After drinking at a campus residence hall, 20-year old Adam Falcon headed to the Tick Tock Inn tavern in Canton, NY, with his friends where he drank using a borrowed ID. He was last seen leaving the tavern on Sunday, November 13th at 1:30 a.m. His coach and soccer teammates began looking for him after he failed to show up for a championship soccer game that Saturday afternoon. His body was found five days later in the Grasse River.The Search for Adam
The search for Adam expanded rapidly. Friends, family members and a throng of volunteers all searched for Adam. Local emergency services personnel offered their assistance with the search, thirty uniformed officers conducted a door-to door search for information, forest rangers searched vegetated areas, 30 divers from the St. Lawrence County Underwater Recovery team searched the river, and K-9 units scoured the riverbanks. Village of Canton police, along with the NY State Patrol and local emergency services later found Falcon's cell phone and hat, several blocks from the bar [reportedly found on the steps of a rectory].
Recovered
Five days after he went missing, K9 units alerted searchers to an area upriver of the bridge. Divers concentrated on this area and found an underwater footprint leading into the Grasse River in St. Lawrence County They concentrated their search on that area and located the body within minutes. Adam's body was found submerged in the water about a quarter of a mile upstream from the Tick Tock Inn.
Autopsy
An autopsy performed by St. Lawrence County Coroner Russell B. Lawrence indicate that he died from asphyxiation due to drowning and hypothermia. St. Lawrence County DA Jerome Richards says, "There is no indication of foul play." However, the exact cause and manner of death have not been determined. On December 14, 2004 the results of the toxicology tests revealed that Falcon’s blood alcohol level was 0.21 and no other drugs were present. Falcon’s death was ruled accidental by the St. Lawrence County coroner.
Theories
Based on autopsy results, one theory (according to NYSFEDSAR) is that Adam, under the influence of alcohol, passed out somewhere in the vicinity of where his cell phone was located. With night temperatures in the low to mid 30's, he might have become hypothermic and as a result entered the water in an attempt to "cool off" and drowned in the process.
Aftermath
The New York State Liquor Authority also met on this date and determined that there was not enough cause to do an immediate revocation of the Tick Tock’s liquor license. The NYS Liquor Authority did say that the Tick Tock is being charged with two counts of “Sale to a Minor,” two counts of “Sale to an Intoxicated Person" and two counts of “Improper Supervision.” The Tick Tock has until December 27, 2004 to answer these charges.
Adam's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in September 2006 seeking damages from the St. Lawrence University and Garret Huntley, an SLU student from Massena, whose license Falcon used the night he disappeared. The suit also names students and part-time bartenders Greta Thomas and Keith Sullivan as defendants. Other defendants are Richard and Alfred Cassara, who operate the Tick Tock, and Elizabeth Masterson and James Merrill. Masterson admitted that she bought alcohol for the party Falcon attended, according to court documents. Merrill told investigators that he accompanied Falcon from place to place that night. On December 13, 2007, a partial out-of-court settlement was reached for $100,000 with Elizabeth Masterson, a fellow Saint Lawrence student who gave Falcon alcohol at a residence hall party.
Facts of Interest in This Case
Name/age: Adam Falcon, 20 (from Victor, NY)
College: St. Lawrence University
Physical description: 5’9,’’160#, curly brown hair, brown eyes, athletic build (soccer player)
Last seen: 11/13/04, 1:30 am, leaving Tick Tock Inn tavern (11 Hodskin St. Canton, NY)
Recovered: 11/18/04 Grasse River
Cause of death: drowning
Manner of death: accidental
Injuries: no signs of foul play
Blood Alcohol Content: 0.21
Water temp: 45 degrees
Lisa, is there a reason the Link to Adam Falcon's name is not active???
ReplyDeleteJust didn't have time yesterday to put in the html code. Should be done now.
ReplyDeleteyou rock! I'll be emailing you shortly about assisting in your endeavors, thanks
ReplyDeleteLisa...great blog. I am wondering why you do not have Lawrence R Andrews Jr. on your list of victims. Lawrence was 22 yo and went missing New Years eve in NYC 1998. I have included the NY times article describing the events and comparison to McNeills disappearence in 1997.Keep up the good work and let me know if there is anything I can to do help you out. Jim
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Times Square Reveler Is Found Drowned
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: February 13, 1998
The long, exhaustive search for a 22-year-old Brewster man who disappeared after visiting Times Square on New Year's Eve ended yesterday when his family received the news they had long dreaded: the man's body was found floating off a pier along the Brooklyn waterfront.
Lawrence R. Andrews Jr. was found dead in the waters off Shore Road in Bay Ridge, near the entrance to the Narrows, at 7 A.M. yesterday, said Officer Sonia Oquendo, a police spokeswoman.
The cause of his death was drowning, and Mr. Andrews had apparently been in the water since his disappearance, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the City Medical Examiner's Office.
Although the last witnesses to see Mr. Andrews had said that he appeared to be drunk, the manner of his death -- whether it was an accident, suicide or homicide -- remained under investigation.
The discovery ended an intensive search by Mr. Andrews's family and friends, who had distributed thousands of fliers, enlisted the help of hundreds of volunteers, opened a headquarters in Katonah, N.Y., and set up a toll-free telephone number. His parents, Lawrence R. Sr. and Susan Andrews, spent the night before his body was found walking the rainy streets of Manhattan until 1 A.M., trying to retrace his steps.
''This isn't the way it was supposed to be,'' said his sister, Jennifer Andrews, 25, who had hoped Lawrence would turn up in time to attend her wedding, which had been planned for this Sunday. ''You're supposed to grow old with your brother. It's real hard. My parents were still in the city looking for him late last night. Up until this point, they were still keeping hope that he was still alive.''
The case resembled that of Patrick McNeill, 21, a Fordham University student from Port Chester, N.Y., who disappeared in February 1997 after a night of drinking with friends. Mr. McNeill's disappearance also touched off a massive search effort across the city. He, too, was found drowned, floating in the same waters off Bay Ridge. The police said that the similarities appeared to be a coincidence.
Mr. Andrews spent New Year's Eve, as he always did, with friends taking the commuter train to Grand Central Terminal and walking over to Times Square to watch the ball drop. They had some drinks on the train. Somehow, just after the ball dropped, he got separated from his friends. People who knew him saw Mr. Andrews later in a bar near Grand Central Terminal.
He was last spotted about 2 A.M. by other people from Brewster, who said he was walking west on 42d Street near Grand Central Terminal, drunk, but not incoherent. He was not wearing his jacket or turtleneck, despite the 16-degree weather.
More than 150 possible sightings of him, some from as far away as California, were reported to the volunteers. But none were confirmed until yesterday morning, when a jogger spotted his body in the water, and the New York Police Department Harbor Unit fished it out.
The news of Mr. Andrews's death devastated the volunteers who gathered in the headquarters in Katonah. They were optimistic to the last: fliers and posters waited to be distributed and bumper stickers that said ''Missing: Larry Andrews Jr.'' were there for all to take. A prayer vigil had been scheduled for tonight in Putnam Lake, and another was planned for next week in Yonkers.
''We all kept hope,'' said Marisa Landolfi, 49, who did not know the Andrews family but felt compelled to volunteer. ''By doing the work, you felt like you were doing something to keep him alive.''
The effort was coordinated by Randy Calano, who had worked with Susan Andrews, Mr. Andrews' mother, in a real estate office. Three hundred volunteers worked in shifts, distributing fliers and staffing four phone lines in the headquarters from 8 A.M until midnight.
''The outpouring of support was overwhelming,'' Mr. Calano said yesterday. ''People walked in off the street.''
Pam Lemmonds, 50, volunteered there five days a week even though she did not know the Andrews family. ''Every day when I came in here, I said, 'Maybe today he'll be found alive,' '' she said. But she said she knew something was wrong when she saw the look on her colleagues' faces when she came in yesterday morning. Some sobbed.
Lawrence Robert Andrews Jr., known to his friends as Larry, lived at home with his parents. He graduated from Brewster High School in 1993, was a Yankee fan and enjoyed lifting weights. He worked as a landscaper until he suffered two herniated discs in his back about a year ago.
In 1994, his girlfriend, Jamie Scanlon, 16, was killed in a car crash on the day after Christmas. His sister, Jennifer, said that he had made great strides since then and that he did not seem despondent or depressed before he vanished.
He had made plans to go skiing on the Friday after New Year's Eve and was looking forward to her wedding, she said. Before he left to go to Times Square, he joked around in the kitchen with her fiance and blew his mother a last goodbye kiss.
i'M GLAD TO SEE THIS MYSTERY GET SOME INTEREST. IT SEEMS UNREALISTIC THAT ALL OF THESE BOYS NOT ONLY HAD SIMILAR PROFILES BUT ALL WERE FOUND IN THE WATER WITH NO ONE SEEING THEM AFTER THEY LEFT THE PLACES WHERE THEY WERE SOCIALIZING. IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO ALL OF THEM IF WE JUST ASSUMED THEY WALKED INTO THE WATER ALONE WHEN INFACT THIS IS PROBABLY NOT THE TRUTH IN MOST OF THE CASES.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people with similar mysterious deaths go unnoticed. That is why similar cases are not linked!
ReplyDeleteSometimes people with similar mysterious deaths go unnoticed. That is why similar cases are not linked!
ReplyDeleteI am very happy that they started the Smiley Face Killers series on Oxygen. I know they can only cover so many young men but the story itself got me interested in checking this page when I was just graduating college at SUNY POTSDAM. Of course, I started looking in my local college towns to see if we had similar occurrences many years ago. I found this page for Adam Falcon and then Albert Campbell - Potsdam, NY. Many people do not know this, but these colleges/towns are 11 miles away from each other. The deaths occurred within a year of each other with similar circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the show info. I've wondered about Adam Falcon since I've David Pallides' 411 series. I lived in Canton when Adam died there. As a mom, I was so sad for him and his family.
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