Going West: True Crime - Colin Gillis // 387

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

In March of 2012, an 18-year-old pre-med student returned to his hometown of Tupper Lake, New York, to enjoy spring break with his family and friends. But after heading off to a local party with some high school buddies, he vanished, and hasn’t been seen since. Despite only a couple of his belongings being found, there’s one theory that holds weight in this case, with the whole town apparently knowing who is behind this disappearance. This is the story of Colin Gillis. Sources: 1. New York State Police: https://troopers.ny.gov/missing-gillis-colin 2. RajExperts: https://rajexperts.com/the-strange-disappearance-of-colin-gillis/?fbclid=IwAR2Uy33Y-bmU2v_KLHLJmyPLGw_9fA_2q466-OqtGGTDyxuFpg80mXJotqA 3. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/rai0yd/what_happened_to_colin_gillis/ 4. My NBC5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUA68YrGEg 5. NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/nyregion/two-years-later-few-answers-in-a-mans-vanishing.html 6. Sun Community News: https://suncommunitynews.com/news/80201/tupper-man-dies-after-rollover-in-long-lake/ 7. Sun Community News: https://suncommunitynews.com/news/84733/two-tupper-lake-men-arrested/ 8. Press-Republican: https://www.pressrepublican.com/news/police-dig-in-edwards-on-colin-gillis-lead/article_cc1d9004-2579-11eb-ae55-b323d0c66747.html 9. WCAX: https://www.wcax.com/2020/11/12/ny-authorities-excavate-adirondack-property-connected-to-2012-disappearance/ 10. Ian Gillis' YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmnhhAC-Mqk 11. WebSleuths: https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ny-colin-gillis-18-tupper-lake-11-march-2012.165656/page-47 12. My Champlain Valley: https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/five-years-later-the-disappearance-of-colin-gillis/amp/ 13. Adirondack Daily Enterprise: https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2020/11/police-dig-in-edwards-on-colin-gillis-lead-2/ 14. Tupper Free Press: https://tupperfreepress.com/obituaries/2021/9/15/austen-toohey-27 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on, True Crime Fans? I'm your host, Teeth. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. A big thank you to all of you for listening to this episode, but also to Sarah, Autumn, and Carrie for recommending today's case. This is another one of those cases where a young man disappears after walking alone at night. It's in that large group of cases exactly like it.

This one actually kind of reminds me of that case from Texas. Jason Landry, we covered that case I think a year ago, maybe a little more than a year ago. Yeah, I think it was about a year ago. Definitely some similarities with that one and then there's another one Heathy mentioned earlier. Yeah, that's the Alonzo Brooks case out of Kansas. If you guys have seen that Unsolved Mysteries episode, it is crazy. But this case has a lot of similarities. Yeah, it definitely does. It's so sad that there are so many cases that kind of fall into this category. We talk about it every time that we cover one of them, because it's just so baffling to us every single time, but this one does have a little bit more to it and some really solid seeming theories.

So again, thank you to Sarah, Autumn, and Ottoman carry for recommending it and thank you guys for tuning in All right guys. This is episode 387 of going west so let's get into it In March of 2012, an 18-year-old pre-med student returned to his hometown of Tupper Lake, New York to enjoy spring break with his family and friends. But after heading off to a local party with some high school buddies, he vanished and hasn't been seen since. Despite only a couple of his belongings being found and two eyewitness reports, there's one theory that holds weight in this case, with the whole town apparently knowing who

is behind his disappearance. This is the story of Colin Gillis was born on March 4th, 1994 in Tupper Lake, New York, so we just passed what should have been his 30th birthday. Tupper Lake is a small community situated in upstate New York among a smattering of other small towns in the Adirondack State Park, which is a region encompassing 6 million acres of mountainous terrain and wildlife. Also dotting the mountain range are resorts, ski hills, and dozens of bodies of water connected by rivers and tributaries. Positioned alongside the Racquet River

and on the banks of Racquet Pond, Tupper Lake is a logging town known for its fall foliage and access to mountains and hiking trails. Colin's parents, Patty and John were well known and very well liked in the area for the woodworking shop that they owned and operated together. Colin was the middle of three brothers, joining older brother Lyndon,

and then later joined by younger brother Ian. And according to Colin's dad, John the brothers were very close. Right there in Tupper Lake, Colin grew up into a bright, strong-willed, and happy teen. His brother Ian recalls fondly, quote, he loved to be around people and just meet people and include people and make people laugh.

He was such a people pleaser, more than anything else. He just loved to make people happy. His mom Patty added jokingly, quote, break your balls, push your buttons, see what reaction he could get out of you. One word that comes to mind with Colin was genuine. Whether he was breaking your balls or telling you he loved you.

In high school, Colin was popular and athletic and played for both his basketball and football teams. And overwhelmingly, what friends and classmates have remembered about Colin is his kindness. A gifted academic, he was a year younger than his school peers because he skipped a grade and he graduated Tupper Lake High School in 2011 and he was interested in pursuing a pre-med track and decided to study biology, hoping to become a doctor. But his dad John joked, quote, I always told him he should be pre-law instead of pre-med

because he never lost an argument. So in 2012, Colin was attending the State University of New York and Brockport, New York, also known as SUNY near Rochester, about four and a half hours southwest of his hometown of Tupper Lake. So he wasn't too far away from his family while he was studying, but just, you know, close enough to where he could still go visit them.

Now, in the second semester of his freshman year, Colin was enjoying his newfound freedom and his friends. In March of 2012, Colin went back home to enjoy spring break with his family and his high school friends who were also back in Tupper Lake for that week. On Saturday, March 10th, 2012, so nearly a week after his 18th birthday, remember he did skip a grade, Colin spent the day with his parents and brothers who were just absolutely thrilled to have him back home. So that evening they had dinner together and then they gathered around the TV to watch a college basketball game. And then later that night he had plans to meet up with some old friends. So at 8 30 p.m. that night he

left his parents house to head to a friend's house in the same neighborhood. His parents also noted that he had not been wearing a coat at this time, though he did stuff one in his backpack before he headed out. So after spending some time at one friend's house, the group moved to another friend's house. One of Colin's friends heard about a 21st birthday party someone was having in the area, and wondered if anybody else wanted to go. Though the boys weren't necessarily friends with the hosts or the attendees, and hadn't

been explicitly invited, they decided to drop in to see who was there and if it was just worth checking out. So nine of them piled into cars and headed to this house party. The party was being held at a home on Pescangame Road, which is a rural stretch of wooded area that intersects State Route 3, about 3 miles or 4.8 kilometers southwest of downtown Tupper Lake. And according to reports, there had been about 40 people in attendance

at this party that night. According to some fellow partygoers, while there, Colin became involved in an altercation with somebody, and apparently punches were thrown, with some accounts claiming that the fight had started over a girl So Collins group decided that it was in their best interest to head out But inexplicably whether it was to finish what he started with the other party goer to attempt to patch things up or because he was

Genuinely having fun Colin decided to stay at the party. So he did not go back with his friends. And I don't know what he was planning to do for a ride. We do know that he would eventually call somebody, which I'll get into, but I guess he just was thinking that he was going to figure out how he was going to get home that night. So against his friends, better judgment. He told them that he was going to stay a while longer

and that he would head out later. So his friends took off and Colin stuck around. At some point between when his friends left the party and when Colin departed on his own, like I hinted at, he phoned a friend who lived in the area to ask for a ride because obviously he didn't have a car with him. But the friend who had been asleep at the time didn't listen to the voicemail until the next morning, when it was already too late. Though Colin may have been drinking at the party, his parents who were later able to

listen to the messages that he left remarked that Colin was speaking clearly and cogently on the phone so he didn't appear to be intoxicated. Around 1am on the morning of March 11th, 2012, Colin departed the house party, leaving on foot. Though just outside of town, the area is dark and densely wooded and it doesn't offer street lights or sidewalks to pedestrians, and on top of this, the weather hovered in the low 20s Fahrenheit or around negative five degrees Celsius. So it was extremely chilly outside.

So it's cold and it's dark. Venturing out by himself in the dark on a cold night, that lay after he had potentially been drinking was definitely a calculated risk, despite Colin knowing the area well, especially because he was traveling along the shoulder of the road known for cars traveling at high speeds, but he was just trying to get home. When he reached the intersection of Pescangame Road and State Route 3, he turned left instead of right, heading toward Pierce

Field, New York, which is the next town west of Tupper Lake, instead of turning right toward Tupper Lake. Now whether this was confusion or intentional, for some reason that we are not privy to, is unknown because Colin wouldn't be seen again to be able to explain this move. Now by this time, he had been living out of the area since at least August when school started, which was about six months earlier. So it's possible that he had just forgotten the way or honestly didn't know this road well enough and hadn't walked down it before.

So he just didn't know the exact way. Like I know his parents will harp on the fact that he did know the area, but I mean again he hadn't lived there in months, so it's definitely understandable that he made a mistake if that is what happened. Yeah and it's also you know understandable that he could have potentially made this mistake because it is 1 a.m. and it's dark. This is, again, is a rural road, so it's not very lit. And so it's very easy for him to be confused, especially after he might have been drinking at this party. Again, we don't know if he was intoxicated or not, but you can kind of assume, you know,

he's 18, he's going to a house party. It's fair to say that probably the group was drinking a little bit. Yeah, and again, remember, it's super dark, it's cold, he's probably tired. Confusion makes sense, but he would encounter somebody right in this spot. So another attendee at the party, Austin Tuey and his cousin Jordan Amell, left the party shortly after Colin around 1.30 am. They actually intersected Colin at the cross streets of Pascangame Road and State Route 3, where Colin had turned left instead of right.

According to Austin, the pair pulled over along the shoulder to offer Colin a ride, but Austin recalled that Colin a ride, but Austin recalled that Colin thanked them, but declined. Now, according to Austin, Colin said that he was waiting on a friend to pick him up, though we now know that he was never able to reach anybody, so why did he lie about this? Was he scared of Austin, or was Austin the one that was lying? Or was someone actually picking Colin up,

meaning neither were lying, and we've never learned who that person was because they're involved in his disappearance? Well, Austin continued on his way and dropped off his cousin Jordan at home. Then a few minutes later, Austin said that he happened upon Colin again, and told police that he pulled over for a second time to offer Colin a ride, but again, Colin declined this ride. But around that same time, another motorist spotted Colin. A man named Rich Rosentredder was driving his elderly mother home early that morning at around 2am, and Collin alongside the road.

Puzzled and concerned for Collin, Rich wanted to get his mother home safely before getting involved, so after dropping her off at home, Rich drove to the local police station to report what he had seen, concerned about the well-being of a young man out that late in the frigid cold of an upstate New York winter. He also noted that Colin had not been wearing his coat and that he was walking against the flow of traffic. Rich described that Colin seemed a bit disoriented or in need of help, reportedly waving his arms around as he walked.

But about 30 minutes after Rich had spotted Colin, police reported to the scene, but by that time Colin was gone, so nobody could figure out where he had gone. So Rich's sighting of him, believed to have been around 2am on the morning of March 11th, is the last known sighting of 18 year old Colin Gillis. And since the party was about at least 3 miles from where his family home was, it would have taken him about an hour to walk home without stopping and if he was headed in the right direction, so not accounting for getting lost. Exactly, but Colin never arrived at home and he wasn't answering his phone and when

his parents awoke to this realization, they figured that he had just stayed out late and crashed for the night at a friend's house. And his family later recalled that it was not unlike Colin to allow his phone to die, so it kind of made sense that it did die that happened once in a while, so they just hoped for the best and expected him to arrive home sometime that day. But that morning, one of Colin's friends reported that they received a voicemail from him asking for a ride, which we know took place at about 1am as Colin was leaving the party.

Like his parents later attested, this friend noted that Colin hadn't seemed disoriented or distressed at the time. But as the day wore on and Colin didn't check in, Patty and John began to grow concerned. None of his friends had claimed him or come forward to say that they had seen him or been able to reach him after they departed the house party, and he remained unreachable by phone. With fear fully setting in at 5.30 p.m. that evening, Sunday, March 11, 2012, Colin was reported missing by his parents. Though darkness and plummeting nighttime temperatures were creeping in again, search

efforts were organized immediately. New York State Police, Tupper Lake Police, the Department of Environmental Conservation, Park Rangers from Adirondack State Park, and over a thousand volunteers from the community teamed up to search for Colin. The state deployed helicopters to scan the area from above for any sign of him or his belongings. They used airboats and sonar equipment to search nearby Raquette Pond

and branched into all nearby bodies of water, of which there were many. The landscape is rife with a complicated web of intersected rivers, streams, ponds, and tributaries, so it was a very, very tough search here. Especially since a layer of freshly fallen snow complicated the already large task of dissecting the dense forest surrounding the area where he disappeared. But despite all this, the Adirondack forest was combed as meticulously as volunteers possibly could given the rocky terrain.

I mean, the terrain is unforgiving, maintaining nine other missing persons cases dating all the way back to 1971. So around the time that Colin went missing, from 2011 to 2013, Adirondack State Park Rangers conducted hundreds of reconnaissance missions for those lost in the area, most of whom were eventually found. But 30 people died due to natural causes within the confines of the park in the span of those two years alone. And to ensure Colin wouldn't be added to that list, volunteers walked shoulder to shoulder

to ensure the most accurate scanning of the forest floor. But on Monday, March 12, 2012, so about 24 hours into the search efforts, police announced in a press conference that they had recovered two items of Collins, his driver's license and a tobacco pipe that he'd apparently been smoking that night. Strangely, they were recovered loose on the side of the road near the intersection of setting pole dam road and state route 3. Exactly 1.3 miles or 2 kilometers west of where he had last been seen. The intersection of Pesconga May Road and state route 3. So your first thought is like, why were two of his items discarded over a mile away?

So like a 15 to 20 minute walk away from where he had last been seen? Like, did somebody throw these items out the window? Because why would Colin specifically drop these two things, one of which is usually kept inside a wallet? Yeah, I mean, to me, it feels like if somebody had done something to him, they would maybe want to discard of his license so that it would be harder to identify a body if a body was found. It's a weird place to discard it since it's in the area that he was last seen and where he went missing from,

but it doesn't feel like if he was just walking down the road, why would he drop his pipe, go into his wallet, pull out his driver's license and drop it too? Like that doesn't make sense. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me either. It feels more like a situation where these items were thrown out of the car or they got dropped in some way while something was going on, or at least it does to me. So initially it was incorrectly reported

by local media reports that police had recovered one of Collins' shoes, which felt like a clear sign that foul play, or at least an accident, had occurred. Now, although many shoes were found during the search efforts, none of them belonged to Collins. So this didn't end up being true, but the license, or the driver's license, sorry, and the pipe were accurate.

Now with the canvassing of the wooded areas coming up empty, law enforcement focused their efforts on the area bodies of water. Experts braved the frigid temperatures of the water to scour the racquet pond and river as well as the Pierce Field flow, but there was no sign of Colin. Search dogs were given items of his just hoping that they could lead the way to Colin, or at least the direction he had gone, but they couldn't trace him either. On Saturday, March 17th, so one week after Colin's disappearance, police set up a checkpoint for drivers on State Route 3, hoping that someone headed out for their Saturday night plans had been in the area the week prior

and seen or heard something. Police stopped cars to talk to people and hand out missing flyers, but no tips came in from their efforts that weekend. Monday, March 19,, 2012, brought disappointing news for Collins family and friends. With virtually no progress made, police were downgrading the search efforts to limited continuous status,

meaning that grand scale searches organized by law enforcement in conjunction with community members would cease to exist. Now, although their efforts did continue, it was beginning to seem less and less likely that any connection to Colin would be found. The same day that they relegated Colin's search efforts to limited continuous status, classes resumed at Collins College, the State University of New York at Brockport. Police spoke with his classmates,

just hoping that one of them could turn over a piece of information that would lead them to Colin's whereabouts, but none of his peers had anything to say, except how well like Colin was as a friend and a classmate. And I can't imagine that they would have anything to say because this is four hours away, this college is where he's attending.

So why would they know anything about his plans to go home? I think maybe researching this from all angles to see if he wanted to go off on his own or whatever, kind of getting a grasp more of what he was going through during that time. Like it makes sense, but yeah, these people don't know anything.

I'm glad that the due diligence was done, but yeah, I didn't think that they were gonna find anything there. I agree. So met with dead end after dead end, police monitored the social media of locals, Collins friends from Tupper Lake, and the party goers from that fateful evening,

as well as the rumors that were swelling in town. Thus brought police their first indication that many people in the town of Tupper Lake knew more about Collins disappearance than they were willing to share. Though it was a harrowing time for his family, his dad John claimed that it also brought out the best in their small community. Hundreds of people assisted in the search and were there to aid the family in any way that they could. John remembers quote, some people took the whole week off and there was food for three meals a day for anyone that showed up and searched. I mean that's just incredible when you think about it, just incredible. In the about it. Just incredible.

In the week following Colin's disappearance, Patty and John announced a reward of $10,000, and when that failed to bring forward any information about their son's case, they raised it to $25,000. It remained unclaimed and has to this day. Winter thawed into spring, the snow melted and the river swelled, but the forest kept its secrets about Colin's whereabouts. As the professional investigation and search efforts wound down, Colin's family remained vigilant, taking the search into their own hands. His dad John Gillis began to track every discovery, tip, and hunch.

He plotted out the areas that they searched, and where he still needed to focus more time. But even he was growing discouraged, saying, quote, there comes a point where you realize that you've looked every probable place. Which makes you realize that, you know, if they're searching all around this area, every probable place. Well exactly, and that's why like law enforcement, his family began to entertain theories that the locals knew more than they cared to admit or divulge, and that those involved were likely keeping quiet to protect one of their own. I mean, both the town and the internet were just ablaze with theories about the fate that Colin had been met with. One logical explanation is that he was hit by a car.

Because he had been walking on the shoulder of an unlit stretch of State Route 3, it's certainly feasible that someone struck Colin by accident and in their panic attempted to cover it up. And although this theory was investigated by both law enforcement and the family, no credible evidence was found that would justify it. No skid marks, no damage to trees or shrubbery, no tire tracks, no blood. I mean, just nothing to indicate that such an accident

took place in that area on that night. Yeah, and Collins' brother Ian addressed this, writing, quote, Collins' footprints were found in the snow on the side of the road following the highway towards Piercefield. The footprints ended when he joined the road. Considering the amount of snow on the roads

and the lack of blood and evidence of struggle, it's unlikely he was hit by a car, but it's not ruled out. There's also the possibility that Colin was subjected to hypothermia after becoming lost in the woods. But as we hinted at, his family believes that this is improbable due to the fact that he knew the area so well and they look so hard to find any trace of his body in that whole area. But obviously in the pitch black of the wilderness, it's possible for anybody to become turned around, no matter how well they may know the area, but still it just didn't seem

to be the case. But the motorist who passed him again, Rich Rosentreter, also noted that Colin seemed agitated. So where my mind goes initially is that he was scared of something, he was running from something, he needed help, he wanted to hitch a ride from somebody because he was lost. You know, this doesn't automatically mean to me that he wasn't in his right mind. This means to me that he needed help. Sure, yeah. I mean, he's an 18-year-old kid in 20-degree temperature

walking miles to get home. Yeah, and he's obviously trying to get home. He can't reach anybody. So that's where my mind goes. But some people, of course, have pointed to the possibility that he was on drugs at the party, or he was drugged at the party, which would be especially suspicious after having gotten into that fight, but because he did sound sober on that voicemail and there's no evidence to back this up, the most persistent theory presented in almost

every discussion of Colin Collins disappearance is that Colin was killed by attendees of the party that night. Tupper Lake, which is a small town of about 3,000 people, is still lit up with theories about what happened to him. Dozens of Reddit and YouTube comments, theories in his Facebook group, and other online true crime forums all point to the same perpetrator, Austin Tuey, the teen who supposedly pulled over to see if Colin needed a ride. Tupper Lake locals are quick to sound off about their opinions on the matter and though the stories

differ, every story leads to the same basic conclusion. One comment on Reddit from a member of the community read quote, he got into a fight over drugs, he was murdered, he was killed over drugs, his body stuffed in a blue plastic barrel, drilled full of holes, and then put into the old mineshaft slash water hole. Have called cops, told them to check in to Nathanuey, question him, and they have done nothing, not even look anymore. So Nathan Tuey is Austin's older brother, and he's apparently the man with whom Colin was involved in an altercation.

Remember where those punches were thrown at that party. Even now, 12 years later, most of the theories still involve Austin in some capacity. Another commenter explained that Nathan and Colin were involved in a fight over a girl, and that the brothers, Nathan and Austin, later tracked him down on his walk home. Overwhelmingly the story goes that the two hunted him down in their car, struck him intentionally, and then returned to the party with blood on their car, saying that they had just hit a deer.

Apparently the young woman dating Austin at the time identified in a few of the explanations, as Brittany Nason, had both a brother and a father in local law enforcement. Austin and Nathan were blamed for striking and killing Colin, and had tapped their father Paul for help in concealing the crime. Austin's girlfriend at the time, Brittany, also was said to have asked her dad and brother in law enforcement to help cover up what had happened. One explanation ended with, quote, the whole town does know. The Reddit commenter who claimed to have intel

on this whole situation said that they reported this tip to the police, but that it had been Jordan Nasin, so Britney's police officer brother who took down this tip, jotting it down and apparently never following up on it. Which means that they're essentially giving a tip about the person taking a tip. And the family of that person, the friends of that person, like this is way too close.

Yeah, it doesn't seem right. It feels... it feels really suspicious. Now, another version of the story describes that Colin had been in a relationship with a woman who one of the involved men had been seeing. And that in a fit of jealous rage Colin was killed via the man's car thrown in the bed of a truck and later dismembered by the guilty party and his uncle Multiple claims read that Brittany Nason's Officer father was building a house at the time and that Collins remains were thrown into the foundation of the home and later mixed in with cement.

Though the theories range in severity and method, they all point to the involvement of only one family, the same family. It's always so hard. Like if there's all these different rumors, somebody's saying that he was put in a barrel and then put in a water hole, somebody's saying that he's buried under Britney's dad's house. Like those are two very different things. So I do think it's important to look into such theories because especially in such a small town, people talk, people hear things, sometimes those things are true.

But in this case, there's so many different types of things rolling around. But like you're saying, leading to the same people. So I do believe that what they're saying is true in some capacity, but which one is it? But according to local lore, the Tui family is well known in the area and has a reputation for being troublemakers.

Both Austin and Nathan Tui had been arrested for drug use and possession, driving under the influence and possession of weapons. The boy's cousin, Jordan Amell, who was there that night, has also been linked to Collins' disappearance, just based on his presence at the party, as well as in the car when Austin supposedly stopped to offer Colin a ride. Which also just kind of tells us a little bit more about that. If Austin and Colin were not friends and in fact they were more like enemies, it doesn't

seem that Austin would pull over and be like, hey buddy, you want, do you want to ride like a genuine ride? You know, it doesn't seem like he would do that. Yeah, especially if he just got in a fight with his older brother Nathan, like, I don't, I don't know how genuine this feels that you know Austin would offer him the ride which is why I either don't think that he offered him a ride or thought that he or think that he was offering him a ride not to actually take him home but to do something to him for nefarious reasons exactly so just three months after Colin, Jordan was the driver in a car crash that

killed one of two of his passengers. So there's just a lot of different things going on with this family. And yet, the misfortune of the family continued when in 2021, Austin actually passed away after a lengthy battle with his health. He took to Facebook in March of 2021 to announce that he had undergone open heart surgery but said that he was doing better and was leaving the hospital soon. But later that year, he took a turn for the worse, contracting an infection after his surgery, and he passed away on September 11th, 2021 at the age of 27. Austin left behind an 8-year-old son whom he shared with his ex-girlfriend from years

prior, Brittany Nason. He later started dating another young woman named Brittany and the two had recently become engaged. And she and Austin shared a 1-year-old son and she was pregnant with their first daughter. His obituary read, quote, although Austin got into his fair share of trouble, he was in the process of turning his life around. So fanning the flames of the rumors surrounding this family who had been in the Adirondacks for generations

was a press release announcing the search of a farm property in Edwards, New York, which is an hour away from Tupper Lake. According to reports from locals, though this information was not released to the media from publications nor from the police, it's believed to be the Tuwee family's property. Just a few months prior to the search,

a fire of suspicious origin broke out in one of the buildings and burned down a decades old farmhouse. Police had supposedly been attempting to obtain a search warrant for the property long before the fire, but they weren't able to obtain one until after the fire. So is it possible that any evidence was obliterated that they would have found previously?

Absolutely. In an announcement to the public, the police wrote that the search was quote, ongoing, and that they had spent multiple days at that property. The farm, known to locals as Old Noble Farm, was first visited by state police with a warrant in November of 2020. They started with a digger, focusing on a circle of land about 30 feet in diameter. They then brought in a backhoe for an even more invasive search. A state police public information officer wrote of the search, quote, We were following up on a lead in Edwards on the Gillis case. No arrests have been made.

We were following up on an older lead. State police spent weeks coming in and out of the property. Now, nearly 12 years after Colin walked out of that house party to vanish into thin air, there are still no answers for his bereaved family. Despite the apparently extensive searches on this farm property, and despite the rumors that the whole town already knows who is responsible. The most pressing question remains, though. If there had been a few dozen people at the party that night, how had no one seen anything, or heard anything, or did they, and multiple people are just keeping a secret?

Now we're just left to subsist on online theories, local rumors, and town lore. But one resident had an explanation for this. That everyone who knew anything kept quiet because there had been underage drinking at the party, and anybody attending school who was caught at the party could have been punished, or worse, banned from playing sports, or if they were in college potentially losing their scholarship. For years, police printed a plea in local newspapers asking hunters to be wary of remains and look for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing has surfaced relating to Collins'

case. And to this day, there are still remnants of the disappearance that the search and the devastating loss left behind. Missing posters can still be found displayed in local businesses. Collins' brother, Lyndon, claimed that in the aftermath of his brother's disappearance, he started heading to the next town

over to grocery shop in order to avoid the pitying glances and awkward conversations. Business at the Gillis' woodworking shop suffered because so many were uncomfortable speaking to his parents in the wake of the devastating loss, even when they needed support the most. Collin Gillis was six feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds. He had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a white American Eagle brand shirt

with black stripes, blue Levi jeans, and Nike brand tennis shoes. He had with him an orange LL Bean brand backpack, which contained a black and red reversible LL Bean jacket. If you have any information, please call the State Police of Tupper Lake at 518-873-2750. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I'm so glad that at least this case has seemingly concrete theories but at the same time I cannot believe that after all these years, police have not been able to make a solid connection, even though everybody in town is saying essentially the same thing. Yeah, it's one of the most frustrating cases because it feels like it's right there. Like it's within their grasp, but it also feels so far away. It's just unreal to me. Hopefully, there will be answers answers and the people responsible will be held responsible for what they did because

just no part of me thinks that he just died out there from natural causes especially because they searched that whole area so well they didn't find any of his belongings. He had multiple things with him only his ID and his pipe but what about his backpack, his jacket, any of his other clothes, his ID and his pipe. But what about his backpack, his jacket, any of his other clothes, his phone, his wallet? Where is everything else? Where is he? Yeah, and I mean, even police felt

that this could be a likely scenario because they went ahead and searched that farm. So it's like, if they're thinking that that could be, you know, like a solid lead, then maybe it really is. Yeah, it seems like they fully believe that foul play is involved in this case. I mean, that's exactly what they're still doing. They're looking for more evidence. So I hope that they find it.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Again, thank you to Sarah, Autumn, and Kerry for recommending this case. And sorry, you're going to say something. I was just going to say, and please share this episode because the more ears that hear this episode, that hear about Colin's story the better, we wanna keep this story out there in the light. Absolutely, so thank you guys, we will see you on Friday. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world.

Don't be a stranger. Thanks for watching!