This story just keeps getting more tragic. His older brother went missing 11 years later too?? That poor, poor family. I can’t imagine not getting closure for not just one, but two children.
My immediate suspicion is that his friends are lying. I think something must have happened at the graduation party they just left and one or more of his friends got into a fight with him and he either died by accident or deliberately. They then made up the story about his disappearance.
Agreed. Who rides MILES without checking on everyone in the group? And the big discrepancy in the time they waited in the parking lot? They put his shoes and bike in different places to put people off their tracks.
Agreed. Who rides MILES without checking on everyone in the group?
I mean... At 15 that happened to me and my friends several times. And if they have been drinking, that just adds to the plausibility that they just forget to check. (Which is why their story is pretty solid given the circumstances IMO)
My reasons to suspect the friends though are simpler:
They're the last people to see him alive. Very, VERY often it's the ones who last saw the victim who killed them.
The long bike ride leaves ample opportunities both geographically and chronologically to murder him and hide the body.
Someone else asked a similar question, so I'll just copy-paste the answer I gave to them:
Depending on the geography of the area, it can be very difficult to find even a sparsely hidden body. I haven't really read up on the case too well, but here in Sweden there was a murder a few years ago where the body was dumped in a shallow pit only about 30 meters from a gravel road and despite weeks of large search efforts, the police didn't find it until one of the guilty confessed and showed them the spot.
This was kilometers and kilometers of wooded countryside.
Considering Palmer disappeared in Alaska makes me suspect the terrain might have been very very difficult for finding a body.
I just checked the area yesterday on Google maps. The bike road they took went between a residential area of single homes and a river. On the other side of the river is a VAST wooded area, like huge and thickly wooded with conifer trees. The guy's bike was found below a bridge across said river.
100% his final resting place was somewhere in that forest.
I’d believe that part. I went on a bush walk with my partner and in-laws once, I stopped to tie my shoe, fell behind, couldn’t catch up and in the end turned around and walked back to the car park, it wasn’t until about an hour later they text to ask where I was when they noticed I wasn’t behind them.
Depending on the geography of the area, it can be very difficult to find even a sparsely hidden body. I haven't really read up on the case too well, but here in Sweden there was a murder a few years ago where the body was dumped in a shallow pit only about 30 meters from a gravel road and despite weeks of large search efforts, the police didn't find it until one of the guilty confessed and showed them the spot.
This was kilometers and kilometers of wooded countryside.
Unfortunately there are cases like this. It’s so sad. Like Stacey Peterson went missing (was almost definitely killed by her husband but her body has never been found) a decade or so after her mom Christie Cales went missing. I can’t imagine how painful it is for Stacey’s siblings to have gone through and still be going through their mom and sister both going missing.
They strongly believe the aunts husband did it!! If I remember correctly, he was involved in another disappearance years later… I could also be making that up though.
Whoa... Never knew that about Stacey. I've watched the Lifetime movie about her disappearence several times. That's tragic. Edit: I think Stacy's Sister passed from Cancer as well?
Do you like to be chipped? Because that's how it starts. First is animals, then kids, then elderly, then everyone else. You know "For your own protection".
Haaa I dated a guy who was super paranoid about surveillance and everything. Always talking about how the government wants to know everything. And yet he would be connected to the internet actively 16 hours a day during and after work, through his gaming PC or through his iPhone. The paranoia made no sense to me.
Yea parents are running possessively wild on everything these days. Thanks for all the future terrorists who are justified in wanting to destroy society.
In the early morning hours of June 4th, 1999, 15-year-old Michael “Mike” Palmer and three of his friends left a graduation party on their bikes.
As his friends would explain, they sped on as Mike lagged behind, not realizing until later that he was no longer with them. They waited for Mike in the parking lot of a local 7-Eleven but he never showed up, leading them to assume that he’d simply gone home.
However, he did not make it home and was never seen again. In the days following his disappearance, his bike would be located in the Little Susitna River and, bizarrely, his sneakers would turn up on a private airstrip hundreds of yards away from the river. These were the only clues that law enforcement had to work with.
The search for Mike turned up no other evidence. Dogs were unable to track his scent anywhere around the river, and neither Mike nor anything else belonging to him was discovered in the body of water. Further adding to the confusion, disturbing rumors about what occurred that night soon began to circulate in the area.
His high tops were described as being muddy and wet. Neatly lined up next to each other. Found on an airstrip about 200 yards from the river, The shoes were found by a teenager, who was the son of the airstrip owner. He took them to the investigators and told them how he had found them. ( The Frontiersman newspaper. ) Strange how investigators got threatening phone calls.
The article says that his shoes were found near a private airstrip but then doesn't mention whether there's any evidence of any aircraft coming in or out of there around that time. Perhaps he was flown out of the area? Perhaps his shoes were placed there to make people believe he was flown out? Honestly I think the most likely answer is that he died either in the river or the surrounding woods from hypothermia and the search party just missed him.
That was my first thought too, that he was flown out. But what would the chances be of kidnapping a teenager at 4:00 in the morning spontaneously then flying him away on a private airstrip and leaving his shoes neatly left behind? It's worth a shot to check for any plane landings and takeoffs for that day but still a long shot
A lot of folks up there own small planes.I could see a scenario in which a drunk driver accidentally hit and killed him, panicked, threw the bike in the river and then asked a buddy with a plane to help dispose of the body. That's obviously all just conjecture though; I still think the most likely scenario is accidental death.
It sounds like maybe it was intended to make it seem like he was flown somewhere. His bike one place and shoes somewhere else seems odd. Are the friends lying about that night or are they covering up something dumb like they ditched him. It sounds like they went pretty far without him. Did they ditch him or something? Did they drink or do drugs and lie about it idk.
That scenario crossed my mind too. The bike itself was described as "bent" when it was taken out of the river. But that could have been caused by throwing it in the river ?
Bent from being thrown in the river? Or from an accident? That's the issue hitting someone on a bike is going to do more damage then just bending it there's going to be paint transfer and alot of damage and a blood trail
This airstrip belonged to a homeowner there. I wondered about a kidnapping too, but wondered why anyone flying out of the area would want to kidnap a teenage boy ? Real mystery. Very strange.
You wonder at why anyone would want to kidnap a teenage boy in a world where teenage boys go missing every single day?? Are you new to the world? Luciferians {eg: masons, o.t.o} and neopagans {eg: odinism, asatru}, ifa shamans, o9a, etc etc cults worldwide sacrifice people of all ages nonstop since the beginning of time.
I believe the friends. Their story seems to have stayed consistent and if something had happened at the party we'd know by now, that kind of thing attracts plenty of witnesses.
My theory is that he left with them but got hit by a car. Driver panics. The "nice" version would be that Mike was alive at first and the intent was actually to get him to a hospital and then his condition deteriorated. Dumps bike (reportedly "bent" when it was found despite the river being quite shallow). I'm assuming they questioned the homeowner with the private airstrip, that part is a little ambigious to me without additional info about where it was and such, but airstrips are so common in AK that it's less weird for anything to be found nearby.
Have you ridden bikes with friends for several miles? I can't imagine biking with a couple friends at night and going more than a mile, let alone several miles, without noticing one of the group was missing.
They were drunk late at night so regular head counts aren’t happening. Also if you look at the suburban neighborhood where they were/where the 7/11 is, there’s basically just one major road that runs through the suburb and terminates at the intersection of the 7/11. So they leave the house on bikes and get on the main road (Pittman) and it’s straight shot to the commercial area in town. Even if they weren’t local, it’s hard for even a drunk to get lost so they’re all doing their own thing. They get close to 7/11 and realize he’s gone but assume he’s just behind/ahead, where else would he go? They park at 7/11, maybe they even go inside rather than standing there waiting to see his bike in the intersection.
When he doesn’t turn up they assume he’s turned around and went out the other way, that he intentionally turned at the intersection, detoured to some random other place, or even went back to the party. In hindsight, they should have gone back down the main road calling out for him but he was an adult and a local and it was June and they were drunk.
Kids are taught the importance of staying together for safety and teenage girls have that lesson reinforced when they start drinking, but drunk teenage boys and young men leave the weakest link behind all the time.
The cops say that the boys have never changed their stories. I find it hard to imagine that a group of 15 year olds could come up with a plausible excuse and then every single one of them could stick to it all these years. I believe them.
Not sure. Sometimes narratives change due to people having a different perspective of events over a long period of time. Small changes in a narrative are not serious red flags.
Yeah,maybe, but teenagers are generally pretty fucking dumb, and they grow up to be conscientious adults. I find it pretty impossible to believe that a bunch of kids could collectively deceive law enforcement about the death of their friend and then not one of them would come clean after 26 years.
I recently posted on another sub about this. I'm from the same town and around his age. I remember the summer he went missing.
Here's the thing, though. It's not really a mystery. If you look around a little, it is known who killed him. It's been reported to the police and nothing has happened. To be honest, Michael was hanging with a trashy crowd, and I don't think the police cared that much back then. Fast forward to now, the guy who killed him has also died, so there's even less motivation to legally uncover the truth.
What exactly happened though? Was it a fight that went too far? Why was he killed? I read the FB thread and people mention names but are mostly vague about what actually happened or why so it's hard to figure out how seriously to take what's being said.
I got curious and found a few Facebook comments from locals: here and here. Crazy how it seems like so many people know but no justice has been served.
Probably not. These vague "this isn't a mystery, everyone already knows who did it" type of comments are extremely unhelpful. And low key disparaging the victim ("Michael was hanging with a trashy crowd") and providing no other details is in poor taste imo.
I wonder if he was accidentally ran over and the person panicked and tossed the bike. Did the bike show any damage? The shoes being wet is very interesting though. Also, why would the investigator be threatened . So odd
So his friends are somehow involved right? you just didnt notice your friend missing, even if he lagged behind slightly for the entire bike ride and you didnt even go back after finding him missing?
Why would they cover that up. If someone hit him while driving at 4 am wouldn’t they report it if they didn’t have something to hide. If you are sober driving to or from work or for any reason you aren’t in the wrong if kids are riding bikes in the early morning hours and possibly drunk or on a dark road. You call an ambulance when that happens if it’s an accident.
People hit and run all the time. Maybe the driver had something to drink or had been speeding or they were scared or they didn’t want to deal with the situation…so they drove off with the body.
Drinking and driving maybe. Although you could sober up and say you thought you hit a dog or deer or some animal. Taking a bike and throwing it in a river or stream and moving the shoes is a full on cover up. I know someone that hit a person with their car while coming off an exit from a highway. She hit a drunk person that was walking onto the highway. She was a little over the limit but she didn’t get in that much trouble because the person was not in a pedestrian area and was waisted. I think she was more traumatized by it than anything. Months in jail I don’t think made her feel better. She has to live with that. I don’t she has driven since. Normal people or decent people stop or try and help if they can even if it gets them in trouble. People out drinking on bikes or walking can be a danger to others and themselves. Normal people don’t hide a body and move a bike and shoes.
If you go to their local pages, apparently everyone in the town knows he was murdered and the police haven’t done it. They even name the people who were responsible. His friends were definitely lying. He was murdered at the party.
What? A bunch of 15ish teenagers are not going to murder a kid at a party and everyone keeps quiet about it. You could say that he OD’d and died, but even that is far-fetched that no one has fessed up.
A person posted the link to the Facebook groups on this thread. You’re free to look at the links and see how the whole town apparently knows it’s three brothers who did it and the police have done nothing. If you understand how corrupt small towns can be then you’ll get it. If you’re naive, then you won’t.
It's always a grand conspiracy with you people.... This was being investigated by the Alaska State Troopers, not the small town's police force. What are the names of these brothers? How old were they? Were they even at the party? Was there an altercation? What did they tell the police? Were they part of the group that gave polygraphs to the police?
More importantly, did Michael leave with his friends or had he already died at the party? If he already died at the party, you have to ask why his friends are covering for the "three small-town brothers". If he died after the party, then it would have been after he separated from his friends otherwise you have to ask why his friends are covering for the "three small-town brothers". Which leaves you with a strange story: the boys had been drinking and left the party on bikes. They were separated about two to two-and-a-half miles later. The "three small-town brothers" decided to go after him (by car or pickup?) and got lucky to not only find Michael, but to find him alone. They knocked him off his bike and beat him to death, threw his bike in the river, then drove down the other direction to put his shoes by the airport strip, then took his body to a third location where they have been able to successfully hide it for 25 years while keeping quiet about it.
Orrrrr.... he was intoxicated, got separated from his friends, and accidentally rode his bike into the river in the dark. Started walking to find help. Took off his wet shoes because they were slowing him down or he was starting to feel effects of hypothermia, either wander into the woods or fell into one of the lakes and died from exposure or got hit by a random car and that person panicked and took the body away.
Mike was spending the night at a friend’s home on Friday, June 4th, 1999. At some point during the evening, Mike and three of his friends (two of whom were named Tommy and Dustin, according to some sources) snuck out of the house and rode their bikes to a graduation party that was taking place near the Meadow Lakes subdivision.
(Side note: It’s unclear why they chose this particular party, as there were others going on that night, or whether or not they really knew anyone there. There are few details available about many aspects of this case.)
Confirmed facts about what occurred at the party are very limited, but it has been said that Mike drank a few beers while there. However, according to the observations of others, he wasn’t noticeably intoxicated and appeared to be alert.
He and the other boys left in the early morning hours and were heading back to the friend’s home. Mike was last spotted riding his bike on Pittman Road at approximately 4 a.m.
He was reportedly riding more slowly than the other boys, lagging behind them. According to them, they continued on for a few miles before they realized that he was gone. They hadn’t seen or heard anything that would indicate Mike was in danger.
At this point, they stopped in the well-lit parking lot of a local 7-Eleven on Parks Highway and waited for their friend to catch up. He never did.
They remained in the parking lot for around 40 minutes (or as little as 15 minutes depending on the source) before giving up and assuming that Mike decided to go back to his own home, which was located roughly nine miles away from the party.
It wasn’t until hours later that his family would find out that he was missing. When Mike didn’t come home that day, Lisa called the home of the friend he’d been staying with and asked where her son was. This was when she learned that he wasn’t there and that no one knew where he might be.
She contacted the police and reported Mike missing at 3 p.m.
It says that they snuck out to go to the party. Also; this was in the 90's. I was a teenager in the early 2000's and me and my friends regularly went out late at night.
The 90s were a different time, I feel back then (i was around his age when he disappeared) I would have been more afraid of a cop catching me out past curfew than I would be getting abducted. Adult me now thinks it’s insane to let a child, even if they are a teen, out at such an hour
When my nieces and nephews were young and lived in Alaska, they had very abnormal play hours because of the semi daylight. I remember them playing at the park at midnight with other kids. Im unsure if this part of Alaska experiences the same extended daylight.
The most frustrating part of this case is the friends' behavior. Leaving a 15-year-old behind, especially if alcohol was involved, is incredibly negligent. Whether it was foul play or a tragic accident that panicked them, it feels like the people who were with him that night know more than they are saying.
I have a theory. Hear me out cause it’s a stretch, if they had been drinking like some suggest (I haven’t dug TOOOO deep sorry) he could have been decently intoxicated. So, my theory is he stopped for awhile, got alittle discombobulated and ended up trailing off, accidentally rode into the river which explains the bike in their and the shoes being wet, after that he just drunkly stumbles off unsure of exactly where he’s going but just going anyways. Ends up on the airstrip and takes his shoes off because they’re too wet and starting to hurt his feet, which would explain why no socks were in the shoes. He goes so far on that he just gets completely lost, and whenever he ended up from there, which is say is alittle beyond further of the airstrip, is where he still is. They just haven’t found him that far and most likely won’t now because of land coverage as years and seasons change.
The friends are definitely lying about what happened. Either they did something or know what happened and didn't want to tell the truth. Unfortunately that is such a vast remote area that without solid leads to his whereabouts, his remains may never be found.
This story just keeps getting more tragic. His older brother went missing 11 years later too?? That poor, poor family. I can’t imagine not getting closure for not just one, but two children.
It's really sad. The poor family has been through a lot.
My immediate suspicion is that his friends are lying. I think something must have happened at the graduation party they just left and one or more of his friends got into a fight with him and he either died by accident or deliberately. They then made up the story about his disappearance.
Agreed. Who rides MILES without checking on everyone in the group? And the big discrepancy in the time they waited in the parking lot? They put his shoes and bike in different places to put people off their tracks.
I mean... At 15 that happened to me and my friends several times. And if they have been drinking, that just adds to the plausibility that they just forget to check. (Which is why their story is pretty solid given the circumstances IMO)
My reasons to suspect the friends though are simpler:
They're the last people to see him alive. Very, VERY often it's the ones who last saw the victim who killed them.
The long bike ride leaves ample opportunities both geographically and chronologically to murder him and hide the body.
Very very often? Unless you’re killed by a blind person I think it would be EVERY time. ;)
How did a few teenagers hide the body that well? Im unfamiliar with the case but you would think cadaver dogs would have been deployed.
Someone else asked a similar question, so I'll just copy-paste the answer I gave to them:
Considering Palmer disappeared in Alaska makes me suspect the terrain might have been very very difficult for finding a body.
It’s Alaska
I just checked the area yesterday on Google maps. The bike road they took went between a residential area of single homes and a river. On the other side of the river is a VAST wooded area, like huge and thickly wooded with conifer trees. The guy's bike was found below a bridge across said river.
100% his final resting place was somewhere in that forest.
I’d believe that part. I went on a bush walk with my partner and in-laws once, I stopped to tie my shoe, fell behind, couldn’t catch up and in the end turned around and walked back to the car park, it wasn’t until about an hour later they text to ask where I was when they noticed I wasn’t behind them.
Kids
I've seen this type of situation too may times, it's definitely a possibility.
But how smart can a bunch of teenagers be to hide a body so well? I'm sure the police took that into consideration during the investigation.
Depending on the geography of the area, it can be very difficult to find even a sparsely hidden body. I haven't really read up on the case too well, but here in Sweden there was a murder a few years ago where the body was dumped in a shallow pit only about 30 meters from a gravel road and despite weeks of large search efforts, the police didn't find it until one of the guilty confessed and showed them the spot.
This was kilometers and kilometers of wooded countryside.
What??? Almost no family thankfully need to experience this, but TWICE???
Unfortunately there are cases like this. It’s so sad. Like Stacey Peterson went missing (was almost definitely killed by her husband but her body has never been found) a decade or so after her mom Christie Cales went missing. I can’t imagine how painful it is for Stacey’s siblings to have gone through and still be going through their mom and sister both going missing.
And summer Wells aunty went missing and was never found a year or so before summer Wells
That’s right!
Like 20 years before actually
Yeah in 2009
I checked after i posted it, still sad knowing Aunty & niece are both missing and have to this day never been foumd
They strongly believe the aunts husband did it!! If I remember correctly, he was involved in another disappearance years later… I could also be making that up though.
Damn. How sad.
Whoa... Never knew that about Stacey. I've watched the Lifetime movie about her disappearence several times. That's tragic. Edit: I think Stacy's Sister passed from Cancer as well?
There's a story about Steven Stayner. His family had a lot of tragedy in it too. I know my name is Steven is the movie about it.
The entire story of Steven and Cary Stayner is fascinating. Cases 154 and 161 of Casefile podcast cover their stories very well. Just a tragic tale.
that's so bananas. it makes me want to chip my kids (I'm kidding)
I think all kids should be chipped. Not kidding.
Do you like to be chipped? Because that's how it starts. First is animals, then kids, then elderly, then everyone else. You know "For your own protection".
Good thing we dont all have a box in our pocket transmitting our exact location at all tines.
Haaa I dated a guy who was super paranoid about surveillance and everything. Always talking about how the government wants to know everything. And yet he would be connected to the internet actively 16 hours a day during and after work, through his gaming PC or through his iPhone. The paranoia made no sense to me.
The government does want to know everything. Doesn't mean im gonna stop gaming or using the internet.
Yes but you can’t be paranoid about what the government knows while also plugged in is what I’m saying.
What do you fear?
Yea parents are running possessively wild on everything these days. Thanks for all the future terrorists who are justified in wanting to destroy society.
🤔
What the heck don't you think his family is being targeted?
Read more
The shoes. That’s one of those missing 411 things.
Edit: along with dogs not being able to pick up a scent.
His high tops were described as being muddy and wet. Neatly lined up next to each other. Found on an airstrip about 200 yards from the river, The shoes were found by a teenager, who was the son of the airstrip owner. He took them to the investigators and told them how he had found them. ( The Frontiersman newspaper. ) Strange how investigators got threatening phone calls.
Missing 411 is utter crap. Don't believe it.
Thank you. The guy is a kook that spins a halfway good story.
Not even a good story. He just flat out lies. Many of the people are found. I read he got sacked from the Police.
Oh wow didn't know that. I am so glad I didn't purchase his book or whatever the fuck.
They're expensive too!
Yes. Shoes, rocks, and water are the 3 Missing 411 commonalities……yep. You read that right.
I love your posts!! They give me some old school UM vibes.
Thank you so much!
The article says that his shoes were found near a private airstrip but then doesn't mention whether there's any evidence of any aircraft coming in or out of there around that time. Perhaps he was flown out of the area? Perhaps his shoes were placed there to make people believe he was flown out? Honestly I think the most likely answer is that he died either in the river or the surrounding woods from hypothermia and the search party just missed him.
That was my first thought too, that he was flown out. But what would the chances be of kidnapping a teenager at 4:00 in the morning spontaneously then flying him away on a private airstrip and leaving his shoes neatly left behind? It's worth a shot to check for any plane landings and takeoffs for that day but still a long shot
A lot of folks up there own small planes.I could see a scenario in which a drunk driver accidentally hit and killed him, panicked, threw the bike in the river and then asked a buddy with a plane to help dispose of the body. That's obviously all just conjecture though; I still think the most likely scenario is accidental death.
That's definitely a possibility but if that were the case, why in the world leave the kid's own shoes on the airstrip as a clue?
It sounds like maybe it was intended to make it seem like he was flown somewhere. His bike one place and shoes somewhere else seems odd. Are the friends lying about that night or are they covering up something dumb like they ditched him. It sounds like they went pretty far without him. Did they ditch him or something? Did they drink or do drugs and lie about it idk.
This weird and sad.
Maybe they didn’t mean to leave his shoes there.
That scenario crossed my mind too. The bike itself was described as "bent" when it was taken out of the river. But that could have been caused by throwing it in the river ?
The bike would be bent if a car hit it before it went into the river
Hardly likely unless there was a huge drop into said river
Good point.
Likely a 0% chance of that happening
No damage to the bike has ever been reported though hitting someone on a bike would certainly wreck the bike and leave damage on the vehicle
A comment above says the bike was bent when it was found
Bent from being thrown in the river? Or from an accident? That's the issue hitting someone on a bike is going to do more damage then just bending it there's going to be paint transfer and alot of damage and a blood trail
This airstrip belonged to a homeowner there. I wondered about a kidnapping too, but wondered why anyone flying out of the area would want to kidnap a teenage boy ? Real mystery. Very strange.
You wonder at why anyone would want to kidnap a teenage boy in a world where teenage boys go missing every single day?? Are you new to the world? Luciferians {eg: masons, o.t.o} and neopagans {eg: odinism, asatru}, ifa shamans, o9a, etc etc cults worldwide sacrifice people of all ages nonstop since the beginning of time.
What I meant was the sheer bad luck Michael had if someone took him at that time and at that place. I do have doubts about his friends statements.
how does that explain his shows being neatly placed on an airstrip?
I believe the friends. Their story seems to have stayed consistent and if something had happened at the party we'd know by now, that kind of thing attracts plenty of witnesses.
My theory is that he left with them but got hit by a car. Driver panics. The "nice" version would be that Mike was alive at first and the intent was actually to get him to a hospital and then his condition deteriorated. Dumps bike (reportedly "bent" when it was found despite the river being quite shallow). I'm assuming they questioned the homeowner with the private airstrip, that part is a little ambigious to me without additional info about where it was and such, but airstrips are so common in AK that it's less weird for anything to be found nearby.
Have you ridden bikes with friends for several miles? I can't imagine biking with a couple friends at night and going more than a mile, let alone several miles, without noticing one of the group was missing.
They were drunk late at night so regular head counts aren’t happening. Also if you look at the suburban neighborhood where they were/where the 7/11 is, there’s basically just one major road that runs through the suburb and terminates at the intersection of the 7/11. So they leave the house on bikes and get on the main road (Pittman) and it’s straight shot to the commercial area in town. Even if they weren’t local, it’s hard for even a drunk to get lost so they’re all doing their own thing. They get close to 7/11 and realize he’s gone but assume he’s just behind/ahead, where else would he go? They park at 7/11, maybe they even go inside rather than standing there waiting to see his bike in the intersection.
When he doesn’t turn up they assume he’s turned around and went out the other way, that he intentionally turned at the intersection, detoured to some random other place, or even went back to the party. In hindsight, they should have gone back down the main road calling out for him but he was an adult and a local and it was June and they were drunk.
Kids are taught the importance of staying together for safety and teenage girls have that lesson reinforced when they start drinking, but drunk teenage boys and young men leave the weakest link behind all the time.
I think his friends are lying.
The cops say that the boys have never changed their stories. I find it hard to imagine that a group of 15 year olds could come up with a plausible excuse and then every single one of them could stick to it all these years. I believe them.
Not sure. Sometimes narratives change due to people having a different perspective of events over a long period of time. Small changes in a narrative are not serious red flags.
Maybe they made up a story together somewhere before telling the cops abt it?
Yeah,maybe, but teenagers are generally pretty fucking dumb, and they grow up to be conscientious adults. I find it pretty impossible to believe that a bunch of kids could collectively deceive law enforcement about the death of their friend and then not one of them would come clean after 26 years.
The thought Immediately crossed My mind..
[deleted]
Exactly why they said “I think”
Ok Doug
I recently posted on another sub about this. I'm from the same town and around his age. I remember the summer he went missing.
Here's the thing, though. It's not really a mystery. If you look around a little, it is known who killed him. It's been reported to the police and nothing has happened. To be honest, Michael was hanging with a trashy crowd, and I don't think the police cared that much back then. Fast forward to now, the guy who killed him has also died, so there's even less motivation to legally uncover the truth.
What exactly happened though? Was it a fight that went too far? Why was he killed? I read the FB thread and people mention names but are mostly vague about what actually happened or why so it's hard to figure out how seriously to take what's being said.
Any links to info about the alleged suspect?
They'll conveniently never answer
I got curious and found a few Facebook comments from locals: here and here. Crazy how it seems like so many people know but no justice has been served.
Probably not. These vague "this isn't a mystery, everyone already knows who did it" type of comments are extremely unhelpful. And low key disparaging the victim ("Michael was hanging with a trashy crowd") and providing no other details is in poor taste imo.
They do have a recent, more detailed post just not naming the person by name.
Where the boys he was with involved? Did they ever find a body?
Can you link to that post?
Imagine being that family. Knowing the cops know and they just let him go?
Getting death threats definitely sounds like an inside job from someone in town
I wonder if he was accidentally ran over and the person panicked and tossed the bike. Did the bike show any damage? The shoes being wet is very interesting though. Also, why would the investigator be threatened . So odd
Bike was bent
Ohh that’s very interesting!
So his friends are somehow involved right? you just didnt notice your friend missing, even if he lagged behind slightly for the entire bike ride and you didnt even go back after finding him missing?
They were teenagers out at 4 am and probably drinking. It makes a lot of sense they weren’t paying attention and he got hit by a car.
Why would they cover that up. If someone hit him while driving at 4 am wouldn’t they report it if they didn’t have something to hide. If you are sober driving to or from work or for any reason you aren’t in the wrong if kids are riding bikes in the early morning hours and possibly drunk or on a dark road. You call an ambulance when that happens if it’s an accident.
People hit and run all the time. Maybe the driver had something to drink or had been speeding or they were scared or they didn’t want to deal with the situation…so they drove off with the body.
Drinking and driving maybe. Although you could sober up and say you thought you hit a dog or deer or some animal. Taking a bike and throwing it in a river or stream and moving the shoes is a full on cover up. I know someone that hit a person with their car while coming off an exit from a highway. She hit a drunk person that was walking onto the highway. She was a little over the limit but she didn’t get in that much trouble because the person was not in a pedestrian area and was waisted. I think she was more traumatized by it than anything. Months in jail I don’t think made her feel better. She has to live with that. I don’t she has driven since. Normal people or decent people stop or try and help if they can even if it gets them in trouble. People out drinking on bikes or walking can be a danger to others and themselves. Normal people don’t hide a body and move a bike and shoes.
If you go to their local pages, apparently everyone in the town knows he was murdered and the police haven’t done it. They even name the people who were responsible. His friends were definitely lying. He was murdered at the party.
What? A bunch of 15ish teenagers are not going to murder a kid at a party and everyone keeps quiet about it. You could say that he OD’d and died, but even that is far-fetched that no one has fessed up.
A person posted the link to the Facebook groups on this thread. You’re free to look at the links and see how the whole town apparently knows it’s three brothers who did it and the police have done nothing. If you understand how corrupt small towns can be then you’ll get it. If you’re naive, then you won’t.
It's always a grand conspiracy with you people.... This was being investigated by the Alaska State Troopers, not the small town's police force. What are the names of these brothers? How old were they? Were they even at the party? Was there an altercation? What did they tell the police? Were they part of the group that gave polygraphs to the police?
More importantly, did Michael leave with his friends or had he already died at the party? If he already died at the party, you have to ask why his friends are covering for the "three small-town brothers". If he died after the party, then it would have been after he separated from his friends otherwise you have to ask why his friends are covering for the "three small-town brothers". Which leaves you with a strange story: the boys had been drinking and left the party on bikes. They were separated about two to two-and-a-half miles later. The "three small-town brothers" decided to go after him (by car or pickup?) and got lucky to not only find Michael, but to find him alone. They knocked him off his bike and beat him to death, threw his bike in the river, then drove down the other direction to put his shoes by the airport strip, then took his body to a third location where they have been able to successfully hide it for 25 years while keeping quiet about it.
Orrrrr.... he was intoxicated, got separated from his friends, and accidentally rode his bike into the river in the dark. Started walking to find help. Took off his wet shoes because they were slowing him down or he was starting to feel effects of hypothermia, either wander into the woods or fell into one of the lakes and died from exposure or got hit by a random car and that person panicked and took the body away.
Dude came up with a whole new scenario to justify his opinion when the actual witness say otherwise. Get a load of this guy 😂😂
Actual witness... who are you even referring to? Again, tell us how that story would make any sense and why his friends would cover it up?
I wonder too
Missing while in the company of friends often means the friends were involved.
Intriguing case. I hope we get an answer one day.
more info:
The shoes being placed neatly next to each other is a recurring theme I've seen in so many missing person cases, It's crazy
Also, who lets their 15-year-old out at 4:00 in the morning?
It says that they snuck out to go to the party. Also; this was in the 90's. I was a teenager in the early 2000's and me and my friends regularly went out late at night.
The 90s were a different time, I feel back then (i was around his age when he disappeared) I would have been more afraid of a cop catching me out past curfew than I would be getting abducted. Adult me now thinks it’s insane to let a child, even if they are a teen, out at such an hour
When my nieces and nephews were young and lived in Alaska, they had very abnormal play hours because of the semi daylight. I remember them playing at the park at midnight with other kids. Im unsure if this part of Alaska experiences the same extended daylight.
Good point.
Maybe it was just my town, but as a teenager in the 90s I was often out all night, especially in the summer
The most frustrating part of this case is the friends' behavior. Leaving a 15-year-old behind, especially if alcohol was involved, is incredibly negligent. Whether it was foul play or a tragic accident that panicked them, it feels like the people who were with him that night know more than they are saying.
I think he was hit by a car and it was covered up.
I have a theory. Hear me out cause it’s a stretch, if they had been drinking like some suggest (I haven’t dug TOOOO deep sorry) he could have been decently intoxicated. So, my theory is he stopped for awhile, got alittle discombobulated and ended up trailing off, accidentally rode into the river which explains the bike in their and the shoes being wet, after that he just drunkly stumbles off unsure of exactly where he’s going but just going anyways. Ends up on the airstrip and takes his shoes off because they’re too wet and starting to hurt his feet, which would explain why no socks were in the shoes. He goes so far on that he just gets completely lost, and whenever he ended up from there, which is say is alittle beyond further of the airstrip, is where he still is. They just haven’t found him that far and most likely won’t now because of land coverage as years and seasons change.
I don’t trust the friends. In any case I feel sorry for his poor family.
The friends are definitely lying about what happened. Either they did something or know what happened and didn't want to tell the truth. Unfortunately that is such a vast remote area that without solid leads to his whereabouts, his remains may never be found.
Friends are lying. Maybe they made some sort of mistake but they definitely know.
They could use a less sinister picture of the poor kid