“I believe that Susan Walsh is alive. For some unknown reason, she opted to leave her family and home, which she has every right to do.”
- Detective John M. Rhein, Nutley Police Department, speaking on NBC TV’s Unsolved Mysteries, 1996
The last time my son talked to the police, they told him there is no evidence or testimony to suggest foul play of any kind by anyone at all.
There was a witch hunt a couple of years ago by Geraldo Rivera, whom you know, and Pat Barry, a private investigator who appeared on Geraldo’s show. They both told various lies to the press, and I’m here to tell you what happened when she disappeared, and provide you with the truth. I’ll list the lies and the truth below, so you don’t get confused.
In 2006, around the time Geraldo and Pat Barry got going, I had a discussion with two detectives from the Nutley Police Department. They leaned on me heavily one night for 5 hours and let me go. They said stuff to the press like “We’ll leave no stone unturned” but told no blatant lies. The lies were told by Geraldo and Pat Barry. While the two detectives from the police department found no testimony or evidence of any wrongdoing, their “investigation” turned up yet another eyewitness who saw Susan leave the apartment building alive. This witness lives upstairs in the building. There are now 4 eyewitness accounts that she left the building when I said she did on July 16, 1996.
Susan had no phone, so she came to my apartment which was in the same building as hers, around noon on July 16, 1996, and made some phone calls, which were later verified by the police through Verizon. She left to meet somebody she knew, and was seen leaving by 4 people in the neighborhood who were later interviewed by the police and written up in their report. She said she’d be back in a half hour. Susan’s boyfreind and my son were still in her apartment. I picked up some construction tools from my parents’ house in Montclair for a construction job I had scheduled that day. My mother was with me all the time I was in the house. She was questioned under oath about it on the phone after Susan’s disappearance, and that’s in the police report. I came back to Nutley to pick up David. Susan’s boyfreind left to take a bus into New York, and since Susan hadn’t returned, I spent the afternoon at my parents’ house with my son and my mother. That’s also in the police report and both testified as to my whereabouts and what I did that day. We returned to Nutley in the afternoon, and Susan’s girlfreind Melissa was at the house, expecting to meet Susan at 4PM. When she hadn’t returned the next morning I reported her missing. My son was with me all week while I took off work and cooperated with the police investigation.
Geraldo and Pat Barry say I won’t allow a search of the house. There’s no need to search it again, because after her disappearance, I voluntarily let the police into her apartment and mine, and allowed them to take whatever they wanted. I did this twice. Then when the police showed up with a search warrant, I allowed a full search of the entire premises. That was during the legitimate investigation, in 1996, which involved the Nutley Police, State Police, Essex County Sherriff’s Department, and the NJ Organized Crime Division. They found no evidence of foul play and no charges of any kind were ever brought against me.
Geraldo and Pat Barry say they’re trying to find my van. There’s no need to find the van, folks, because when the real investigation went down, 3 officers searched the van in the driveway of my house, didn’t find anything, and I was completely cleared.
They say I threw away a rug. The landlord used to live in both Susan’s apartment and mine before we lived there, and he now lives on a house he built on the on the property, and he told the police that none of the carpets were removed. He should know, he lived there and installed the carpet himself. After I voluntarily let the police in twice and the official search with a warrant was concluded, I threw away a funky 4-by-6 foot rug.
I and my son were interviewed under oath about ten times in 1996, and cooperated fully. I was leaned on for 5 hours when the witch hunt started in 2006, and cooperated fully. The witch hunt turned up no new evildence or testimony of any kind. I was never asked to take a lie detector test during the legitimate investigation in 1996, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to take one during the circus that went down ten years later.
My whereabouts the day she disappeared have all been verified by the police and the people who were with me all day. Detective Rhein of the Nutley Police went on Unsolved Mysteries on channel 4 after the legitimate investigation to say they think she’s alive and chose to leave.
That’s the whole story, folks. My son David is now graduating from Hunter College with a 4.0 average, will be working at the UN this summer, and will continue to live with me while he completes graduate school. I’ve been employed at UPS for the last ten years, play rock and roll, and I just want to get on with my life. They made a lot of money dragging this stuff out of the past, hurt a lot of people, and proved nothing that wasn’t found out by the real investigation ten years before.
Thanks for listening to the truth.
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