Michael Rosenblum theories

[dynoguy88]

This board has had some GREAT discussions and theories about Tammy Leppert, Kurt Sova, Cindy James, Nyleen Kay Marshall and Angela Hammond.

Does anyone have any theories on the disappearance and death of Michael Rosenblum? I always remembered this case in the back of my head because of the date that Michael vanished; February 14, 1980. (I was born exactly one week earlier.)

For anyone that forgot the details of this case, I'll post them. Michael began experimenting with drugs in high school and it became an ongoing problem for him throughout the next few years. On the night of February 13, 1980 - one month after he was released from a drug rehab program - Michael started acting abnormally. His mother found a bottle of pain killers in his bedroom and got fed up. That night, she banished Michael and his girlfriend Lisa from her home telling him not to come back until he was ready to live his life clean and sober. The couple left in Lisa's car.

The next morning, Michael awoke with a severe drug hangover. Lisa drove him to the hospital but he refused to be treated. 15 minutes later, after leaving the hospital, Lisa stated that Michael became increasingly agitated. The couple pulled into a local gas station and Michael took off in Lisa's car leaving her stranded. His last words to her were, "Go to my parents house. I'll see you there in 2 hours." Michael drove off erratically and was never seen again.

After a day, the Pittsburgh Police began searching for Lisa's car with hope that it would lead them to Michael. But after two weeks, no body and no car were found. Michael's father Maurice put up missing person flyers as far away as California.

On May 21, 1980, the police of Baldwin Borough (a suburb of Pittsburgh) notified Lisa that her car had been found. According to official records, the car was impounded on the very day Michael vanished. The Rosenblum's were furious and couldn't believe that the car had been there for the entire 3 months, less than 3 miles from their home.

Lisa's car was found on River Road which connects Baldwin Borough to the south side of Pittsburgh. Apparently, 2 hours after Michael left Lisa, the vehicle was found by a Baldwin police officer. 2 of the tires were flat, the keys were gone and the engine was cool. 15 minutes later, the car was towed to the Baldwin Borough car pound where it would remain for the next 3 months.

Maurice Rosenblum wanted an explanation and the Pittsburgh Police went to Baldwin Borough to investigate the delay. The Baldwin Police claimed that they mailed Lisa a letter the day after the car was found telling her that they had impounded it. Lisa said she never received the letter. Police eventually obtained a copy of the letter but Lisa STILL insisted that she NEVER received it.

Several years later, a clerk and dispatcher from the Baldwin police came forward with accusations that their department, led by Police chief Aldo Gaburri had mishandled Michael's case. They claimed that Gaburri ordered his clerk to write the letter to Lisa on May 20th, back date it to February 15th and forge the police officer's name who found the car. They also stated that Gaburri ordered them not to mail the letter but to keep it in their police file. Gaburri was suspended for a short time for mishandling the case but was reinstated when he claimed his employees were lying.

8 years after Michael vanished, a 6 inch bone fragment was discovered as well as patches of clothing and a shoe sole that matched the items Michael was wearing when he was last seen. The items were found along River Road overlooking the spot where Lisa's car was found abandoned.

In June of 1992, at a sight 3 miles away, Michael's skull fragment was finally found. Investigators were unable to determine the cause of his death.

What really gets confusing is that on July 15, 1980, the Baldwin Police issued a warrant for Michael's arrest for a convenient store robbery that took place on April 28, 1980, just 2 1/2 months after he vanished. Now, the Baldwin Police already KNEW that Michael was listed as a missing person so why they issued a warrant for his arrest is beyond me. The robber was described as wearing a big pair of sunglasses which meant the only part of his face that was shown was his upper forehead and chin line. A composite drawing was done WITHOUT the sunglasses and apparently, since the drawing looked like the picture on Michael flyers, they must have assumed that it was him. One week later, the warrant was dismissed.



Phew! After all that, does anyone have any theories? I think Michael was probably killed by a Baldwin Police officer not more than an hour after he left Lisa. He was probably pulled over for driving erratically, and he might have mouthed off to the officer in a drug induced state or something which led to him being killed. Maybe it was an accident but the police wanted to cover it. And maybe the officer purposely slashed the two tires on the car to give the impression that Michael had to leave on his feet and vanished from there. From there, they hid his body.

There's no way Michael could have just run away to start a new life. He never withdrew any money from his bank account and he never went home to get any of his clothes. With no money, no clothes and no car, it would have been extremely hard to run away but the Baldwin police wanted to give that impression anyway.

The key to finding out what exactly happened lies with Police chief Aldo Gaburri. The way he handled the back dated letter involving Lisa's car proves that he knows SOMETHING. I just don't understand the arrest warrant they issued for Michael even though they KNEW he was reported missing. Maybe it was intended as a smoke screen to lead suspicions away from the Police department?

I've tried looking for ANY articles on the internet that post date the discovery of Michael's skull but I've never bee able to find anything. Such a strange case.

[DarkDante]

Crystaldawn and I have discussed this case in length over emails several times and first off I agree with you that its one of the most intriguing cases ever profiled and YES much like Kurt Sova, there is virtually no information on it online.

I tend to lean towards a theory more along the line of what your propose however in discussing this case with Crystaldawn she put forth a theory that has made me sort of look at Michael's death in a different light. Crystaldawn believes Michael's death was either a suicide or a possible reaction to whatever drugs he had in his system at the time.

This falls in line in how Michael was suffering from the effects of the drugs he was taking at the time of his death. He may have become disorientated and abandoned Lisa's car on the side of the road and wandered into the wooded area only to pass out and perhaps die from exposure.

The other possibility that Crystaldawn proposed to me is due to all the problems Michael was experiencing at the time he may have chosen to take his own life on the day he vanished.

----
Now my own theory is pretty much in line with yours dynoguy and an earlier writing of mine on the subject can be located here:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=138994

[dynoguy88]

Ahhh, yes. The old wandering off and dying of exposure theory. That could be used in other cases but I don't see how it could used here.

How does that explain the two flat tires on Lisa's car? And the whole drama with the letter being back dated 2 months and never mailed out? If he just walked off and died of exposure, the police would obviously have nothing to hide. But Gaburri made certain to cover things up.

I really think the Baldwin police know what happened to Michael.

[crystaldawn]

A few thoughts on this case. Like Dante said I don't necessarily buy that Rosenblum died as a result of foul play. Sometimes UM goes out of their way to implicate something much more sinister when its not necessarily there (the Keith Reinhard case as an example IMO). The fact that the car had two flat tires: the obvious explanation could be that Michael had run over something and caused them to be flat and thats why it was found abandoned there. He could have certainly wandered off and ended up dying of exposure. Or he was heavily involved in drugs, it certainly is plausible that he could have died of a drug overdose. Remember he was in such a bad way with drugs I believe that day or the day before that his girlfriend even wanted to take him to the ER and he refused so IMO that goes to show how bad off he was in that regard. I don't have a clear cut case as to the backdated letter except that the police dept. didn't want to look bad so thats why it was done. As far as your theory about a policeman killing Rosenblum, I don't think a cop would have killed him and just left him in the woods there knowing full well there would be a search for him. I think if he were murdered in that type of scenario there would have been a much better attempt to hide or dispose of the body.

[yolate]

FWIW, I tend to agree with CrystalDawn's theory here. I think he probably was driving erratically and ran over a curb which caused the flat tires. He then wandered off and passed out, overdosed, committed suicide - take your pick. As far as the police, if the whole fake letter thing is true I think it was the cops covering up the fact that they forgot to send the letter rather than covering up something more sinister.

[dynoguy88]

O.K. then, one final question.

If he wandered off, if he passed out, if he overdosed, if he committed suicide, etc... Why were parts of his clothes and one of his bones found on the hillside just above River Road (overlooking the spot where Lisa's car was found) and why was his skull found 3 whole miles away at a different location?

[DarkDante]

^ Actually it was never determined that any of the items found in the inital search had anything to do with Michael Rosenblum. Years later however it was determined that at least the bone fragment found by Maurice and the crew as reported during UM was in fact not human but instead the remains of an animal.

In fact the one article I did found on the internet about the case stated that psychics shouldn't be trusted because Rosenblum's remains were found a whole 3 miles away from where she predicted they would be found.

[crystaldawn]

I assume you're asking as to why his remains were found scattered? You hear about that often when people die and are found in the woods (Molly Bish would be an example). Meaning their bodies decompose and then unfortunately the animals take over and their remains get scattered.