RSSNo Connection to Other Pending Cases, MPD Closing the Case. Nothing to See Here; The Barber of St. Francis, Vernon C. Seitz Part II
We recently posted a story on the bizarre and twisted tale of Vernon C. Seitz, Part I. The question should be asked as to why Seitz is not being further looked into as potentially being involved in other missing person cases in the area? Police seized over 500 pieces of evidence including male child porn, bondage equipment, a book titled “Eat Thy Neighbor: A History of Cannibalism and children’s shoes. Are we really supposed to believe that there is no connection and that Vernon C. Seitz’s twisted actions were harmless?
“We have no information to substantiate any allegation that the deceased [suspect] was involved in any missing children cases or homicides of children,” police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Let’s take that statement for dissection, if you will. Aren’t there at least three corroborating accounts this man drove 7+ hours to meet Wetterlings parents and participate in the search, twice? Evidence and corroboration by his therapist that he traveled and participated in searches for missing young boys across the Midwest drew and painted pictures of naked male children does not a call to the FBI warrant, apparently. Pun intended.
“We have exhausted all possible angles in this case. If we receive credible information that warrants investigation, we will pursue it.” A search of Seitz’s late-mother’s home in Racine also turned up nothing, Schwartz said.
Notably, they have not searched the residence of Vernon Seitz, Sr. It is located 147mi North East of Jr’s homes and exactly 37 miles from the farm of Edward Lanphear. Mr. Lanphear is currently incarcerated facing 400 years in the Big house for forcible rape and kidnapping of 2 young men simultaneously. There was also bondage devices in Lanphear’s basement and garage, as well as other similar items to those found in the Seitz home. His plea deal is pending a psych evaluation, and most experts do not think Lanphear acted alone, or that this was his first offense.
The former head of Wisconsin’s FBI office, though, thinks Seitz’s confession could be believable.
“I think it would be something to take very seriously and coupled with what was found through the search warrant, I would give it great credibility,” said retired agent Mike Santimauro.
Just prior to press I spoke to Agent Leonard Piece, Media Coordinator, FBI- Milwaukee office; Agent Piece confirmed there has been no request from MPD for assistance in any capacity in this case.
Skeeve From The Hood
Tony Szuta, 28, remembered going to Vern’s Barber Shop for haircuts between the ages of 9 and 12 while he was growing up in Cudahy. “When he talked to you, it was like he was looking through you. There was something up with the guy. We could never figure out what it was,” Szuta said. Seitz showed Szuta and his friend’s paintings and drawings Seitz had done, but nothing seemed disturbing, Szuta said.
One friend told Szuta that Seitz had asked if he could portray him in a drawing.
Richard Francel was close friends with Seitz. “(He was) just a relaxed, easy going guy. Very knowledgeable. Very intelligent,” Francel said. Richard Francel was close friends with Seitz.
Francel said police interrogated him after Seitz’s death. But, Francel said he never knew about his friend’s collection of child pornography or his alleged confession. “No. he was never like that,” Francel explained.
Near Vern’s Barber Shop in St. Francis, Lynne Bartholomew, owner of Lynne’s Scizzory, a hair salon next door, said she knew Seitz for nine years. “He would come in and ask for a cup of coffee and tell me about his life, which was pretty scary, actually,” Bartholomew said. She said Seitz told her he was abducted from the Racine zoo as a boy by men who molested him and forced him to shoot and kill another boy.
Bartholomew said Seitz also claimed to have shot and killed a man who robbed him in his home three years ago and that he had killed two men in Chicago some years ago.
Bartholomew said Seitz had a particular interest in boys that made her and some of her customers “uncomfortable.”
“You get an eerie feeling from someone you just say stay away from them,” said neighbor Shannon Crawford. “I’m very glad I didn’t let [my kids] go over there more often.”
Elementary school teacher and Sister-in-law Susan Seitz, though, said Vernon was abducted and abused as a boy and believes his interest in child abductions stemmed from this experience.
“I guess it just goes to show you don’t really know the secrets of your neighbors,” said Jordan Burich, who lives near Seitz’s house. “We really didn’t know what was going on, but when [investigators] brought a jackhammer, we knew there was something more nefarious going on.”
One ponders upon seeing the words “jackhammer” and “nefarious” in the same sentence.
How close is this to Fargo?
This Just got Creepier : A Dahmer Connection?
Jeffrey Dahmer, responsible for 17 known murders and mutilations from 1978, lived in the know demolished Oxford Arms Apartments, less than 6 miles away from Seitz. When he was living with his grandmother in West Allis previously, 13 miles from Seitz.
Admittedly, when I began investigating this angle, I did not expect to find anything other than their membership in the Rot in Hell Ghoul Society; was I wrong.
Did Dahmer have one more victim? Following his arrest in 1991, it was learned that Dahmer, upon discharge from the Army, moved to Miami Beach Florida. It was previously unknown to Investigators that there was any gap in his residency in Milwaukee. It was brought to the attention of Hollywood Florida Investigators following Dahmer’s arrest coverage in the News. Dahmer was living and working in the area when 6 year old Adam Walsh was abducted and murdered.
Two separate and credible witnesses came forward to the Hollywood Florida Police following Dahmer’s arrest and gave statements that they saw him in the mall where Adam went missing.
One account specified a sighting in the Sears store and one leaving the Sears in the parking lot with a small boy under his arm. This incident was following a rejection of one witness, a very attractive young man who rebuffed Dahmer’s advances and followed him into the Sears store.
Is it possible that although Dahmer preferred young adult males sexually, he was content to abduct and brutally murder a young child out of anger? Did he see in Adam or other children what he could have been had he not been molested as a child in Ohio?
John Walsh, Adam’s Father comments in 2007:
Dahmer and most experts believe Dahmer’s profile was not interested in Children, however, Walsh wrote, “Many people have forgotten that Jeffrey Dahmer started out as a pedophile, kidnapper, and torturer of young boys. He certainly fits the profile of someone who might be capable of murdering a beautiful 6-year-old boy.”
Dahmer was interviewed extensively following the 1996 release of the 10,000 page 
file of Adam Walsh’s Investigation was released publicly. Dahmer said he didn’t have a car, had never been to Hollywood, and he wasn’t interested in kids Adam’s age, and he worked 7 days per week. He denied any involvement. However, Mr. Walsh felt Dahmer became a suspect years ago when Dahmer’s father, Lionel, called “America’s Most Wanted” and told them he thought his son could be responsible for Adam’s slaying.
What is critical in terms of witness accounts, is several witnesses, reported they saw a blue van speeding away from the mall parking lot the day of Adam’s abduction.
Retired Florida Det Jay Harris was able to track down Dahmer’s employer in 2007, who refuted Dahmer’s statement that he did not have a vehicle. A BLUE VAN, used for deliveries of his shop, was available for employee use, days at a time.
I wonder were Dahmer got his hair cut? Is Adam Walsh’s missing persons poster among Seit’z creepy cache? One of Dahmer’s lures was to offer to pay for his victims to pose for pictures.
Sound familiar?
Author’s Note:
On December 16, 2008, Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner, closed the case on Adam Walsh, naming Otis Toole as the abductor murderer. As of 2007, with no new evidence in his son’s case, John Walsh was very suspect of Dahmer’s possible involvement in Adam’s death.
Wagner said there was no new evidence against Toole that made police name him as the killer, but that there was a “vast amount” of circumstantial evidence. Not mentioned in the Press conference, was that the only two pieces of evidence that could have potentially linked Otis Toole to Adam’s murder, a carpet swatch from a car of Tooles and the actual car, were lost during the investigation. While on a personal note I am happy for closure for the Walsh family, that evidence could have exonerated Toole as well. We will never know. What we do know is that there are hundreds of missing and endangered children all over the country. Every conceivable connection and possibility must be run down for their families to have answers and justice.
To discuss the story more and provide your own opinions and theories, go to Scared Monkeys.net: Unsolved Crimes.
Posted by Blink34
Posted January 12, 2009 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Child Welfare, Crime, Missing Persons, Murder, WTF | 23 comments |
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23 Responses to “No Connection to Other Pending Cases, MPD Closing the Case. Nothing to See Here; The Barber of St. Francis, Vernon C. Seitz Part II”
Creepy, creepy, creepy.
Seitz was so smarmy one would almost have to think he was involved in more than he was ever linked to.
The cockroach principle
R
Are you saying you believe that Dahmer killed Adam Walsh even though the case is closed? Red are you insinuating that the LE mishandled evidence to close the case? Hmmmmm.
How in the world can police be so certain that he has had nothing to do with these crimes? How much effort have they put in to tracing his associates (if any), phone calls, etc.?
Remember, Wisconsin is also the home state of Ed Gein. He, too, lasted for years without anyone thinking anything more of him than that he was an odd ‘local character.’
(If you don’t know Ed Gein, he was the genesis of such tales as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)
Aruba is found not only in the Caribbean, it seems.
Read the public document on the reprimand of Dr. Fetter, here:
http://www.4shared.com/file/80359031/ed4948c1/Fetter_Reprimand.html
Richard, Gein was my motivation for researching this area further when Seitz was found.
And
Why I will be sleeping with the lights on for the foreseeable future. OMG- your so right.
I hope this guy didn’t see the “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” musical.
More seriously, on Ottis Toole … whatever reason the police had for making their determination that he was the killer of Adam Walsh, apparently there was NO NEW INFORMATION that justified this ruling.
In other words, there was no new ‘smoking gun.’ According to what I read, they didn’t have anything more on him than they had, say, a year ago.
Could it be that they simply wanted a publicity coup, or wanted the gratification of closing the case? I can’t say.
Ya know I was always wondering what happened to dumbpig from aruba ??? How come no mentioned he is a head investigator in the states here now ???
Here’s the public relations statement, dated Jan. 7, from the Milwaukee police department:
Milwaukee Police Department
Office of Media and Communications
Jan. 7 – Milwaukee Police Department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz has released the following statement regarding the search warrant conducted at the residence of Vernon Seitz.
“We have no information to substantiate any allegation that the deceased was involved in any missing children cases or homicides of children.
We have exhausted all possible angles in this case. If we receive credible information that warrants investigation, we will pursue it.
We want to make it absolutely clear that it is inaccurate to suggest there is ANY link to the Jacob Wetterling case or any other child homicide or crime involving children anywhere in the country. The search warrant yielded drawings by the deceased of children in sado-masochistic situations but absolutely no evidence that he was involved in any crimes. The search warrant was conducted at the beginning of December.
We want very much to make sure the factual information is shared with the public.”
(end of statement)
So the search warrant was issued in the beginning of December, and we can assume, I suppose, that they promptly followed up on it.
Here’s a man who evidently drew what are described as ‘children in sado-masochistic situations,’ and yet they had enough time in about one month to check this guy’s background thoroughly?
I for one would rather not know any more about these drawings … but I think more attention is warranted. Or are the police there, as in Aruba, giving more attention to (in this case) the beer that made Milwaukee famous?
So, you’re saying these are the silent victims?
There must be things that the police don’t want us to know…
and Seitz went all that time without a license?
I smell a pig in Milwaukee.
Richard- sadly, the physical evidence collected from Otis Toole’s car was lost some time ago. I dont think it was on purpose in any way, and I think it is obvious it is regretful on behalf of Hollywood PD. I saw exactly one journalist question why that case was closed, and even more behind the scenes. As there was nothing new developed from the time Mr. Walsh asserted his suspicions about Dahmer, I really cant add anything.
This article today was published in (I believe) the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online. What gave me the creeps was the overall heading: Wisconsin food prices decline. The talk about Ed Gein above….
(This guy Seitz had at the very least read about cannibalism, or had a book on it. I wonder if he had been to Gein’s town of Plainfield?)
Anyway, it’s not too clear in this article: but somehow a map connected to a missing woman has become involved in this case.
Police review dead barber’s psychiatric records
By Marie Rohde of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 12, 2009 4:49 p.m.
Recent Coverage
* 1/8/09: Racine police to scour files in alleged 1950s murder
* 1/7/09: Search of dead barber’s home yields creepy stash
Police have subpoenaed medical records of a deceased barber who told his psychiatrist he was emotionally tortured by his involvement in the murder of two boys in the 1950s, according to court records.
Police also obtained a map apparently related to a Menomonee Falls woman missing for 20 years
Nothing supported the man’s claims, but police wanted to make sure that Vernon Seitz, who had child pornography and fliers of missing children in his home and barber shop, wasn’t really involved in any crimes.
A Milwaukee detective has read the extensive medical records subpoenaed last week from psychiatrist Victoria Fetter and found no evidence Seitz was involved in any child abductions or homicides, Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said Monday.
Fetter has said she treated Seitz for 11 years until he was found dead of natural causes at his Bay View home last month.
Fetter told reporters and police that Seitz, 62, had repeatedly told her of being abducted from the Racine zoo in 1958 or 1959 and being assaulted by his abductors. They then threatened to kill him unless he shot a 14-year-old boy. He did as ordered, Seitz told Fetter, then watched his abductors kill another boy.
Racine police have said they had no records of such unsolved crimes but were rechecking archives again late last week.
Along with Fetter’s treatment records, police took a map, which court records say bore the name Sandy Bertolas.
Bertolas, 20, was last seen by friends April 24, 1988, when she told them she “was having it out” with a man she was seeing. Her car was found outside a West Allis bowling alley.
Milwaukee police contacted Menomonee Falls police after searching Seitz’s house, Menomonee Falls police Lt. Rick Plumley said Monday.
Investigators have found no evidence to suggest that Seitz was involved in Bertolas’ disappearance, Plumley said.
Although Seitz believed he had psychic powers and contacted the families of some missing children over the years, police do not believe he contacted the Bertolas family, Plumley said.
Seitz, who ran a barber shop in St. Francis, visited the family of at least one missing child in Minnesota to offer his help. People who knew him said he sometimes used maps to plot his visions of where missing children might be.
Seitz was found dead in his home in the 900 block of E. Conway St. on Dec. 15. He died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Police found child pornography, newspaper clippings and fliers on missing children, bondage devices, paintings depicting child torture and books on cannibalism.
(end of article)
Holy Hannah, as Batman of the old series would have said! He died in his home of “natural” causes on Dec. 15 … but the search warrant was issued at the BEGINNING of December, according to the police press release I posted above?
Does something seem to be wrong here?
what did they find under the concrete and in the back yard?
Are there any pictures of Seitz?
The search warrant was issued on Dec 16, after the plain view search when Seitz was found on 12/16. Is there a different search warrant your referring to???
West Allis was where Dahmer lived with his GMA, I chit you not. Moved September 25, 1988. Gawd.
#2- Confused.
Not speaking for Red, but the article is not inferring a conclusion as to whether Dahmer for sure abducted and Killed Adam Walsh. Just provoking the question and frankly, given the evidence by John’s own statements cannot be ruled out. In general, it is widely known that pedophiles. pervs and Sex Offenders tend to find each other, and I think these guys are too close together. Recall MPD sent a victim back to Dahmer-
They do NOT want to admit the potential for another Freakshow living amongst their people.
Regarding the mishandling the evidence of Toole’s in the Adam Walsh case, yes, they did, and have admitted same.
Think these people aren’t dangerous? Here’s an article from an Alabama paper … involving a woman who apparently was an elementary school teacher. It seems that she set up a time when she would drug some of her students and hand them over to some guy she’d met on the Internet.
(Stereotypes would have it that women are never involved in these horrific crimes. We don’t have to blindly accept these stereotypes, though … here or in Aruba.)
ABI agent says child porn, drugs found at Chickasaw home of former teacher
Posted by Brendan Kirby, Staff Reporter January 13, 2009 7:05 AM
A computer taken from the home of a former teacher charged with distributing child pornography had dozens of illicit images, as well as incest stories involving young boys, an investigator testified Monday.
Spencer Traywick, an Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent, testified that Melissa B. Gray’s computer had at least 30 to 40 images of child pornography. Traywick said experts from the Department of Public Safety in Montgomery were still analyzing the hard drive.
Gray, 29, also had a small amount of marijuana and a prescription for Percocet when law enforcement officials searched her home in Chickasaw last week, Traywick said.
Authorities accuse Gray of planning to use Percocet, a prescription painkiller that can cause drowsiness and confusion, to drug two children in her house so they would offer no resistance while a man Gray met on the Internet molested them. Officers who showed up at her house on Tuesday tried unsuccessfully to wake up Gray’s 7-year-old male relative before taking him to a hospital, Traywick said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Cassady decided after Monday’s hearing in U.S. District Court that prosecutors had offered enough evidence to send the case against Gray to a federal grand jury in Mobile.
Cassady did not rule on a prosecution request to detain Gray until trial, and the judge asked for more information about a recent law that shifts the burden of proof in such matters to the defendant.
Gray will remain in jail at least for the time being.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Costello told Cassady that pretrial detention was “appropriate and necessary in this case.”
In addition to the threat Gray poses, Costello said, she also has virtually no family ties in southwest Alabama. Most of her relatives live in Indiana, the prosecutor said.
“In this case, the weight of the evidence is overwhelming,” Costello said. “The danger posed by the defendant is both general and specific. This is someone who appears to have gone beyond idle chat on the Internet.”
Defense attorney James Scroggins countered that his client has lived in the community for 10 years and does not have a passport.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he said.
As far as the marijuana, Scroggins said, the quantity in the home suggests that Gray is a casual user.
“That can be addressed in a home confinement, house arrest situation,” he said.
Scroggins also said that authorities can protect the public by putting Gray on electronic monitoring and forbidding her from having a computer.
But the mother of an 8-year-old girl who Gray allegedly tried to offer up to her Internet friend testified that she would feel unsafe if the defendant were not in jail.
“I’m very afraid for (my daughter) and her (relative) if she were to be released,” the woman testified. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”
The woman said that Gray had been a teacher at her daughter’s school, Little Flower Catholic School in Mobile. The woman said her daughter and a male relative of Gray’s were best friends and that her daughter had slept at the defendant’s house three to five nights since last summer.
The woman said her daughter had tentative plans to sleep over again on Saturday night, which investigators have said was the date of a planned sexual rendezvous Gray set up with the Milton, Fla., man, Jonathan Daniel Bervig.
The woman said her daughter told her that Gray gave her medicine, which the woman found odd since her daughter had not been sick and since the defendant did not tell her about it.
Richard-
OMG i was just researching a diff Alabama case,
Thanks for posting that- did they pick up the man from Fla??
This is why this is so important to expose. Our kids are at risk more than we know.
I don’t know if they got him yet or not.
Richard.
They did, they actually nabbed him through a sting and arrested him first, that’s how they got that sick freak
Here’s a story out today … the mayor of Racine, Wis. (same town as this guy lived in) has been arrested for child porn. Let’s hope to God there is no connection….
Jan 14, 2009 11:07 am US/Central
Racine, Wis., Mayor Arrested On Child Porn Charge
Gary Becker, 51, Held On $165,000 Bond
RACINE, Wis. (AP) ? Racine city officials say Mayor Gary Becker is under arrest on possible charges of child pornography and solicitation of a minor.
The 51-year-old mayor is being held in the Kenosha County Jail on $165,000 bond.
City administrator Ben Hughes says Becker was arrested on Tuesday by agents from the state Division of Criminal Investigation at a shopping mall outside of Milwaukee.
The case is under review by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s office.
City Council President David Maack says he got a call from the police chief shortly after midnight telling him about the arrest involving child pornography.
Maack says he was “shocked and disappointed” by the news and alerted the city’s other aldermen. Maack says he’ll serve as acting mayor for the time being. He was not sure what would happen if Becker could not finish his term.
Richard- You can bet it does.. There will be more to follow. The Inventory report states handwritten phone numbers and addresses. People will start talking, etc..
I am working on an update to this piece, it gets better, in a bad way.
There has been a significant development in this case I will be updating in the next few days.
Further discussion of this topic will be held at the new web site: http://www.blinkoncrime.com