I was a freshmen at CSB in the fall of 2002. Josh's disappearance definitely altered my college experience. with Josh’s yahoo activity have you ever questioned that maybe he wasn’t questioning his sexuality at all but got caught messing with the wrong person or people. it was pretty common place to pretend to be older or younger or more attractive. Maybe josh took it too far and when the other party found out they freaked out and that’s what forced Josh to report some misconduct? Maybe the other party knew how to find him. Maybe the other party was extremely tech savvy at the time? have you or the family reached out to yahoo to see if more info is available?
I’m fascinated with this case and feel like as a student during that time I would’ve known more of what was going on. I remember the searches taking place and the recommendations to travel from place to place with a group or buddy. But thats all I remember. Thank you Josh for doing this work. I hope this will result in some answers.
I was a student from 03-07 and it was really eye opening to hear that sightings occurred on campus in August of '03. While I remember some talks of traveling with a buddy, I think we all took for granted the Sheriff's office stance that he likely had drowned which just doesn't seem plausible with a little more scrutiny beyond the surface. St. John's is known to be a place where students often would go through runs at night on country roads or they may take walks in the woods to the chapel or other areas. I hope this spurs anyone with any out of the ordinary encounters to come forward. I was fortunate to not have anything register so far but we should all encourage classmates to listen and think back through things. The bus stop near Flynntown is another area I could see a student being targeted late at night but that area did tend to draw a crowd unless it was late.
Josh and anyone else that was connected to these sorts of disappearances (across the state/midwest?), however many there are, deserve a proper resolution and his parents deserve to know what happened. Thanks for your work Josh Newville. I hope authorities and the University is supportive of this as I don't believe anything gets accomplished without this sort of effort.
I'm posting the link to the Smiley Face Murder theory as it was the first time I ever thought it was anything more than a drowning. I don't necessarily believe in this theory based on some of the FBI research into it but maybe it spurs additional reflection - Smiley face murder theory - Wikipedia