Another Missing College Student Under Ominous Circumstances
He has blue eyes, blond hair. He comes in at about six feet tall, 190 pounds. Solid. Good looking. Average student.
On Monday night, January 15, 22-year-old Joseph Zahornacky’s family spoke to him as he was on his way back to school in Westchester County, New York. Joseph had just returned from a trip to California; he had landed at LaGuardia Airport in Long Island and was preparing to drive back to school.
That night, Joseph’s debit card was used to purchase a few items at a Walgreen’s in Greenwich, Connecticut, at 10:45 P.M. Greenwich is, incidentally, just north of Westchester County—if it was Joseph using his debit card, for some reason he had driven past his college exit.
That was the last time cops could track Joseph. He has not been heard from since.
Then an odd find by police: late Tuesday, Joseph’s car was located. It was submerged in Lake Lillinonah, in Brookfield. But there was no sign of Joseph.
Why had the cops gone to the lake to begin with?
What happened to the blond-haired, blue-eyed college kid who family has said was a model student, great human being and, for no good reason, would not contact family members?
January 17th, 2007 at 9:08 am
tight time line it looks like and hopefully police can use it as an advantage. I wonder how long the butch clipped woman was lurking around the store? Just long enough to leave her scent, or was she looking for opportunity via a Ted Bundy type of excuse?
I’ve always claimed that the missing college guys were lured by a woman/women, or man/woman team with some kind of twisted, warped, evil intent. Maybe, could it be possible that like Bundy, the ( thing/things ) is/are getting more brazen? Just a guess especially since this doesn’t fit with the others with the exception of the water! But stranger things have happened! We all know that.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Curtis,
Are there other cases that fit this profile?
January 17th, 2007 at 9:40 am
A registered college male showing up dead and written of as a drowning? Yes, and far too many to be mere coincidence. LE is just now thinking about how some may have met with foul play and they simply missed something. Some have been reopened.
Mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin and I believe the gist of this admin posting from the CrimeRant guys, Matt and Gregg demonstrated by the words used in the TITLE>
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 9:52 am
yes, thank you. I realize they were making reference to other college students. My question was did some/all of them fit this specific profile?
January 17th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Most generally I believe they do though I’m not certain that all were blond, blue eyed, handsome types by comparison but certainly close enough to be worth checking out. A petite thing subduing a 190 lb 21 year old would require something more than just odor one would think. It just doesn’t fit given his phone calls and all. I do hope he hasn’t met with foul play but it doesn’t look good.
I was just thinking ( out loud ) more of the relationship to water and college guys than I was anything else.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Body found in lake…. just out on wire…
January 17th, 2007 at 10:36 am
how sad for his family.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:39 am
TR~
Where is Bridgewater as it relates to his destination? Curious as to how this could possibly be an accident, wrong turn, lost, confused ETC.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I highly doubt he got lost, took a wrong turn, etc. He knew where he was going and what he was doing. If he is in his 20’s he has been going to that college for a few years which would mean he know the area fairly well.
His family even stated he had no friends or family in the area he was found or where his debit card was used. Besides, like the article says – he would have driven further north, past the college exit, to be in that area.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am
JUST READ WHERE THEY SURMISE that he may have given the woman a ride. What a shame. He went to being twenty minutes away from school to fifty miles away and dead. You have to ask yourself what in the world is wrong with people these days. Scary.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I am just now reading this. very interesting. I am curious if there was a woman involved in the similar cases of drowned college men. It does seem we have had a rash of college men disappearing and ending up dead. Kinda against the norm of the past.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Not only “what is wrong with people” but what did they want with him? They didn’t take his car, and only used the debit card at a Walgreens. I mean, what was their motive?
They have to be evil thrill killers or maybe they got interupted and didn’t have time to finish what ever it was they started. There is no other explanation. I know this sounds morbid, but I wonder what condition his body is in. Was he terrorized? Mutilated? What in the h*ll was their goal in killing this guy? It just doesn’t make sense.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:02 am
did they attempt to get surveillance video from the walgreens or anything? or interviewed people that worked there at the time the debit card was used? what was it used for? might help explain more of who used it at least.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Jeanne, Yes that is my question…women involved with the disappearance of other college men…kinda like another Aileen Wuornos?
January 17th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Pati, that just creeps me out, re:wuornos. The newspaper articles say he was see in the the convenience store talking to a petite red head. My guess is that the red hair must be a wig or hair dye. Or now that the red hair has been made public, she’ll dye it.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Is the pic of “the red head” on the net yet? If not is should be soon and we will see if it’s real or not.
Leah – I agree – it probably was a wig or dye job.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:59 am
It was butch like~ close cropped, overly so.
She had a heavy smell of cigarette smoke. The family friends think it possible that she asked for a ride.
Bundy used these types of tactics to lure his prey.
This really needs to be looked at as something more than a crime of opportunity if it is in fact a crime. I happen to think it is. Pure speculation on my part but close enough to the others to rule it out as a possibility. I hope it isn’t a thrill killing duo roaming the I-80 areas looking for college guys to punish or kill for some as of yet unknown reason. Pure presumption on my part!
At least one reported from a rag in Minnesota thinks it’s a possibility.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
so did Aileen Wuornos
January 17th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
CJ, how do you know she smelled like cigarette smoke?
January 17th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
that’s what an employee of the convenience store said about the woman: ” she had a strong odor of cigarette smoke ” was the quote.
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
do you have a link for that story?
January 17th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story/.php?id=1028628
January 17th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
WAY upstate- about an hour at least.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
thanks Curtis!
January 17th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I read both articles at the newstimeslive.com site. I noticed that the articles said he had just flown in from LA where he was visiting his girlfriend which he met in Spain while he was studying abroad.
Now I know my idea, which follows is farfetched. I however wonder whether he had a girlfriend before he left to study abroad in Spain and she got dumped when he met his new girlfriend. If this is true, maybe this is a murder for hire to get revenge for the affair.
Also, the mention of Greenwish brings the Martha Moxley case to mind in which the police department did not know how to handle her murder efficiently a long time ago. Seems like a good place to committ a new murder and get away with it.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Curtis ~
Do you have any links for the other missing college guys?
Or the site of the paper you mentioned earlier that was linking them?
Thanks!
January 17th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Police Find Missing Student’s Body in Lake
BRIDGEWATER, Conn. (AP) — Divers searching a lake in rural western Connecticut on Wednesday found the body of a college student missing since Monday, police said.
http://1010wins.com/pages/185432.php?contentType=4&contentId=290689
January 17th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Greenwich, as in the gas station off the Merritt Parkway, is in no way analagous to Martha Moxley’s Greenwich, either in time or place.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Missing Purdue Student
http://www.wlfi.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=72950&RequestTimeout=500
January 17th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I meant no disrespect, Nelly- sorry if I sounded that way. The Merritt Parkway is just a cut through the town. And, the police force has grown tremendously in its sophistication.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
They say when the police found the jeep it was still sinking. They must have come up immediately after it got ditched. Dollars to doughnuts the guy was already dead.. What a damn shame.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Nelly, something tells me this guy would not be dating a heavy smoker.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
stupid question what is the distance between bridgewater and purdue? Is it a direct shot on a major freeway?
January 17th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Pati, in my imaginary scenario,I thinking that the heavy smoker was the hit person hired by the ex-girlfriend.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Tr, no problem. I am really not familiar with that area.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Oh…could be…I thinking more like Wournos case, serial killer/hooker
January 17th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Ya know besides these two cases, I thought I read of another one just within the last 3 months. Anyone else remember the one I am referring to?
January 17th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
From Purdue to Greenwich, Ct is more than a 12 hr drive, non-stop. At least 800 miles. Could it be done in the timeframe you’re talking about? Barely- nothing much in between.
With that given, why then go 50 or 60 miles upstate into CT to dump the car & body? There are many bodies of water in the vicinity, and quite a few of them more hidden from view. I’m wndering if they’ll find someone with too much familiarity with that area? Or are these kind of sickos spec’ing out locations on the internet sight unseen? A question: will the College be compellled to allow investigators access to enrollment information- for possible addresses matching the location in question? Another point bothering me- this location is a good distance away from an interstate. Route 7 is the closest busy road; it connects with 84 north of Danbury. It took two to do this, didn’t it? The perp isn’t walking away unnoticed, right? I don’t notice anyone hitchhiking anymore; not even petite close cropped redheads.
January 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-22-wis-booze-drowning_x.htm
There’s plenty more on the topic and expect tons more going forward as the police start to consider a real big problem as it relates to this.
nite all
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
This one should help any fence riders who think it ridiculous that a serial killer isn’t a real possibility in the college bar scene make the right choice.
http://www.vanceholmes.com/court/trial_missing.html
have a good evening all,
C J
January 17th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
As to the best missing students link, here it is:
http://www.vanceholmes.com/court/trial_missing_students.html
However, I think, this case is too dissimilar to belong to the series.
January 17th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Body found.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244199,00.html
January 18th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I knew there was another, I just couldn’t place where I read it. It was the Christopher Jenkins case that I was thinking of. Thank you for the post. All of those cases in the Miss. river are just too coincidental for me.
January 18th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I regret misplacing the link, but a CT Post article states the redhead appears to be a dead end; the family indicates that it is not Joe speaking to the woman in the surveillance videeo.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Strange ending . . . already ruled a suicide, case closed . . . ?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244596,00.html
January 18th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
very strange. Has to be more to this, maybe something the parents haven’t talked about as of yet. ODD.
C J
January 18th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
yes, but what makes them rule it as a suicide? I don’t understand, and yes before anyone hits me over the head, I read the article.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Sorry . . . I don’t know how to use the URL “shorteners” . . . this article (particularly toward the end) gives a lot more info about him (not about the ruling)
Very sad . . .
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070118/NEWS02/701180383/1018
January 18th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
okay, read that too. still don’t understand. I could grasp it if he was sad, troubled with school and then suddenly got cheery and started giving stuff away, or telling people goodbye in a different sort of way.
is it possible that he did not know where he was going and drove off accidentally?
January 18th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
my thoughts toO Pati, maybe just a very tragic accident, but I tend to believe it wasn’t a suicide.
jmho
C J
January 18th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
You gotta wonder about LE and MEs some time and then the press, well that can be a whole other discussion.
January 18th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I live in the area and there is NO WAY that you just “end up” near Lake Lillinonah!
You really have to know how to get there!
Lake Lillinonah is on Route 133. It is a rural back road, which leads nowhere but to Bridgewater, CT — a town of 1500 people.
Eventually Route 133 connects with Route 67 — which will take you to the small town of New Milford, CT (pop. 26K) or in the other direction to the tiny town of Roxbury, Ct. (pop. 1900).
The roads off Route 7 that you need to take to get to the lake do NOT have ANY signs to direct you to Lake Lillinonah.
You’d have to KNOW that the lake is there AND you’d have to know exactly HOW to get there. You could never just accidentally end up on Route 133!
I do NOT believe for a second that this lovely boy committed suicide…he was clearly murdered!
I am appalled that the state police have ended the investigation.
I hope his parents hire a PI to check this out further. SOMETHING TERRIBLE happened to this boy — he did NOT commit suicide.
He checked in with his mom the minute the plane landed and when he didn’t check in again to tell her that he’d arrived safely at his dorm — she called him at 10:30 PM. He told her that he was just about at the college. He also supposedly called a friend at the dorm too saying he’d be there soon and they made plans to watch a movie.
He was out buying toiletries and went to an ATM. Hardly the actions of a suicidal person.
No, this was a wonderful son — a respectful son who loved his mom. He would NEVER just disappear off the face of the earth that way.
If he were going to committee suicide — he’d have left a note.
If that police officer hadn’t just happened to see the partially submerged car in the lake — no one on earth would ever have known what happened to this kid.
I do NOT believe that even if Joe was contemplating suicide — which I don’t believe for a moment — that he’d want his body to disappear forever without any trace so his parents would forever be wondering what happened to him. That is beyond the pale. That would be SO cruel.
No, whoever did this to Joe thought that dumping the car and body at 4 am on a rural road assured him that the body would NEVER be found.
Only by the grace of God did the luck of the timing of the officer driving by the lake — that the CRIME was discovered.
It is outrageous that this case is considered closed.
Aren’t they going to check the car for fingerprints OR lack of prints?? What if the car has been wiped down???
There are SO many unanswered questions.
But something is VERY wrong with this picture. WAKE UP CT. STATE POLICE
January 18th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Also has anyone checked the cell phone towers? When Joe spoke to his mom — and then placed a call to his college — were the calls actually made from where Joe said he was???
OR were the calls made from and bounced on towers nearer to Danbury etc.
BTW there is virtually NO cell service at all on Route 133 or for the most part any of Litchfield County.
It is in the paper weekly about people fighting having towers up here.
I think the cell phone calls MUST be verified.
January 18th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
thank for Dr. Polka for your post that was so well worded. I agree with you and hope that CT State police don’t screw the pooch on this one.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I grew up with this family. Took trips with them. Spent holidays and graduations with them. I watched Joey grow from a cute little tow-headed whirlwind of activity into a sweet, charming handsome young man who did all the things the rest of us wished we had spent our youth doing-travelling, learning, experiencing, meeting new people everyday. In the abscence of a note,or e-mail or blog or soemthing, verified by family, you will never convince me this was a suicide. Even if I didn’t know Joe and his family it still stinks of something else! Nothing seems to make sense. You return from a “wonderful” visit with your friends and girlfriend and call your parents (who adore you) and talk about meeting with your college advisor tommorrow and call your buddy and make plans to watch movies when you return to campus in 20 mins. You stop to buy soap and then drive 50 miles to a place everyone who knows you insists you’ve likely never been and drown yourself? Some one said that leaving his car on the ramp was his way of ensuring his body would be found, it was classic suicide behavior, that it only rolled in the water beacuse the e-brake failed. No way. If this young man was going to die, he’d say goodbye, in some way or another.
January 19th, 2007 at 11:38 am
JM, I agree with you that unless or until some definitive evidence is presented — I won’t believe it was a suicide by “drowning” how absurd!
This was quoted in today’s Danbury News-Times:
http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1028847
“State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said he knows why Zahornacky drove to this area, but would not divulge the reason. Police said they conducted numerous interviews and recovered physical evidence in connection with his death.
“In deference to the family, whenever it’s a suicide, we don’t discuss facts of the case, ever,” Vance said.”
How convenient that they will NEVER release the “proof” they have that Joe deliberately chose to kill himself by drowning at Lake Lillinonah.
JM I hope that if you ever do find out something to convince yourself that it was a suicide you will post again. Not to share anything too private — but perhaps at least to say that there was a note or blog post etc.
On another crime watch board there is a discussion about how Joe’s death fit’s a pattern of what is most likely a serial killer — whose victims are ALL young, MALE, college students very similar in appearance to Joe — who all are found dead from DROWNING!!!!!!
Most of the deaths are in the mid-west — the last one a few days ago at Purdue. There are so many I stopped counting at 20! I think that unless as you said there is conclusive proof — this should be considered.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
We should open a new discussion about Wade Steffy:
http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070119/NEWS0501/701190345/1152/SPORTS06
January 19th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
I’m so glad that I’m not the only person getting such a bad vibe from it being called a suicide. Sounds more like lazy police work. Like Dr. Polka pointed out, none of his conversations or activites showed any kind of beahviour of someone who was about to end their life. The sad part is that once they consider it ‘case closed’, they really mean case closed and nothing will change that short of someone walking into the police station and saying “I did it” and providing some kind of proof. I think this entire thing is just very upsetting although it does sound somewhat familiar to the disapearence of Nate Hendrickson in Texas last year.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/news/original/1205/1901_nate_hendrickson_missing.html
Friends, family, and local news pretty much described him as just vanishing, intreviews at the time left everyone thinking “okay this doesn’t sound at all like someone who would have killed themselves without leaving behind a note” for a lot of reasons, including like in this case, plans with friends for later in the evening. Nate was described as handsome, popular, outgoing, friendly, and most importantly, happy. It was a month or two later his body was found in a park where he had shot himself, and then slowly stories emerged that that had been left out of the media about personal problems and depression that have been over looked because everyone was so sure originally that something wasn’t right and that something bad had happened.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
JM
I live in Indiana and yes there are too many of these cases very similar in nature and all connected to water and college guys between the ages of 19-23 or so. Some are drownings and some are most likely not. This one is very suspicious and I tend to believe your angle. Please give the family our best and pass on our heartfelt condolences.
C J
January 25th, 2007 at 2:12 am
If he was planning to kill himself, why did he stop to buy stuff at a convenience store that he would never use??? Why did he call his friend Logan Osberg and make plans to watch movies when he got to campus???
By all accounts this was a boy with a zest for life, who was enjoying his classes, doing volunteer work, had an interest and compassion for other people. Suicide is essentially a selfish act, and this doesn’t sound like a selfish boy.
Isn’t there another New York college student that went missing a week or so ago??? Fishkill or some place like that???
January 25th, 2007 at 2:33 am
Sorry, not New York, but Indiana. Wade Steffy at Purdue U has been missing for about 10 days now.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 am
Yes there are several missing college students just now but did you know that sometimes one returns with amnesia of the events of the disappearance.
Ahmad Arain, UCLA, was found wandering in Mexico in an altered mental state.
Ron Tammen, Miami of Ohio, 1953, is still missing.
This might explain why someone buys soap, makes arrangements to watch movies with friends, then disappears.
Some are found suicides under strange circumstances, May Zhou, Stanford, Jan 2007. Some return with amnesia. Some are never found.
Visit the College Suicides and Missing Student pages at VisionAndPsychosis.Net.
These students are all high achievers, and heavy computer users.
http://visionandpsychosis.net/Missing_Students.htm
http://visionandpsychosis.net/College_Suicides.htm
March 13th, 2007 at 9:17 am
The disappearance of college students, especially male young adults, has always been overlooked by college/university administrators, and local law enforcement. Often ascribed to youthful partying, these missing young adults are sometimes criminally victimized, and tortured, sexually assaulted, & murdered. Like male adolescents and young adults who disappear, many are victimized by same-gender sexual predators, regardless of the sexual orientation of the victim.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
we dated.