Hmm, I wonder…

They’ve found human remains in a car at a reservoir in Katonah, New York. They’re not saying much about it yet, but they did say the car is “connected to an old missing persons case that is still open.”

There’s only one missing persons case out of Katonah on the Charley Project: the 1977 disappearance of Leslie Anne Guthrie and her two children, six-year-old Julie Anne Guthrie and three-year-old Timothy Patrick Guthrie Jr.

Leslie’s car disappeared with them and has never been found.

The Guthrie Family part deux

You’ll recall my “let’s talk about it” post about the Guthrie family last month: Leslie and her children Julie and Timothy, who’ve been missing for forty years come February. Well, I wanted to draw your attention this comment that was posted today.

Boy, am I excited. I really, really hope this is the real deal. I mean, it’s terrible really to say “I hope it’s a car and I hope it has three bodies inside it” but after forty years this is really the best anyone can hope for.

Let’s talk about it: The Guthrie family

Last night I was plugging the names of various old cases into Newspapers.com to see if I could find articles. My persistence yielded a bountiful harvest — I found out the ultimate ending to the Matory/Williams/Marshall murder-without-a-body case for one. One of the names I plugged in was the Guthrie kids, Julie and Timothy, and their mom, Leslie, who disappeared in February 1977 from Katonah, New York. I was able to get another picture of Leslie and a clothing description for her, and that’s on today’s updates.

Two details that I learned last night but did not include in the casefiles:

1. Leslie’s mother lent her the too-small, borrowed boots she was wearing that day, and also gave her $10 for gas. Which would indicate that (A) The car was low on gas and (B) Leslie had no money.
2. The police do not believe the car wound up in a lake somewhere. The winter had been a severe one and the ice was thick enough that a car could have driven on it without it breaking.

Usually, when a person or persons disappears under circumstances like this and their car never turns up, I tend to believe they wound up in the water. But now it seems that theory is no longer viable.

I’m stumped. It seems highly unlikely that Leslie took the kids and left on her own, with almost no money and shoes that didn’t even fit. Timothy Sr. seems to be in the clear. It’s like this young family and their car just vanished into thin air.

Let’s talk about it.

Article about the missing Guthrie family

I was sent this article about Leslie, Timothy and Julie Guthrie, a mother and her two young children who dropped off the face of the earth in Katonah, New York in 1977. It reveals some more info on their disappearances. Among other items of note, it seems they disappeared on February 5, not February 6 as their NCMEC poster says. February 6 was the date they were reported missing.

It’s a strange case, with the lack of any evidence at all. Since Timothy Sr.’s been ruled out as a suspect, and there are no indications of foul play but no indications of a voluntary disappearance either, and since the car is missing, I wonder if it wasn’t a simple vehicular accident. I have no idea what the terrain is like in the Katonah area but wonder if Leslie possibly drove into a lake or river and their car is still submerged with them inside.

The case reminds me of Mary, Jessie and Fannie Stuart, another mom and two kids who vanished without a trace in 1977. But that was in California, and in that case the husband/father is a suspect.

Fun fact: the “Detective DiBiase” quoted in the article is actually the younger brother of Tad DiBiase, aka the “No Body” guy.