my purchases but if I went missing without a trace he could quickly check if I'm still using my card or have made large withdrawals recently.

All families are different. Owen's family might not know him as well as they think, but they surely know him better than we do.

 

Wow great insight I hadn’t thought of this angle before but it’s a very plausible theory, makes a lot of sense. And I wasn’t aware of all that stuff about FM. My son is a UP freshman like Owen, and other than not going there yourself at night ( and 8:30 still seems pretty late to be going shopping especially by yourself) any other advice to offer?

 

Thanks for the info did not know this; have a freshman son at UP

 

Ditto-

Both my college kids have bank accounts linked to mine and we push money in when they need it. We could see all the debit card transactions if we wanted to.

 

I am trying to understand this viewpoint. Please bear with me as I am not sure how to phrase my questions.... Do the posters that express this viewpoint (and views like it) have children? Or maybe it has something to do with age, or the connection you have with your own parents?

I was in college 30 years ago. My parents deposited money into my account. They had no idea the balance or what I was purchasing. I love my parents dearly but although I had a very vanilla college lifestyle, I did not feel as though I can confide in them. I don’t feel that not keeping tabs on their finances = a closer, more accepting relationship.

Now, as a parent of a teenager, I feel as though I would be more aware of what my teen is doing. I may not agree with my teen’s choices but I am open and would hope we would communicate openly.

Also, with electronic banking, one doesn’t have to be a stalker to keep an eye on spending — IF that is what they did. We don’t know if they checked the financials only after he went missing.

Also, I think people in general have more awareness / understand the importance of “the first 48 hours” etc. I am thinking of two recent college students that went missing: McKenzie and C the girl who was about to graduate from college in SC. I believe it was their friends/roommates that started the ball rolling when they went missing (maybe not officially reported them missing). In those cases, it was key to finding them before the trail went cold. Why would it be any different for OK? Is it because he is male? Or was it stalkerish that when the girls’ friends got involved??

Again, I’m just trying to understand another point of view. Ian worries for Owen. I hope he is safe. I wish his loved ones peace and comfort.

All MOO

 

Buddy system always when possible, avoid Lombard at dark unless in a group. No parks at night. I always carried pepper spray bc I am a runner/biker and would often be alone. Program PSafe number into “favorites” on phone. Keep tabs on the local news for St Johns, it can be easy to get trapped in the UP bubble and have no idea what’s going on outside of it. If your son is in a dorm they occasionally have self-defense workshops and they are VERY good. I never felt unsafe there but it IS an urban area so you have to be diligent. Avoid biking across the St Johns bridge - notoriously risky bc of cars. Campus is extremely safe!

 

Also different than 30 yrs ago- people are in "communication" every few minutes or hours. Whereas 30 yrs ago it wasn't unusual to go days without hearing from someone or even a week or two, it is now obvious someone has gone dark after a short period of time.

Just last night my teenage niece saw something on Snapchat that had happned seconds before and raised the alarm immediately to he mother, who called that mother etc...

 

At what point do you think the child is independent, making their own decisions and figuring out how to navigate the world without the parent's oversight?

 

A College freshman in a dorm is living away from home for the first time. I don’t feel they are independent until they graduate and are working supporting themselves. When my children were in college, we were supporting them. Our money paid for tuition, books, room & board as well as spending money which they needed to manage. I trusted them to manage well and it worked out. They all knew if they broke the trust, we would be monitoring more closely. We did have our name on their accounts so we could deposit funds for them in an emergency. I never remember ever looking in their accounts. Everyone needs to remember that these parents are trying desperately to locate their missing child! If your child was missing, I feel most parents would check bank records and phone calls, computers and texts! I doubt that Owen’s parents ever felt a need to bother with any of this until he was missing! An investigation is different from everyday life.

 

I don't think anyone is questioning what the parents were doing after his disappearance, though it would be better if LE was the one looking through bank records, email, social media, etc. But he is becoming an adult (and legally is one), and it is only natural to want to have a more private life which includes activities that other family members or even close friends may not be aware of.

 

This is so true! At first I thought it was weird how fast Owen’s roommates called parents/school to report him missing. I still kind of do, but I can understand because he was supposedly just going to a Lacrosse meeting and then back to study with roommates. He left at 7:30, so they probably expected him back around 9:30 or 10:00. Remember midterms were starting the next day. When he didn’t show up, they probably started texting/calling him and got no response. In this day and age that it worrisome! They probably knew something was wrong but waited all night to see if he’d show.
So the next day when they still had not heard from him, he wasn’t answering phone and midterms were starting, I can see how they thought it best to say something.

 

Of course, and he can totally do things without his parents knowing now. He’s not living at home and his parents would not know where he spent that $150 or went that night—he DOES have privacy. The problem is that he left for a supposedly short time and and never came back. I don’t personally think it had anything to do with him feeling smothered, but you never know. Just from the little details we know I don’t see it. MOO

 

100%.

 

I’m not the OP, but I think it’s a gradual process, just as it is with a fledgling bird leaving the nest. Certainly an 18 year old living in a dorm is making a lot of their own decisions and navigating without parental oversight every day. But even when I was in college in the early 1960’s, I was well aware that I was not fully independent as long as I was not supporting myself. I believed then and I believe now that if you are accepting your parent’s money, you respect and appreciate that fact. Normal parents aren’t going to use that as an excuse to micromanage their child or invade their privacy. Having access to your bank account so they can easily deposit money comes with the territory and doesn’t strike me as intrusive or denying a child their independence. I think some are judging these parents unfairly. JMO

 

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New here but I’ve been following this case from the beginning.

This might be kinda far fetched but my gut tells me there’s something here, so here goes:

I was recently listening to The First Degree podcast episodes about the smiley face killers (dumb name, I know) and I couldn’t stop my mind from thinking of Owen.

Owen seems to fit the victim profile of a lot of these cases, young, athletic male, well liked with lots of friends and family, that does well in school and participates in sports etc.

There was one case they talked about in particular, the death of Jay Polhill. This one seems A LOT like Owen’s case.

What really happened to Columbia College Chicago student Jay Polhill ? : UnresolvedMysteries

From what I’ve learned about this theory, what happens a lot of the time is that after the initial searches new evidence will be recovered somewhere that has already been canvassed, like property of the missing person or something. Then, according to one of the lead investigators of the smiley face killers theory, what you do is plot a line from the point last seen (Portsmouth and Willamette) to his return to location (Christie Hall) then plot another line from wherever the new evidence is recovered (undetermined) also back to Christie Hall. This investigator then said to look at that on a map, then look for the nearest body of water in the OPPOSITE direction of where the evidence is leading you, and that’s where a body will be recovered.

Again, totally just a theory but I think it’s super interesting. I’m still very much hoping for a simple explanation and a safe return.