JOE HOLT - 17 yo (1987) - Cragsmoor NY

New claim 25 years after teen’s mysterious disappearance

By Stephen Loiaconi
updated 11:55 AM EDT, Fri August 10, 2012

• Joe Helt went missing after a party in 1987

• Classmate claims one of the last people seen with him told her he was pushed off mountain

• Police: Case is an open, active missing person investigation

Seventeen-year-old Joe Helt was last seen alive on the night of January 16, 1987. He was leaving a party attended by about two dozen teens at an abandoned ski lodge in Cragsmoor, New York with three other young men. The three later told police that Helt left them behind to walk home alone when their car got stuck in a ditch during a snow storm.

Search efforts in the following days were hampered by bad weather and rough terrain, Ellenville Police Chief Phil Mattracion told HLN, but they failed to turn up any sign of the high school student. 25 years later, a former classmate has come forward with new information that a private investigator says could provide a break in the case.

According to former NYPD detective Bob Rahn, the account of Shari Schwartz is the “first bit of what seems to be credible information” he has uncovered in the two years he has been working with Helt’s family. Rahn told HLN that Schwartz, who was in a typing class with Helt in 1987, recently made contact with the family through Facebook.

Rahn said Schwartz told him she overheard two of the young men Helt left with that night talking about him on their first day back at school after his disappearance. She approached one of them and asked where Joe was.

“Joe’s not coming back. He’s dead,” the teen allegedly told her. According to Schwartz, he claimed that one of the others had pushed Helt off the mountain.

Rahn told HLN Schwartz notified the school principal and assumed investigators followed up on the information at the time, but she was surprised to learn years later that the case was never classified as a homicide.

New York State Police have now interviewed Schwartz and taken a written statement, Rahn said, but she does not think they believed her. Schwartz told WCBS she is willing to take a polygraph test, and Rahn said his company might have her do so at some point.

Rahn acknowledged that he does not know whether police are acting on Schwartz’s tip or if they have questioned the classmate she said she talked to that day about the new information. However, she is the first person he is aware of who claims to have spoken directly to any of the three young men about Helt.

“It’s not the solution to this case, but it needs to be looked at,” Rahn said.

Chief Mattracion declined to comment specifically on what is being done to investigate Schwartz’s story, but he said every lead is taken seriously.

“The only thing we can say is we follow up on every tip,” Mattracion said.

He described Helt’s disappearance as “an open, active missing person case” and said police have no information convincing them that Helt was murdered.

Mattracion said he understands the frustration that Helt’s family must feel and he sympathizes with them.

“Obviously we’d love to provide closure for the family,” he said. “Everybody would like to know what happened…The not knowing has to be the worst.”

Mattracion urged anyone with information related to Joe Helt’s disappearance to contact the state police at 845-626-2801.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/08/10/new-claim-25-years-after-teens-mysterious-disappearance