Susan Walsh (missing person)

Susan Walsh
Undated photo of Walsh
Born Susan Young
(1960-02-18)February 18, 1960
Wayne, New Jersey, U.S.
Disappeared July 16, 1996 (aged 36)
Nutley, New Jersey, US
Status Missing for 22 years, 3 months and 7 days
Nationality American
Education William Paterson College
New York University
Occupation Journalist, writer, stripper
Employer Al Goldstein, Screw Magazine
The Village Voice
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[1]
Weight 110 lb (50 kg)[1]

Susan Walsh (February 18, 1960 – disappeared July 16, 1996)[2] was an American writer and freelance journalist who disappeared outside her home in Nutley, New Jersey on July 16, 1996.[3] Walsh's disappearance was widely publicized into the late 1990s, especially after several newspapers and media outlets published articles implying that her disappearance was potentially linked to the Russian mafia or New York City's underground vampire community, both subjects that she had investigated while writing for The Village Voice.[4]

Walsh's case has been profiled on multiple television programs, including Unsolved Mysteries in 1997 and Disappeared in 2012. Walsh was also the subject of a 1998 book titled Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today by Katherine Ramsland.

Early life

Susan Walsh was born Susan Young on February 18, 1960, and aspired to be a poet from a young age. Her upbringing was described as "troubled."[5] Walsh attended William Paterson University where she studied English and writing, working as a journalist for the college's newspaper. Walsh worked intermittently as an erotic dancer and stripper to pay her tuition, and struggled with substance abuse and alcoholism while in college; nonetheless, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1988,[5] and afterward worked as a writer for engineering and business publications.[4] She later worked as a writer for Screw magazine under Al Goldstein.[6]

She married Mark Walsh, a brother of musician Joe Walsh, in 1984.[7][8] The couple had one son, David, born in 1985.[1]

Disappearance

On July 16, 1996, Walsh left her apartment complex in Nutley, New Jersey, which she shared with her son; her estranged husband, Mark, lived below them. Walsh had left to run errands and make a telephone call at a payphone across the street, leaving her son in the care of his father. This was the last time she was seen. At the time of Walsh's disappearance, she was enrolled in a Master's program in English at New York University, which she had halfway completed, and was working as a freelance journalist, meanwhile supporting herself and her son by working various jobs as a stripper. At the time of her disappearance, her friends worried she had relapsed into her drug problems after having maintained eleven years of sobriety.[1]

Investigation

Police ruled out Walsh's ex-husband as a suspect, and it was later noted that the page for the month of July 1996 had been mysteriously torn out of her calendar in her apartment.[9] Although police had few clues to go off of while investigating Walsh's disappearance, rumors circulated that her disappearance might have been connected to the investigative research she had been doing at the time.

Walsh had written an in-depth report on a strip club ring in which members of the Russian mafia were allegedly forcing young girls into the sex industry, which was published in The Village Voice. Following this article, Walsh also explored an underground vampire community in New York City, but the newspaper did not run the story as they felt Walsh's writing on the matter was not objective.[2] Ultimately, police were unable to establish any connections between Walsh's disappearance and her work on either article.[2][10] Walsh established a friendship with journalist James Ridgeway during her time writing for the Voice, with Ridgeway referring to her as his "most reliable" writer.[1]

At the time, Walsh had also participated in a documentary produced by her friend, Jill Morley, titled Stripped, which detailed women working in the sex industry.[1][11] Walsh was recorded in a group interview for the film on July 14, 1996, two days before her disappearance, during which she made a reference to having a "stalker."[1] She had also hired herself out to a German documentary crew making a film about Russian immigrants becoming go-go dancers, and was also in the midst of developing a documentary on the subject with the BBC shortly before her disappearance.[12] Walsh's last work was her contributions to the book Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry by Ridgeway and Sylvia Plachy; Walsh served as the primary researcher for the book and also contributed photographs and personal writings within a month before her disappearance.[12]

In a 2006 article in The New York Post, it was noted that Walsh had confided to a former boyfriend that another of her ex-boyfriends had been stalking her; additionally, the article stated that her husband, Mark, had refused to allow police to perform forensic testing of their home.[8]

Works

Known bibliography
  • Screw Magazine
  • The Village Voice (2 articles)
  • Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry by James Ridgeway; Sylvia Plachy (primary researcher, contributor) ISBN 978-1576870006
Filmography
  • Stripped (1996) as herself

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Disappeared. "Dancing into Darkness". Investigation Discovery Network. September 8, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "Susan Walsh". The Charley Project. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Doe Network: Case File 1578DFNJ". www.doenetwork.org. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
  4. 1 2 "Three Women and the Sex Industry". This American Life. February 28, 1997. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Kays, John (April 10, 2010). "The Disturbing Case of Susan Walsh: Vampires, Russian Mobsters and Sex Slaves!". News Blaze. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  6. ↑ Kevlin 2007, pp. 55-56.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Alfred (1998). "Susan Walsh Story". Alfredsullivan.com. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Hamilton, Brad (July 16, 1996). "'96 STRIPPER VANISH CLUE". The New York Post. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  9. ↑ Weed, Alexis; Nancy Grace (December 7, 2009). "Woman vanishes and so does a page from her calendar". CNN. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ Grollmus, Denise (December 16, 2009). "Were "Vampires" Behind Susan Walsh's 1996 Disappearance? Or the Russian Mob?". True Crime Report. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Stripped (2001)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Beckett, Andy (September 1, 1996). "MISSING, PRESUMED UNDEAD". The Independent. Retrieved June 21, 2014.

Sources

  • Kevlin, T.A. (April 25, 2007). Headless Man in Topless Bar: Studies of 725 cases of strip club related criminal homicides. Dog Ear Publishing. ISBN 978-1-598-58324-3.
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