'Missing': Renewed search for Westchester mother and two small children who disappeared in 1977
WESTCHESTER (WABC) -- A non-profit from Oregon that specializes in finding missing people has come to Westchester to search for a mother and her two children who disappeared in 1977.
Doug Bishop, with United Search Corps, heard about the case of Leslie Guthrie and Julie, 6, and Timmy, 3, who disappeared from Katonah 47 years ago.
"Everything points to in this case it simply being an accident," Bishop said.
Police said on February 5, 1977, Leslie drove away with her two children from her house in Katonah and was never seen again.
Eyewitness News featured their disappearance in their true crime series, 'Missing'.
Watch the Guthrie Family's episode of 'Missing':
Leslie's husband, Tim Guthrie, said he buckled his kids in the backseat and waved goodbye.
"I helped her put the kids in the car and they drove off and that was the last I saw them," he said. "I always think of them and where they are."
Bishop's theory - a theory that law enforcement has also long believed - is that Leslie's car is in one of the many bodies of water in and around Katonah.
"The longer somebody's disappeared with them and their vehicle it makes sense that the car would be underwater," he said.
On April 29, Bishop used a small boat with sonar equipment to search Wampus Pond in Armonk. The pond is 23 feet deep in some places and could have been a body of water Leslie drove by. He searched for signs of a car.
"And then when we have an image, we are able to then dive on it because we're divers," Bishop said.
In March, Bishop and his team recovered eight vehicles in a pond in Oregon while searching for a teenager who disappeared in 1975.
The day Bishop searched Wampus Pond detectives with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Bedford Police Department stood onshore and watched. So did, Leslie's sister and niece.
"We'd always thought about this but you couldn't get, you know, funding together or anything," Jen, Leslie's niece, said.
Leslie's sister, Stephanie Locke, is thankful to Bishop.
"Couldn't ask for anything more," she said.
Bishop spent nearly two hours on the water but wasn't able to find anything. But, he doesn't get discouraged. He said it's a process of elimination and he will keep searching.
"Every search is a successful search because when we're done we know where someone is not," he said.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Leslie Guthrie and her two children or if you knew them and have never spoken with investigators, call Det. Matthew Whalen at the Bedford Police Department at 914-241-3111. All tips can be kept anonymous.
