The Devil at Genesee Junction: The Murders of Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formicola, 666 by Michael Benson

Author:Michael Benson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-11-05T07:00:00+00:00

At some (unspecified) point either following the girls’ disappearance or after the discovery of their bodies, an eyewitness named Bruce Witt came forward with an impressive story. During the early evening of June 25, 1966, Witt and his family were fishing in Black Creek under the bridge where Scottsville Road crossed Black Creek.

At 7:30 p.m., Witt and his wife saw the girls come off Scottsville Road and walk down the creek bank. One of the girls took off her sandals and put her feet in the water. The other girl sat on the rocks, talking happily.

Witt’s fishing line got caught on the bridge railing, and as he went up to the bridge to free the line, he observed a 1955 or 1957 green Chevy that either had damage to the front end or was missing a bumper and grill. The vehicle stopped on the bridge. A male youth in his early twenties, with dark complexion, possibly Italian, got out of the vehicle and yelled to the two girls to come along. The girls ran up the creek bank and got into the vehicle, which made a U-turn and headed north on Scottsville Road toward the city, then made another U-turn and headed south on Scottsville Road.

The MCSO searched for a car that matched Witt’s description. Negative results. Investigators’ faith in Witt’s report waned when it appeared the witness was “trying to be over-helpful.” He remembered more and more detail each time he was interviewed, to the point where, in his last interview, the young man he saw was carrying a sheathed hunting knife at his side.

On April 19, 1967, investigators showed Witt a photo of John I. Miller mixed in with 13 other photographs. He chose two photos, one of which was Miller’s photo. Despite choosing the photo, he emphasized that he was definitely not sure that Miller was the man he’d seen picking up the girls, but he did think that he’d previously seen the guy.

I pondered this part of the report as much as any other. I liked Witt’s eyewitness report a lot. Perhaps he did become overly helpful as time went on, but that needn’t necessarily subtract from the value of his initial statement.

The girls had been wandering rather than swimming during their second trip of the day to the swimming hole. They visited the stone trestle, perhaps the Castle Inn, Coop’s, the Swing, and under the Scottsville Road bridge over Black Creek. Someone was looking for them, found them, and got them into his car. Perhaps this was the last sighting of the girls alive.

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