Missing Woman: Karen Wilson--NY--03/27/1985

[Linda]

� Karen Wilson

Missing Since: March 27, 1985 from Albany, New York
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: February 2, 1963
Age: 22 years old
Height and Weight: 5'3, 114 pounds

Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Light brown hair, brown eyes.

Clothing/Jewelry Description: Faded blue Levi's jeans, a light blue short-sleeved pullover Izod golf shirt, a cream-colored women's raincoat, white sneakers, a fourteen-karat gold ring and a blue zircon Seiko watch with a black face.


Details of Disappearance
Wilson was last seen leaving The Tanning Hut, located in the 1600 block of Central Avenue in Colonie, New York, on March 27, 1985 at approximately 7:20 p.m. She had arrived at the establishment at 7:00 p.m. and gotten a tan in preparation for a trip to Florida for spring break. She had also bought a red t-shirt and a blue t-shirt for the trip. Investigators initially believed she got on a bus near the Butcher Block restaurant on Central Avenue and took that to Fuller Avenue, but it was later determined that she could not have gotten on the bus so it is now thought that she walked to Fuller Avenue. Witnesses told authorities that she was spotted there shortly afterwards. Wilson has never been heard from again. Investigators have been unable to locate the personal belongings that she carried with her on the night of her disappearance.

Authorities believe Wilson probably walked south on Fuller Avenue towards the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, where she was a political science student. They think she was attacked somewhere near Six-mile Waterworks, the entrance ramp to Interstate 90 westbound and the Northway.

Suspected child serial killer Lewis S. Lent Jr. was investigated for involvement in Santiago's case. He was convicted of murdering a Massachusetts child and Sara Wood, whose body has not been found, and is a suspect in many cases, including the disappearances of Kimberly Moreau, Tammie McCormick, Monique Santiago and James Lusher. A photograph of Lent is posted below this case summary. Investigators believe it is unlikely that he was involved in Wilson's disappearance; she was an adult at the time of her disappearance and his other victims were children. However, police they are not ruling him out.

Wilson was carrying a gray cloth pocketbook at the time of her disappearance and may have also been carrying a blue knapsack over her shoulder. Wilson's case remains unsolved.

[Linda]

Capitial New9

Parents of missing woman plea for help

� 7/19/2007


ALBANY, N.Y. -- "You know that there's no way 22 years later she's going to be alive," said Jenny Wilson, Karen Wilson's mother. "But because you don't have that proof there's always that one little percent that says what if she's being held somewhere? What if she is?"


What if? It’s a question Karen Wilson's parents have never been able to answer since the mysterious disappearance of their daughter in 1985. With brave face, they addressed the media Thursday morning in hopes of refreshing the memory of anyone who could help solve the case.

"We know that someone knows what happened to Karen and our only hope is coming back here it may bring this forth again,” Wilson said. "Someone may just decide to care enough about us finding our daughter to give us the information to do that."
It's believed that Wilson was last seen leaving a tanning salon on Central Avenue and then walked on Fuller Road. But what happened after that is unknown.
"Somebody snatched, grabbed her as far as we're concerned and that's pure conjecture," said Karen's Father, Taylor Wilson.

State Police say they hope to discover the rest of the story by re-interviewing anyone who had information when the case first opened in the ‘80s, although they say they don't have any new leads. There have been vague leads along the way, including the very similar disappearance of Suzanne Lyall in the late nineties.
Both women were UAlbany students. Both cases are unsolved. So far just a possible connection.

[Linda]

Family pleads for details in 1985 disappearance of their daughter

PLATTSBURGH — More than 22 years after their only daughter disappeared, Karen Louise Wilson’s parents are still holding out hope that her body will some day be found.

The 22-year-old University of Albany student disappeared in March 1985. As time passed, her parents, Taylor and Jennie Wilson, gradually shifted their hope and efforts from finding Wilson alive to praying that one day her body would be returned to them and they would learn the truth behind her disappearance.

And on Thursday, the former Plattsburgh residents met with State Police downstate to one again plead with the public for any details about the night Karen disappeared while walking home from a tanning salon shortly after she left her legislative internship at the Capitol.

“We’re trying to develop some new leads in the case,” Trooper Maureen Tuffey, the State Police Troop G Public Information Officer, said Thursday afternoon.

More than two decades later, her family is still hoping that someone saw Karen after 7:20 p.m. March 27, 1985 when she was last seen leaving the Tanning Hut on Central Avenue in Colonie wearing a cream-colored rain coat, a light blue shirt and jeans carrying a gray purse with a blue bookbag slung over her shoulder.

During the initial investigation, there were several unconfirmed reports that the senior political science major was later seen walking on Fuller Avenue in the direction of her dorm.

Her family and police have always considered her disappearance very suspicious and believe that she may have been attacked around the Six-mile Waterworks reservoir near the entrance to Interstate 90 and the Northway shortly after she called her roommate and said she was on her way home for dinner.
Wilson was planning to leave for Florida the following day to begin her spring break celebration, only two months before her graduation.

Through the years, police have tracked hundreds of leads across the country in search Karen, whose father, a lieutenant colonel, was stationed at the Plattsburgh Air Force base.
In the weeks following her disappearance, investigators, divers and search dogs combed through the Albany area looking for signs of the missing woman, but none were ever found.

For a time, investigators looked into the possibility that convicted murdered and suspected child-serial killer Lewis Lent Jr. may have been involved in Wilson’s disappearance, but later determined it was unlikely since Lent’s previous victims were all children.

During the first year after her disappearance, Wilson’s family, who now live out of state, mailed thousands of letters pleading for information and advertising their $10,000 reward for new details about Wilson’s disappearance.

Former Gov. Mario Cuomo later proclaimed March 27 Karen Wilson Child Awareness Day. The details about her disappearance are still featured on the State Police and Missing and Exploited Children’s Web sites.

During their 11 a.m. news conference at the State Police Academy, the family and police said they’re still holding out hope that new leads may some day bring them to Wilson and solve the mystery behind her disappearance.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/breakingnews/local_story_200170851.html

[Linda]

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S143768.shtml?cat=300

Missing woman's parents speak out  
 
COLONIE -- She went missing in March of 1985. Now more than two decades later, her parents are back in the capital region trying to refresh people's minds about the missing woman.

The parents of Karen Wilson say in all likelihood, their daughter is not alive. As tough as it is they've come to grips with that.

But without knowing where she is, without an ending, it doesn't make it any easier.

For Taylor and Jennie Wilson, coming back to the Capital Region is tough. Back in 1985 their 22 year old daughter Karen disappeared. At the time she was a U Albany senior.

"We know that someone knows what happened to Karen and our only hope is that coming back here may bring this fourth again," said Jennie Wilson

The couple says its hard retracing the steps, thinking about all the tips, the exhausted leads and the endless searches. After more than two decades of not knowing what happened to their daughter, they say coming back was the only thing they could do.

"We can always shed a tear or two but anything that can help or chance, we're more than willing," said Taylor Wilson.

Police say Wilson was getting ready for a spring break trip down to Florida and they believe she stopped at a tanning salon which once stood in this spot here on Central Avenue.

"There were also other reports of people seeing her here, walking along Fuller Road and heading back towards campus," said New York State Police Captain William Sprague.

"We have a lot of information that leads us in certain directions, but we don't have solid, provable truths that lead us to one conclusion or another," said Capt. Sprague.

The Wilson's say they think of the fun times with Karen and the good memories, but with no closure, it still hurts.

"There are those days, you don't escape those, doesn't matter how many years," said Karen's mother Jennie.

The State Police say it understands it's a long shot, but asks if anyone has any information to call 783-3211.

[Linda]

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=607502&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=7/19/2007&TextPage=2

Parents won't give up on missing daughter
1985 UAlbany woman's case still full of mysteries

ALBANY - When the parents of missing University at Albany student Karen Wilson think of her, chocolate chip cookies come to mind and how much their daughter loved making them.

Taylor and Jennie Wilson, both 64, now have only memories of a child who vanished more than 22 years ago. The retired Air Force couple from Ogden, Utah, were in town today to talk about their daughter and appeal to anyone who may know what happened to her. "We really don't know much more today than we did 22 years and four months ago," said Taylor Wilson, a pilot who retired as a lieutenant colonel and flew American Airlines Eagle commuter planes after the Air Force.
"As long as Karen is missing, the push to find her will still be there," Jennie Wilson said.
" ... As long as we're alive," her husband said during a private interview at the State Police Academy before the couple appeared at a news conference.
The Wilsons were en route to Plattsburgh for an Air Force reunion, and Senior Investigator David Madden, head of Troop G's Major Crimes Unit, asked them to stop off in Albany.
On March 27, 1985, the 22-year-old UAlbany senior and state Assembly intern shopped at Colonie Center for T-shirts and shorts to take on an upcoming spring break in Fort Lauderdale. The trip was a Christmas gift from her parents. She never made it home. Police theorize she was abducted as she headed to her Colonial Quad dorm.

The young woman, who wanted a career in the foreign service, made an appointment at a tanning salon on Central Avenue in Colonie, and while employees there told police her name was on a list, it was not checked off and no one remembered seeing her.

"The State Police don't call them cold cases; we call them open cases," Troop G Bureau of Criminal Investigation Capt. William Sprague said. "And as long as the case is open, we will work it."
Investigators want "one or two pieces of information that will help us unlock the puzzle of what happened to Karen ... that will make this a closed case," Sprague said.

Madden said investigators are re-interviewing witnesses from that time in hopes a memory will be jogged.

A report came in to police at the time of a sighting, although "not confirmed" of her walking on Fuller Road near the Six-Mile Waterworks, Sprague said. It was a warm night, and she could have been walking home.

Karen Wilson - a junior high school cheerleader who would have turned 44 on Feb. 10 - also was seen by the manager of a campus bar, the Rathskeller, at a time when colleges had bars and you could drink at 19. That was at the corner of Washington Avenue Extension and Fuller Road, a quarter-mile from her dorm, retired UAlbany Police Chief James Williams recalls.

Their daughter disappeared on a Wednesday night. Jennie Wilson got the phone call the next day. Her husband had flown to Omaha.
Less than 30 minutes later, the mother was being driven to Albany by a neighbor.

"I knew something terrible had happened when I got that phone call," she said. "I knew my daughter was dead. ... Girls that age who are loved just don't walk off. Now the only thing we have is finding out who. That's basically why we're here. We still want to know what happened to our daughter."

She would love to make chocolate chip cookies to bring back to the dorm during visits to Plattsburgh, the parents said. Her mother remembers her sitting on the counter top. Tears welled in their eyes from the minutes they sat down to talk.

"I thought she'd be found," Jennie Wilson said. "I never dreamed 22 years ago we'd be sitting her in Albany wondering what happened to her."

Investigators have recognized the similarities with the disappearance in March 1998 of UAlbany sophomore Suzanne Lyall. The 19-year-old from Ballston Spa was last seen getting off a bus at Collins Circle from her job at a computer store at Crossgates Mall. Her parents, Doug and Mary Lyall, have become involved in missing persons' cases through their Center for Hope in Ballston Spa.

Madden said police have thought "globally." For instance, when the body of Chandra Levy, an intern who went missing in 2001 in Washington, D.C., was found, Madden was on the phone with Washington police. They did the same when a college woman turned up dead recently in Burlington, Vt.

[Linda]

http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18608568&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=602469&rfi=6

Missing woman's family returns to Capital Region

07/20/2007

ALBANY - Flanked by State Police investigators who have tried to figure out what happened to their daughter more than 20 years ago, the parents of missing University at Albany student Karen Wilson said they still have some hope, but not much.
Taylor and Jenny Wilson, who lived in Plattsburgh while their then 22-year-old daughter was a student at the University at Albany and have since moved to Ogden, Utah, attended the media event Thursday morning in the State Police academy library.
The Wilsons said they were asked to return to the Capital District while in the area to attend a reunion of Air Force buddies.
"We were very, very lucky to have a wonderful daughter - that's what gets you through, that you were a loving family, that we shared so much," Jenny Wilson said.
The missing woman's father said they achieved a sort of closure many years ago, having accepted law enforcement advice that a positive outcome is unlikely more than 48 hours after a disappearance, but her mother said she has dreamed many times that her daughter was found alive.
According to State Police the last confirmed sighting of Karen Wilson was some time before she is believed to have visited a tanning salon on Central Avenue before walking back to the campus to continue preparing for a trip to Fort Lauderdale, which was booked for three days after her disappearance.
Since then, there has literally been no trace of her, her parents said.
State Police Capt. William Sprague, a BCI investigator assigned to the Troop G barracks in Loudonville, said the case remains open despite the 22 years that have passed since Wilson disappeared March 27, 1985.
Investigators continue to re-interview witnesses seeking new information, he said.
"For as long as a case is open, we will work it," Sprague said. "We're looking for those one or two pieces of information that will help us unlock what happened to Karen. It doesn't get filed and stuck in a file cabinet someplace."
The captain called the case frustrating but not unusual; investigators cannot discount commonalities shared with another disappearance from the campus, that of Suzanne Lyall in 1999, but no concrete link between the two cases is known to exist, Sprague said.
Calling their return to the area painful, the Wilsons said they were willing to do "anything that can help," but they did not appear hopeful their daughter will be found alive.
"You know there's no way, |22 years later, that she's alive," Wilson's father said; "but there remains a small grain of hope," her mother added.
Over the years they have heard many false leads and rumors, and even gave DNA samples at one point, but credited investigators for shielding them from the emergence of false rumors.
The last 22 years have seen a sea change in evidence technology and public awareness of missing-persons cases, the Wilsons said, but they do not believe much would be different if their daughter disappeared today because of the lack of evidence left behind.
Persons with any information about the case are urged to call State Police at 783-3211 or contact their local police agency and ask authorities to forward the tip, Sprague said.

[Linda]

http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/Wanted_and_Missing/Missing/View.cfm?ID=90B2F9C7-E932-48F0-94F2-78C33C24A671


Missing: Karen Louise Wilson

Basic Information
Race: White
Sex: Female
DOB: February 2, 1963
Height: 5'3" �
Weight: 114 pounds
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light Brown

Additional Information
Last Seen: Date: March 27, 1985
Time: 7:20 p.m.
Location: "Tanning Hut," 1670 Central Avenue, Colonie, NY �
Miscellaneous: Wilson was a full-time senior at State University at New York - Albany.

Wilson was sighted walking on Fuller Road, Albany, NY.
Extensive searches have been conducted, all sightings have been thoroughly investigated and all leads pursued.
No trace of Wilson or any of her property has been found.


If you have any information, please call:

Agency: � New York State Police
Address: Troop G, Bureau of Criminal Investigation Loudonville, New York
Phone: � (518) 783-3212

or e-mail the information to:
nysvicap@troopers.state.ny.us

[Linda]

http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6831320&nav=6uyN

State Police Looking to End Years of a Parent's Nightmare

July 24, 2007

A cold case could be heating up, after more than a dozen new tips pour into State Police in the decades-old disappearance of Karen Wilson!

When Karen's parents came back to Albany last week from their current home in Utah - 22 years after the UAlbany student's disappearance - they were hoping for new leads in their daughter's case. Now, State Police tell NEWS10 the calls came in - more than a dozen of them.

NEWS10's Latricia Thomas has more on the new hope in this decades-old disappearance.

"We know that someone knows what happened to Karen," Karen's mom, Jennie Wilson said at last Thursday's press conference.

State Police say as soon as Karen's parents made that plea, the phone started ringing.

"We were very fortunate to receive over a dozen telephone calls with new leads in the case," says Captain William Sprague, with the New York State Police BCI division. "We don't know how productive they are going to be yet, but we are pursuing them and following through with them."

Investigators are already conducting interviews on the 16 calls rolling in over the last four days, hoping for any kind of break, 22 years later.

"We were hoping to generate some renewed interest in it, and we were quite surprised," Captain Sprague says.

Through years of exhausting what few leads surfaced, investigators never stopped re-visiting the case of the UAlbany senior who simply vanished from Central Avenue in Colonie in 1985. Just a few years ago, they collected a DNA sample from Karen's mom, in case forensic evidence ever turned up.

"One of the things we don't have in this case is a crime scene that could give us the multitude of forensic information that we use in such investigations," says Captain Sprague. "We don't have an eyewitness who's telling us they saw what happened - these are important things that we're trying to find."

With so little to go on, any new information is a new avenue to pursue - police say anything to offer some kind of ending to years of a parent's nightmare.

"They did nothing to deserve the tragedy that has befallen their family, as most other victims of similar circumstances - and it's important to us to try to find the answers for these people," Captain Sprague says.

State Police are still looking for your help. If you know anything about the disappearance of Karen Wilson, please let State Police know - the number is: (518) 783-3211.

[Linda]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=610707&category=REGION&newsdate=8/1/2007

State Police get new tips on missing woman

August 1, 2007

It was a strategy by State Police investigators: Hold a press conference in a 22-year-old missing person's case and hope that something shakes loose.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of UAlbany senior Karen Wilson continues to haunt police and grab the public's attention.

Two weeks ago, Taylor and Jennie Wilson, on their way to Plattsburgh for a reunion with old friends, stopped off in Albany at the request of State Police to meet with reporters.

Taylor flew for the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel. The family was stationed at the former base in Plattsburgh when Karen vanished on March 27, 1985. She was 22.

The parents, who are both 64, cried as they talked with the news media about their wish to learn what happened to their daughter.

Since the press conference, which generated a lot of publicity, State Police reported receiving 16 phone tips, all of which are being checked out, said Captain William Sprague, who heads the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Troop G in Loudonville.

"One of the problems we have in the Karen Wilson case is that we never secured a crime scene," Sprague said. "A crime scene gives us the forensic information that helps us solve the crime. We also have no witnesses. Those are two of the most important sources of information in a criminal case."

"We hope that one of these tips will lead us to either one or both of these sources of information to help solve the case," he said.

It was satisfying to "get what we got after so long," the captain said. "I don't know if they're going to pan out, but we're going to follow through on them."

Anyone with information should call the State Police in Loudonville at 783-3211.

Karen Wilson, a state Assembly intern who wanted a career in foreign service, shopped at Colonie Center for clothes to take on an upcoming spring break trip in Fort Lauderdale.

She also made an appointment at a tanning salon on Central Avenue in Colonie, and while employees there told police her name was on a list, it was not checked off and no one remembered seeing her at the salon.

The college student, who would have turned 44 in February, never returned to her dorm at Colonial Quad. Two sightings of a young woman, possibly Karen, walking toward the campus were reported at the time -- one along Fuller Road near the Six-Mile Waterworks and the other at the corner of Washington Avenue Extension and Fuller Road.

[Denise]

Karen has now been missing for 23 years.  Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and all of those who love and miss her.

[Kathylene]

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/apr/17/0417_remains/

Human remains found near Mohawk River
Friday, April 17, 2009
By Michael Lamendola
Gazette Reporter

ROTTERDAM — Police said a human skeleton was found in woods off Rice Road near the Mohawk River Thursday and they are treating the discovery as a homicide.

Rotterdam Deputy Chief Bill Manikas said police have not determined the cause of death, so the protocol is to conduct a homicide investigation. “We’re investigating it at this point,” he said.

Manikas said a man spotted the skeleton in a wooded area off the bike path shortly before 8:15 a.m. He said the remains were not a full skeleton and had been in the woods for “a substantial period of time.”

The gender of the skeleton is unknown, Manikas said. He said the body, which was partially clothed, did not have an identification. “There was some clothing recovered,” he said. “But at this point, we have no ID of the body.”

Manikas said anyone with information about the remains should call 355-7397. Rotterdam detectives are working with the state police Forensic Identification Unit and the Troop G Major Crimes Unit in the investigation.

Lauren LaFleur of the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas said science can identify people from DNA that is several years old. “As long as there is recoverable DNA and a family member provides DNA, a match can be found,” she said.

The center has worked with law enforcement agencies across the United States and is the only academic institution devoted to missing persons identification. LaFleur did not know if local officials have contacted the center for assistance, and would not be able to comment if they did.

LaFleur said police can upload the DNA sample into a national database, called the national Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, to find a match. For a match to occur, however, a family member has to have provided a DNA sample as well. “Any family member from across the United States who has someone who is missing can submit a DNA sample free of charge,” she said.

The genetic profile can determine gender but its prime purpose is to “put a name to that person and find out who they belong to,” LaFleur said.

The process can take several days, if the DNA sample is good, to several months, LaFleur said. If there is no family marker, a sample can remain in the system for years, she said.

Last week, relatives of 16 missing people gave DNA samples through New York’s Department of Criminal Justice Services for the national database. The Center for Human Identification is processing the samples. “We are one of three institutions in the United States that can upload information into the CODIS,” LaFleur said.

Mary Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne Lyall went missing in 1998, said the discovery of the skeleton can bring relief but also more questions. “It is finally an answer to a question for a lot of people who have someone missing. If it happens to be a missing person, there is one door closed, but there is always the question of how it happened,” she said.

Lyall said she and her husband want to find their daughter. And any news they can receive is helpful. “I never say the word closure. For me there is never going to be closure. If you find your loved one you will always wonder what happened,” she said.

Here is a list of known missing persons from the Capital Region:

Kellisue M. Ackernecht of Johnstown, missing since Sept. 30, 2008.

Frank Connell of Rensselaer, missing since April 20, 2007.

Craig Frear of Scotia, missing since June 26, 2004.

Jennifer M. Hammond of Ballston Spa, missing since August 2003.

Audrey May Herron of Catskill, missing since Aug. 29, 2002.

Suzanne Lyall of Milton, missing since March 2, 1998.

Ernest P. Michalik of Schenectady, missing since October 2005.

Tammie Anne McCormick of Saratoga Springs, missing since April 1986.

Jaliek Rainwalker of Greenwich, missing since Nov. 1, 2007.

Karen Wilson of Albany, missing since March 1985.

William F. Woolheater of Albany, missing since February 1981.

[Kelly]

The human remains found as noted in the above story were not that of Karen, but were identified as Ernest P. Michalik.

[LoriDavis]

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/5695/0/
NamUs profile for Karen Wilson - Case 5695

[Jenn]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700169001/Parents-of-missing-students-left-with-unanswered-questions.html

Parents of missing students left with unanswered questions

Published: Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011 11:47 p.m. MDT

By Shawn Cohen, The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

The mother of missing Indiana college student Lauren Spierer has remained in Bloomington, Ind., for the two months since her daughter went missing there, addressing her child directly before news cameras by tearfully declaring, "I will never leave you."

It's a feeling that Jennie Wilson used to have when she was camped out in a dorm room at the University of Albany in New York, participating in countless searches for her then 22-year-old daughter, Karen, who was last seen walking back to campus from a tanning salon.
From the archive

"It tears the heck out of you," Wilson said. "Really, you don't know what to do. It kills you to leave. In some ways, you feel like maybe you're abandoning your child. But at a certain point, they had searched so much."

That was 26 years, four months and 12 days ago. The 68-year-old Utah resident, who keeps a portrait of her daughter in her living room that was taken two months before the March 1985 disappearance, actually keeps count.

Read more: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700169001/Parents-of-missing-students-left-with-unanswered-questions.html