Dean Marie Pyle Peters & Cold Cases: Karen Louise Wilson-Missing 28 Years

Karen Louise Wilson (Photo Credit: NAMUS.gov)

ON Wednesday of March 27, 1985, 22 year-old Karen Louise Wilson was out shopping to prepare for an upcoming spring break trip in four days to Fort Lauderdale, FL with her roommate. Karen was currently a senior studying Political Science at University of Albany (State University of New York or SUNY) in Albany, NY, and she was also a state Assembly intern. She was last seen on Central Avenue in Colonie, New York at 7:20 P.M. She bought red and blue T-Shirts and shorts at Colonie Center for her trip. She had also made a tanning appointment at Tanning Hut, but her name was not checked off and no one remembers seeing her there.
The last confirmed sighting of Karen was around 7:30-8:00 PM, in the Colonial Quad parking lot. It is presumed that she was heading to her Colonial Quad dorm. Witnesses also placed Karen walking down Fuller Avenue near Six Mile Waterworks towards SUNY , which police believe she did walk instead of take the bus since it was warm out that night. The Six Mile Waterworks is located 1/2 a mile from the SUNY-Albany campus, nestled in a wooded area. Those were the last confirmed sightings of the college student. She was expected to be back to her dorm that night by her fellow college students, but she never made it back. Karen has never been seen again, and there has been no trace of her belongings and clothing she bought.

Karen was 5'3" and weighed 114 pounds at the time of her abduction. She has brown hair, brown eyes, and may wear glasses. She was last seen wearing faded Levi jeans, a light blue short sleeve, pullover Izod golf shirt and white sneakers. She also had on 3-quarter length, cream colored jacket. For jewelry, Karen had on a fourteen karat gold ring with a light blue (zircon) stone. She also wore plastic earrings, a Seiko watch with a black face and a yellow and white, two stranded necklace.

This sketch is of an unknown man see in the area at the time Karen vanished. Police want to find him for questioning. (Photo Credit: Namus.gov)

According to an article in TimesUnion.com, police believe that Karen was abducted near or in the parking lot to her dorm room. Investigators ran a re-creation of an abduction scenario in a parking lot and timed it. The time it took for a bigger man to single handedly abduct a petite woman was only 10 seconds. The theorize that a lone man in a car was waiting in the college parking lot for a target and saw Karen.
Authorities call Karen's disappearance an open case and continue to investigate it. They have come across many persons of interests that they pursued, but many had alibis that checked out. They got many tips of areas that may contain human remains. They searched a wooded area with cadaver dogs for three months near an abandoned golf course called Tall Timbers Country Club. Early on, investigators also searched the wooded area by the Six Mile Waterworks.
Although persons of interest have come and gone, and sex offenders have been looked at, police have a sketch of an unknown man seen in the area at the time Karen vanished. They are not calling him a suspect, simply someone wanted for questioning.

A photo of the ring Karen was wearing at the time of her disappearance. It is a rare ring purchased in the 1940s. (Photo Credit: NAMUS.gov).

Serial killer Jeffrey Williams was also seen as a suspect in Karen's disappearance. He has a long history of sexual violence against women who he sees as vulnerable. According to a 1995 article from The Daily Gazette, Williams had a conviction for sodomizing a woman in 1980 in Saratoga County. He was also an avid "peeping tom". He killed 40 year-old Rose Tullao of Troy in July 1986, who was a housekeeper. He was acquitted of the charges for her murder, and released, only to go on to kill a young woman.
On January 23, 1988, 18 year-old Karolyn Lonczak was working in Cohoes, New York at a group home for mentally disabled adults. Williams decided to steal a TV from the group home, and ended up taking Karolyn in the process of it. Her nude body was later found frozen, strangled and stabbed three times at the Tomhannock Reservoir in rural Rensselaer County. Investigators found physical evidence linking him to killing Karolyn-a tiny spider medallion he always wore around his neck. It was found outside the group home, and investigators believe Karolyn pulled it off while fighting for her life. He was finally put away for life in 1995.
It was also investigated that Karen was a runaway to Florida. However, this was discarded right away, as none of her friends left for Florida, and Karen had no reason to leave being so close to graduation.

Karen's family believes she was abducted and search for her to this day. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

I think Jeffrey Williams is a good person of interest in Karen's abduction. (We have to start somewhere, right?) He had a history of sexual crimes, starting from peeping in windows, to rape and ending with murder. He had ties to the Albany, New York area at the time of Karen's disappearance. He also was running free and had opportunity (and was capable) to commit such a crime. Williams was always a predator, preying and looking for vulnerable women. I am curious as to where he was the night of March 27, 1985. Waiting in the parking lot for a vulnerable target, such as a young college student alone in a dark parking lot, would not be out of the norm for him. We also cannot ignore the fact that it could have been someone completely off the radar for crimes such as these. Crimes against college students, particularly women, are not out of the norm. A college parking lot near a dorm is a perfect, logical hunting ground for a predator. An abduction, as we earlier found out, only takes about 10 seconds.

Police also call their search "global," as they take into account other college student disappearances from around the country. They investigated a possible connection to the murder of Chandra Levy. A Sun Sentential article from April 1985, also shows that police investigated two murdered New York college students who were found in Hillsborough County river as having a connection to Karen's disappearance. All investigations went nowhere, but they still search on.

Suzanne Lyall vanished from the SUNY campus on her way to her dorm 13 years after Karen went missing. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

There are many college students who have vanished right off campus, never to be seen again. One disappearance that happened almost exactly thirteen years after Karen vanished, would bring back memories of Karen's 1985 abduction. On March 2, 1998, 19 year-old Suzanne "Suzy" Lyall, a student at University of Albany or SUNY, would also vanished in the same vicinity as Karen did years before. Around 9:30 PM, Suzanne got off work and boarded the bus to return to her dorm. She was carrying a black tote bag or backpack. A classmate saw Suzy get off the bus at the uptown center of University of Albany campus Collins Circle stop around 9:45 PM. The walk from the bus stop to her dorm would have taken about 3-5 minutes, but she never made it there. There was also no sign she went back to her dorm room, and she has never been seen again.

The next morning, Richard Condon, Suzy's boyfriend, called Suzy's parents, saying he could not get a hold of her. Her parents reported Suzy missing, and contacted her debit card company. The company called back, saying there was activity on Suzy's card the day after her disappearance around 4 PM at a nearby convenience store, Stewart's Store. The person withdrew a twenty dollar bill. There was a surveillance camera, but it did not cover the area where the ATM was. However, the correct pin was entered, and only Suzy and Richard knew her pin number.

Suzanne's name tag from her work was located in an area adjacent to the visitor's parking lot. It was 30 yards away from the bus stop where Suzy got off, and it is not known if she happened to lose it that night, or if it fell off during a struggle. Before March 1998, Suzy told a coworker that that she was being stalked, but she did not appear to be afraid of her stalker.

Pieces of jewelry Suzy may have been wearing at the time of her disappearance. (Photo Credit: Doenetwork.org)

Of course, many bring up the idea of Karen and Suzy's disappearances being connected. Both were SUNY students, vanished in March and were last seen at night in the parking lot. However, that is all authorities have, and they are unable to rule-out the connection or rule it in. For the same serial killer to strike 13 years apart would be rare. There has been no disappearances in the area since then, and there are differences in the disappearances.
To me, it sounds like Suzy may have known her abductor. The area she was last seen at seems more populated (being it's by a bus stop) then where Karen was taken at. I often wonder if Suzy's boyfriend, Richard, happened to show up that night and talk to Suzy on her way to her dorm. That would make sense of why there was no sign of a struggle. It also would make sense of why Suzy was not afraid of her stalker-because she knew who she was. If you had an unknown man stalking you, usually you would be concerned. Their relationship also seemed tumultuous. According to an article at CBSNews.com, Condon has not cooperated with police and refused to take a polygraph test. I also take into account that only $20.00 was withdrawn from Suzy's bank account, when she had more in there then that. If a stranger took her, why wouldn't they withdraw all her money? It almost seems like the person who took Suzy did that to make it seem like she runaway. Remember, only Suzy and her boyfriend knew the pin.
It seems Karen did not know her abductor, and even with putting up a struggle, no one would have noticed. I think for Karen, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and was an easy target for any predator lurking in the shadows. Both cases remain unsolved.

In an update reported by NEWS10, on October 4, 201354 year-old Anthony Collins of Albany, New York was arrested in connection with two attempted abductions of female SUNY college students. The first attempt happened early in the morning, when a man in a Christmas sweater and jogging pants abducted a woman by a bus stop at knife-point. A woman saw what was happening and intervened, allowing the girl to get away. Later that morning, the same man attempted an abduction of a college student at another bus stop by Waterbury Hall. The man lost grip of the woman and she also got away.
Being Karen was abducted not too far from a bus stop in a parking lot, and with Suzy last being seen at a bus stop, I hope they investigate this man in case he is connected to their disappearances. All four circumstances are eerily similar. Of course, one question is why would this man try something like this now, if he did take Suzy or Karen? Why lay low so many years, and take a sloppy risk trying to take two women out in the open, with people around, in broad day light? Whoever took Karen and Suzy, did so when it was night fall. Their abductor(s) seemed to not be as sloppy as this one. Also, their is the issue of Suzy's debit card being used, which is why I have always thought whoever took her, knew her well, unless her abductor forced her to give the debit card pin number. All in all, I hope he is investigated into both of these young women's disappearances.

Suzy is known for being talented with computers and poetry. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

Karen's father was in the air force at the time, and they lived in Plattsburgh, New York. They drove to Albany, and camped out in a SUNY dorm for a month, participating in searches for their daughter. They currently live in Utah, but still carry on the search for her, hoping someone will care enough to help them piece together the puzzle of what happened that night. Karen was a cheerleader throughout high school, and was known for baking amazing chocolate chip cookies. Suzanne was a wonderful poet and talented with computers. Her parent's created and enforced Suzanne's Law, signed by President Bush. Suzanne is also on the FBI's most wanted missing persons list. I will also post a link to her website in the side panel that has her poetry in it. The search for both girls continues on, and both families hold out hope of finding their daughters.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Karen Louise Wilson or Suzanne Gloria Lyall, please contact: