JAMIE STICKLE - PITTSBURGH'S MOST HAUNTING UNSOLVED MYSTERY

More than 24 years later, the death of Jamie Lynn Stickle remains one of Pittsburgh's most baffling cold cases. Despite evidence suggesting she was attacked and burned alive in her Jeep, no one has ever been arrested, and the case remains unsolved. 

Who Was Jamie Stickle?

Jamie Stickle was a beloved bartender in Pittsburgh's LGBTQ+ community. Friends described her as outgoing, generous, and deeply involved in charitable causes, including fundraising for HIV/AIDS research, breast cancer awareness, and multiple sclerosis programs. She was well-known at popular Pittsburgh nightlife venues and had a reputation for helping others. 

In the early morning hours of February 8, 2002, Jamie finished socializing in Pittsburgh's downtown bar district after working a shift. Witnesses last saw her after she attempted to enter an after-hours club but was denied entry due to intoxication. She then headed toward her vehicle and drove home. About an hour later, firefighters responded to a burning Jeep Wrangler near her North Side apartment. Inside the driver's seat was Jamie Stickle.

Investigators quickly realized this was no ordinary vehicle fire. Detectives believed she may have been attacked at her apartment door before ending up back in the Jeep, but exactly how that happened has never been determined. 

Several questions continue to frustrate investigators: Who attacked her? How did she end up back in the Jeep? Why was the apartment locked?

Investigators found the apartment locked, creating questions about whether she ever made it inside. Additional confusion arose when keys were later reportedly found inside the apartment. For years, one of the most controversial aspects of the case was that authorities did not formally classify the death as homicide despite evidence suggesting foul play. This frustrated family members and supporters who believed the circumstances clearly pointed to murder. 

Within Pittsburgh's LGBTQ+ community, Jamie's death remains deeply personal. Memorials, vigils, fundraising campaigns, podcasts, and media investigations have kept attention on the case for more than two decades. 

In 2024, a true-crime podcast,"The Girl With the Same Name," renewed interest in the investigation, while additional cold-case coverage continued into 2026.  Every cold case has a defining mystery. For Jamie Stickle, it is remarkably simple: Who would want to harm a woman described by nearly everyone as kind, charitable, and loved? More than two decades later, Pittsburgh still doesn't have the answer. 

The case remains open, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact Pittsburgh Police Homicide..

REVISITING THE TRAGIC DISAPPEARANCE OF JANET WALSH

This article contains references to death, grief, and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self‑harm, help is available. In the United States, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or via chat at 988lifeline.org...

On a cold January evening in 2020, Janet Ann Walsh, a 70‑year‑old woman from Shaler Township, Pennsylvania, vanished without warning. Her disappearance would haunt her family, friends, and community for more than four years, becoming one of the region’s most enduring missing‑person cases before finally ending in quiet tragedy.

Janet Walsh was last seen on Sunday, January 19, 2020. Earlier that day, she had attended church services at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Glenshaw — something she did routinely — and later spent time with her daughter and son‑in‑law. According to those who saw her, nothing about her behavior that day seemed unusual. She made plans for dinner the following evening and returned home, where she was expected to host her daughter.

But when her daughter arrived on January 20, Janet was gone.

Her home showed no sign of a struggle. The lights were off, meals were partially prepared, and most puzzling of all, her cell phone had been left behind. Janet’s silver 2018 Chevrolet Trax, however, was missing. After waiting several hours and calling friends to see if anyone had heard from her, her daughter notified Shaler Township police. What began as a concern quickly escalated into a large‑scale investigation.

From the outset, the case troubled investigators. Janet’s car was never detected by license‑plate readers, and its OnStar tracking system stopped transmitting shortly after she disappeared. That absence of signal raised the unsettling possibility that the vehicle was somewhere satellites could not reach — possibly underwater. Multiple agencies joined the search, including Allegheny County Police, river‑rescue units, and federal partners. Over the years, sonar sweeps and dive teams scoured wide sections of the Allegheny River, yet repeatedly came up empty‑handed.

As months turned into years, Janet Walsh’s disappearance slowly shifted from active search to cold case. Yet one detail persisted in the background, quietly shaping how both investigators and the public understood the mystery: Janet had been recently widowed.

Her husband, Thomas W. Walsh, had died just ten weeks earlier, on November 5, 2019. He was 72 years old and well known in the Shaler community — a U.S. Marine Corps captain, a longtime volunteer, an avid outdoorsman, and a man remembered fondly by friends and neighbors. His obituary listed Janet as his surviving spouse and was followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Bonaventure Church in Glenshaw. Like many obituaries, it did not specify a cause of death.

What is well documented is that Janet was struggling with grief after her husband’s passing. Neighbors later told reporters she had been deeply affected by the loss but was still functioning day‑to‑day — attending church, keeping in close contact with her daughter, and trying to maintain normal routines. Friends checked on her regularly. Authorities acknowledged her recent widowhood as contextual background, but did not characterize her as withdrawn or unstable in the days before she disappeared.

For more than four years, Janet Walsh’s family lived with uncertainty. Theories circulated quietly: disorientation, an accident, intentional disappearance. But there were no answers — until July 2024.

That summer, a fisherman noticed a submerged vehicle near California Avenue in Oakmont, miles from Janet’s home. Emergency crews responded, and dive teams discovered multiple vehicles on the riverbed. One of them was Janet Walsh’s Chevrolet Trax. When the SUV was pulled from the Allegheny River, human remains were found inside.

In early August 2024, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the remains were Janet’s, bringing a painful but long‑awaited resolution. Several months later, authorities announced their final findings: Janet Walsh’s cause of death was ruled drowning, and the manner of death was classified as suicide. Police stated there was no evidence of foul play, and that the investigation was closed.

Importantly, officials did not publicly link Janet’s death to her husband’s earlier passing. Their conclusion was based on forensic evidence and the circumstances surrounding the vehicle’s recovery, not family history. While the proximity of the two deaths adds emotional weight to the story, authorities treated them as separate events.

For Janet Walsh’s loved ones, answers came too late to ease the years of wondering. For the community, her story remains a reminder of how quietly someone can disappear — and how grief can shadow a life in ways no one sees coming.

Janet Walsh’s case never became a headline‑grabbing crime. There was no dramatic suspect, no courtroom reckoning. Instead, it ended as it began: quietly, with loss layered upon loss. And while facts have finally replaced mystery, the questions that linger are human ones — about grief, isolation, and how easily suffering can go unnoticed, even in plain sight...

HAUNTED STEEL: PITTSBURGH GHOST STORIES - PART TWO

Welcome back to our two‑part exploration of Pittsburgh’s ghost stories. In Part I, we touched on wandering brides, phantom trolleys, and whispering tunnels. Now we enter places where the strange isn’t just whispered… it’s expected...

The Pittsburgh Playhouse: Curtains That Never Quite Close

The Pittsburgh Playhouse has entertained audiences for generations — but some of its most loyal patrons never buy tickets.

Within the theater’s labyrinth of wings, rafters, and backstage rooms, performers and staff have long reported odd happenings:Lights flipping on in locked rooms
Footsteps crossing the stage after hours
Props shifting when no one is near

The most famous spirit is Weeping Eleanor, seen in Victorian clothing and heard crying softly in the wings. Some say she appears to lost performers, others say she’s simply waiting for a show she’ll never see.

Actors come and go.
But Eleanor?
She stays for every performance.

Dead Man’s Hollow: A Forest That Remembers

Just outside Pittsburgh sits Dead Man’s Hollow, a nature preserve with a name that warns visitors before they even step onto the trail.

The ruins of an old industrial plant sit hidden among the trees, slowly being reclaimed by vines and moss. Hikers have reported shadows moving through the woods, cold pockets of air on warm days, and sudden fog rolling in like a curtain.

Some say the hollow carries the memories of long-forgotten tragedies. Others believe it’s simply a place where the past never left.

Either way, walking those trails at dusk feels like stepping into a story that hasn’t finished telling itself.

The Ghosts of Pittsburgh’s Rivers

Pittsburgh’s three rivers — the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio — are the city’s lifeblood. But where rivers guide commerce, they also collect tales.

For generations, boat crews have spoken of strange lights drifting over the water, of figures standing on riverbanks that disappear when approached, and of voices echoing across the current on fog-heavy nights.

Are they spirits from old river accidents?
Workers from steel barges long gone?
Something older?

No one can say for sure. But the rivers that built the city have their own quiet watchfulness… and they never forget.Pittsburgh isn’t just a city of steel — it’s a city of stories. Maybe these ghost tales persist because they connect Pittsburgh’s past with its present. Or maybe — just maybe — they persist because the city isn’t done telling them.

One thing’s certain:When night falls over the three rivers, the past feels just a little closer...

HAUNTED STEEL: PITTSBURGH GHOST STORIES - PART ONE

Pittsburgh is a city shaped by iron, fire, coal, and ambition. But beneath the grit of its steel mills and the glow of its skyline lies a quieter, older layer of stories — tales whispered along riverbanks, passed down in neighborhoods, and retold around late‑night tables.

At first glance, Allegheny Cemetery seems peaceful — rolling hills, carved angels, and nearly two centuries of history etched into stone. But if you walk its winding paths near dusk, you may hear a story locals have shared for decades.

The Ghost Bride Of Allegheny Cemetery

They call her The Ghost Bride.

Witnesses describe a young woman in a flowing white dress wandering near the older mausoleums. She doesn’t speak, doesn’t startle — but she seems to be searching for something… or someone. Some swear she vanishes right in front of them, dissolving into the evening mist.

No one knows her name.
No records match her appearance.
And no legend quite explains why she still walks the grounds.

But one thing is certain: in Allegheny Cemetery, not every love story ends with “til death do us part.”

The Phantom Streetcar of the South Hills

Back when streetcars ruled Pittsburgh’s hills and valleys, they were the heartbeat of the region. And according to many longtime residents, one of those cars never truly stopped.

Late-night drivers once reported seeing an out-of-date streetcar gliding silently along old trolley lines — lights glowing faintly, windows fogged, making no sound at all. Inside sits a single passenger, a man in a hat who never looks up, never moves, and disappears the moment the trolley fades away.

Transit officials chalk it up to imagination.

South Hills locals?
They say once you’ve ridden the rails long enough, some spirits never clock out.

The Whispering Tunnels of Mount Washington

Mount Washington offers one of the most iconic skyline views in America — but its tunnels tell a much darker story.

Workers in the early 1900s complained of hearing voices echoing through the unfinished shafts, even when no one else was inside. Today, joggers and late-night walkers still say they hear whispers following them, soft enough to doubt… yet close enough to feel.

Some believe they are echoes of workers who labored underground long before safety standards existed. Others think the hillside itself holds onto memories — and releases them as whispers in the dark.

Whatever the cause, the tunnels remind everyone of one truth:

In Pittsburgh, even the hills have stories...

TO BE CONTINUED...

UNSOLVED FLASHBACK: JANUARY 14, 1982

On January 14, 1982, 11-year-old Jon Michael Dabkowski and 10-year-old Gabriel Minarcin disappeared while walking the short distance between their homes in Tarentum, Pennsylvania. Jon(11) and Gabriel(10) were school friends, and they lived 3 houses away from each other. The boys were at Jon's house for dinner. When they were done eating, they decided to take the short walk to Gabriel's house to play around 5:30pm.

Jon's mother became worried when Jon did not return around 8:30pm. Assuming her son was still at his friend's house, she called the Minarcin home to discover that neither of the boys had made it to Gabriel's house at all that night.

It was reported that a neighbor had seen them walking across the ice of the Allegheny River earlier that night. When police investigated, they determined that all sets of footprints on the ice returned to the shore safely (except Jon's page on Charleyproject claims that no footprints were found leading away from the river bank)

Regardless, divers and police searched the river just to turn up nothing. Weeks, months, years went by. 42 years later, and no evidence has ever been found of either boys. (Minus a man that had stolen Jon's identity in 1998, who coincidentally had the same handwriting as Jon).

Police do not agree on what happened to them. It is most likely believed the boys drowned in the river, or that they were abducted by someone.

Jon's father, Johnathan Dabkowski, died in 2012. Jon's mother still hasn't given up hope, but all I saw on the Minarcin family is that they moved to a remote location in California years ago. The Minarcin home in Tarentum was torn down. They declined to participate in a DNA sample update in recent years. Seems like they just want to move on. I don't have the impression that they are guilty of anything, but I could be wrong. There's limited info...

LARRY RANDOLPH: PITTSBURGH DENTIST AND MURDERER

In the fall of 2016, Lawrence Rudolph and his wife Bianca traveled to Zambia so Bianca could kill a leopard.

Larry and Bianca Rudolph were no strangers to guns and big-game hunting. During their 34-year marriage, the couple stalked animals all over the world. But at a remote safari camp in Kafue National Park in Zambia in 2016 — where Bianca was hoping to bag a leopard — her 12-gauge shotgun went off in the early morning hours of Oct. 11. The blast hit the 56-year-old mother of two in the chest, killing her.

Larry, 67, said he was in the bathroom when the gun went off and dashed to the bedroom, where he discovered Bianca lying on the floor. Larry told authorities that Bianca accidentally discharged the weapon as she was packing it into a travel case.

Zambian authorities quickly ruled her death as accidental, but the grieving spouse soon raised the suspicions of American officials. Within days of Bianca's death, he had her body cremated — even though, as a suspicious investigator noted, Larry was a big-game trophy collector with plenty of experience transporting bodies overseas. Soon after, the F.B.I. received tips from Bianca's friend saying Larry had cheated on her and the couple had argued over money.

Authorities discovered he collected nearly $5 million in life and accidental death insurance benefits when Bianca died. At Bianca's funeral, on October 22, family and friends were surprised that there was no Catholic mass or large gathering. When Larry was asked how his wife died, prosecutors would later say that "he used the same clinical phrase that he used with the life insurers: accidental discharge of a firearm."

After a five-year investigation, Larry was arrested in late 2021. During his dramatic trial, he testified in his own defense, saying, "I did not kill my wife, I could not murder my wife, I would not murder my wife."

But on Aug. 1, he was found guilty of murder and mail fraud by a federal jury in Denver. His girlfriend, Lori Milliron, an executive administrator of his dental offices with whom he began a relationship in 2004, was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the murder, obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury before a grand jury.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Larry masterminded the homicide so he could collect on his wife's life and accidental death insurance benefits and be with Milliron, 64.

Larry's lawyers countered that Bianca and Larry had an open relationship and that Larry had no financial motivation to commit murder. In the end, it may have been Larry's own words that sealed his fate. At a Phoenix steakhouse where Larry and Milliron were dining in 2020, bartender Brian Lovelace overheard and later testified about an explosive argument between the pair, who were regulars.

"Larry and Lori were having a drink," federal prosecutor Bishop Grewell said during opening statements. "The music in the background made it difficult for Brian Lovelace to hear the conversation going on around him, but at some point, all of a sudden, the music stopped. And in that brief interlude, that brief silence between the songs, Larry Rudolph growled, 'I killed my f-----g wife for you!'

"He and Lori were having an argument," continued Grewell. " …And he pulled out the ace up his sleeve. The trump card that he could use to win any argument with Lori. What more did she want from him? He killed his wife for her. For her. Nobody would have heard him if the music hadn't stopped just then and there; but there it was."

Larry, who took the stand in his own defense, countered that Lovelace misheard him, arguing that what he said was, "Now they're saying I killed my f-----g wife for you."

But jurors voted to convict. The Pittsburgh dentist appealed the conviction and lost in 2023...

THE DISAPPEARANCE AND DEATH OF JOSHUA KLINGENSMITH

Joshua Klingensmith was last seen on July 25, 2024, around 11 PM on Lewis Run Road. After returning home from his shift at Dollar General, his wife went to bed, only to wake up and discover that Joshua was gone. He has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of his disappearance, Joshua was wearing grey sweatpants, a black shirt, and a blue flannel. He allegedly left home on foot in an unknown direction, leaving behind his cell phone and wallet. Joshua has distinctive tattoos on his forearms and neck.

MISSING Joshua Klingensmith
Location: Jefferson Hills, PA
Last Seen: July 25, 2024
Age: 49
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 150
Case Number: 24004324

If you have any information, please contact the Jefferson Hills Police - (412) 655-2222

According to Joshua's sister, Joshua came home from work around 10pm. He laid down in bed by his wife. She woke up around 530 am he was gone. They have searched the woods and tracks around the surrounding area. They have had reported sightings from Elizabeth to Oakland. He left with basically nothing but a backpack and a flashlight. He has some depression issues and recently went back on medications then abruptly quit them again when he left. That can cause problems such as confusion and he could be delirious.

Please reach out to authorities if you have any news or info...

Sadly, on April 12, 2025 - the body of Joshua Klingensmith was discovered. Here is what the family posted on social media: "Today at around 12:11 pm the body of my brother Joshua Klingensmith was found by a search team in Jefferson Hills, Pa. He was on a hillside in a pretty treacherous area that we could not have accessed without the search team. I want to thank you all for sharing our posts and helping us over the past nine months- Kasey Klingensmith-Wright

We want to thank you - all of you who searched - posted - sent prayers and kind words to us as we were searching for our son- it has been a long grueling 9 1/2 months and you have supported us everyday - this is not the answer we wanted but there is closure now and we must try to go on without our son - pray for Josh and pray for our family to get through this horrible nightmare. Love Janet and Dan

Sheryl Klingensmith, Josh's wife would like to thank you all for your continued efforts to help find Josh. Sheryl and Josh's daughter Jordan wanted to share some of their memories of Josh. As you look through the photos just know he was a happy person. He was not himself. Mental health is no joke. Hug your loved ones a little harder today."

THE DISAPPEARANCE AND DEATH OF DAKOTA JAMES

On January 25, 2017, Duquesne University graduate student Dakota James disappeared from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The “smart, outgoing” 23-year-old had been walking back to his apartment after a night out drinking with friends, and his last known sighting was caught on a surveillance camera in the downtown area. The recording captured Dakota entering an alleyway while looking down at his phone, and that was the last time he was seen alive.

Forty days after his disappearance, Dakota's body was found floating in the Ohio River, about 10 miles from where he was last sighted. Police believed Dakota had fallen into the river while crossing a bridge near the city center, and the medical examiner ruled his death an accidental drowning. But Dakota's parents, Jeff and Pamela James, did not believe that Dakota, an athlete and swim team captain, could have drowned. They told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2017 that Dakota was not an inexperienced drinker, and there is no way he would have been so intoxicated that he accidentally fell into the river.

Now eight years after his disappearance, Jeff and Pamela are still convinced foul play had something to do with their son's death.

"[It] doesn't make any sense to me — never has…” Pamela told “Once we learned that the case was closed, it was very disappointing. I don't feel that they ever wanted to look further into the possibility that there could be foul play. I knew 100 percent in my heart that someone did something to Dakota."

Former NYPD detectives and “The Hunt for Justice” hosts Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte agreed. Along with retired NYPD detective Michael Donovan and professor of criminal justice Dr. Lee Gilbertson, the team has concluded that Dakota could be a potential victim of the Smiley Face Killers, a possible interstate gang of serial killers that abducts and murders college-aged men before dumping their remains into local waterways and painting smiley face graffiti near the body recovery sites.

With the hope of changing Dakota's cause of death from accidental drowning to homicide, the “Hunt for Justice" team pushed Allegheny County law enforcement to release a copy of Dakota's autopsy report, which had never before been seen by the James family. While local police initially declined them access to the case files, District Attorney Stephen Zappala later agreed to have an off-camera meeting with Pamela to discuss Dakota's case and provide her with the documents.

Gannon and the team were then able to review the official police reports along with Dakota's autopsy and recovery photographs. In one of the photographs of Dakota's neck, Gannon noticed "suspicious marks," which had not been noted anywhere in the written autopsy report.

Gannon and Dr. Gilbertson brought the documents to consulting forensic pathologist to the late Dr. Cyril Wecht to see if he could discern what caused the injuries on Dakota's neck. Dr. Wecht concluded the marks were "strongly suggestive of and entirely consistent with a ligature having been applied around the neck. This death may have been due to ligature strangulation." Dr. Wetch also noted a "distinct difference in the coloration of the fingernail beds of the fourth and fifth fingers on both the right and left hands," which "certainly would be consistent with someone reaching up and trying to release the pressure from a ligature that is being applied around their neck."

After reviewing the files and examining the findings with Dr. Wetch, Gannon and Pamela requested a meeting with the district attorney's office to further discuss Dakota's case.

Gannon told Pamela, "The good news is, when we speak to the DA ... we have some really good facts about Dakota's case. There's human intervention. So he didn't do that falling into the water. You know, whether it's one person, two people or ... a gang ... that's insignificant at this point. We believe it's connected to Smiley Face killers, but it doesn't matter. The main thing is, somebody murdered him, and they have to reinvestigate."

On October 3, 2018, Gannon and Pamela had another off-camera meeting with Zappala as well as an unidentified FBI agent and Secret Service agent. Gannon and Pamela presented their findings to Zappala and the two agents, who reportedly agreed the injuries to Dakota's neck and fingernail beds could be the result of strangulation.

Pamela later told Duarte, "[Zappala] specifically said, 'I want you to know I'm not going to the police for them to do this investigation. I'm using my homicide investigators.'"

At this time, the district attorney's office cannot move its investigation forward without the medical examiner "concurring with our assessment," said Gannon. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office has not reopened Dakota's case, but it has agreed to review additional evidence related to Dakota's death.

I interviewed some of the people involved in the search party, and there were a lot of odd occurances. For example, the police were getting phone tips that Dakota was held captive in the North Hills of Pittsburgh as well, and that his death had something to do with him being a homosexual.

If you have any clues or tips regarding the disappearance and murder of Dakota James, please reach out to me or the Pittsburgh police...

THE MOST UFO SIGHTINGS: PENNSYLVANIA

When pilot Kenneth Arnold took off from Chehalis, Washington, in his single-engine airplane one afternoon in June 1947, he was looking for a lost military aircraft that had crashed. But what he found was something completely different—something that would set off a cultural obsession in the U.S. that persists today. While flying around Mount Rainier, Arnold reportedly encountered nine curious, wingless objects speeding through the sky at 1,200 mph, faster than any plane at the time could. Arnold spent years afterward trying to describe what he had seen, reportedly using a term that has been ingrained in the American lexicon ever since: "flying saucer."

Since then, Americans have been uniquely fixated on the idea that aliens are somewhere in the sky above us—and the number who believe that to be true is growing. In 2019, a Gallup survey found that 33% of Americans believed some UFOs were alien spacecrafts, while 60% felt they could all be explained by human activity or some natural phenomenon. Just two years later, in 2021, 41% of respondents said they believed at least some UFOs were alien-related compared to 50% who were confident any sightings could be explained by human behavior or scientific events.

Pennsylvania has had it's share of UFO sightings through the years. Of course this interests me, because Pennsylvania is my home state. Here is a ranking (as of 2024) of the Pennsylvania cities with the most UFO sightings:

10.      West Chester
9.        Easton

8.        Harrisburg

7.        Lancaster

6.        York

5.        Erie

4.        Allentown

3.        Reading

2.        Pittsburgh

1.        Philadelphia

 

                         

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JANET WALSH

Janet Ann Walsh was a sweet lady as described by people who knew her. She lived alone in a small two-bedroom one bathroom house right outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

On January 19, 2020, Janet Walsh woke up, got herself ready, and went to her local church for services. Afterwards, she, her daughter Erin, and her son-in-law all went out to lunch. While Janet’s husband, Thomas had died in November of 2019 of an apparent suicide, Janet seemed to be in good-spirits and adjusting well. Her family denied she had any health issues.

On January 20, 2020, Janet and her daughter were scheduled to have dinner together at Janet’s home but when her daughter arrived around 5:00 PM, Janet and her car were no where to be found. Janet’s cell phone was found upstairs. Her daughter waited for a few hours for Janet to return and began calling Janet’s friends to see if she was with them, but ultimately called the police at 8:30 PM to report her mother missing. They arrived at the 100 block of Dolores Drive in Shaler, Pennsylvania and began to gather information and clues.

According to the police, Janet had last been seen the day before, January 19, 2020, at her local church. On either the day she went missing or the day before, she had canceled a therapy appointment scheduled for January 20, 2020. It is not clear what type of therapy this was, whether physical therapy, occupational therapy, or therapy for a mental health issue. Given that her husband had passed away only in November, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was seeing a counselor.

After about a week, the local police turned the investigation over to the Allegheny County Police Department (“ACPD”). No further evidence was found to help explain why or how Janet disappeared.

In 2021, the police gave a press conference to reflect the one-year anniversary of her disappearance. The officer admitted there was no new information but wanted to remind everybody of what Janet looked like and what her car looked like and for people to keep their eyes opened. In that press conference, the officer stated that the GPS location via OnStar from her car had not been available since Sunday which is why they were focusing on the water. A representative from OnStar noted that when a signal is not received from a vehicle, it is because of poor reception, so for example, the car is in a parking garage, has a thick forest canopy overhead, or is in water. The officer stated that help had been provided by the US Army Corp of Engineers from Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh River Rescue Unit and that parts of the Allegheny River had been searched four or five times, but nothing had been found. He stated that future plans to search the River had already been put into place, but they were waiting for the weather to cooperate.

Janet is described as being a 70-year-old Caucasian women with strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is 5’3” tall, 170-300 pounds, and uses a walker or cane to aid in her mobility. She owned a silver and black 2018 Chevrolet Trax SUV with license plate number KTW-6007.

On July 21, 2024, her body was found in a car in the Allegheny River close to wear she lived (a few miles down the river). I didn't initially think it was suicide, but it seems she drove all the way to river access in Oakmont, which is pretty intentional. For those not familiar with the area, she had to cross the river, drive down a road that is pretty much just access to Verona/Oakmont and points beyond (there are very few businesses or turnoffs from Allegheny River Boulevard due to it being sandwiched between the river and a large hill), and turn off the main road in Oakmont to a specific river access area. I suppose she could also have been disoriented and trying to visit an area she had been familiar with in the past. There are a lot of people in her demographic that live in that part of Oakmont - I wonder if she had any connection? How Janet ended up in the river is still unknown...

BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS IN PITTSBURGH

My hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and while Pittsburgh does not have the dense forests of the Northwest, there are some beautiful forests here. Those forests and areas still have had their share of Bigfoot sightings through the years...

                   

July 9, 2011 at 10:30 am in the Chartiers Creek near Boyce Rd in the South Hills of Pittsburgh:

A couple was canoeing down the creek when they claim they heard a loud growl/scream about 50 to 100 yards further down stream from them. They decided to return to their car and leave the area. They stopped to rest at a rocky bank of the creek and the woman stated she heard a grunt. They found footprint impressions in the soft muddy creek bank that measured around 15 inches long.

August 15, 2009 Sewickly Heights early morning hours:

Witness contacts Eric Altman by phone claiming he discovered large muddy footprints measuring over 21 inches long and 9 inches wide on a paved road in Sewickely Township in Allegheny County while out on a morning jog. He followed the prints and they led off the road and into the woods. Witness was called twice to meet with him and did not reply to messages left.


January 28, 2006 Allison Park Allegheny County PA:

Two men taking a break at the family business watch a tall hair covered creature run down a hillside and cross the creek. They are only 200 feet away from the creature. They describe the animal as tall, covered in brown hair, massive build and extremely fast. The animal disappears from sight in a matter of minutes. While investigating the area for Evidence, Dr. Paul Johnson is approached by a third witness. The witness tells Dr. Johnson, he is a hospital physician at the local area hospital. He was on his way home for lunch, driving by the hillside, when he saw a large dark colored, hair covered creature running up the hillside Into a wooded area. The Doctor goes on to tell Dr. Johnson that he continues to drive the same road home to and from work every day in Hopes of catching another glimpse of the creature. The three witnesses never heard of, nor believed in Bigfoot before the sightings.


August 15, 2004 near McCandless, PA:

While on a leisurely walk through the woods four witnesses when my cousin, Michael saw a hair covered creature laying on the ground about 60ft away from them. The creature was not very large, maybe 4 to 5ft tall with reddish-brown fur over all of its body. No ears could be plainly seen on it. No further information was provided in the report.


Spring of 1990 near Shaler:

Young boys discovered what they believed to be two deer killed by a Bigfoot at the top of a steep ravine. Two very fresh deer carcasses were poorly stowed up under some undergrowth. The adult doe had three broken legs, one of the rear legs almost completely twisted off. The fawn had an obvious broken back. At the time we never thought of a Bigfoot related deer kill. Years later (about 3 years ago) one of the witnesses stumbled across an article on Bigfoot and deer kills. Before seeing the photos we knew that what we found that day matched exactly what the article described. The boys did go back (shortly after-- possibly same day) to the "scene of the crime" to come up with a better explanation but the carcasses were gone - no drag marks, blood, etc.. Aside from the broken bones, there were no evident wounds on either deer; definitely not a dog-kill...