I was a freshman CSB student in the fall of 2002, I vividly remember the night Josh went missing as it was the night of my 19th birthday and I was celebrating with friends at SJU. It might be helpful for the podcast to clarify that SJU is the men’s school, CSB is the women’s school but students take classes on both campuses and a bus system runs between the two campuses every half hour until 2 AM on the weekends. It’s about a 5-6 minute bus ride. During episode 3, there was some speculation that maybe friends at the party in Metten just mixed up the timelines.
CSB/SJU students during that era were (and probably still are) some of the most punctual, time-aware college kids in the country, especially on the weekends. The reason is simple: the last bus of the night to SJU from CSB was at 1:30 AM, right after the bars closed in town. If you were going to SJU, you had to catch the last bus or you would be stuck trying to find a ride. Likewise, the last bus to CSB left SJU at 1:45–if you were heading to CSB or the town of St. Joseph, you needed to catch it or risk being stuck at SJU for the night (which was technically against the rules, although not really enforced for upperclassmen). Buses left SJU ever half hour on the :15 and :45, they left CSB on the :00 and the :30. This information was a drilled into students from their first days as freshman. In my opinion, this makes it especially unlikely that numerous students at the same party would get Josh’s departure time confused.
With a lot of the recent discussion turning towards a potential meet up that may have lead to abduction,I am having a real hard time digesting the no phone,wallet or glasses part of this mystery.We are talking about a very punctual and intelligent person that even with a little alcohol in his system would not normally leave behind those items,maybe 1 of those items but not all 3. Especially eye glasses to not have those at night?
Was Josh seen wearing a wristwatch or any kind of jewelry when he went missing?Seems like the type of person that would wear a watch and always be on time
Lastly related to the bus route,if someone who could chime in.Would the next bus have arrived at 12:15 or left at 12:15? Do the buses normally turn around in the creepy parking lot that has been discussed?If that is the case and say Josh went missing around midnight it seems more likely the person or persons involved knew the timing of the buses and could have grabbed him from the creepy parking lot area and been gone in seconds.