Continuing documentation of WIllowbrook Park looking at its darker side
In the first part of this series concerning Willowbrook Park we discussed the Historic Stone Chimney. In this follow up we go deeper into the park, on and off the white trail to share the area where Ethel Atwell disappeared in 1978. Plus we’ll look at sites of Willowbrook State School, vagrant areas, and items found, potentially belonging to vagrants and/or missing people.
Greetings Readers,
In this post I shall provide a further look at Willowbrook Park, which sits adjacent to the former Willowbrook State School property. The purpose of this particular article is to highlight, and further the signal boost of a missing persons case. Below the case shall be discussed, further reading provided, and my exploration of the area where Ethel Atwell disappeared. Plus a look at vagrancy in Willowbrook Park.
As you may know from the documentary “Cropsey,” by Joshua Zeman, former Willowbrook State School Andre Rand had several camps in the park and on the school property.
THE CASES
In Cropsey we learn of the disappearance of numerous Staten Island Children:
Jennifer Schweiger, a 12-year-old with Down syndrome who disappeared in 1987. Her body was later found, and Rand was convicted of her kidnapping and murder.
Beyond Jennifer, the documentary also highlights other missing children who vanished in the area and were potentially linked to Rand, though the extent of his involvement in each case remains debated and not all cases resulted in convictions. These include:
Henry Gafforio: A developmentally delayed 22-year-old who disappeared in 1984.
Alice Pereira: Five years old, disappeared in 1972.
Holly Ann Hughes: Seven years old, disappeared in 1981, and Rand was later convicted of her kidnapping.
Tiahease Jackson: Ten years old, disappeared in 1983.
All of these cases are incredibly important, but unfortunately Rand has only been charged in the murder of Jennifer Schweiger, and disappearance of Holly Ann Hughes.
Additionally from the documentary we learn Rand had campsites on the site of Willowbrook State School near where Schweiger was found and other areas in the woods nearby.
There are two 1978 cases of nurses from Staten Island Developmental Center (the former Willowbrook State School) being attacked.
Willowbrook was renamed the Staten Island Development Center and, by 1975, the number of residents was reduced to 2,800 — about half of what it had been at its worst. But even more important was a change in concept, that the developmentally disabled should live in the community instead of forgotten in institutions. (Staten Island Advance)
We know Rand was employed at Willowbrook State School in the late 1960s and is suspected in the 1978 disappearance of Ethel Atwell. As I cited in the first article of this blog, Rand worked at Willowbrook State School at the same time as my Uncle W. (READ MORE)
The prime suspect in the murders, Andre Rand was a former employee of Willowbrook, not a patient. Municipal employers did not conduct the stringent backgrounds checks and screenings that they do today…Due to budget cutbacks and abysmal working conditions, just about anyone could get hired at one of these institutions. Rand’s first conviction for sexually molesting a nine-year-old girl, happened after he left employment at Willowbrook…He had no formal training on record, and despite claims that he was a physical therapist, Rand was just an orderly. (Classic NY History)
First there was Shin-ae Lee, aka Shin Lee a nurse at the Staten Island Developmental Center, was found raped, murdered, and buried in a shallow grave on the grounds. Shin Lee was last seen on July 20, 1978, after leaving her shift at Willowbrook State School around midnight. She was reported missing soon after she failed to return home.
On August 6, 1978, her body was found buried in a shallow grave in a wooded area on the institution’s grounds. Evidence suggested she had been strangled. Her killing occurred just two months before Ethel Atwell, another female employee of the Willowbrook State School, disappeared from nearly the same area. The cases have similarities and often appear together in retrospective discussions of unsolved crimes on Staten Island during this period.
On October 24, 1978, Ethel Louise Atwell, a 46-year-old nurse’s aide from Newark, vanished on Staten Island. She was last seen arriving for her shift at the Staten Island Developmental Center (the former Willowbrook State School) before sunrise around 6 a.m.
It was dark — around 6 a.m. — when she arrived at her job as a nurse aide at the Staten Island Developmental Center on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School.
Workers heard the 46-year-old scream from the parking lot. By the time police arrived, Ethel had disappeared, but they found her purse, buttons from her coat, her dentures and one of her shoes just outside her parked car.
Her keys were found in the woods. Police and volunteers scoured the 300-acre property for days — her sons looked for her in the woods for months — but no one found any evidence of Ethel. (THE MISSING ABC7)
The area where Atwell disappeared is still owned by New York State and is operated by Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD)
At the time, she lived at eighty Schuyler Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, and commuted to Staten Island for her job. Ethel stood 5’6″ inches tall, and had black hair, brown eyes, and wore dentures. Her ears were pierced, and on that fateful morning, she was wearing a long blue coat and black shoes.
A very important Substack “Our Black Girls,” cites Ethel as being 47 years of age, despite reports stating otherwise. Author Erika Marie details more of Ethel’s profession as a Nurse’s Aide, “as an aide to a physical therapist.” Ethel Louise’ son Frank Atwell Jr stated in The Missing, that his mother “brought patients home and was like a Momma to them.”
Our Black Girls continues to cite the story, “…..she arrived and parked her vehicle behind Building 47. Mysteriously, however, Ethel never made it inside the facility. A little after Ethel got out of her car, two female employees inside the center heard a commotion outside in the parking lot. A male voice said, “Come on, come on,” and Ethel could be heard replying, “No, you’ll beat me.” Ethel’s scream immediately followed. (OUR BLACK GIRLS)
One question I have concerns Ethel’s yelling at her abductor, “No, you’ll hurt me.” Did she know her abductor, or at least recognize him? If her abductor was indeed Andre Rand, and she recognized him, does her statement indicate a reputation he had at Willowbrook? Rand was no longer an employee at Willowbrook State School but we know he had returned to camp in the area. This was alongside the vagrant population in the wooded area and tunnel system below Willowbrook.
We do know that In 1969, Andre Rand was arrested for kidnapping and attempting to rape a nine-year-old girl in the South Bronx. On May 5, 1969, he enticed the girl into his car, drove her to a vacant lot, and attempted to assault her. The crime was interrupted by a passing police car, and Rand was caught in the act after removing both his clothes and the girl’s clothes. He was charged with attempted rape but ultimately pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to four years in prison. Rand served 16 months before being granted parole in January 1972. Shortly after his release, he legally changed his name to Andre Rand.
Therefore Rand being suspected for Atwell’s kidnapping is certainly not unfounded. “When authorities arrived, Ethel was gone, but they did find her purse, an earring, one of her shoes, three black buttons torn from her coat, and half of her set of dentures. All of her items were strewn on the ground beside her car. Her keys were eventually recovered after they were found approximately 75 feet away in nearby woods.” (Our Black Girls)
Now before I get to the Exploration part of this article I would like to cite ABC7’s “Missing” by Investigative Reporter Kristin Thorne. “Missing,” tells the stories of missing people around the Tri-State area who never got the coverage they deserved.
It is very important to bear witness to these stories, such as those covered by “OUR BLACK GIRLS” and if we can boost the signal as best we can. The episode and article from ABC7 concerning Ethel Louis Atwell, and the full article can be read and viewed here.
THE EXPLORATION
Ethel Louis Atwell had arrived for work around 6 a.m. at Building 47 as an employee for Staten Island Developmental Center on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School.
A bit further in we can see the length of parking spots where Atwell had parked her car.
Before I continue I wanted to illustrate where this is. I hiked the “White trail” as indicated on maps for the park. We learn from sources cited above that Atwell’s keys were found about 75 yards into the woods from this parking area.
In this image you can see via the RED HERE note to the left is where the parking lot is obscured by the trees. My picture above this one is from inside that tree line in front of the parking within the woods.
Now to further illustrate the area discussed, and to show the extent of woods beyond this point I filmed a small video that can be seen below.
So, where did she go? How far into the woods was Ethel Louis Atwell dragged before she disappeared. The last evidence found inside the woods were her keys. We know the tunnels under Willowbrook State School had extended into this area. In the “MISSING” episode Atwell’s son describes going into buildings, down elevator shafts, and finding tunnel entrances. The locations shown to describe where Atwell’s family searched are images from the New York Farm Colony that is deeper into the Staten Island Greenbelt.
Now going further in from the parking lot I am not sure how much the terrain has changed since the initial 1978 search for Ethel Louis Atwell. I do know they were building the baseball fields that are at the very end of the park north of the trail. If you go off trail and into the woods one can find the fence and edge of the ballpark. If you go off trail off to the right you will come to edge of a neighborhood that was only being built in the late 70s and early 80s. About 100 yards into the woods from where Atwell was abducted is a small hill, which could be fill from those builds. It is littered with debris, such as brick, tiles and even an abandoned bathtub. If there were tunnel entrances in this area at all during the search for Atwell, they are no longer there.
Further into the woods there is a ton more debris, such as what appeared to me as tile from a bathroom. What came as a surprise was the discovery of a bathtub!
This has probably sat there since whatever building was around it was demolished, I cannot imagine this was dumped here. But if it was and you have information then please do share.
Now more importantly, getting back to our main focus is the disappearance of Ethel Louis Atwell. Along the white trail there is alot of evidence of vagrancy and dumped clothing. Below is a series of pics first illustrating a small camp I found very off the trail, which I saw from a distance. On a follow-up visit I encountered a park work I am familiar with and who said the parks employees were removing the below set of chairs I had found.
The pictures illustrate an area that has been set up like this for a LONG time. Seeing the whole site littered with debris, broken bikes, canisters and firepits one can just see the age of the area. It is completely hidden by brush and tall weeds.
Next in my final set of pictures I’ll show old clothes, shoes and items scattered just off the trail.
What does this all say about the area surrounding where Ethel Louis Atwell disappeared? We know homeless people and Andre Rand camped in the area during the 1970s and may very well be responsible for the murder of Shin Lee, abduction and disappearance of Ethel Atwell. Some of the above finds within Willowbrook Park could either be abandoned items belonging to the homeless or items from kidnapped people. We have two bodies found, Schweiger and Lee, and one disappearance, Atwell on the grounds of Willowbrook. Was Rand involved? We may never know
In the Ethel Atwell MISSING episode cited above Joshua Zeman, Cropsey writer and director, and Kristin Thorne, Investigative Journalist, both agree that Ethel Louis Atwell may still be somewhere on the grounds of Willowbrook. Zeman also cites there may be many more still there that have yet to be found. The only way we will know more is to go look.
Further Reading OUR BLACK GIRLS
NAMUS National Missing and Unidentified Persons System: Ethel Louis Atwell
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