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Search Intensifies for Teens Missing Since 1973 Music Festival
A joint police task force led by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office and New York State Police is intensifying efforts to solve America's oldest missing teenagers case: Brooklyn's Bonnie Bickwit, 15, and her boyfriend Mitchel Weiser, 16, who vanished 53 years ago this week while hitchhiking to the 1973 Summer Jam rock festival at Watkins Glen. Investigators have carried out a fresh excavation and are chasing a new tip about the couple's movements, though details are being withheld to protect the inquiry. The case matters as a long-running mystery involving the only two attendees never to return from what was then the largest rock concert in history.
The teenagers, students at John Dewey High School, disappeared around 27-28 July 1973 after setting off to hitchhike 150 miles to the festival, which drew over 600,000 fans to see the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and The Band. A June 19 dig at a wooded site owned by New York State Power & Gas in Wayne, roughly 17 miles from the racetrack, was prompted by a tip alleging a woman's father had abducted and murdered the pair, and by a psychic who pinpointed a spot between two oak trees; ground-penetrating radar had detected two anomalies, but excavation revealed them to be large stones and the dig found nothing. The renewed push follows a 2023 Rolling Stone investigation and a directive from Governor Kathy Hochul, after which relatives criticised authorities in 2024 for failing to pursue basic leads.
In short
- Task force revives search for teens missing since 1973 Summer Jam festival.
- Recent excavation near Watkins Glen found only buried stones, no remains.
- New tip about the couple's travels is now being investigated.
Explained simply
Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser were Brooklyn teenagers who disappeared on 27 or 28 July 1973 whilst hitchhiking to the Summer Jam rock festival at Watkins Glen in New York State. They never reached the event, and their disappearance remains unsolved more than fifty years later, making it America's oldest missing teenagers case. The couple were attempting to travel 150 miles to attend.
Summer Jam was the largest rock concert ever held to that date, attracting over 600,000 spectators to see acts including the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. Bonnie was fifteen and Mitchel was sixteen, both students at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn. Despite the enormous scale of the festival, these two young people simply vanished without trace.
The mystery has sustained public and investigative attention for decades, as relatives and authorities continue to pursue various leads. The case stands as one of America's most enduring cold cases, remaining unsolved even though the teenagers disappeared in connection with one of the most documented events in music history.