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Sharon worked as a shift manager at a popular Hudson Valley, NY restaurant. The restaurant was attached to an indoor shopping mall. It was a very busy place. She had worked there for close to 10 years. She knew her job well. Closing up the restaurant late on a Saturday night was a normal task for her. The restaurant closed at midnight each Saturday. And on Saturday June 3rd into Sunday June 4th, 2006 it was no different.

Here’s the story of Sharon and what happened to her that night…(The following information was collected from various newspaper archives.)

Sharon was 42 years old. She lived just a few miles from the mall where she worked. She had a strong work ethic. A person can’t have a job like that in a busy restaurant unless they work hard. She was also a mother of 3. She had 2 teenage daughters and a son in his 20s. She had a nice boyfriend. Sharon lived a responsible life.

Then there was Paul. Paul was 20 years old. He was a waiter at the same restaurant as Sharon. He recently moved to the area from Michigan. He had only just begun working at the restaurant 2 weeks earlier.
Paul had a very minor past criminal record in Michigan. Paul was not “wanted” for anything. But, Paul did get himself in a little trouble with the NY State police on the evening of June 3rd, 2006. He was pulled over for driving under the influence of alcohol. (Driving while ability impaired/he blew a .06)…This happened at 9:30pm. Paul had a friend with him that night. When Paul gave the State Police his identification, it was a different person/name. Paul told them his name was Dennis (a real person who lived in Michigan). The friend in the car with Paul went along with it. However; the friend somehow mentioned to the police, in passing, that Paul (pretending to be Dennis) was employed by the restaurant at the mall.

This is what the police suspect happened next…… Paul was worried that his false identification that he gave to police would catch up to him. So, he came up with a plan.
If he could grab his employment/personnel records from the restaurant office, there would be no evidence of him working there. And then he wouldn’t be found out that he lied about his identity if the police came around to ask.

According to police statements, once Paul was released from police custody, he made his way to the restaurant. At this point it was 12:45 am and Sharon was doing all of the closing procedures. She was alone. It’s unclear if the door was unlocked or if Paul knocked on the door to have Sharon let him in.

Investigators say that it was likely that a confrontation ensued between Paul and Sharon when Paul was attempting to take his personnel records. What ever happened during that confrontation resulted in Sharon being stabbed by a kitchen knife 33 times. It’s important to note that, besides the stab wounds, Sharon was found with a bite mark on her body. Also, it was determined that $4,000 was stolen from the restaurant that night.

Sharon was found dead the next morning at 9:00 am when an employee showed up to prepare for Sunday opening.

As the police investigation began, they started making lists of suspects. One “red flag” they found was the fact that Paul called out sick for work the next day, the day Sharon’s body was discovered. This definitely put Paul on their radar.

The investigation was ongoing when suddenly something unexpected happened! Paul ended up passing away on June 19. Just 2 weeks after Sharon’s death. How did he die – you ask? Paul jumped out of a moving vehicle after leaving a party. Paul mentioned leaving his shirt back at the party house, opened the door, and jumped out of the fast moving car.
So random, right ?!

After Paul’s death, police started shifting the investigation in his direction based on the information they were continually collecting.

After waiting for the results, it eventually came back that Paul’s dental records matched the bite mark on Sharon’s body.

Police did not close the case right away. They still had to consider if the friend who drove away with him from the police should be charged with “hindering prosecution”. Paul did not drive himself away from the state police barracks the night of June 3 after being booked for driving with impaired ability.
I couldn’t find anything else about that in my research. If any of you who read this knows the answer , please let me know.

To add even more intrigue to this story; Paul was actually interviewed, after the killing, by a Daily Freeman news reporter – who actually LIVED with Paul at the time. And Paul talked about Sharon with kind words.

Paul was quoted in the June 7 news article as saying Sharon “was always full of life and was motivated to keep us working hard.” He went on to say “As a person, she was very sweet and kind,” Paul told the newspaper. “She had major ambition, and you could tell that she really loved her job. She really was dedicated to her job, and she was a kind person.”

There were more than 500 people interviewed during this investigation and 50 investigators from several agencies working on the case. Town of Ulster police were assisted by detectives from the state police, Kingston Police Department and Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. Police are also worked closely with the Ulster County District Attorney’s office.

In case you didn’t know the name of the restaurant, it was The Ground Round located at the Hudson Valley Mall in Kingston, NY. The victims name was Sharon Inger.

A close friend of the family was quoted as saying “We will continue to try to talk about how we will try to get through each day and how to ease the pain that everybody feels. We will remember that she was not The Ground Round victim. She was Sharon Inger. We will miss her.”

Sharon was an unfortunate victim . She didn’t ask for any of this. She was trying to make a living for herself and her family.

Also, The Ground Round never reopened for business after that fateful day. Never.

In addition… Paul’s personnel records were never recovered. Neither was the $4,000.

It appears the police matched up the motive, means, and opportunity to determine Paul as the killer. Then the teeth marks sealed the deal.

A few unanswered questions that I have : Who was the friend that drove Paul from the police barracks that night of the murder? Did this friend also drive Paul to the mall after being in police custody ? If so, did he or she witness Paul coming out of the Ground Round bloody?

Well- Thanks for reading my story. ~ Colleen

It was 1996 . 

To set the 1996 time frame .. IBM was just leaving the Kingston, NY area. The NY Yankees were winning a lot and headed to a World Series Championship. Jerry Maguire was the top movie …

March 25th, 1996.
A Monday night.
Joey Martin

A 15 year old student at Rondout Valley High School

He lived on Sampsonville Rd in Kerhonson, NY. (Kerhonson is an extremely rural town 20 miles from Kingston, NY. )

Joey was planning to meet up with friends Daniel Malak and Alexander Barsky. There was a rare comet that was set to pass overhead that night and these boys wanted to try and see it.

Because it was a Monday night and a school night, Joey snuck out of the house on this planned adventure in the woods with this friends. 

Fast forward to the next day. Joey failed to show up for school. He had a track meet that day and was unlikely to simply just skip school. 

His parents then contacted the police when they realized he didn’t show up to school . 

Barsky and Malak had been interviewed and always denied any involvement in Martin’s disappearance.

Nobody could prove that these boys were involved with any crime that evening.

Years eventually passed with Joey’s disappearance being a missing persons case. 

The story of that evening just faded with time. All roads lead police to dead ends. Nobody knew if Joey was dead or alive. 

Can you imagine the pain and worry his family was experiencing? 

In 2007 (11 years since Joey was last seen), a NY State police officer named Peter Cirigliano started looking over this cold case with a fresh set of eyes. 

Cirigliano noticed some “red flags” in the statements from Daniel Malak and Alexander Barsky… One of the boys wrote some words in their write up which stood out. Things like “I went home and IMMEDIATELY went to  bed.” And “we were ALL on foot.” Using the words “immediately” and “all” are sometimes words of deception when used in that context. 

So Cirigliano and his team of investigators decided to go find Malak and Barsky and interview them again. 

Malak, turns out, was serving 20 years to life in State prison for murdering a 62-year-old man in 1997 during an attempted car theft.  He shot a man named George Allison (a New York City resident) at Allison’s weekend home in Samsonville, NY.

Investigators also found Alexander Barsky and brought him in for questioning. He failed the polygraph test. Barsky soon began to give previously undisclosed details from that evening in 1996. He ultimately admitted to being involved in the killing of Joey Martin. 

He said Daniel Malak was angry with Joey Martin for allegedly stealing some of his marijuana a few days before. He asked Barksy to help convince Joey to meet up at a specific spot in the woods that evening for the comet viewing. 

Barksy said that Joey died after they hit him with a metal pipe. 

He said they hid Joey’s body in a small cave nearby.

Barsky also admitted to being worried that the body would be found in that cave and that he actually returned to the location 6 years later. He collected the remains and brought it to New York City and put them in a dumpster. 

When Barsky brought investigators to the crime scene cave in Kerhonson , additional evidence remained at the scene. 11 years later …A tooth, a scrap of bone, and a piece of fabric from Joey’s clothing were still there.

Barksy was charged with second-degree murder in May 2008. He pled guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to just three to ten years in prison (because he had been 16 years old at the time of the crime, the juvenile law was in effect .)

Malak was also charged with second-degree murder. He pled “not guilty” and the trial occurred in Ulster County Court in Kingston, NY. Alex Barsky testified against him.

Malak was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years to life (to be added on top of the sentencing from his previous murder conviction.) 

Joey’s family was able to find out what happened to him. That is not always the case with a missing person. I would say that State Police detective deserves recognition for his work.

Kerhonson, NY …. A rural small town with no immunity to horrific crimes.

This missing person case involves a young woman aged 17 years old. Her name is Cindy Loretta Rowles. She lived on Downs Street in Kingston, NY at time of her disappearance. If you’re familiar with that street; the house she lived in was about half way between Foxhall Avenue and Broadway.

Rowles was last seen by her family leaving her family’s home on Downs St. in Kingston on August 16, 1986. Rowles was also seen in a car circling around the parking lot of The Maverick Restaurant at state Route 28 and Maverick Road in West Hurley, NY. (That location is currently the parking lot area of Santa Fe Woodstock. To give you a visual on that location. )
Reports I have read said that there has been no activity with her social security number or credit cards of any kind since then. There has been no confirmed sightings and she has not contacted family members.
Added note:
In 2006, a suspect told authorities he was involved in Rowles’ case and in the
disappearance of Laura Smith (another missing person from Connelly, NY). He has not been charged in either case.

Cindy is considered at risk as lost, injured, or otherwise missing.

Description: Caucasian female. Sandy blonde hair, blue eyes. Cindy has a tattoo on her left arm. She occasionally wears eyeglasses.

She would be 54 years old right now.

The 2 photos are of Cindy in 1986 and an “age progression” photo at age 44.

• 

• 

VICTIM INFORMATION:

Name: Larry Atkins
Age: 44
Death: August of 1992
Address: 1836 Sawkill Park Rd., Town of Kingston, NY
Cause of death: Asphyxiated

Name: Robert Gordon
Age: 61
Death: October of 1996
Address: 249 Route 28, Town of Ulster, NY (Near West Hurley)
Cause of death: Asphyxiated

These two men both died by homicide in their own homes. They both lived in homes that were debris-filled and had no electricity. Their homes were left to them by family. Both of these men walked everywhere they went.

Each of these men were found with hands and feet bound and hog-tied, their faces covered. Both causes of death were by asphyxiation.

Their homes/shacks were located not far from each other.

Being from this area, and knowing the location of these murders… There is not a direct road to connect these two houses. A hilly, tree filled piece of land separates them. Jockey Hill. If you take a car, the distance between each location it is about 5 miles. If you cut over/across Jockey Hill (Bluestone Wild Forest) by foot, their homes were 2.8 miles apart.

• 

Larry Atkin’s story: Larry lived at 136 Sawkill Park Road, Town of Kingston/Sawkill, N.Y. He was a recluse who walked where he needed to go. He was found by a neighbor who decided to check on him. The neighbor hadn’t seen Larry for quite some time and Larry’s grass had not been cut (which was one thing Larry kept meticulous.) Larry lived off of $400/month in Social Security benefits. He also earned money by helping a friend deliver eggs for a local farm. He was found dead in August of 1992.

Fast forward 4 years…

Robert Gordon’s story: Robert lived at 249 Route 28, Town of Ulster, N.Y. (Between Kingston and West Hurley.) He was a loner who avoided contact with most people. He walked whenever he needed to go somewhere. He was found in October of 1996 by a State Trooper who was asked to check on him. Robert Gordon was found inside his bathroom, the door barricaded by a dresser.

In 2016, the Times-Herald Record did a story that gave some information on these cases. “The Record” interviewed some NY State Police investigators. The police said that they have long believed that these two cases are linked.
The story mentioned that there were rumors that each of these victims carried caches of money. It was noted that Robert Gordon’s money pouch, that he was always seen with, has never been found.

According to a State Police Investigator:
–Gordon was bound with black tape and clothesline.
–Atkins was bound by colored tape, novelty handcuffs, and a heavy duty rope with red and blue strands woven into the fibers. The tape used on Atkins was a specialty item used for underground power lines.

Both of these cases have been entered into the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Programs with no matches found in regards to similar homicides across the country.

With DNA technology constantly progressing, law enforcement is hopeful that they will someday solve these crimes.
If you have information that could help with these cases, please contact the State Police at 845-338-1702.

Austin Eubanks took the time to share his story with me .. Here it is .. Part 1

Back on April 20, 1999, Austin Eubanks was 16 years old. He showed up to school like it was any other Tuesday school day. Austin was a student in the 11^th grade at Columbine High School, in Littleton Colorado.

Austin was a good kid.

HE NEVER TRIED DRUGS.

He loved to spend time with his best friend, Corey Depooter. Austin and Corey liked to golf together. They also liked to go fly fishing together. They were two 16 year olds with their whole lives ahead of them.

Sometime between the hours of 11:30am and 12pm Mountain Standard Time on April 20, 1999… Austin and Corey found themselves together, again.  This time …very close together… Hiding and trying to protect themselves …under a table in their high school library.

Most of you know the events of that fateful day. Two students by the name of Eric and Dylan decided to go on a murder spree throughout their high school. Marching into the school with loaded guns and wearing trench coats. This was a planned out attack as there were planted homemade explosives in the building as well.

The story of what specifically happened to Austin and Corey is as follows: Austin and Corey were hiding underneath one of the library tables. There were several students hiding under several library tables that day. These were young high school students, all confused and afraid for their lives. They could hear gunfire in the distance and then getting closer.

The 2 perpetrators made their way into the library. They began picking and choosing who they will shoot. They eventually made their way next to the table Austin and Corey were under. A gun pointed at Corey and the gun fired. Corey was shot and it quickly became obvious that he was killed. Austin was shot as well. A bullet hit him in the hand and in the knee.

When the perpetrators eventually left the library, they left behind a combination of injured and dead students … Those who were able to run out of the building did so. Austin was able to escape the building.

Austin told me that he left that building and never came back inside. EVER.

I remember watching the events of this day on  television. It was before any type of social media existed, so it was watched on the evening news and breaking live news on CNN and all the main news tv channels. Those images of the students fleeing the Columbine High School will forever be engrained in my brain.

You will learn in the story, as I did in my conversation with Austin,  that the 20 minutes that Austin was in the Columbine High School library were the very moments that DEFINED him for a very long time. Those bullets caused a lot of pain, beyond the physical pain from the gunshots. The physical pain from the bullet wounds ended 4 days later… There was additional pain that he tried to stop. He tried to stop it by taking prescription pain medication (amongst other drugs) and a lot of it…!!!!

This is a story will quickly switch gears to a story of addiction.

Drug addiction.

The rest of this story will be about Austin and what transpired in his life after “Columbine”.

It will answer questions such as…

Did Austin finish high school?

Did he go to college?

Does he forgive the perpetrators?

What was the turning point in his life that  motivated him to have lasting recovery from his addiction ?

And much more ..

Stay tuned…More to come in Part 2.

—————————————————————

THE FOLLOWING IS A SYNAPSIS OF 7 MURDERS NEAR MY HOMETOWN:

_______________________________________

Carol Bosch 

Date of death: March 4, 1981

Age 48

4th Grade Teacher at Meagher Elementary School

Crime scene: Town of Ulster/Hillside Acres/Kingston, NY

Mrs. Bosch was my 4th grade teacher. She was shot and killed inside her residence on the evening of March 4, 1981…(when I was in 5th grade.) I will never forget when I walked into school to find out the sad news the next morning. It was awful.

Basically, Mrs. Bosch was home alone that night. I am fairly certain that her house was on the market..For Sale sign in the yard. Police suspect she heard a noise in her garage and when she opened the door she was shot by an intruder. Mrs. Bosch was able to dial her telephone and dialed the operator. The operator then patched her to Kingston City Police. She requested an ambulance and stated she had been shot. Kingston Police then contacted State Police. When the State Police arrived on the scene she was found dead. 

I am unsure of any conclusions that the investigators have made regarding this case. Was it a robbery gone wrong? I don’t know.
What I DO know, from a close source, is that there were a handful of home break-ins in the Hillside Acres neighborhood around that time. The break-ins mysteriously stopped after the murder.

This case is still unsolved.

All of my Meagher School friends will never forget Mrs. Bosch. She was a wonderful teacher.

___________________________________________

Albert D. Barnhart, Jr.

Date of Death: December 6, 1987

Age 13

Crime scene: Port Ewen, NY

Albert was 13 years old at the time of his death. He was found in an area known to locals as 40 Bumps. It was a wooded area that some teens used as a hang out.

Albert was found about 300 feet from a burned out campfire at 40 Bumps. He was missing for a few weeks before being found. It was reported that he died with severe burns over 90 % of his body. 

Police definitely suspect this was a homicide. There is a lot of information regarding suspects (people who were with him that day) and their stories.. I will let you all google that information.

So far, nobody has been charged for causing his death.

______________________________________________

Linda Holgerson

Date of death: November 4, 2007

Age 57

Last seen: Kingston, NY

Location where body was found: Prattsville, NY

Linda Holgerson was developmentally and physically disabled. She went missing on October 19, 2007. She was last seen leaving The Bank of America branch on Broadway in Kingston. She was seen leaving the bank before getting into a white vehicle driven by someone else. 

Her body was then discovered 16 days later … On November 4th, 2007…. 50 miles away in Prattsville, NY. Her body was discovered just off Rt 23A. The autopsy ruled the death a homicide without giving out any details to the public.

3 dozen officers and investigators from State Police, City of Kingston Police, and Ulster County Sheriff’s Office worked on this case.

This case is still unsolved.

______________________________________________

Michael Kleiman

Date of death: July 25, 2008

Age 59

Crime scene: Town of Ulster/(East) Kingston, NY

A fire call had come in from a person across the Hudson River who reported black smoke coming from a wooded area in the distance. When the firefighters arrived on scene at about 2:45 in the afternoon, they made a gruesome discovery. They found a burning pick up truck way back on a makeshift road that was between two parallel roads in East Kingston (Between 1st Ave. and Rt 32) . They discovered there was a body burning in the back of that truck. It was later released that the body was decapitated and without hands.

Investigators used DNA to identify the body due to the condition of the remains. They had suspected it was Michael Kleiman because the truck was in his name. 

Here is some information about Michael Kleiman. He lived in Kerhonkson, NY. He worked for a children’s mentally ill facility in WestChester County, NY. Also, Michael was gay and he lived a quiet lifestyle. He did not use much technology. This makes it even harder to solve this case because investigators have no cell phone or computers to use to track Michael’s activities.

The police have released some information to the public, over time, to help them solve the crime. Most recently they released a photo of a missing ring that was on Michael’s hand hoping someone would recognize it.

This case is still unsolved.

___________________________________________

JOHN DOE CASE FROM 1970 IN WEST SAUGERTIES, NY

John Doe

Date body discovered: February 1, 1970

Location of body when discovered: West Saugerties, NY

State Police, 50 years later, are still working on putting a name to a man whose body was found within a few days of his death.

On February 1, 1970 ….John Doe’s body was found – dumped – 50 feet down a steep embankment below Platte Cove Rd. in West Saugerties. He was shot in the back of the head.

Check out what this guy had on !!! He was dressed in layers.

He was wearing a raincoat topped over a green pinstriped suit… Topped over a pair of pajamas. He had on black dress shoes covered with those rubber overshoes that people put on in the rain. He had on a silk tie with the label “Playboy.” He had on a very fancy watch, a gold ring, and a fake ruby ring. He also had $156 in his pocket. Much of the brands of clothing he was wearing was Brazilian. Even the bullet that he was shot with was from a Brazilian brand of bullets (say that 10 times fast).. 🙂

Word on the street is .. Back at that time, there were members of the mob who owned homes at the top of Platte Cove Rd. Perhaps it was mob related.

Still, no one has come forward to identify John Doe.
He is currently buried in the Blue Mountain Cemetery in West Saugerties. 

_____________________________________

So, I was thinking of 2 more cases that were actually considered solved… But, they do not have closure for the families.

1. Nicole Palmer. Age 24. (Kingston, NY) Police know who killed Nicole, but the suspect is already in prison for life and he was never convicted of murdering Nicole. He was convicted of killing young Rickel Knox back in 1995. I will let you google the details of Nicole’s death. It was gruesome. Her family has seen so much tragedy.. Even beyond Nicole’s passing. I only wish they would have had closure. I remember Nicole from Meagher School. Her fun personality and her beautiful smile is what I recall the most. We would sometimes walk the same route home from school and that is how I will always remember her.
2. Mrs. Yim L. Eng. Age 43. (Hurley, NY) This is disturbing and sad. Basically, she was kidnapped by employees of her husband’s restaurant from her home in Hurley. She was never to be seen again. There was ransom money involved.. . People were arrested and charged, but Mrs. Eng has never been found. See article and link below …

Also- Read this legal info about the Eng case … (click link)
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/594/248/1900365/

Please feel free to drop a comment below about your memory of these cases or if you found this post interesting, etc. Thanks !

Last year I received a random message from a Facebook friend. His name is Jim. He is a friend from middle school and high school. Jim is now a contractor who specializes in kitchen remodels.

The message read “Did you lose an airline ticket? I just found it.”
He included a photo of an old fashioned looking boarding pass.
The boarding pass info:
Pan American Airlines
Passenger: Colleen Dymond
Departing: JFK International Airport
Arriving: Beijing Capital International Airport, China
Date of flight: December 3, 1973

I didn’t know Jim enough to have his cell number. So I replied to him. “I am so confused. Can you call me? 845-399-****

Jim called me pretty much right away. He explained that he is remodeling a kitchen. He just blew out one of the walls and found this behind it.

It didn’t take me long to realize that the people who now own my childhood home are remodeling their kitchen and this was in the wall ……

Here is the problem.
I would have been 3 years old at the time of this boarding pass being purchased.
I’ve never been to Beijing.
No one in my family has ever been to Beijing.
My parents (who are now deceased) had never even been on an airplane.
I’ve never owned a passport or traveled outside of the U.S. until 2019.
And this was found in our wall !!
What ???!!!!!!!

Jim stopped by my job at the YMCA when he took a lunch break and gave me the airline ticket.

The ticket is exactly as you would imagine it would look. It is rectangular shaped. It has the “Pan Am” logo in the upper left corner.. It has a very dingy color with old stains on it. The stain is round like a can or a glass left it there. It has the perforations on the right side of it so it can be torn when boarding the airplane.

The first thing I did was text my siblings. I texted the photo and explained the situation. They were all confused and curious. They have no idea how this even exists and why it exists.

I started to get a little freaked out.

I started to make a list of people who could give me some answers to this mystery.
Perhaps extended family, neighbors, or old friends could help me.


My memory doesn’t really go back as far as 3 years old.
Yet, I still found myself trying to think if there were any sketchy people hanging around at my house when I was a little kid.

Was I part of some weird adoption? Was someone planning to abduct me? Was someone using my identity? Was this a joke?

I decided to start my research by using common sense. I asked myself “Why would someone secretly purchase an airline ticket for a 3 year old girl?” So, I decided to go down the rabbit hole of a possible attempted abduction.

How was I supposed to research this situation? This dates back way before computers and the internet.

One thought I had regarding any of my immediate family members being affiliated with JFK airport (the departing location) was my father. He was a tractor trailer driver for IBM and delivered the computers down to JFK on a daily basis. That quickly got ruled out. He would never be involved in shady behavior.

I also have a memory of my parents losing my birth certificate and some guy came to our house to help them fill out papers to get a new one for me. But, I have no idea who that was and none of my siblings remember that.

So, then I got thinking about any family friends who visited our house. I literally could only think of all the teenagers who hung out with my older siblings. No way. They wouldn’t have the means to pull any stunts like that.

Next, I thought about how my parents would have neighbors over for breakfast when I was a little kid.. They did this almost every weekend. They always sat around the kitchen table and had crumb cakes, hard rolls, and coffee. There is only one neighbor who came over who is still alive. I contacted her. She was literally dumb founded. She could not think of any ideas or info to help me. This woman is very honest, intelligent and well respected. My gut says she really had no idea.

Suddenly, out of nowhere I remember this one guy who lived the next block over. He took up a friendship with my dad because he always walked past our house. Once or twice a summer he would stop and my dad offered him a beer on our patio. This guy used to talk about the airports all the time. Like the entire conversation was airports and airplanes. His job was a courier who would deliver lost airline luggage to people’s homes. That is probably why he and my dad got along. They had that delivery type of job in common. This guy walked past our house for many years. Then suddenly he didn’t walk by anymore. I remember asking my dad where that guy has been lately. And….

My dad told me that he moved to CHINA !!!!!!

I couldn’t remember his last name for the life of me. His first name was Albert. I asked my siblings. My sister remembered his last name. I had to google and see if I could find him online. He would probably be like 70 years old by now. Maybe older. I could not find him anywhere on social media or by a google search.

Look at me assuming I know that this really was an attempted abduction. This is such a strong assumption on my end. I am such a sucker for mysteries. So suspect #1 was Albert.

I kept plugging along….

I started really thinking about who could see inside our home without physically being inside.
Also, I asked myself how would this person eventually get in my house with an airline ticket?

Just for fun I started picturing in my mind where the airline ticket was found. I was picturing the layout of my old kitchen. I thought about the windows in our kitchen. The house directly next door was extremely close to ours. But I couldn’t think of anyone who I recalled living in that house who would be suspicious. Of course, I have no idea who lived there when I was 3 years old. I can only think of the people from when I actually had a memory of my childhood.

The houses are so close together that you could have a normal chat with someone from window to window. I recall back in the 90s my nephew met a friend who lived in the upstairs apartment of that house and they would have normal conversations from the kitchen window up to his friend’s bedroom window in the house next door.

I think it is also important to note that our family never locked our doors to our house. I remember when my mom passed away. We had to go through a jar of old keys and test them in the doors to see if any of them worked. (Was that just us ? Or was that common back in the day? )

I started doing research online. I assumed I would not have any luck finding any info from 1973. I did end up finding a website. (I had to pay money to access it)..I basically was able to find out the names of everyone who lived at that address for the house next door to me. It dates back to the 1960s.

The website gave me a name of a man who lived in that house from July of 1972 to December of 1973. His name was Leonard Walker. Leonard lived in the upstairs apartment. Apartment B.

After that, I did a normal google search for Leonard’s name and didn’t come up with anything at all.

So, then I spent more money. I paid for a newspaper website that has all archived copies of most newspapers in the United States.

All I had to do was search for the name on that website and BINGO !
I found something.

It was true !! My suspicion was right !! I strongly believe I was part of an attempted child abduction.
I found an article in the New York Times that had a story from January of 1974. Leonard was part of a child trafficking sting. Caught at Kennedy Airport. The article said that he was trying to take a young child onto an airplane and was stopped just in time by the FBI. The article was vaguely written and not a front page story. Which is shocking. But, I found it and couldn’t believe it !

So it was our next door neighbor – Leonard !
WOW !!!

My family totally freaked out when I told them about Leonard !

And poor, old Albert. He was trying to be a nice neighborhood drinking buddy and I suspected him. 🙂

It is also extremely disturbing to think that a stranger was lurking in our home and we never knew it !

This is a fictional story that was inspired by a TRUE story I had seen online. Click this link. https://www.tiktok.com/@k3llynb/video/6915915817003568390?lang=en

My husband, Steve, and I used to live on a lovely street in a lovely city in upstate, NY. Very nice neighborhood. Very Safe. We were raising our young children there. Lots of families (young and old). It really was a perfect place to raise the kids . There was even a park nearby. Well groomed lawns, people always out for a walk or a bike ride. . Just a wonderful place to live!
This story happened back in May of 2002.
It was 3:30 am and I heard 5 very loud knocks on our front door. Like – really loud. Who ever was knocking really wanted us to wake up.
Steve slept like a rock. And I had to shake him awake.

At this point. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Who was knocking on our door at 3:30 am?

Our bedroom was located around the corner from the front door. I walked out of the bedroom first and Steve was half asleep walking behind me. As I turned the corner, I was blinded by a bright light flashing into our house through the the square window panes of our front door.
I heard “It’s Kingston Police Department.”

I opened the front door, still extremely nervous. What the heck is happening here?

As I opened the door all the way, I saw the police officer and he then turned his flashlight off. His car was in our driveway. He said “You need to look in your car because we have discovered that many of the cars on your street have been broken into tonight. And the drivers door was wide open for this car here.” He was pointing at Steve’s white Oldsmobile.
Steve never locked his car. He was always so trusting.

So, we said thanks and the policeman drove away.
The guy wasn’t very friendly and he almost made me shit my pants. He should have at least said sorry for waking us up.
Clearly, at this point, we were wide awake.

Steve checked his car and realized the checkbook he kept in the console was missing and so were all the coins that he kept in the little ashtray between the seats.

Steve worked at the bank in which our checking account was with. So, when he went into work that day he had to meet with the checking account dept. to close the old account down , deal with our outstanding checks , and then open a new account. There was a lot to deal with.
Back then, all of our shopping and bill paying transactions were done by check.
Remember – 9/11 happened 8 months earlier and banks were still working on creating the debit card and automated check processing as a result of that tragedy. So checking writing was still the main way that people would pay for things back in 2002.
It was a huge inconvenience.

We opened a new bank account and I tried to remind Steve to lock his car doors.

The next day, after all of the work we did to close the old account, we got a message on our answering machine.

“Yea – This is Bob from Riccardos – We found your checkbook here. Just so ya know it’s behind our bar.”

Ricardos was a popular local bar/restaurant located downtown. Located on the opposite side of town from where we lived.

We were glad to hear it was found. But also very annoyed that we had to go through all that nonsense to open a new account.

Steve stopped in the bar on his lunch hour and grabbed the checkbook. It was very nice of them to call us and Steve thanked them.

Steve called me right away and said “I just looked and it doesn’t look like any checks are missing. “ He saw the check number on top was what he thought it would be and skimmed through the checks book real quick. No big chunks taken out.

We were glad about that.

So- Fast forward another 2 days . And we get a very strange phone call.

”Hello, is this Colleen Hack?”

“Yes” I said.

“This is Detective Brown from Kingston Police Dept. Are you going to be home later today ? I have a few questions for you and I want to stop over to chat.”

“Can you tell me what this is about?” I was definitely starting to freak out. I was actually shaking.

The detective replied “There is a potential crime scene we are looking at and we found a blank check at the scene. The names on the check say Stephen and Colleen Hack with the address of 134 Madison Ave. – That’s you, right?”

“Yup- that’s me. Our checkbook was stolen 3 days ago. And – Yea – I’ll be here all day. Come on over.”

I was thinking

1. “I got 3 little kids running around. The house is an absolute mess.
2. Police are about to come to my house. AGAIN.. All because Steve didn’t lock his car door.”
3. “Are we in trouble ?”

I called Steve right away. He finished up at work and came home. He brought the checkbook inside and we both looked at it more carefully.
Turns out the very last check in the book was removed. The thief (or thieves) did, in fact, steal a check.

Detective Brown came by later that day. He was nice. Much nicer than the grumpy cop who woke us up a few nights earlier.
He told us he was investigating a suspicious death. A middle aged man who lived near the bar downtown. He was found dead on the floor of his home. The investigators needed to figure out if it was foul play. This person had a very shady past and they didn’t know if he died of natural causes or if someone killed him. They were still waiting on the autopsy report. The detective told us the deceased persons name and his address and asked if we knew him or anyone affiliated with him. We did not know this person. I did recall reading his name a few times in the past in our local newspaper’s police blotter for things like dwi and theft. We didn’t know him or what he even looked like.

Detective Brown went on to tell us that check #989 from our checkbook was on the floor right next to the dead body. He even showed us a photo of the “crime scene” so we could identify our check.

We eventually learned that the investigators concluded that this man died of a heart attack.

Steve and I still think our names are sitting in a case file somewhere as “persons of interest.”

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Thanks for reading my story. Most of this was true except for the dead person. I made that part up. Have a nice day. 😊