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A renewed push by New York police investigators to solve the nation’s oldest missing-teens case has yielded significant new leads — including the possibility of previously unknown witnesses to their disappearance, Rolling Stone has learned.
For the first time in the history of the 51-year-old cold case, special investigators from the New York State Police have joined with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office to interview a Rhode Island man who has provided new information about the case of the missing youths — two Brooklyn high schoolers named Mitchel Weiser, 16, and 15-year-old Bonnie Bickwit.
As detailed in a 2023 Rolling Stone investigation, the couple vanished in July 1973 in connection with one of the biggest rock concerts in history: Summer Jam, featuring the Grateful Dead, the Band, and the Allman Brothers, held in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Allyn Smith, a 74-year-old retired jewelry-manufacturing worker, tells Rolling Stone he was stunned when two New York investigators from the State Police and Sullivan County Sheriff showed up unannounced at his Rhode Island home right before Labor Day weekend.
Smith says he had thought the case was resolved years ago based on the information he provided in 2000, when he voluntarily responded to a cable-TV episode seeking the public’s help 27 years after the couple disappeared.
At the time, Smith told a New York State Police investigator and this reporter that he and the teens — whom he had never met before — were hitchhiking home from Watkins Glen hours before the concert ended and were picked up by a driver in an orange Volkswagen. On their way home, the van pulled off the highway near a river so the group could cool off on this hot summer day. Smith said Bonnie accidentally fell into the river. Mitchel jumped in after her. They were never seen again.
“I thought you guys had closed the case,” Smith says he told the investigators. “They answered, ‘No, it’s always been open. But now we’re investigating with fresh eyes on it.’”
During the interview, Smith says, he provided new information, revealing there were two previously unmentioned hitchhikers in the back of the van that picked them up in Watkins Glen on July 28, 1973.
Smith says that the two other hitchhikers in the back were older, perhaps in their midtwenties. He did not talk to them. They stayed in the van the whole time and did not go down to the river. “They never got up or anything,” Smith says. “They were all covered up with sleeping bags and blankets.”
He also offered new information about the river site: an area off the highway with rocks that served as a spot where locals gathered to cool off during the summer. He said about 25 people had witnessed the teens being swept into the river. “Everybody watched it,” Smith says. “Everybody saw it.” These details can assist investigators in narrowing a search for unclaimed bodies, officials say.
Asked why he didn’t mention this information 24 years ago, Smith replied, “To tell you the truth, I never thought about it.”
Smith’s wife, Francis, tells Rolling Stone the incident had a profound effect on her husband, and that he immediately told several friends about it upon returning home in 1973. “He was shaken by it,” she says, adding that he provided investigators with the names of those friends.
Meanwhile, state-police experts from the Major Crimes and Cold Case units, working with the county detective, are also interviewing relatives and friends of the teens, reviewing old information, assessing new leads, and are planning to use social media to reach fans of the bands and Summer Jam, which attracted 600,000 music lovers from across the country.
“The state police are actively collaborating with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on this case,” New York State Police Lt. Col. Paul DeQuartro tells Rolling Stone. “Together, we have been thoroughly investigating every lead and remain committed to following all developments to their conclusion.”
The upgraded joint investigation follows a series of articles in Rolling Stone exposing decades of incompetence and neglect in handling the case. In response, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul directed state-police experts to assist the county in thoroughly reviewing the case and chasing down all leads.
“We hope that this work will uncover new leads or overlooked information that will help solve this case and give their families and friends the answers they deserve,” a Hochul spokesperson said in 2023.
“It seems like there’s certainly an increased effort to pull the case wide open and take a fresh look at what appears to be significant new information,” retired state-police investigator Roy Streever, who worked on the case 25 years ago, tells Rolling Stone.
Family and friends have renewed hope that this enhanced effort will definitively reveal what happened to Bickwit and her boyfriend Weiser, two beloved, talented, honor students who attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn.
“I am feeling thankful to Gov. Hochul and New York investigators for reopening the case involving the disappearance of my only sister, Bonnie,” says Sheryl Kagen, who was recently interviewed by two state-police investigators. “I would like to have real answers and an actual memorial service.”
“This is exciting and amazing,” adds Michele Festa, Bonnie’s best friend in high school, after two New York State Police investigators recently interviewed her for several hours. Police took Festa’s sweet-16 photo album — photos mostly taken by Weiser. It was likely the last sweet-16 party Mitchel and Bonnie ever went to. “They said they are interviewing many people,” says Festa. “Oh, my god, I couldn’t believe it.”
In fact, investigators have several other theories to review. One concerns a 63-year-old Florida woman who told police 10 years ago that as a child, she saw her father bury Weiser in connection with what she believed was a child sex-trafficking ring. Her family had lived in Steuben County, about 20 minutes from the concert site.
Another theory involves notorious 1970s New York serial killer Robert Garrow, who was driving an orange Volkswagen that summer. A third involves a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in a Maryland prison.
Investigators also recently contacted Maurice Schickler, a psychic who 24 years ago told authorities and this reporter he believes the teens were murdered, and that the names “Wayne, Wade, and Willie” were connected to the story. (More recently, a woman named Sarah Saunders, who used to live in Steuben County, told Rolling Stone that 10 years ago, another psychic told her there were two young people buried on her property. Saunders then lived in the town of Wayne with her husband, Wade.)
“I told [investigators] I know where their bodies are buried,” Schickler tells Rolling Stone. “If they invite me to come, I’d be delighted to help.”
Stuart Karten, Weiser’s high school best friend who has been seeking answers for 51 years and operates the site www.mitchelandbonnie.com, says he’s excited about the augmented initiative.
“Finally, we have an investigation that is combing through all the past leads, and most importantly, with a new set of fresh eyes,” Karten says. “I am still hopeful after 50 plus years that this can bring closure to all the friends and families.’’
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In July 2025, New York State cold case investigators launched an unprecedented joint public campaign seeking new information and witnesses in the case. The New York State Police and the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office collaborated on a poster offering a $10,000 reward for information about the disappearance of the teens. The two departments say they have “partnered together to investigate their disappearance with the hopes of bringing closure to Bonnie and Mitch’s loved ones.” The new poster offers never before revealed details about Mitchel’s 1970s Japanese camera, which is now considered a collector’s item.
This article has been updated as of July 24, 2025 at 5 p.m. to include a new public campaign seeking more information from potential witnesses.
