Intriguing post on the unsolved.com entry for Susan Walsh

[Drown Soda]

Like many, I've always found Susan Walsh's disappearance to be completely bizarre—probably in part because of all of the rumors about the Russian mafia and the vampire subculture she was writing about for the Village Voice at the time. It's one of those cases that's been shrouded in rumor and lore.

That said, I was browsing unsolved.com and came across this post on Walsh's entry on the site:

Submitted by Sam Frank (not verified) on Mon, 01/02/2017 - 16:42
I have followed this case for years. I was born and raised in Nutley and still reside there. I never knew Susan Walsh but I remember when this happened. I was told a very interesting story about this case by the brother of her ex husband Mark. Several years after her disappearance I met Mark's brother when he came to work for the same company I was working for. We struck up a friendship that continued for years until we lost touch after we both left that company. I asked him what he thought happened to Susan and he told me he knew exactly what happened to her. This is what he told me:

Mark and Susan were separated and Susan was living with their son David in the apartment upstairs while Mark was living in one room in the basement. All Mark had was a bed, a dresser, a telephone and his few personal belongings. Susan would come down and use his phone frequently but he would not allow her to use it to call her boyfriends or her drug dealers. In exchange for using the telephone, she would allow him upstairs to use the kitchen to cook his meals. The day of her disappearance they had a huge argument about her using the phone so she went across the street to use the pay phone. When she returned from using the pay phone she did not go to her apartment, she went to the basement where she and Mark continued fighting. In a fit of rage he grabbed a frying pan and smashed her across the head with it, killing her. It was not intentional but nonetheless it was murder. He hid the body in his basement room and once her boyfriend had gone to work he took David to Staples. Later that night or early the next morning he took the body to a reservation where he was known to hike and disposed of the body. He returned and later that day reported her missing.

He also told me that Mark did not have much money and when he visited his brother about a week before the disappearance Mark had shown him the new frying pan he had just bought and how expensive it was. When my friend went to see his brother after Susan disappeared he noticed the frying pan was gone. When he questioned Mark about it mark just said he must have misplaced it. He also told me that Mark removed the page from the calendar because there was something written on it he didn't want the cops to see. I didn't know what to make of his story but I told him he should go to the police if he was so sure that Mark had done it. He said he did go to the Nutley PD and sat with a detective and told him everything. The detective said they would investigate and they would be in touch, but he never heard a word from them. He said he called several times to see how the investigation was going but they just kept telling him they were still checking it out and would contact him. He finally gave up after not hearing anything. He said his brother became distant and remote from the rest of the family and concentrated on raising his son David.

I don't know if any of this is true and I'm not accusing Mark or anyone else of anything. This is the story his brother told me and he seems to believe it. I've never met Mark or his son but I find this theory pretty intriguing. I also wonder why the Nutley PD did not follow up. Or if they did maybe it was all a lie. One more fact about this story that is pretty interesting is that Mark Walsh and my friend are the younger brothers of Joe Walsh, the rock star. I've never seen that mentioned in any of the stories I've read about Susan Walsh.

I was blown away by this. I guess I never suspected her husband for the mere fact that police apparently ruled him out (I believe this is stated in the UM segment, as well as on the Disappeared episode). I did a bit of research and found a NY Post article from 2006 that states that, while Mark wasn't a suspect, he had recurrently refused to allow police to do forensic tests in their home—why?

Based on the post made by Sam Frank, I'm beginning to believe that this is what in all likelihood happened. I think all of the hoopla surrounding her disappearance really obscured that which is obvious and clouded rational thought about it. The investigative journalism she was doing that had her crossing paths with the purported "vampire" subculture, her investigation into the bar owned by the Russian mafia, etc. Also the fact that she was a stripper and recovering addict, which put her in a vulnerable position in the first place—I'm beginning to feel that all of these things, while fascinating, probably had nothing to do with her disappearance.

• New York Post article: http://nypost.com/2006/07/16/96-stripper-vanish-clue/

• Susan's entry on unsolved.com, if you want to read the comment in context—it's at the bottom of the page: http://unsolved.com/archives/susan-walsh

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Well, that's a bit different than being killed by the vampires... Or the Russians.

Probably a more likely story, too.

[Drown Soda]

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

Well, that's a bit different than being killed by the vampires... Or the Russians.

Probably a more likely story, too.

Absolutely. I don't see why the poster would have any reason to make up the story, either. It seems completely plausible. I wonder what the reservation was that his brother was referring to. She very well may be there somewhere.

[siamesemeg]

Originally Posted by Drown Soda

Absolutely. I don't see why the poster would have any reason to make up the story, either. It seems completely plausible. I wonder what the reservation was that his brother was referring to. She very well may be there somewhere.

I thought maybe he meant "reservoir?"

Wow, the Joe Walsh connection is crazy pants. But this is an intriguing theory. It's sad how it seems investigations can sometimes get completely thrown off the "right" track by parts of the victim's life that the investigators might not understand or that just seem odd, but are totally unrelated.

I'm also thinking of Kurt McFall and the satanic panic/SCA/D&D aspects which were clearly pretty irrelevant. Or the Orange Socks murders, where LE focused on Jeff Overholzer and perhaps missed some real leads.

[Hot Jock]

http://www.markwalshrocks.com

Mark Walsh has a website and even mentions Susan by name (albeit in passing) in his bio.

[Drown Soda]

Originally Posted by siamesemeg

I thought maybe he meant "reservoir?"

Wow, the Joe Walsh connection is crazy pants. But this is an intriguing theory. It's sad how it seems investigations can sometimes get completely thrown off the "right" track by parts of the victim's life that the investigators might not understand or that just seem odd, but are totally unrelated.

I'm also thinking of Kurt McFall and the satanic panic/SCA/D&D aspects which were clearly pretty irrelevant. Or the Orange Socks murders, where LE focused on Jeff Overholzer and perhaps missed some real leads.

Absolutely—it makes me wonder how often cases with seemingly scandalous details actually do completely sidetracked. The Satanic panic cases are a great example of that. Even contemporarily, the Amanda Knox trial was full of the same kind of allegations about Satanic sex games and whatnot that I believe are sheer conjured up fantasy. But the sensationalism can be persuasive.

[asmitty]

Originally Posted by Drown Soda

Absolutely—it makes me wonder how often cases with seemingly scandalous details actually do completely sidetracked. The Satanic panic cases are a great example of that. Even contemporarily, the Amanda Knox trial was full of the same kind of allegations about Satanic sex games and whatnot that I believe are sheer conjured up fantasy. But the sensationalism can be persuasive.

Also, not to criticize UM too harshly, but they were probably one of the strongest examples of playing up those scandalous details on the cases they covered than other true crime shows (I'm looking at AMW here as there were UM's primary true crime competition at the time).

The Susan Walsh case was probably one of the more extreme examples of this. If the post from UM's website is to be believed, and there's little reason to dismiss it out of hand, then the stuff Susan was investigating as a journalist (aka the primary theory presented by UM) had no impact on her death whatsoever.

[Drown Soda]

Originally Posted by asmitty

Also, not to criticize UM too harshly, but they were probably one of the strongest examples of playing up those scandalous details on the cases they covered than other true crime shows (I'm looking at AMW here as there were UM's primary true crime competition at the time).

The Susan Walsh case was probably one of the more extreme examples of this. If the post from UM's website is to be believed, and there's little reason to dismiss it out of hand, then the stuff Susan was investigating as a journalist (aka the primary theory presented by UM) had no impact on her death whatsoever.

That's a good point. The UM segment definitely privileges the sensationalistic theories over all else."Satanism" was a hot topic in the late eighties through the nineties. Depending on the persuasion of the individual, it seems like there were many deaths/disappearances/incidents that people could chalk up to some Satanic theory.

Another example of this are the deaths of Tate Rowland and his sister, Terrie Trosper in the '90s (not profiled on UM, but another instance where two deaths that were very much explainable were attributed to a Satanic cult).

There is one thing about Walsh's case (and the UM segment) that is still extremely interesting though, and it's the moment from the documentary she was involved in where her beeper goes off and she mentions in conversation that she "has a stalker." It's a curious statement given that she vanished shortly after. Then again, like all the other things, it could be purely coincidental and unrelated.

[asmitty]

Originally Posted by Drown Soda

There is one thing about Walsh's case (and the UM segment) that is still extremely interesting though, and it's the moment from the documentary she was involved in where her beeper goes off and she mentions in conversation that she "has a stalker." It's a curious statement given that she vanished shortly after. Then again, like all the other things, it could be purely coincidental and unrelated.

That is interesting (and something I'd forgotten). It gets more interesting if you consider her history as a stripper. They seem to all too often have very loyal admirers (aka stalkers).

[soilentgreen]

The comment fits with the statement of the restaurant employee, that he saw Susan use the pay phone and then return to her residence. She was wanting to relocate with her son to Florida, something that wasn't mentioned on the UM segment and could have been a bone of contention with her ex. I've always suspected that someone she knew was responsible for her disappearance.

Originally Posted by Drown Soda

There is one thing about Walsh's case (and the UM segment) that is still extremely interesting though, and it's the moment from the documentary she was involved in where her beeper goes off and she mentions in conversation that she "has a stalker." It's a curious statement given that she vanished shortly after. Then again, like all the other things, it could be purely coincidental and unrelated.

Susan had taken out a restraining order against someone before she disappeared.

[Drown Soda]

Originally Posted by soilentgreen

The comment fits with the statement of the restaurant employee, that he saw Susan use the pay phone and then return to her residence. She was wanting to relocate with her son to Florida, something that wasn't mentioned on the UM segment and could have been a bone of contention with her ex. I've always suspected that someone she knew was responsible for her disappearance.



Susan had taken out a restraining order against someone before she disappeared.

I did not know that. Was that mentioned in the UM segment or on the Disappeared episode?

I may be wrong about the stalker comment she made in the documentary being in the UM segment—it may actually have been in the Disappeared episode. I can't recall, but it's in one of them.

[TheCars1986]

What about the tidbit about the woman matching Susan's description driving a vehicle a month after her disappearance? Her friend gave the cops the plate info and they traced it to a man who said he was with a woman who "fit the description" of Susan. Which of course added (at the time) a bit of credibility to their initial theory that she ran off to start a new life. That was always the oddest part in the segment to me. How could this guy not know if it was her or not?

[soilentgreen]

Originally Posted by Drown Soda

I did not know that. Was that mentioned in the UM segment or on the Disappeared episode?

I may be wrong about the stalker comment she made in the documentary being in the UM segment—it may actually have been in the Disappeared episode. I can't recall, but it's in one of them.

I don't remember if it was mentioned on UM. Her friend Melissa Hines discussed it on Disappeared, along with video of Susan mentioning the stalker in conversation. Disappeared provided a lot more information about her than the UM segment. Imo, it's pretty strange that she left her purse, beeper and house keys on her ex-husband's table.

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

What about the tidbit about the woman matching Susan's description driving a vehicle a month after her disappearance? Her friend gave the cops the plate info and they traced it to a man who said he was with a woman who "fit the description" of Susan.

Melissa thought she saw Susan on the street sometime after her disappearance; this is from Al Sullivan's narrative:

"I saw her in a car with somebody," Melissa said. "We were down on
Broadway in Newark looking for her and I saw her sitting on the
passenger side of a car with this guy. I shouted her name and saw her
head turn, and then when I started running towards her and ways, the guy
started the car and took off. I couldn't catch her, but I did get the
license plate number. It was definitely her. The police checked out the
number and said it belonged to a dentist in Fairfield. He said he hadn't
been in Newark. But I saw that car. I m sure it was her."

At some point, according to Sullivan's account, the Nutley police believed that Susan had fled NJ when the investigation grew too close to Newark.

Sullivan's narrative (it's linked to on another thread) has lot of hearsay and he leans towards her intentionally disappearing, but he mentions information I've never seen elsewhere, such as UM/NBC threatening legal action against the Nutley, NJ investigators after they refused to go on camera for the show.

[Drown Soda]

It's possible that her friend saw her, but I do find it odd that she would still be hanging around in Newark a month after disappearing if she actually did want to start a new life. Newark is a stone's throw away from Nutley, and if she had intentionally gone missing, one would think that she'd leave the area.

From what I read, her friend seems convinced it was her, but it strikes me as odd, especially because an entire month had passed.

[LiliNicole37]

Have you really looked into stuff about the vampire community? I'm not saying that's what it is either but just stuff I've researched about the whole case and just different people involved in the VC and what I know about people who identify Vampires that could be a possibility. As for the unsolved mysteries episode that was in a whole lot to go on back then and there's so much stuff is being left unsaid in other documentary episodes that have been made about Susan Walsh and then quite a bit of stuff is been mentioned that wasn't mentioned before. I don't think it had anything to do with her husband Mark I don't even think it had anything to do with this Billy Walker person or even the mafia that just seems too obvious. My guess is he was something to do with the Vampire thing dizzy be surprised how many people go missing or have gone this and just being involved in the VC some groups especially in other places that do have Mafia type thing going on especially in like Chicago back in the day and a couple other places to. Now most of the vampire lifestyle is role-playing again bdsm and if you read Katherine Ramslands book Piercing The Darkness you will understand. But my thing is maybe she did just leave maybe she just wanted to get away and figured hey this would be the best way yes I have to leave my son behind but maybe she thought that was what was best cuz she wanted to get away from the lifestyle she was living with the stripping. I mean maybe she just figured you know I'm not getting anywhere in life the way I want to even with the writing she was doing and just took off. What do you think?