My friend, Joseph David Helt, age 17, disappeared on January 16, 1987. We were in our Junior year at Ellenville High School in Ellenville, NY. Joe out late at night partying with friends at a local party spot, the remnants of the old Mount Cathalia Ski Lodge in Cragsmoor NY (which is just outside of Ellenville NY). Joe left to take a ride with three acquaintances, Kelly Diaz, Wade Marks and John "JP" Laforge. According to these acquaintances, their car got stuck in a ditch on Sam's Point Road and Joe got frustrated so he left to walk back to Ellenville (5+ miles). Kelly and Wade left about 20 minutes later, walking the same way that Joe did, but they walked the 2 miles to Wade's home. John left 10 minutes after that and walked the short distance back to his home also in Cragsmoore (1.5-2 miles). All three made it home safely but Joe was never seen again.

On January 17th when Joe failed to show up for his shift at the Napanoch Auction Barn in Napanoch, his boss, Vic, called his mother, Lee Ann. Lee Ann checked around for Joe and when it became apparent that Joe was nowhere to be found, she contacted Ellenville Police. The police and rescue workers soon scoured the Cragsmoor area looking for Joe.

Unfortunately, as the rescue workers made it up to the mountain a major snow storm was moving into the area. Over the next several days, over 2 feet of snow fell which hampered the search. Rescue workers worked through the storm for 6 days searching for any trace of Joe but nothing was ever found. They called off the search after 6 days saying that if Joe was up there on the mountain, there was no way he could possibly survive. Search teams did go back up on the mountain in the spring after the snow melted and the ground thawed, but no trace of Joe was ever found.

Marks, Diaz and LaForge say that the last time they saw Joe he was walking away from them when the car got stuck in the ditch. That was 24 years ago and Joe's case has gone cold. Rumors have flown all around the Village of Ellenville over the years pointing toward the three. No real evidence has ever been found. There have been several people who have come forward with information that contradicts the story told by these three, however, as it is 3rd party information, it cannot be used in the investigation.

Joe's case is currently being looked into by NYS Investigator Thomas Fortuna. In October 2010 Joe's case was registered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (he was never listed prior to this!). His case was just listed in April 2011 on the NYS Police website's list of missing persons (again, he was NEVER listed here prior to this!).

In November 2010, myself and several Ellenville HS classmates were looking into planning a multi-year reunion and they began talking about Joe, wondering if any new information has ever come to light about his case. After some research and a lot of conversation, we realized that since Joe's case was recently being looked into again, now was the perfect time to start raising awareness for his case. So we created a facebook support group for Joe and started pushing to gain media attention for Joe's case. Many local area newspapers and cable news outlets did stories on Joe. NBC in NYC and even Nancy Grace covered Joe's story!

However, Joe's case still remains unsolved. We need help. We need someone to help really open up Joe's case and get to the heart of the facts.

For more info on Joe's case, check out the facebook pages or the website:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_160089217368108
http://www.facebook.com/Justice.For.Joe.Helt
http://forjoehelt.webs.com/

Here are some of the newspapers/cable news stories about Joe's case, including the 1987 news articles:

Nancy Grace‘s “America’s Missing: 50 people in 50 days”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVJnVvCNzME

NBC (NYC) news segment:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Decades-Old-Disappearance-Still-Haunts-New-York-Town-116025154.html

NBC (NYC) VIDEO segment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0hD7baDT3s

Blog Talk Radio:
Bring Them Home Now Radio:
http://forjoehelt.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/show/13491140-joseph-helt-story-on-bring-them-home-now-blog-talk-radio

CUBANARAMA Radio:
http://forjoehelt.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/show/13486474-joseph-helt-story-on-cubanarama-blog-talk-radio

YNN Hudson Valley News Channel 6 coverage (4 stories):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snfCBxLrY38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiEk6xZ6BQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0QTHzk1ic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Lgj0xABmE


Shawangunk Journal article:
http://www.shawangunkjournal.com/2011/01/13/news/1101130.html
http://www.ellenvillejournal.com/2011/01/20/news/1101203.html


Times Herald Record articles:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110115%2FNEWS%2F101150324
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110117%2FNEWS%2F101170325

Times Herald Record photos:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/_flash/gallery/gallery.html&Site=TH&Date=20110116&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=116009997&Ref=PH

Poughkeepsie Journal article:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110214/NEWS05/102140317/Ellenville-grads-of--88-seek-clues-on-missing-classmate

Blue Stone Press article:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1250022293&aid=111979

1987 Times Herald Record articles:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1250022293&aid=111570

If ANYONE has any resources or ideas, PLEASE contact me. We REALLY need your HELP!

Hope he is found soon, but a far as I can tell he wasn't on Unsolved Mysteries?

No he wasn't. We're trying to get his story out there.

From what I can tell, this appears to be kind of a rural area. Did the three friends ever state whether or not any cars or trucks passed by them in the direction Joe was walking that night? If they aren't involved in his disappearance, then maybe someone driving by ended up abducting or attacking him.

According to what they said, no one drove past him at all. It was at 3:30am in the morning.

Also, one of the guys refused to take a polygraph test and within weeks of Joe's disappearance was packed up and suddenly shipped off to Tennessee (we're in NY) to live with his mother. He's been in TN ever since. His family members act nervous as can be when asked about it still to this day.

Someone keeps ripping down Joe's missing persons posters from the grocery store. Sometimes within hours of our putting them up. Someone has often written "ask....." (writing the name of one of the three who were with him that night). When we posted flyer along the road that the school is on for a candlelight vigil for Joe on the 24th anniversary of his disappearance, someone ripped down every single one of them except the two that can be seen by the security cameras installed at the school.

We have a lot of strange things going on and we're not sure what to do about it.

Well, you make it sound pretty obvious that those three people he was last seen with are responsible for his disappearance and likely death. This probably means that the car getting stuck in a ditch and him walking off story is not at all true.

That's the thing...so much has happened that points that way. We've even had someone come forward who has told us that one of the three told her ex (she was right there and heard the conversation) that the story about the car being stuck was just a story. So our question is....why??? What really happened that night? We just want to find Joe, just want to bring peace to him. But there seems to be a lot of secrets and in 24 years no one seems to working to break this case.

It's sad that he still hasn't been found. Hopefully this can be resolved.

You should try to contact Discovery ID and see if you can get his case on the show "Disappeared."

Here's a link. http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/disappeared/

Also, Websleuths mentioned that there are some tv producers interested in missing people cases for their show.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135013

This is posted in a banner at the websleuths.com site

"TV PROGRAM SEEKS MISSING PERSONS CASES

Do you have a missing family member aged 18-30? Could they be in moral or physical danger?
Please email FINDQUESTTV@gmail.com ASAP with information.
U.S. Cases Only"

I have no idea who this is otherwise, but could be a start...

I don't see a doe network link. Is his case listed on the doe network (http://www.doenetwork.org/)?

ETA: Nevermind. Found it. (http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4346dmny.html)

forjoe: I hope your friend is found alive and well. If he is dead, i hope he didn't have to suffer.

with that being said, do you know what possible motives his friends would have had for kililng him?