The Rosenblum Dissapearance

[Thiussat]

The two episode that aired tonight were both golden oldies. One of the segments was on the Michael Rosenblum dissapearance. I had never seen this one before, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here are a few facts on the case, as presented by UM.


Fact: Rosenblum dissapeared in his girlfriend's car the day after his parents kicked him out of the house for relapsing on drugs. He left his GF at a gas station and took off suddenly without her permission.

Fact: The car was found two hours later by the Baldwin Borough PD. The tires were flat and it was found straddling the road and the shoulder.

Fact: Michael's parents filed an official missing persons report with the Pittsburg PD the next day.

Fact: The Pittsburgh PD contacted Baldwin Borough, and other departments, the day after the report was filed (in a routine search for the car) and the Baldwin PD denied having the car in impound.

Fact: Three months later, the Baldwin PD comes forward to say they do indeed have the car afterall and that it had been there since the day Michael dissapeared.

Fact: A month or two after that (in July), the Baldwin PD puts out an arrest warrant for Michael who had been missing for 5 or 6 months by this time. They wanted him for armed robbery. This warrant was dropped a couple of weeks later. Why the warrant was dropped was never specified. Why they suspected Michael as being the perp was never specified either.

Fact: The composite sketch of the wanted robber looked a lot like Michael. However, the witnesses to the robbery said the man was wearing large sunglasses. The composite was not consistent with their description since the composite clearly showed the man's eyes.

Fact: The Baldwin PD claims they sent a letter to Michael's GF the day after the car was impounded. She denies ever receiving such a letter.

Fact: Two people from the Baldwin PD came forward and claimed that their chief had typed up a fake impound letter and back dated it to three months earlier. He then asked his clerk to forge the signature of the cop who found the car.

Fact: This cop died prior to the time when the UM story was ever taped, so his testimony could never be heard.

Fact: Michael's remains were found 12 years after his dissapearance on the hilltop right above the road where his car was found.

Observations on facts:

1) One should not take Michael's girlfriend's story at face value. She was the last to see him alive, as far as I know. She also denies receiving the impound letter, which the Baldwin PD claims they sent out.

2) Why were the tires on the car flat? The segment never addressed any forensic evidence collected on the car, if any.

3) If the Baldwin PD was in on a cover-up (which does seem compelling to believe at times) then what was their motive? Obviously Michael was killed a very short time after he left the car on foot, but if these cops did it, then why? If they killed him in self-defense, then why hide his remains on the hill? Why not just come forward and say they were attacked?

I think one of two things: Either this case is like the Ives/Henry case (train tracks) where the UM segment simply does not present all the info on the case, and where there is a ton of outside info that gives one a better grasp on the case...

Or: the truth is in the middle. The Baldwin guys weren't out for Michael, but were not compliant nor helpful to the investigation either.

[DarkDante]

This case comes up on here every few months or so and I've always felt there are only two answers that make any amount of sense in explaining this case.

1) The theory advanced by Maurice Rosenblum that the Baldwin police were responsible for his son's death which I get into in much more detail here:

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

2) Crystaldawn's assertion that Michael Rosenblum committed suicide on the day he vanished which is far more plausible then you would first think.

I still say that the Baldwin Police were somehow implicated in Rosenblum's death due to the coverup but the possibility of suicide certainly looms over this case.

[baton_man]

I have to wonder why the Chief tried to get his officer (Chester Lombardi) to back date a letter sent to the cars owner. This leads me to believe that the girlfriend was not involved. Also why did he have his clerk forge the signature of the officer.

[Thiussat]

Dark Dante,

After I posted this last night, I thought "Damn I forgot about suicide."

So, I agree with you, the suicide scenario seems as likely as any. I just can't find a motive for the Baldwin PD to be involved in a cover-up over a guy who obviously was just an average Joe and didn't seem to be important relative to their department.

The fact his body was found just above where his car was found does lend credence to the suicide theory. One problem though: why was his body not discovered earlier? If he committed suicide he would not be able to bury himself after he died.

One thing the segment never addressed was whether or not Baldwin had a record of his arrest. Maurice claims that he received two anonymous phone calls declaring that Baldwin had Michael in custody at one time. Was this ever verified by anyone?

If we look at the reasons to implicate the Baldwin Borough PD, they are:

1) Coming forward three months after his dissapearance claiming they did have the car.
2) The fact that Baldwin said they sent Lisa an impound letter which she claims she didn't receive.
3) The claims that the impound letter was back-dated and forged.
4) The fact they put out a warrant for Michael's arrest and then dropped it.

If you look at each fact, you can find less sinister explanations. For example, in scenario one, it could be a simple clerical mistake. Even the UM segment said this was a possibility. In #2, it is her word against theirs. There is no proof either way. The simplest explanation is to believe the Baldwin PD and not Lisa, since the Baldwin PD has no recognizable reason for lying. #3, all you have is witness testimony proclaiming this. There is no hard proof. Even if there was hard proof, it does not implicate the chief in Micahel's dissapearance, rather it simply means that he might have wanted to cover his ass for not mailing the letter earlier. If you look at #4, this is the most unexplainable one. It could have been a weird coincidental mistake, or perhaps since Baldwin knew Michael had vanished and since they knew he might be jonesing for drugs, maybe they sought him as a suspect.

The fact that Lisa did not come on the segment, and the fact that she denies ever receiving the letter, makes one wonder.

Later.

[Thiussat]

Dante,

I read your post you made in that other thread you linked.

One thing I want to point out about your theory is that I am not so sure that Michael was all that worried about having the authorities know he had drugs in his system. Being high is not illegal unless one is driving. Being high also does not explain why he didn't want treatment at the hospital. You can go to a hospital on illicit drugs and not be arrested. The only time the hospital staff will notify authorities is if you have drugs on your person, which I assume he did not. Even if he did, he could have left them in the car. Again, hospitals treat OD victims all the time without arresting them.

I think it is likely his death was a result of the combination of drugs and his recent life changing event with his parents. He either committed suicide or did something so crazy that it got him killed by some random person (or maybe even the PD, which I am skeptical of).

I still want to know why his car tires were flat.

[DarkDante]

Regardless perhaps the drugs Michael was on were making him extremely paranoid. I still find it very odd that he didn't want to be treated at the hospital. There was something certainly wrong with him on the morning he vanished and he may have provoked a confrontation with the police. Now whether that lead to his death, I dunno.

There is just so much in this case that doesn't link up:

If Michael was indeed the cause of the flat tires on Lisa's car (ie: the tires weren't punctured by someone else) then what was he doing in that remote wooded area to begin with where his body was later found?

Could've Michael Rosenblum simply been the vicitim of a random act of violence? Were any items such as his wallet or credit cards taken from the vehicle? Could the solution to this case have been a simple mugging followed by a murder? - Since there was no blood found in or around the car, Michael would've had to have been killed (by whomever killed him) elsewhere.

I think the fact that Rosenblum was on drugs at the time he died certainly had something to do with his death. Now how it played into Michael's death I don't know? - The flat tires are intriguing, since there was no other indication of major damage to Lisa's car it rules out the possibility of a car accident of some sort. Could've Michael in his drug aidled state just simply run a curb causing the tires to go flat?

Some questions still bother me about this case:

Was it Michael Rosenblum who parked Lisa's car as the tires were going flat on River Road?

If so what was his reason for being down there to begin with? - Did he simply park the car there because he realized the tires were going flat or was he on River Road for some specfic reason and either way why did he turn up dead only a few miles away from where the car was abandoned?

Why did Michael abandon Lisa at the gas station to begin with? - According to Lisa, Michael seemed very anxious about something. Is it possible that Michael might have been going to meet someone (drug dealer perhaps?) and this resulted in his death? (Maybe Michael owed someone money?)

The fact that Michael didn't want to be treated is telling. Despite it not being illegal to be on illicit drugs while being treated in a hospital for some reason Michael was very adament about not wanting to be treated. This still distrubs me greatly when thinking about this case.

There is just too much corroboration in my mind regarding the conspiracy theory for it to be entirely false. Either someone was trying to make the Baldwin Boro police department look really bad and basically used Maurice Rosenblum as a pawn in order to do so or the police were somehow involved or implicated in Michael's death in my opinion.

[Eire]

Forgive my ignorance on this, but wouldn't a letter from the police concerning an impounded vehicle be sent certified mail? I've never gotten one, so I don't know. But, I've gotten a few letters regarding unpaid parking tickets that arrived certified mail.

I'm from around the area and I have to wonder why his body was missing for so long. Recreational hunting is a big deal around here so I'm surprised he wasn't discovered by hunters much sooner. I'm not familiar with the area where his body was found, so it could be too remote or too hard to access.

[mozartpc27]

This is a case I haven't seen in awhile, but I remember finding it pretty mysterious at the time --- then I read about crystaldawn's suicide theory, and, if I had money to bet on this case, that's where I'd lay it. His behavior becomes even more erratic, he's told to get out once and for all by his parents, and he is eventually found dead out in the woods within a day or so of this traumatic break with his folks. Makes perfect sense.

The impound thing could simply have been an error that the police, like so many in authority, felt that they could not admit to (this happens all the time at every level of politics & bureacracy). So, they forged and backdated the letter, rather than leave themselves open to what they probably thought of as a possible lawsuit (of course, that plan backfired).

As for the tires being flat, if you leave a car in one location long enough whose tires are a little bad already, it won't take much for them to lose the rest of their air. Alternatively, perhaps Michael hit something that caused his tires to go flat --- and that one last thing going wrong, at a time when everything seemed to be going against him, was what caused him to snap, go up into the woods, and do enough drugs to end his life.

[Thiussat]

Why did Michael abandon Lisa at the gas station to begin with? - According to Lisa, Michael seemed very anxious about something. Is it possible that Michael might have been going to meet someone (drug dealer perhaps?) and this resulted in his death? (Maybe Michael owed someone money?)

Dante, this is something I thought about. It seems very plausible to me.

I think there are a couple of possibilities:

1) Suicide. I would put my money on this if it wasn't for the fact that bodies don't hide themselves. Nonetheless, I suppose it is POSSIBLE that his body could lay there for so long without being discovered, but I find it unlikely.

2) Random mugging/murder

3) Killed by a drug dealer whom he was going to meet. The segment said he was having withdrawals, so it is likely he went to get his fix ASAP.

[Thiussat]

The impound thing could simply have been an error that the police, like so many in authority, felt that they could not admit to (this happens all the time at every level of politics & bureacracy). So, they forged and backdated the letter, rather than leave themselves open to what they probably thought of as a possible lawsuit (of course, that plan backfired).

Mozart, I agree with this hypothesis as I illustrated in a previous post. I agree that this is the most likely explanation for the impound letter fiasco. I can find no motive for the chief of police to want Michael dead.

As for the tires being flat, if you leave a car in one location long enough whose tires are a little bad already, it won't take much for them to lose the rest of their air. Alternatively, perhaps Michael hit something that caused his tires to go flat --- and that one last thing going wrong, at a time when everything seemed to be going against him, was what caused him to snap, go up into the woods, and do enough drugs to end his life.

I don't think the theory about the car sitting long enough for the tires to go flat holds water since the car was found only two hours after Michael drove off and left Lisa. It is likely he hit something, either accidentally or by being in some sort of car chase/collision.

Again, the suicide theory seems very plausible, but there is the slight problem of why the body was not found until 12 years later. The area his body was found was on the hillside above the road where the car was found. Surely someone would have seen it laying there?

[AVERMAN]

This is an interesting but complicated story.

The suicide story makes alot of sense, but I feel its unlikely considering the manner in which the body was discovered. They only found his skull and certain bones, which to me rules out suicide.

I then considered the girlfriend may have killed him, which makes more sense, until you look at the whole police corruption thing, which to me eliminates the girlfriend as a suspect.

My theory is that Michael was killed by someone who had connections in the Police force, possibly even connected to the Chief directly, like a family member for example. The Police then did what they could to cover up the tracks with all that corruption that took place. But if they were covering it up, why did they inform them about the car being impounded? Could it have been done by an officer who had no idea of the cover up? Then they may have gone into damage control by fabricating the backdated letter and saying that they had sent out a letter when the car was initially impounded. They then went to further trouble by issuing an arrest warrant for Michael for an armed robbery to try and hide the fact that Michael was dead. They waited for a robber that fit Michael's description and then pin it on Michael.

One thing was never mentioned, what caused the tyres to get flat in the first place?

Any further updates on this story?

[treeman]

I'm with Averman surely there are some updates on this case. The father said he was very close to getting somewhere in the case and looked like he was willing to spend thousands of dollars on it surely something else has been found out...

-Ben

[hostedbyrobertstack]

I saw this for the first time yesterday, and wow, all I can say is why have I never seen this segment before, this was one of the most intriguing cases to me! I don't think it is suicide, and it's annoying how almost every case could be called suicide, but some are some aren't. I believe it had something to do with drugs(obviously) and the police force of the Borough obviously had some drug connections(otherwise the whole cover up would not have taken place). Maybe it wasn't the police involved w/ the killing, but it could have been a drug dealer like someone said. Maybe, if this drug dealer did something to him, and the police found out, this said drug dealer may have threatened to blow the whistle on the Borough PD if they were to take him in for the murder. Therefore, the PD may have tried to cover it up to save their own a**. This is how I feel, how else would he have never been found right by where his car was last seen. Doesn't make sense, this was not simple suicide I'm sure.

[SiberianKiss]

nobody mentioned that a skull fragment identified as part of the remains of Michael Rosenblum was found. However according to UM, it was found three miles away from the area where his gf's car turned up on River Road. Right above where her car was found, the searchers did find a bone fragment and pieces of clothing that was consistent with what Rosenblum was wearing when he was last seen. But the skull fragment was found several years later three miles away. I wonder what that means. Why is his remains spread out in all different directions far away? Creepy.

in the beginning of the segment, they also said the volunteer firefighters were searching that area based on a psychic's advice. Weird.

[UMfan77]

Originally Posted by SiberianKiss

Why is his remains spread out in all different directions far away? Creepy.

Animals probably scattered his remains all over the woods.