PA PA - Joey Offutt, 33, State College, July 2007

I watched the episode of Disappeared about Joey Lynn last night. I have to say I am very torn as to what could have possibly happen to Joey and the baby.

I do think Alexis shows marked signs of grief in the interview. I did not find him to be cold or uncaring at all. I view him as a man with a regret that he did not do something proactive sooner, like get the police involved when Joey first did not respond to him showing up on her doorstep or when he first noticed the mail piling up.

I am not sure why he or the home health nurse did not push harder to have some sort of contact with Joey as soon as her first appointment with the nurse was missed. I also hope that this case has set a precedent in PA and requires someone to make contact or escalate the attempt for contact in a similar circumstance.

Alexis himself stated that he was trying to move on. I get this too! I often think if something were to happen to me, my husband would be remarried within 6 months. Not because he doesn't love me or wouldn't mourn or miss me, but some people do not function well alone.

Joey's car did not just randomly show up at SOME apartment complex in State College. It showed up in a complex where she had previously resided. Why???

1) Did someone who knew Joey from her time in State College "stalk" her, kill the baby and abduct and dispose of her?

2) Was the car left there by someone other than Joey to make it look like Joey left the car there and had disappeared on her own?

3) Was the car left there by someone intimately aware of Joey and involved in her life?
 
ok the fact that in the discovery id show the neighbor seen her a few days before with the stroller but no baby in it kinda strange huh. is it possible she did something to the baby before the walk and was distraught and went for a walk not expecting to see her neighbor and hoping that he did not notice the empty stroller?
SBM

I think the nephew clarified earlier in the thread that the neighbor did not say the baby stroller was empty, but rather, said he did not notice one way or the other. A really important distinction. If Joey was known to "shut down" communication when she was angry or upset, I can envision her grabbing her child as a reason to get out of the house, go for a walk to cool off, collect her thoughts, regain her composure, whatever. If that were the case, then it makes sense that she was not her usual friendly self when greeted by the neighbor.
 
Why go to the trouble of backing up? Unless this was a state where u don't have plates in the front.
RSBM The car reportedly had VA plates and the state of VA does require Front and Back plate display. Perhaps another reason to back into a parking spot might be to unload something less conspicuously into another vehicle that is also backed into an adjacent spot.

Anyone know if the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts was that week? I know it is always in July and draws a HUGE crowd from all over the region. More people, more cover. Just a thought....
 
If it is held the same week every year, it probably was. This year's dates are July 9-12.
 
RSBM The car reportedly had VA plates and the state of VA does require Front and Back plate display. Perhaps another reason to back into a parking spot might be to unload something less conspicuously into another vehicle that is also backed into an adjacent spot.

Anyone know if the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts was that week? I know it is always in July and draws a HUGE crowd from all over the region. More people, more cover. Just a thought....

We don't have front plates here in PA so while the car did have VA plates in the front as well as the back, someone who is from PA or driven here a long time might automatically back it in thinking they are hiding the plate, not even taking into account the front plate.
 
Recently saw the "Disappeared" episode, but I was interrupted during portions of it, and I just had a couple of questions. Really sad, disturbing story. :(

If anyone knows the answers to these questions, would appreciate it:
1) What date did the neighbor encounter Joey pushing a baby stroller? (my understanding is the neighbor wasn't sure if a baby was in the stroller; please correct me if I'm wrong...would sure help to know if the neighbor knew one way or another, but my impression was there was uncertainty).
2) The show mentioned Joey's car was said to be parked there at her home at times - but not at other times. Did any of her neighbors notice this? (neighbors are often likely to notice this type of thing and remember it, IMO). Did any of her neighbors see her (or anyone else) drive her car back and forth during this time period? Like even once? OR see other vehicles parked around their neighborhood area (when her car was gone) that usually were not?

TIA, if anyone knows.
 
Recently saw the "Disappeared" episode, but I was interrupted during portions of it, and I just had a couple of questions. Really sad, disturbing story. :(

If anyone knows the answers to these questions, would appreciate it:
1) What date did the neighbor encounter Joey pushing a baby stroller? (my understanding is the neighbor wasn't sure if a baby was in the stroller; please correct me if I'm wrong...would sure help to know if the neighbor knew one way or another, but my impression was there was uncertainty).
2) The show mentioned Joey's car was said to be parked there at her home at times - but not at other times. Did any of her neighbors notice this? (neighbors are often likely to notice this type of thing and remember it, IMO). Did any of her neighbors see her (or anyone else) drive her car back and forth during this time period? Like even once? OR see other vehicles parked around their neighborhood area (when her car was gone) that usually were not?

TIA, if anyone knows.

I don't know the answer to your second question (which is a very good question), but according to AMW and Investigation ID, the youth pastor at the local church reportedly saw Joey walking with the stroller midday on July 5th. The youth pastor does not recall one way or the other seeing the child. Again, according to Investigation ID, the BF visited the house and knocked on the door later that day, but nobody answered so he left.
 
Joey's last post to the group was made on June 5, 2007. In it she wrote about the birth of her son, Lex, and promised to post pictures of him in the near future. Unfortunately, that was the last time Joey Lynn Offutt was seen either online or off.
Didn't the police in the ID show her Internet service had been turned off for a month?
 
they said the bf passed a lie detector test but later in the show it said he had in fact failed? i am confused did they say that to test him again to trick him. did he really pass and they were looking to pin it on someone.
I was curious about that too. I wonder if that's why he refused to take the second lie detector test and reduced his cooperation: he thought they were messing with him.

I believe the main value of lie detectors is tricking people or throwing them off. They are not reliable to detect lies or confirm someone's telling the truth. But they can easily freak the suspect out, making him worry the machine might detect his lies. It seems plausible the police might encourage someone to keep cooperating, even if they're still suspicious, by saying he did well on the test. Later if there's some critical point they doubt or just want to be sure of they can say that he actually failed and needs to come clean on that point.

This seems like a reasonable way to catch criminals. Instead of just saying "we know you're lying" they can have an ostensibly scientific machine say that. They can choose to say they agree with him, but the machine says he's lying. It's all a game to make criminals or people with knowledge about a crime to make a mistake and reveal what they know. It's a reasonable approach, but it also makes it reasonable for even innocent suspects not to cooperate with the police except with a lawyer representing them.
 
I just watched this on Disappeared. One thing that made me think that she didn't run off on her own is how she parked the car. I refuse to reverse park I've had to do like 3 times in my life my family knows this. If they saw my car parked liked Joeys my families reaction would be the same as joeys family.
But then I'm stuck on why her car was found at her old apartments. That makes me think Alexis or someone else that knew her is involved. Jmo. I hope her family gets some answers.


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As I recall, the Vidoc society was trying to help with the case. If this is correct, did they have any new insights?
 
I have always wondered why a woman who has the mind of a 14 yr old would be living alone to care for children. As the mother of a 14 yr old I cannot imagine!
 
Missing Sykesville woman declared dead

http://www.thecourierexpress.com/news/local/missing-sykesville-woman-declared-dead/article_a2f8faaa-9310-56a1-822a-3d951b9a047c.html

In a brief proceeding, held Monday, Jefferson County Judge John Foradora declared Joey Lynn Offutt dead as of July 12, 2007.

Nine years ago, a fire occurred at Offutt’s home in Sykesville. Since that event, she has not been seen although her red Saturn car, with Virginia license plates, was found four days later in State College.

Foradora placed the date of Offutt’s death as July 12, 2007, as no one has seen or heard from her since that day.
 
Search for missing Sykesville woman continues 9 years after disappearance

http://wjactv.com/news/local/search...le-woman-continues-9-years-after-disppearance

Since her disappearance, police said there have been no substantial leads that have helped further the investigation.

"Currently, some new information has come out in reference to the victim, Joey Offutt. She was declared legally dead," Trooper David Ray said. "The family had taken care of that for some reasons for their children but currently the investigation is very active, the same as it was in July when it started."

No new info in the article, but glad to see local media keeping the public aware of her disappearance. I'm curious whether this is simply a late anniversary piece, or whether something sparked interest in publishing an update.
 
Earlier in the thread someone brought up a point about her car being gone several times and that there are only a few places in town where she would be able to go (running errands, etc.). I would like to add that when my son was born, I was a restaurant manager and worked long hours, so my husband was often alone with the baby. Although I had no problems getting the baby to go to sleep, hubby really struggled with it. And when baby boy was sleepy, he would get more and more wound up and cry even louder because he just couldn't calm himself down enough to get to sleep. After a few weeks of this, hubby figured out that baby would always calm down and sleep during a car ride, so that became his trusted tactic. They went for drives in the afternoon, the evening, and even late at night. He would often drive for a long time just to make sure baby was sleeping deeply enough, and driving in the quiet car was priceless peace for daddy as well. This was their routine for months before I could finally convince him to try it another way since oftentimes hubby was ALSO tired and cranky and I worried about him driving my kid all over the place like that, fearing an accident.

So perhaps Joey Lynn was using her car to help a fussy baby get to sleep?
 
There's a really good video about this case on Youtube right now. It's called "disappeared season 4 episode 20." The video gives exact dates along with the evidence seen on each date, so I was able to put together a timeline and come up with a theory of what happened to her. It was too long to post here, so I put it on my blog. Please view it and see what you think: http://missing595.wordpress.com
 
Looks like maybe I can post my theory here after all:

In 2006, Joey’s mother had gotten temporary custody of her kids because she made Joey seem crazy for talking to that man on the internet. Joey had been talking to a man who said he wanted her to pose as a fashion model, but then later said he wanted her to pose for *advertiser censored*. The video doesn’t go into details about everything he said, but it obviously was something that indicated he was a dangerous criminal because when Joey’s mother told the authorities, they gave her custody of Joey’s kids. If the man had merely been wanting to have sex with Joey, that would not have been grounds to take her kids away. They didn’t take Joey’s kids away just because they thought she was too mentally challenged to raise kids because later, they gave the kids back to Joey–after she had seen counselors and agreed not to talk to any more men on the internet.

Because of her brain defect, Joey doesn’t really understand that the man she was talking to was dangerous. She only pretended to understand and to agree with the counselors that she shouldn’t talk to men on the internet so she could regain custody of her children.

After arguing with Alexis about how she’s taking care of the kids on July 2, 2007, Joey is upset that he and her mother have the power to get custody of her kids. She thinks that if she can talk to the guy from the internet once again without any dangerous incidents occurring, that will give her proof that the guy was not really dangerous, thus taking away her mother’s and Alexis’ proof that she is an unfit parent and ensuring they cannot take her kids away.

On July 3, 4 or 5th, she gets in touch with the guy from the internet again. He’s actually part of an organized group of sex traffickers who lure in vulnerable women through the internet. He somehow gets the information of where she lives, either from her or from an internet search. Joey was last seen by the neighbors on the afternoon of July 5, and the hamburger meat was left out on July 5 at the latest.

On the night of July 5, the internet sex trafficker man and one or more accomplices show up at her house. Their plan is to kidnap her and force her to work as a prostitute.
They either break in or she lets them in willingly because she thinks they’re her friends and doesn’t know their plan. Once inside, they drug her or hit her to make her
unconscious. They don’t want to deal with the baby, and they don’t want it to cry and make a bunch of noise, so they kill it and leave it in the bathtub. She had to have
been removed from the house forcibly, and without the baby, because she left her purse, diaper bag, and baby seat. Her car keys were gone–but that’s because they took her keys out of her purse either on that night or when they went back the next night. She would never have gone with the men willingly without her baby.

Then they put her in their car and take her to a location where they will keep her for several days and force her to work as a prostitute. The day after the kidnapping, July 6, they start to think about the dead baby in the bathtub and the fact that people might stop by the house. They don’t want anybody to call the police or come looking for Joey because it might interrupt their money-making, so in the middle of that night, they go back to the house to get her car and lock up the house to make it look like nobody’s home, and Joey left of her own accord, so no one will enter the house or think she’s missing. There have to be at least two drivers each time the car is removed or dropped off because for instance, when dropping off the car, two people have to drive to the house, and one of them has to get out and get Joey’s car, and then both cars have to drive away. One person working alone would have had to walk all the way to her house to get the car, or drive their car there, leave it, get her car, drive away, and later walk back or take a cab back to get their car, all of which are unlikely. They’re doing these pickups/dropoffs in the middle of the night so they’re not seen. When they arrive at Joey’s house on the night of July 6, they may see the note left by the nurse on the front door, which makes them worry that government people are looking for her and might call the police. On July 7, at night, they return the car and leave it there all day Sunday because it needs to look to the neighbors like she’s still living there and coming and going on her own, but they don’t want any government workers to think she’s home and try to have to police open the door, and they figure there will be no government workers there on a Sunday.

On the night of July 8th, they remove the car again so the social worker won’t see it during the week. By July 11, they have realized it’s starting to look like she’s gone, and started to think that they can’t keep dropping off the car and picking it up because they might get caught doing that. They may see Alexis and the social worker talking to each other at the house, and realize the dead baby and Joey’s disappearance are about to be discovered. They need to stage her disappearance and the baby’s death in a way that will deflect any suspicion off of themselves. They decide to make it look like she killed the baby, then set her house on fire to cover up her crime while running away in her car.
On July 12 at 3:00 a.m., they return to the house in her car to set the house on fire. They use her car and hope that it will be seen at the house just before the fire so people will think Joey set the fire. They start a fire in the bathroom to make sure the baby’s body is good and burned because they are worried there will be some DNA evidence on the baby’s body. Also, they don’t want it to be known that the baby was already decomposing. They start another fire downstairs to make sure the whole house burns down and destroys any evidence of the kidnapping. After starting the fires, they leave Joey’s car in the apartment complex where they know she used to live because at one point she had told the guy she was talking to online about it. They think it will make it look like she had gone to join some old boyfriend with whom she had been having an affair in the apartments where she used to live with Alexis, and escaped with the boyfriend in his car while ditching her own car there.

After the fire, they know police will be looking for Joey. They begin to worry that one of the Johns who are paying to have sex with Joey will recognize her from photos on the news and call the police with an anonymous tip of where she is. They decide to move her to a foreign country where American TV and internet cannot be seen. I believe she's still alive and being forced to work as a prostitute in a foreign country.
 
I have always wondered why a woman who has the mind of a 14 yr old would be living alone to care for children. As the mother of a 14 yr old I cannot imagine!

I've been watching some old episodes at work and just saw this today. I also wondered why the family would allow her to take care of the baby alone. Did she live alone with her other kids, or with family? Also who paid her bills and took care of her personal items? This is a very strange case. I think Joey had ppd and killed the baby, idk what happened to her after that
I don't think Alexis had anything to do with it tho.
 

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