Drug Overdose or Political Cover up
Twenty year old Amanda Wienchowski’s last few months of her life turned into a complete downward spiral of drugs and prostitution. She was last seen alive sometime on December 5th of 2008. Her frozen, naked body was found in a garbage tote near the New Covenant Church on the corner of Clinton and Spring Street in the city of Buffalo. An anonymous phone call told authorities that her body was there. Four Lake Erie County Medical Examiners ruled her death an accidental drug overdose death. At first, it seemed that drugs may have killed Wienchowski but other post mortem examinations paid for by supporters of her family came to different conclusions. When one independnet examiner wanted to look at the body, he noticed she was missing various internal organs including her throat and hyoid bone. Two other examiners declared that she was raped and died from strangulation. The family has a suspect, whose name is Antoine Garner. Garner lived across the street from where the body was found and at first denied even meeting her. He was caught lieing about it. He is also serving an 18 year prison term for convictions of rape, home invasion and other crimes. He has been caught sending threatening messages to Wienchowski’s mother.
Why is it then, that Garner has not been charged with murder? There are some serious allegations by prominent people in the Buffalo area that Garner has family members that are very well politically connected. For additional information about this case visit these two sites.
https://solvecrimeswithrickandgavin.com/cases/amanda-wienckowski/
http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n47/week_in_review/amanda_wienckowski_autopsy
Hit And Run Driver Still Unpunished
It was October 31st, 1993, when 24 year old Edward Damms decided to walk back to the town of Chester. The 24 year old from Wurtsboro had been walking on Route 94 when a driver hit and left him for dead on the road. He was hit and killed sometime between 2:30 and 3:30am in the town of Blooming Grove. Law Enforcement believes that the vehicle that killed him was a darker colored passenger car Forensic tests on the car reveal that Damms was hit by a red metallic colored part of the vehicle that had been repainted. Damms, who left behind a 1 year old daughter was supposed to have waited in a parking lot for his girlfriend to pick him up. Instead he was hit and struck a mile away. Besides leaving his daughter behind, Damms also had eleven siblings.
If you have any information as to who killed Edward Damms please call the Blooming Grove Police Department at 845-496-9161.
What Happened to Young Couple in Love?
It’s a mystery that has plagued the family and friends of two teenagers since the summer of 1973. Sixteen year old Mitchel Weiser and his 15 year old girlfriend Bonita Bickwit set out to hitchhike to a concert in Watkins Glen (see featured image above), that had famous bands such as the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band performing in it. The destination was about 75 miles from where Bonita had been working at a Jewish overnight camp called “Camp Wel-Met” in Narrowsburg. Weiser had come to visit from Brooklyn (where they both were from) and they left on July 23rd. There last known sighting was when they were hitchhiking on route 97. They have not been seen since.
There have been many theories as to what may have happened. One unlikely one, is that they had voluntarily disappeared. However, both enjoyed good relationships with their families. The second is that something may have happened to them at the concert or while hitchhiking. However, in 2000, a witness cam forward claiming that he was on a bus with the two missing teens on their way back from the concert. He claimed that Bickwit went into a river and got into trouble. Weiser went in to save her and they both got swept down the river. The story has many holes in it and much of it can not be verified.
If you have any information about the disappearance of these two, please call 1-800-346-3543 or visit the website dedicated to them http://www.mitchelandbonnie.com/
Teenager’s Murder Shocks Community
It was Father’s Day, July 18th of 2006, and Chanel Petro-Nixon left her home at 6pm in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. She went to meet a friend down the street and then go to a job interview at an Applebees restaurant. She never made it to the interview or see her friend. Several days later, the 16 year old’s body was found in a trash bag near 212 Kingston Avenue, just blocks from where she lived. She had been strangled. To this day, there have been no witnesses. Police do not know where she was murdered. There is a reward that is over $33,000 for information leading to an arrest in her case. There is a person of interest in this case who was convicted of sexual assault but he is not a suspect. If you have any information about this case please call 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls can be confidential.
UPDATE 6-18-2016: Veron Primus, 29 years old, has been arrested and charged with the murder. He was a friend of Nixon at the time. More detail will follow.
Who was Murder Victim? And Who Took Her Life?
On February 14, 1988, the naked body of an unidentified white female was found at 10 Carleton Avenue in Mount Vernon (10 miles North of Manhattan) She had been bludgeoned and strangled. She is believed to be between the ages of 18 to 30 years old. She was 5 foot 3 inches and weighed 105 pounds. She had light brown to blonde hair and hazel colored eyes. If you know who this victim might be or who killed her, please call the Mount Vernon Police Department at 914-665-2510 or 914-665-2573. For more information about this case, visit the Doe Network at http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/51ufny.html
UPDATE:8-3-2021 She has been identified as Veronica Wiederhold,. More details to follow. Her Murder is still unsolved.
Cold Case of Hospital Worker Haunts Those Who Knew Her
Sonia Hidlago was a Patient Relations worker at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City By all accounts, Sonia Hildago was a very well liked person. But there was one person that hated her enough to murder her.
She was found dead in her apartment on 615 West 164th Street. She had been stabbed between 20 to 30 times in a struggle that occurred in several rooms of her place. Her fiance had found her dead behind their apartment door in a puddle of blood. He is not a suspect in this case.
Friend and family are still troubled that this case is not solved. The (now retired) Detective who investigated this case has said in the press that this was one of two unsolved cases that he worked on that he wanted to see solved. The other case was the murder of “Baby Hope” which was eventually solved.
If you have any information please contact the New York Cold Case Squad at coldcase@nypd.org.
Shocking Murder of Young Man Still A Mystery
It’s a brutal case that shook New York City and had the gay community on alert. It was Valentine’s Day on February 14th, 2005 and nineteen year old Rashawn Brazell left his Brooklyn Apartment at Gates Ave. apartment in the Bushwick section to meet up with an unknown man as they went to take the subway. Days later, bags would be found on subway tracks with various body parts of Brazell. His head was never recovered and police believe he could have been tortured for up to two days before he was murdered. The types of cuts to the body were clean and police theorize that the killer may have excellent knowledge about the human anatomy. It is possible that he was targeted because of his sexual preference. Police have never been able to identify the unknown man he was last seen with but want to talk to him. His mother and brother have been devastated by this crime. If you have any information about this case, please call Call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. There is a $20,000 reward.
UPDATE: 2-22-2017. Kwauhuru Govan who is 38 years old has been arrested for Brazell’s murder as well as the 2004 slaying of young woman named Sharabia Thomas who was 17 years old. NYPD and other Law Enforcement agencies are considering Govan a possible serial killer who lived in several states including Florida and California.
Robbery/Murder Still Unsolved Despite Media Attention
Monday morning on March 4, 1996 the owner of the Second Avenue Deli was shot and kidnapped from his van as he went to make his way to make a deposit for his business. Sixty-four year old Abe Lebewohl was on his way to the NatWest Bank at Second Avenue and Fourth Street. Two men approached him and shot him several times. He was kidnapped and dragged into the back seat of his van and drove away. Ten thousand dollars was stolen and Lebewohl would die from his injuries. The murder weapon, a Raven .25-caliber handgun which was located near Central Park. The gun was found to be tied to an unsolved double murder in Westchester.
There is a 150,000 dollar reward that leads to an arrest and conviction for the killers responsible for his murder. Lebewohl was know as a man who would help feed the homeless and had survived the Holocaust. If you know anything about this case please call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
College Student’s Killing Still Rattles College Decades Later
She was just a seventeen year old college student at the State University of New York at Cobleskill and hours away from where she grew up in Ronkonkoma on Long Island. Kathleen Kolodziej was last seen walking away from the Vault Bar and Grill in the village of Cobleskill. She had refused to go back to campus with her roommate and said she was getting a ride home from someone else. That unknown person has been a point of mystery for over forty years. About a month after Kolodziej was last seen, hunters spotted one of her shoes on November 28, 1974, Thanksgiving morning near the intersection of MacDonald and Cross Hill roads in Richmondville. Kolodziej’s body was found against a stone wall, she had been stabbed to death. It is believed that she was killed in a different location from where her body was located.
If you have any information that can help close this murder investigation please email tips to the address of crimetip@troopers.ny.gov. You can also call the New York State Police at 518-630-1715.
College Student Takes Trip Only to Be Murdered
20-year-old University of Wisconsin-Stout student Kristin O’Connell, was murdered on the evening of August 15, 1985 in Ovid, New York. She was last seen alive walking away from a party behind the Golden Buck on County Road 139. When she was found less than 18 hours later, her throat was slashed and she was found in the nude and stabbed several times. Police believe that she was followed in a car by two younger white men and that she was attacked by at least one of them. The vehicle is believed to be a late 1970s green or blue sedan. O’Connell was a native of Minnesota, however, she had met a resident of Ovid during 1985 spring break in Florida. She accepted an invitation to visit him in his hometown before returning to college that fall.
Police are adamant that there are possible suspects in this case and are asking for people to come forward with additional information. You can call the New York State police in Canandaigua at 585-398-4100. You can remain anonymous.
Brutal Crime Leaves Family looking for Answers
Alexis Joann Brown was a twenty one year old woman who had her whole life ahead of her. On December 2nd, 1964, someone sexually assaulted her and then stabbed her to death. The location where she was killed was at 21 St. James Place in Brooklyn, New York. Her family has been haunted by this unsolved murder and are still looking for answers.
If you have any information about this case, please call the Brooklyn Police 77th Precinct at : (718) 735-0611.
Truckers Murder Still an Unresolved Case
It was November 8th, 1972 when Rudoph Allen Rothberg was found murdered in the cab of his truck at a rest area 1 mile south US-20 south of the town of Lafayette. Rothberg had been sleeping when an unknown individual(s) shot him in the head with a shotgun. Rothberg who worked for the Whitaker Trucking Company had been been close to finishing a three day dairy haul when he needed some rest.
He was employed as a truck driver for Whitaker Trucking Co., in Deposit, Delaware County. He was murdered on Nov. 8, 1972. Police believe the murder took place between 1:45 and 3:05am when his body was found by another trucker. Rothberg was 52 years old, a World War Two Veteran who lived in the town of Evans Mills. His wallet which contained some money and credit cards were stolen. The doors to his truck were locked but the driver’s side window was rolled down. It is possible that Rothberg was awakened and went to talk to his killer(s).
If you have any information about this case, please contact Eric Costello or senior investigator Reece S. Treen of the Troop D Major Crimes Unit at 315-366-6000.
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