"Disappeared" episode on Susan Walsh

[crystaldawn]

I was pleasantly surprised to find out the new "Disappeared" episode that aired last night was on Susan Walsh. I'm sure most if not all of you remember her story that aired on UM. She was a stripper/journalist who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

I'll tell a little bit about the story they told on the show last night. Apparently Susan and her estranged husband did live in the same building, each one on a different floor. The circumstances around her actual disappearance are the most mysterious. She didn't have a phone inside her apartment and her ex didn't like her using his phone if it involved stripping or possible acquiring drugs. She told her ex she was going to the pay phone to call her manager and brought their son to stay with his dad. The pay phone was only a couple hundred feet from her apartment and it was around noon. She used that particular pay phone all the time. She also left her keys, pager and purse in the apartment so everyone thought she would be right back. Never seen again. They did mention she had a boyfriend living with her and her son named Christian Pepo. Her boyfriend and friends and family all though Susan had gotten back into drugs shortly before she disappeared. In the clip where she was interviewed for her friends story (that was shown on UM) you can hear her pager going off. Susan says "thats probably my stalker" and tells them that she does have a stalker. She disappears days later. When newspaper started printing about Susan's disappearance many calls come in and say that Susan is working as a prostitute in Newark. One particular hooker says that Susan's been living with her for the last few weeks and knew a lot of personal details about her life that made police believe her story. They seem to be just a few steps behind her. About a dozen people even picked her out of a lineup and say that they have seen her homeless and working as a prostitute. They do investigate the stories she had written about involving the Russian Mob and the Vampire Cult but can never really find any reliable evidence linking them to her disappearance. In 2005 (9 years after she went missing) a detective decides to go through her case again. He does look through a 1996 calendar of Susan's that they had as evidence. Susan had a lot of detailed notes and listed who she had met with on those days. Very strangely (and apparently LE hadn't noticed this prior) was that June's page in the calendar had been removed and that was the month she disappeared. He did also say that there was a new discovery in her disappearance but not enough to arrest anyone. He said since its an open case he can't discuss this new evidence. Very interesting case. It did seem that Susan was involved with a lot of shady characters but also seemed to be losing herself in stripping and drug use so its hard to tell whether she left willingly or was abducted.

[SPD Yellow]

Yeah that was an interesting episode. I've been fascinated by the Susan Walsh case ever since UM did a segment on her, though in true UM fashion, they played up the Russian Mafia/Vampire cult angles. My hypothesis: Susan was doing drugs and when she left that day, it was to meet up with druggie friends. Some time while hanging/doing drugs, she OD-ed and her friends hid her body somewhere. I admit, though this is all conjecture and it doesn't explain the missing calendar page, though. But then again, it could turn out there's a perfectly prosaic explanation for the missing calendar page.

[WishfulDreamer]

I think her involvement with the wrong crowd and drugs got her into trouble- in my opinion, she either ODd or was killed. Despite any problems, it seemed like she really cared about her son and writing as a career. I don't think she simply ditched her son and career.

[soilentgreen]

2001 article by Jill Morley (who was interviewed on Susan's Disappeared segment): http://nypress.com/susan-walsh-missing-stripper/

Transcript of This American Life broadcast that discusses Susan: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radi.../55/transcript

http://thesop.org/story/20120221/sus...cissistic.html

This is (as far as I can tell) an unpublished narrative about Susan by someone called Al Sullivan. Be warned, it's a highly subjective, and not a particularly attractive or positive account: http://www.scrappaperreview.com/1998/Walsh.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-12-07/j...ob?_s=PM:CRIME

Police still are searching for a second person of interest who they believe has information about the case.

(from page two from the last article)

I'm curious whom they're referring to. Susan herself mentioned that she had a stalker, and she'd taken out a restraining order against a particular man. While Disappeared claimed that both Susan's husband and her boyfriend aren't considered suspects in the current investigation, there's conflicting reports about the circumstances of her disappearance. Susan's boyfriend claims that she told him she was going down the block to use a pay phone; police say that there were no outgoing phone calls on any of the pay phones closest to the residence on the morning of her disappearance. An employee of the pizza parlor across the street alleges that he saw Susan returning to her home after using the pay phone.

Susan had psychological and drug issues, she had previously attempted suicide, but I don't discount that her disappearance could have been a result of a domestic dispute or a stalker. The vampire cult and Russian Mafia angles were overplayed by UM, and her work in the sex industry led to some overly judgmental and trivial speculation about her. I still don't feel that she walked away to start a new life.

[wiseguy182]

Just to clear the air on a few things, Susan disappeared in July, not June. She also had restraining orders against several men.

I don't think the Russian mob and Vampire angles were overplayed. They had to go there. Perhaps they weren't the cause of her death, but who knows, its still unsolved.

Just watched the disappeared episode. Some more interesting notes:

-the ex-husband stopped co-operating with the police.
-Susan had talked about wanting to make a fresh start and move to Florida to live with relatives and had even had a job lined up there.
-the vampires in the club Susan visited had stolen blood from New York City hospitals.

One thing that stands out for me was right at the beginning of the UM segment: Susan leaves her 11 year old son with the ex-husband even though she was just going to use the payphone a few hundred feet away (and, as the Disappeared episode notes, Christian Peppo was still in the apartment anyway and could have watched the son if it was necessary). So why would Susan go to all that trouble? I think the only answer is she knew she was going to disappear and wanted to take care of her son.

[TheCars1986]

The whole vampire cult thing was always silly to me, even before seeing the "Disappeared" episode on Susan. Susan's mentor was interviewed for "Disappeared" and he said that there were reports of blood being stolen from NYC blood banks and drank at these underground clubs. He sent Susan to investigate and she came back with nothing. The story was bogus. The Russian mafia angle is ludicrous too, IMO. She didn't expose some huge scandal that would place her in danger. The article seemed nothing more like an expose on false promises being made to the Russian dancers. My best guess about what happened after watching the show is either whoever she called on the payphone that day (possibly a drug dealer) had a hand in her disappearance, or she did in fact relapse into drug use and ran away because she felt ashamed or depressed. I know her friends said that she would never abandon her son, but she did walk him down to her husband's apartment before she went to make the phone call. Which is strange, because her boyfriend was in her apartment the whole time. That, to me anyway, makes it seem like Susan knew she wouldn't be coming back and that her son would be better off with his father.

[moving2]

Looks like the cops were considering an ex-BF stalker-type at one point:
http://nypost.com/2006/07/16/96-stripper-vanish-clue/

[RSully94]

There was a reply on Websleuths back in December 2013 that caught my eye, because the user said there was a prostitute in San Francisco that could be Susan...except the user worked in the sex industry herself so she'd have t keep quiet.