The Old Kobain Place Pt. 02

"I don't have answers, only more questions," I said. "I need to find out more about Jackson Winslow. I think I will take a ride out to the Old Kobain Place and see If Mr. Winslow is still with us.

"Kyle, can you check if any women who matched Mrs. Winslow's description were reported missing around the three dates Rich suggested? I want to get together again after the holiday. Can you come back up the first week of December?"

"Let me see what I can find out, and if I have any news, I'll come back up. I will also check with Philadelphia PD to see about abandoned cars they found on those dates, but I don't have much hope that will turn anything up there after all this time."

Chapter 20

November 24, 2015

On Tuesday, Hanratty and I drove out to the Old Kobain Place to see if we could find out if Jackson Winslow was still alive and where to find him. We got no answer at the door and were about to leave when a man came out of the barn and approached us. The man looked to be about twenty-five-years-old and was at least six-five and built like an athlete.

"Is there something I can do for you?" The young man asked.

"Yes. I am Captain Brian Hobbs, and this Lieutenant Hanratty from the Brodricksburg Police Department. And you are?"

"My name is Michael Bliss. Now, what is it you want?"

"We were hoping to speak with Mr. Winslow."

"He's not here."

"Can you tell us where we might find him?"

"Don't know; he doesn't tell me what he's doing," Bliss said.

"Does he still live here?"

"Sometimes."

"Do you work for Mr. Winslow?"

"I take care of the place," Bliss said. "Now, if you don't mind, I have work to do." With that, Bliss turned and walked back into the barn.

On the ride back into town, I asked Hanratty, "Wasn't very helpful, was he?"

"He kind of fits the description of Jackson Winslow in the Margo Winslow file," Hanratty said.

"I was thinking that, too. I wonder if the two of them are related. I'll have to look into that. I wonder if Mrs. Winslow's sister is still around, I think I would like to talk to her."

I dropped Hanratty off at the station, and after getting an address for Karen Bush, Margo's sister, I drove over to her house. I was greeted at the door by a man in his mid-fifties. I identified myself then asked him about Mrs. Howard Bush. He told me his name was Howard Bush Junior, then informed me that his mother had died three years ago.

"Is there something I can help me with?"

"We're looking into the disappearance of your aunt back in 1959."

"That was before I was born, but I remember my parents talking about it. My mom was always sad that she never found out what happened to her sister."

"Did your mother or father ever tell you what they think happened to your aunt?"

"They both believed that her husband killed her."

"Do you know if your mother had any pictures of her sister and her husband?"

"I still have her family album. I think it's still in the bookcase. Let me check."

Howard returned with the album and handed it to me. The most interesting picture to me was of Margo and Jackson at their wedding in 1954. I looked through the rest of the album, but that was the only photo that showed Jackson Winslow.

"Any chance I could borrow this picture so I can get a copy made?"

"You can have that one. I didn't know either of the people in the picture, so it has no meaning for me."

I thanked Mr. Bush and headed back to the station.

When I got back to my office, Hanratty was out investigating a break-in at a plumbing supply warehouse. The report said that someone had taken several coils of copper tubing. I didn't see Hanratty again until Monday.

Chapter 21

Thursday December 3, 2015

Hanratty and I were sitting in the conference room drinking our coffee when Van Horn came in, dropped a file folder on the table, got a cup of coffee and a donut then sat down.

Van Horn smiled and said, "Gotta get my FBI associates to learn how to arrange proper meetings."

"So that's why you always come here instead of inviting us to your office?" Hanratty said.

"Not the only reason."

I looked at the file folder on the table, then said, "I hope you have something for us."

"I found three possible matches. The women in these cases fit Margo Winslow's description, but only two were reported as missing persons. In November of 1987, Robert Swenson was arrested in the disappearance of his wife, Jennifer. Mrs. Jennifer Swenson was twenty-six-years-old, five-feet-ten-inches-tall. Her eyes were blue, and she had blond hair."

Van Horn pulled two copies of the Swenson file out of the folder and handed them to us.

"Mr. Swenson was a security guard at a warehouse complex in Allentown. In October of 87, he worked the graveyard shift, 11:00 PM till 7:00 AM Tuesday through Sunday. On Saturday, October 31st, Jennifer Swenson told her husband she would spend the night at a friend's house watching scary Halloween movies. At 9:30 that night, a friend of Mr. Swenson called him and said that Jennifer was at Raffles in Bethlehem and she was dancing with some guy, and it looked like they were more than just friends.

"Swenson called Andy Miller, the other guard on duty that night, and told Andy that he was going to have to leave for a family emergency. Swenson drove up to Bethlehem and went to Raffles. Swenson went into Raffles looking for his wife, and his friend told him that Jennifer left a few minutes earlier with some guy. Witnesses said that Swenson was livid and calling his wife a cheating bitch and saying that she would regret cheating on him.

"When Jennifer didn't show up for work that Monday morning and no one could get her on the phone, her boss called the police. Swenson told the police that he hadn't seen his wife since that Saturday evening, and no one else had seen her. Allentown PD believed that Swenson might have killed his wife, but they could find no evidence to support that theory. Swenson took his own life six months later, so Allentown PD closed the case."

Van Horn stopped long enough to let that sink in. "Allentown PD never tried to find the man Mrs. Swenson left the bar with. All they had on him was that he was very tall and quite handsome, and one of Mrs. Swenson's friends thinks his name may have been Michael."

I looked at Hanratty and said, "Michael?"

"Another coincidence? You think this might be the same Michael we met last week?" Hanratty said.

"You think this guy you met could be the same, Michael?" Van Horn said.

"I don't know, but let's talk about that later. Tell us what else you found," I said.

"The other two cases are similar to the previous one. Both women fit the description, and both disappeared on Halloween, and it appeared that the two women were stepping out on their husbands. In 1992 it was twenty-four-year-old Pamela Garner, from Scranton. Mrs. Garner told her husband that she was going to Syracuse, New York, to visit her sister. Mr. Garner reported his wife missing three days later when he found out that she never arrived in Syracuse and that her sister wasn't expecting her.

"The Scranton Police and the State Police of both Pennsylvania and New York found nothing to indicate where Mrs. Garner went or what happened to her.

"The last case was for Mrs. Emily Redmond of Philadelphia. Same description as the others disappeared on Halloween in 2009. Mrs. Redmond was taking classes toward her Master's Degree in Education at Penn State, Lehigh Valley. Mrs. Redmond told the girl she was staying with that her friend Michael, who was taking her to see a haunted house. When Mrs. Redmond didn't return to campus on Monday, her roommate called her husband to see if she had gone home, and he filed the MPR.

"The police tried tracking her cell phone, but there hadn't been any activity on her phone since she left campus on Halloween."

"So now we have nine," I said. "Did you find anything before 1959?"

"Nothing that fits with what we are looking at here," Van Horn said. "So, tell me about this guy you met out at the Kobain Place."

I told Van Horn about our visit to the Kobain farm and meeting Michael Bliss. "I think Rich would back me up that this guy fits the description of Jackson Winslow."

Rich nodded his head and then described the man we met.

"After we visited the farm, I went to Karen Bush's house. Karen was Margo's sister. I spoke with her son. Mrs. Bush passed away three years ago."

I pulled the picture of Jackson and Margo Winslow from my pocket and showed it to Van Horn and Hanratty.

"That looks like Michael Bliss. Who's the woman?" Hanratty asked.

"That's Margo, and the man is Jackson Winslow, not Michael Bliss. This picture is from their wedding in 1954."

"Bliss looks enough like Winslow that they could be the same person, but Winslow would be at least in his eighties," Hanratty said. "You think Bliss could be Winslow's son or grandson?"

"I think that would be good to know, don't you?" I said. "We have to start somewhere, so I am going with Detective Rose's gut feeling on this. Since all of this began with the disappearance of Margo Winslow, I am going to dig up everything I can about Jackson Winslow. Rich, I was hoping you could do the same with Michael Bliss. We need to see what the connection is between these two.

"Kyle, can you keep digging to see if you can find anything we haven't discovered on any of these cases?"

"I'll get a couple of guys on this when I get back to Philly."

Chapter 22

After Van Horn left, I went over to Chief Pasiak's office. When he saw me at his door, the Chief waved me in.

"I noticed that Special Agent Van Horn was here again today. Can you bring me up to speed on what the three of you are working on?" The Chief said.

"We are looking at nine unsolved missing person cases that might be related."

"Related in what way?"

"All nine of these cases involve a missing woman. In eight cases, the women were married, and in one case, the woman was in a serious relationship. In the first case, there was also a report of a missing man. In all of the cases, the women fit the same description as nearly six feet tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes."

When I said that, the Chief leaned forward and said, "Go on."

"As near as we can tell, the women all went missing on October 31st, but in different years. Now is where the story gets strange. The first was in 1959, the next in 1964, then 1970, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1998, 2009, and then again this year."

I waited for the Chief to digest what I had told him.

"This has been going on for fifty-six years? On Halloween? Is there any significance to the years?"

"In each of those years, October 31st fell on a Saturday."

"Fifty-six years, and you think they could all be connected?"

"That is what we are trying to find out," I said.

"It's hard to believe that we could have a serial event happening over that long a period and only on those specific dates," The Chief said. "You think one person is responsible for all nine cases?"

"That's hard to imagine because our prime candidate for the first case would be eighty-eight-years old now. We think someone else must be involved."

"Who was the first victim?"

"Margo Winslow, she was married to Jackson Winslow, and they lived out at the Old Kobain Place," I said.

"My friends and I used to go ice skating on their pond when it froze over. That was back in 65 or 66, I think. I remember that big old house. There used to be a story about the Old Kobain Place being haunted," the Chief said.

That got my attention. "Haunted?"

"My father told me that back in the 1850s, Quimby Kobain, the guy who built the house, killed somebody and hid the body somewhere on the farm and that the dead man was haunting the property. I don't know if anybody believed it, but people like ghost stories."

"I never heard anyone say that the Kobain place was haunted."

"Why is that important?"

"Before going missing, four of these women had told a friend that they were either going to see a haunted house or spend the night in one. In a couple of these cases, the name Michael came up as a potential person of interest. Hanratty and I were out at the Kobain Place last week, and we met a guy named Michael Bliss. Mr. Bliss looked to be about twenty-five and bears a striking resemblance to Jackson Winslow."

I showed the picture of Jackson and Margo Winslow to the Chief. "It's almost like they are the same person except for the age difference. We think that they could be related, but we don't know how yet. Maybe a grandson."

The Chief was looking at the picture and pointed at Winslow. "I remember him. I saw him in town once. My dad knew him. When Winslow first moved here, he joined the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) that used to be over on Harrison Street. My dad was a member, and I remember him telling me that Winslow had been a Lieutenant in the Army and served in Korea. That's all I remember about him."

"I plan to find out everything I can about Mr. Winslow. It'll help to know that he was in the service."

"Keep me in the loop."

After I met with the Chief, I sent a text to Van Horn and told him that Winslow had been a lieutenant in the Army, and I asked him if he could get Winslow's military records from the Pentagon.

Chapter 23

Thursday January 28, 2016

Hanratty Van Horn and I were in the conference room waiting for Chief Pasiak to join us. When he came into the room, the Chief looked at the donut box on the table and said, "I hope you saved at least one bear claw for me."

"Hanratty slid the box over to the Chief and said, "We saved you two."

The Chief sat at the head of the table and turned to me. "Okay, Brian, bring me up to speed."

"It seems that no matter how we try to look at this, we end up back at the Old Kobain Place," I said. That's where this all started. There used to be stories that the Kobain Place is haunted, and four of the missing women mentioning something about going to a haunted house maybe just a coincidence, but that is all we have right now. Then there is the mention of the name Michael in two of the cases, and the only Michael we can connect to the Kobain Place is Michael Bliss.

"Rich and I have been talking to people all over Brodricksburg, and no one seems to know anything about Michael Bliss. He is seldom seen in town and rarely during the day. We have established that Mr. Bliss is not from here, but we have no idea where he came from, but we are still working on that. I have been back out to the farm to talk to Mr. Bliss, but I haven't seen him since that first time when Rich and I spoke with him. We did a DMV search on Bliss and found three different driver licenses for a Michael Bliss in Pennsylvania, but none of them matched our guy.

"As far as Jackson Winslow is concerned, we still haven't been able to establish if Mr. Winslow is still alive or not. No one has seen him in Brodricksburg in many years. Most of the people that would have known Winslow have either moved away or passed away. The few people we found that knew him said that they hadn't seen him since around 1964. They thought that he had moved away. The DMV has no record of a driver's license in his name in Pennsylvania. Winslow has a P.O. box at the post office, but nobody at the post office has noticed who comes in to pick up the mail. The utility bills and the Old Kobain Place's property taxes are current and paid on time.

"We would love to give the Kobain Place a full search using scientific equipment, but we don't have enough evidence to prove probable cause to get a warrant.

I looked over at Van Horn and said, "Did you have any luck getting Winslow's military records?"

"When I requested Lieutenant Winslow's records, I was told that they were classified and could not be released. I got one of our attorneys to request the documents using the Freedom of Information act. We argued that Winslow left the Army in 1953, so his record should no longer be classified. It took us four weeks to work through the system, but we got the documents. We had an agent go to the Pentagon and pick them up.

"Jackson Winslow is from Los Angeles, California. He attended college at UCLA, and after graduating in 1950, he joined the Army with the Officer Candidate School option. In September of 1952, Lt. Winslow went to Korea.

"This is where things get strange. In May of 1953, Winslow was wounded and sent to a military hospital in Japan. From there, he was sent back to Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. Shortly after he arrived at Letterman, Winslow was moved to the hospital at Camp Desert Rock, Nevada. Someone at the Pentagon had stuck a note Winslow's medical records that asked how Lt. Winslow ended up at Camp Desert Rock. It seems that the doctors at Letterman believed that Lt. Winslow's injuries were terminal and would not live more than a few days, so there was no reason to move him. There was nothing that they could have done for him at Camp Desert Rock that would change the outcome, but less than two months later, Jackson Winslow shows up in Brodricksburg looking to all to be healthy as a horse."

"That is strange," Chief Pasiak said. What would have been going on Camp Desert Rock in 1953 that would have benefited Winslow?"

"Didn't make sense to me either," Van Horn said. "Camp Desert Rock is near the atomic test site at Yucca Flat." Van Horn said. "They tested an A-bomb just before Winslow arrived there. I don't see how that could have helped him. I got a strange vibe from this whole thing, so I had a friend at the Pentagon search for officers that graduated from OCS in 1950 or 1951. His search not only found Jackson Winslow, but he also found Winslow's OCS graduation photo. Gentlemen, I believe we have a problem," Van Horn said as he handed me the photo.

The only words that came to me when I saw the photo of the newly minted Lieutenant were, "Oh shit."

As I passed the photo on to Hanratty and then to the Chief, I said, "That is not the Jackson Winslow in the wedding photo we have; what the hell does this mean? I know that was a long time ago, but is there any chance we could get a roster of the men at Camp Desert Rock in 1953?" I asked Van Horn.

"Already working on that."

Chapter 24

Monday March 7, 2016

We had no new leads in or missing person cases since our last meeting. Van Horn arrived for the meeting with a large file box. The box weighed at least fifteen pounds and was full of loose papers that didn't appear to be in any order.

I asked Van Horn, "What's all this, and what are we supposed to do with it?"

"The records guy at the Pentagon wasn't happy with our request for a roster of the men at Camp Desert Rock in 1953. It seems that he threw anything that he could find that had to do with Camp Desert Rock in the box.

I pulled all of the papers out of the box and divided them into three piles on the conference table. I suggested that we each take a pile, sort through it, and put the papers in your pile into chronological order, and to set aside anything that does not have a date on it.

When we had three piles in order, we pulled out anything dated between April and June of 1953. After two hours of sifting through the papers, we got to the documents from May of 1953. In that pile, I found a note referring to Lt. Winslow's admission to the Camp Desert Rock post-hospital on May 10, 1953. There was no mention of the Lieutenant's condition. Then I found an accident report dated May 12, 1953.

"Listen to this," I said. Then I read the report to Van Horn and Hanratty.

"On the morning of May 12, 1953, a truck carrying four soldiers went off the road and down an embankment and caught fire. The four occupants perished in the fire. The names of the soldiers involved are Sgt. Michael Bliss, PFC William Lach, Douglas Tally, and Andrew Steinhauer."