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"25 Years Is Too Long"
Monday's Candlelight Vigil to Remember Joe Helt

ELLENVILLE – The Facebook page has nearly 600 members. On it is a collection of news stories telling of a boy lost on the mountain 25 years ago; the latest story is from a year ago.

"We SHOULDN'T be here, one year later, still looking for answers for Joe! He and his family DESERVE peace!" writes Gina Schuster, administrator of "In Support of Joe Helt" on the social media giant.

There are other websites as well: www.forjoehelt.webs.com, another Facebook page called Justice for Joe, WebSleuths.com. Sam's Point Search & Rescue writes about the search for Joe on its website. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recently put Joe's case in its database.

Schuster, her former classmate Jackie Mennella, and Joe's aunt Beth Churchill are gathering Monday night, the 25th anniversary of Joe's disappearance, for a candlelight vigil at Pioneer's Norbury Hall at 73 Center Street in Ellenville.

The vigil begins at 6 p.m. and will run until 9 p.m. Music will be provided by the band "All is Not Lost."

The average person may ask, "Why, after 25 years, are you still pushing for answers?"

"Because there's family and friends who love Joe, who miss him and who have lived a quarter-century with unanswered questions of what happened to him," Schuster said. "Nobody disappears into thin air."

According to news reports, Helt was with a group of people hanging out at the deserted and rundown Mount Cathalia Lodge on the night of January 16, 1987, a Friday. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, Joe and acquaintances John LaForge, Wade Marks and Kelly Diaz rode in LaForge's Subaru in the area near the Sam's Point Ice Caves. The car apparently got stuck in a ditch, and the four young men were unable to push it out. After some minutes, Helt lost his patience and decided to walk the approximate five miles back down to the village, the other three men later told police. Shortly after this, according to reports, Marks and Diaz also left, leaving LaForge on his own. Eventually, LaForge, too, gave up and went home.

But Helt apparently never made it off the mountain, making that night the last time he was ever seen.

"We simply want answers and closure," Beth Churchill said in a phone call earlier this week. "He was my nephew and I promised my sister I wouldn't give up on him."

Lee Helt died several years ago, and at her request, her ashes were sprinkled on the mountain.

Churchill and Schuster now each have 18-year-old daughters.

"She's a year older than Joe was when he disappeared," Schuster said of her own. "It's bittersweet, watching her go on in her life and knowing Joe didn't get that chance."

Churchill said the event made her an extra-vigilant mom.

"I always used Joe as an example of what could happen," she said.

The vigil is designed to keep Joe Helt's memory, and story, fresh in the minds of people in the area, and hopefully dig up more information about the boy who never made it home.

"It is to remember Joe," Churchill said, "To support what we're doing and just not forget,"



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