Butch Witkowski, Homicide Detective
According to research carried out by Witkowski (2009) 250,000 people go missing per annum in the United States of America. On a global scale 2.5-2.7
million people go missing per year, 95% of the people missing are found, 70% of which are missing children. Witkowski (2009) claims that some of the
reasons for people going missing include spouse abuse, cheating and murder. Out of the 2.5-2.7 million people world wide that go missing 30,000 are
never found as if they have disappeared from the face of the Earth, man, woman and child.
Pennsylvania 2002 - Day 1
On Sunday 4th August 2002, a 39 year old white male by the name Todd Sees disappeared in Pennsylvania.
Sees lived at the base of Montour Ridge in Northumberland County near the town of Northumberland, Pennsylvania.
On the morning of the 4th Sees got up early, got dressed in his boots, camouflage vest, hat, socks, pants, jumped on his ATV and decided to go to
Montour Ridge to spot early season deer on a portion of his 80-acre property. Before leaving Sees told his wife Sue Sees he would be back by noon, he
rode his ATV up the power lines behind his home just after 5:00am (Davenport, 2002; Moore, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
At 5:30 a.m. a farmer and 3 fisherman on the Susquehanna river spotted a craft on the western end of Montour Ridge hovering above the power lines. The
farmer said the craft appeared out of nowhere, he could see sparks coming from the tower and falling to the ground. The incident lasted around 10
minutes before the craft got very bright and took off in a western direction, the craft stopped and went straight up before disappearing in seconds.
The farmer claims the horses on his farm were spooked for around 12 hours after the incident (Davenport, 2002).
Noon came and went, at 12:30 p.m. Nick Sees, Todd Sees's 18 year old son found his fathers ATV on the west end of Montour Ridge two miles from the
family home (Moore, 2002).
At around 2:00 p.m. Sees's wife Sue contacted the Point Township police department, at 2:30 p.m. Northumberland Borough Fire Chief Josh Newbury
received a call from Sue Sees and a search immediately followed. Local police, state police, paramedics, approximately 200 volunteers, bloodhounds and
search/rescue dogs worked together to try and locate Mr Sees (Davenport, 2002; Moore, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
Before the search could commence, one group of searchers had to wait several hours for 3 tracking dogs from Northstar Search and Rescue of Selingrove,
once the dogs arrived James Shaffer and the search team were sent into heavy woodland to try and pick up Todd Sees's scent (Moore, 2002).
By 6 p.m. a state police helicopter from Hazelton had flown over Montour Ridge looking for Todd Sees, around the same time Geise was requesting
bloodhounds be brought in to assist the search/rescue dogs (Moore, 2002).
At about 7:45 p.m. the bloodhound was on the scene and Geise decided he had to send 25 volunteers out on foot to begin a sweep of the 6 square mile
search area (Moore, 2002).
The search team located Sees's ATV previously found by Nick Sees 2 miles from his home at the top of Montour Ridge near a power line but search/rescue
dogs could find nothing to go on around the ATV.
Searchers found one of Sees's shoes approximately 78 feet in the air in a tree 1 mile away from the ATV. Divers searched his pond which is located 25
yards from his house and found nothing (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
At 10pm the search was called off for the night and started again the following morning. Search coordinator Point Township Fire Chief Leon Geise said
six teams with K-9 dogs planned to resume the search at 6 a.m. Monday 5h August, 2002 (Davenport, 2002; Moore, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
Pennsylvania 2002 - Day 2
On Monday 5th August 2002, later in the afternoon in a thicket of bushes between 25-150 yards away from Todd Sees home near the pond one of the
searchers sees something white in a heavily wooded area overgrown with bushes. Firemen start digging into the bushes and have to cut into it with axes
and power tools (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
They find Sees in his underwear, he is pale white and emaciated (extremely thin), had he been dead for 24-36 hours, the coroner said he should have
been bloated (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
There was no liver mortise, no rigamortis, nothing but a few scratches from the bramble bushes he was entangled in (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski,
2009).
Three feet away from Sees was a dead rattle snake, with the same time of death, Sees was not bitten by the rattle snake (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski,
2009).
The body was described by people at the scene as having his arms bent as if in the lower end of a press up, hands flat near his head, he had a look
of horror on his face. Sees also had a one and a half inch burn mark on his left temple (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
The search team and dogs had been scouring the site for 30+ hours and no one had seen anything in that area (Davenport, 2002; Witkowski, 2009).
Chief Gary Steffen, Chief of Police for the Point Township police department identified the body on scene since he was personally acquainted with the
victim therefore the family were never asked to verify the body (Davenport, 2002).
edit on 8-1-2013 by oxjondoexo because: (no reason
given)