Episode 161: The Disappearance of Lynne Schulze
Age progression photo from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Lynne Schulze was born on February 9th, 1953, and was one of five siblings. She was outgoing, smart, and loved doing anything outside, especially riding her bike and skiing. When she was young, her dad Otto worked as general manager for the American Machine and Foundry Company’s Atomics Division in Greenwich, Connecticut. The family moved several times for her father’s job, including to Germany for several years. The family returned to Connecticut in Simsbury, just in time for Lynne to attend high school.
She was a class representative, played on the school’s field hockey team, and she earned a letter of commendation for her performance on the 1970 National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. She excelled in school and worked as a waitress after school and on weekends to make some extra money. She graduated in 1971 with the senior quote “Look to the future, remember the past but live for today.” That September, she left to go to Middlebury College in Vermont at the age of 18. Lynne talked to her parents every week over the phone and by writing letters, and two weeks before Thanksgiving Lynne surprised her family with a visit.
On December 8th, 1971, Lynne called home and spoke to her mom. Lynne had been having a hard time adjusting with being away at college as she excelled in high school but was now having a a harder time with classes, especially with philosophy and English Drama. She was doing well, but not as well as she was used to, and this was hard on her. Lynne overall very much enjoyed Vermont, connecting with her surroundings and filling any free time not visiting friends or family with activities such as taking whittling classes, hiking local spots with the Outdoor Club, and skiing. By all accounts, Lynne was happy and was making the most of her first semester at college.
Two days after her phone call with her mom, on December 10th, Lynne was walking across campus to take an exam with some of her friends when she suddenly decided to turn around and head back to her dorm room in Battell Hall to retrieve her favorite pencil she had forgotten. She had been outside of a local health food store on Court Street called “All The Good Things” earlier in the day, had gone back to her dorm room, and oddly missed her exam that was at 1:00. She was seen again at around 2:15-2:30pm standing across the street from the health food store at the bus station in downtown Middlebury near a local gas station. It’s rumored that she told a friend she was going to New York, but the bus had already left. Later, another student saw Lynne walking on US 7. She has not been seen or heard from since.
The school’s security was notified two days after her disappearance, and they finally called her parents to check in a week after her disappearance. They thought that she may have gone home, especially with Christmas being around the corner, but her parents hadn’t seen or heard from her. When the school heard this, they called local authorities. In her dorm room, Lynne had left her college ID and driver’s license behind as well as all of her clothes. The only clothes not accounted for were the ones she had been wearing when she was last seen: blue jeans, a navy blue sweater, a brown nylon parka and hiking boots. She had $185 in her bank account that she had saved from waitressing, and this was never touched. She had about $30 in cash on her when she went missing.
In 2012, police were informed that the health food store, “All The Good Things,” that Lynne was seen at the day of her disappearance was owned by Robert Durst. Durst was a real estate heir, millionaire, and convicted murderer. His wife, Kathleen McCormack, disappeared in 1982 and it was suspected that Robert was responsible. In 2000, a friend of his and his wife’s named Susan Berman was murdered before she could speak to police about Kathleen’s disappearance, and he was charged with the 2001 murder of his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, when his dismembered body parts were found floating in Galveston Bay. He was acquitted of this in 2003 but was charged in 2015 for the murder of Susan Berman. While police have said that Robert Durst ran the store in 1971 and 1972, it’s not clear where he was living while running the store and if Lynne ever had any contact with him.
On April 20th, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young woman with a lace bra and travel clock were found on the New Haven Water Company property. The cause of death could not be determined and there was no identification, so she became known as the West Haven Jane Doe. Decades later, investigators were able to make a mitochondrial DNA match between Lynne and the Jane Doe, but dental records showed that the two were not a match. The West Haven Jane Doe was identified in 2023 as 29-year-old Sarah “Sally” Abbott, who went missing from West Haven in 1970.
There have been no further leads and no other pieces of evidence found in regards to Lynne’s disappearance. Her family, especially her sisters Anne and Janet, have never given up and want answers as to what happened. Janet stated “She did not run away. We’d like to find out what happened to her, where her remains are, if possible, and why it happened… From the beginning, we felt like she had been killed. But despite that, we all kept hoping; maybe the unthinkable was that she had done the unthinkable and disappeared. But I think we all knew.”
At the time of her disappearance, Lynne was 18-years-old, 5’3”, weighed between 105 and 125 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. Detective Kris Bowdish with the Middlebury Police Department is currently working on the case and has asked for copies of any letters Lynne wrote to her friends. She stated “I’m interested in talking to anyone who was living in Middlebury in 1971, even if they didn’t know or see Lynne. As I see it, this case is still wide open and I will work any lead that comes in.” You can contact Detective Bowdish with any information on Lynne’s disappearance at 802-388-3191, or by emailing her at kbowdish@middleburypolice.org.
Anyone with any information on the death of Sally Abbott is asked to please call detectives at 203-937-3905.
Image sources:
bostonglobe.com - “Vt. student shopped at Robert Durst’s store before vanishing”
missingkids.org - “Lynne Kathryn Schulze”