MAYVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office Unsolved Cases Team has a new lead in the 1988 disappearance and murder of Kathy Wilson.
Here's what we already know about her case:
- Kathy Wilson was 33 years old and mother of three children.
- She was married, lived in Jamestown and worked at James B. Schwab Co. in Falconer.
- She was last seen on May 18, 1988. She left work to stop at a bank and get lunch at the former Quality Market on South Work Street in Falconer.
- Her co-workers called the police after she didn't return to work or pick up her youngest child from daycare.
- She may have been spotted at the Chautauqua Mall that day. Her van was later recovered from the parking lot there.
- A passerby turned in her purse that he found along Akeley Road just over the Pennsylvania line the night she disappeared.
- Her disappearance was a mystery until children playing in the woods in Lander, Pennsylvania came across her remains.
- Two men were charged in her murder but the main suspect was acquitted and the charges against the other were dropped.
You can learn more about the investigation in the video below or read more here.
Investigators, Tom Tarpley and Tom Di Zinno, now believe Wilson was the victim of a kidnapping plot.
"We believe that she was kidnapped here in Chautauqua County. She was transported into the state of Pennsylvania where ultimately she was killed and her remains were found in Lander, Pennsylvania," Tom Tarpley said. "We believe we've also corroborated information that our victim was alive after she was kidnapped on May 18. She was alive for a period of time at a location that we've identified in the state of Pennsylvania."
After my initial story aired in July, investigators got a new tip that led to a "person of interest" in the case.
The "person of interest" has been identified as Chris Brunea of Buffalo. He died in 2020 at age 68.
Investigators said Brunea went to college in Grove City, Pennsylvania with Wilson and her husband. They believe Brunea was seen on May 17, 1988, near Wilson's home.
"This man was an attorney based out of Buffalo," Tarpley said. "We also believe that this man had contact with the victim's father-in-law while he was a patient at Buffalo General Hospital."
They're hoping to find anyone who might have seen Brunea on Forest Avenue or at the hospital in the 1980s.
"What we're looking for are employees at Buffalo General Hospital or maybe family members of patients there in the mid-1980s, if they recognize this man," Tarpley added.
Brunea was believed to have been driving a white Ford Escort. To contact the investigators, email unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us.