Blasts of snow had just begun to fall on the village of Ellenville, New York, on Saturday night, January 17, 1987, in what would soon turn into a treacherous snowstorm.
It was about 5:30 pm when Lee Ann Housman, a single mother of four, received a phone call that would change her life forever. Her son’s boss at the Napanoch Auction Barn called to ask why the teenager hadn’t come to work. Lee Ann knew that her son had left the night before, but it was not like him not to show up for work.
Joseph “Joe” Helt, 17, a junior at Ellenville High, never missed a chance to make money. And that meant he never missed a chance to work in the auction barn, which only worked on weekends. Then, when he didn’t show up that night, Joe’s family started to worry.
Joe’s aunt Beth Churchill told Dateline that she remembers the night clearly, from the first blasts of snow that hit her skin just before she entered her mother’s house, to the sharp pain in her stomach when she was told about the call.
“They told me that Joe hadn’t come to work that night and, well, I just had a sinking feeling,” recalled Beth. “At that moment, I knew. I don’t know how, but I knew that something bad had happened. “
Beth told Dateline that her sister knew that Joe had left on Friday night and that he probably didn’t come home. But it was not uncommon, she added, for the teenager to stay up late and end up spending the night at a friend’s house.
That Friday night, January 16, 1987, was one of those nights – or so it seemed.
According to testimony from witnesses provided to the New York State Police, Joe was having fun with some friends at Mount Cathalia, an abandoned ski chalet that has become a popular hangout on the outskirts of Ellenville.
Late at night and in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 17, the party continued. Joe and three of his friends – John LaForge, Wade Marks and Kelly Diaz – eventually left the cottage for an evening stroll on LaForge’s Subaru. At some point, the vehicle got stuck in the snow next to Sam’s Point Road, a road that winds through a reservation at Shawangunk Ridge.
After several attempts to remove the car, a frustrated Joe went down the mountain alone, in the dark, in an effort to find help, his friends told the police. It was the last time Joe was seen.
“Did he get to the bottom or not? We don’t know, ”Capt. Joseph Tripodo, now retired, told the New York Times in 2011.“ There is no evidence. He disappeared without a trace. “
Joe’s family filed a missing persons report on January 17 with the Ellenville Police Department and a mass search was launched immediately that weekend. The small village department was soon joined by the New York State Police (NYSP), rangers, family and friends. They used helicopters and tracking dogs and traveled miles of land that consisted of deep caves and crevices. But the snow continued to fall and did not diminish.
NYSP investigator Holli Schoonmaker, the current investigator in the case, told Dateline that “several search efforts were conducted over the days, weeks and months after the disappearance was reported”, but added that “the snow and ice at that end weekends made search efforts extremely difficult. “
After several days of searching, his efforts were interrupted by an entire week’s snowstorm.
“In those days … it was like a nightmare that would never end,” Joe’s aunt, Beth, told Dateline. “The storm only complicated a very stressful and already sad situation.”
The search resumed in the spring, when the snow melted and the frozen ground melted. But there was no trace of Joe, not even one of his shoes or a piece of clothing.
“It’s like he just disappeared into the air,” said Beth. “But a person doesn’t just disappear. Something happened to him. I felt that night and I still do. “
Beth is only a few years older than Joe and told Dateline that he was more of a brother than a nephew.
“We were very close,” she said. “Our family was close – it devastated us.”
Beth described her nephew as a typical 1980s teenager who loved heavy metal music, such as KISS, AC / DC and Iron Maiden, and party with his friends around a campfire in the old ski lodge. He was also an artist who enjoyed practicing his art on anything he considered a blank canvas, such as his friends’ hands and album covers.
“He wasn’t an angel,” Beth said with a small laugh. “But Joe, well, Joe was a love. And he was attentive and he was always there if you needed him. And he was smart and talented. “
A first-year student at Ellenville High School, Joe had not yet started making plans beyond the classroom, Beth said. But she knew a place that had a special place in her heart – the auction house.
“He really admired Vic, his boss,” said Beth. “And he just loved being there. I think he would have taken over the business eventually. “
This weekend marks 34 years since Joe apparently disappeared from that mountain, and over the course of three decades, many speculated about what happened that night.
Had he fallen into a deep rift, only to be buried forever under years of snow and ice? Or was he murdered that night after an argument about drugs?
In 2011, 24 years after Joe’s disappearance, some of his colleagues were planning a class reunion when his name came up. They decided to act. They created a Facebook page. Vigils held. Gathered to get answers.
“People believe he ran away and never came back. People believe he fell into a crevice, “ Jackie Mennella, a fellow student at Joe’s, told NBC4 in 2011. “There are a million stories. What really happened, I have no idea. “
Rumors and theories about Joe’s fate continued to spin and started to cause tension on the Facebook page, with many fingers pointing at the three friends Joe had last seen with. The page was finally closed.
Captain Tripodo told the New York Times in 2011 that the New York State Police interviewed two of his friends, Diaz and Marks, both Joe’s classmates, as well as LaForge, who was 21. He added that the men abandoned LaForge’s car and returned home shortly after Joe left.
Although the authorities initially considered these three men to be people of interest who “offered us information,” said Captain Tripodo, the police found no evidence of a crime. He added that efforts to interview men again over the years have been unsuccessful.
She declined to comment on whether or not the men are suspected of Joe’s disappearance due to the ongoing investigation, but said the crime was not ruled out.
“The NYSP handles all complaints of missing persons with high priority,” said investigator Schoonmaker to Dateline. “People disappear for a wide variety of reasons, whether they are lost, have an accident, suicide or some other form of crime. We do not exclude anything, including foul play, when it comes to investigations of missing persons. “
Investigator Schoonmaker added that, at the moment, the New York State Police have no reason to reclassify this case as anything other than an “active investigation of missing persons”. She said she believes there is “more information available out there” and encourages the public to offer tips.
Beth told Dateline that she wants to find out what happened to her nephew, but admits that it is difficult to maintain any hope after all these years.
“It’s awful not to know,” she said. “But what I wanted more than anything was for my sister to get answers, to finally know what happened.
But Joe’s mother died without a chance.
Joe’s mother, Lee Ann, died in 2007, and his father, Christopher, who lived in Florida, died a few months later, both from cancer. Beth, who took on the role of her sister’s caregiver, said they rarely spoke of Joe’s disappearance, but that Lee Ann used to visit a gazebo in Sam’s Point near where Joe disappeared. The gazebo has already been demolished, but Lee Ann’s ashes were scattered in the same area, one last wish she made before she died.
“She died heartbroken, never knowing what happened to her son,” said Beth. “But if you believe in life after death, then, well, he was up there, waiting for her, waiting with answers and open arms. And the idea that she got her answers, well, so that’s what gives me peace. “
Joe would be 53 this summer if he were still alive. At the time of his disappearance, he was described as being 5’9 ”, 150 pounds, with blond hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a camouflage jacket, T-shirt, long-sleeved thermal shirt, gray hooded sweatshirt and white high-top sneakers.
Anyone with information about Joe’s case should call the New York State Police at (845) 626-2800. Your case is # SJS3009202. You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678. Joe’s case number is 1150362.