Staten Island Serial Killer: The Unsolved Abduction of Ethel Atwell Part 1

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For 40 years, Staten Island was home to an institution
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that would become synonymous with one of the darkest chapters
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in New York history, the Willowbrook State School. In the
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early 1970s, journalist Geraldo Rivera brought cameras inside Willowbrook and
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showed the public the deplorable conditions people with intellectual and
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developmental disabilities were being forced to live in. That expose
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helped set in motion sweeping changes to the way people
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with disabilities were supported in New York and across the country.
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I have worked professionally in disability services for my entire
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adult life. I have seen the footage from the inside
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of Willowbrook more times than I can count, and it
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never stops affecting me. What happened there shaped the system
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I work in today. In many ways, it has shaped
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how I approach nearly every part of my own work.
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But for years, there was something I didn't know about Willowbrook,
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and that was that the danger connected to the campus
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did not stop at its doors. Because, in at least
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a couple of cases, women who worked at Willowbrook were
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attacked or abducted as they arrived for work or made
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their way home. As the years passed, children and young
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women also began disappearing from the surrounding neighborhoods. Some were
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later found murdered. Others have never been found. Many were
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especially vulnerable because they were children, had disabilities, or both. Eventually,
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one man with close ties to Willowbrook was convicted in
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connection with the abduction of two girls. Investigators have long
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suspected that he may have been responsible for several more
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disappearances and murders, but not everyone believes he could have
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committed all of them. Questions remain about where he was,
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what he was capable of, and whether every crime attributed
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to him was truly the work of the same person. Today,
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I'm going to focus on the abduction of Ethel Atwell,
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who disappeared from the Willowbrook parking lot before dawn as
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she arrived to her shift. I'll also talk about the
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other cases connected to the campus and the surrounding area,
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including the ones Andre Rand was convicted in, and those
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investigators have questioned whether he was involved in. But when
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all these cases are looked at together, the answer is
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not as straightforward as it might seem. Was Andre Rand
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responsible for everything that happened around Willowbrook? Or could more
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than one predator have been using those woods? I'm your host, Megan,
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and each week on A Simpler Time True Crime, I
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cover older unsolved cases and challenge the idea that a
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simpler time meant a safer time. This week, I'm bringing
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to you the unsolved abduction of Ethel Atwell. Thank you, everyone,
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for joining me for another week of the podcast. If
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you haven't already, don't forget to follow the podcast from
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whatever platform you're listening on. And if you like the podcast,
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I'd love for you to leave a five-star review. Now,
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the case I have for you this week is an
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episode I've been piecing together for over a year. I
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mentioned that disability services in New York, that's the field
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of work I've been in for two decades. And the
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idea of tackling cases connected to Willowbrook felt a little
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overwhelming if I'm being honest and sort of like my
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two worlds colliding. But the more I looked into it,
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the more I realized that the arrest of a suspected
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serial killer back in 1988 did very little to resolve
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the many cases that were occurring in this small area
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in the 70s and 80s. There are a lot of
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moving pieces in this episode, so here's how I plan
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to approach it. I want to start the episode by
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giving some background history to Willowbrook because I think it's
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very important history for everyone to know. Then I'll go
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into Ethel's case and an extremely similar case that happened
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just months prior, involving one of Ethel's colleagues at Willowbrook.
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I'll then get into the additional cases potentially connected to
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Andre Rand, his eventual arrest, and other possibilities of what
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could have happened to Ethel and where the case stands today.
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Because it is so much info, I'm going to break
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it up into two parts, but fear not, I'll release
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them at the same time so you can pace yourself
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however you want. I know I always hate waiting for
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part two of an episode. And with all of that,
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let's get into it. Willowbrook's history began before it ever
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opened as an institution. In 1938, New York approved plans
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to build a state school on Staten Island for children
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with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The buildings were completed during
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World War II, but were instead used by the military
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as Halloran General Hospital. After the war, the property was
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eventually returned to the state, and Willowbrook State School opened
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in 1947. On paper, Willowbrook made a lot of promises
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to families. It was supposed to be a place that
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was going to provide education and treatment and care, but
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it never became that. Instead, it became a place where
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thousands of people with disabilities were sent away and separated
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from the rest of society. Some arrived as babies and
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remained there for most or all of their lives. The
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facility was meant to house no more than 4,000 people,
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but by the mid-1960s, there were 6,000 people living there.
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Willowbrook was overcrowded, severely understaffed, and falling apart. Residents were
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sometimes left naked or wearing dirty clothes for days on end.
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Many people who lived there spent their days sitting on
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the floor with nothing to do and no one available
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to help them. There were not enough bathrooms, beds, or
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staff members to meet even the most basic needs of
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the people living there. Of course, as you can imagine,
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illness spread very easily in these conditions. Hepatitis was so
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common that researchers began conducting studies on children at Willowbrook.
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Some children were intentionally exposed to the virus so researchers
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could watch how the illness developed and test possible treatments.
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The argument was that the children would probably contract hepatitis
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at Willowbrook anyway. That explanation alone says quite a bit
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about what life inside the institution had become. People had
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been trying to raise the alarm about Willowbrook for years.
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Senator Robert F. Kennedy toured the facility in 1965 and
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and later described it as a snake pit. Parents, advocates,
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and even some employees were also speaking out. And as
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I give this historical backdrop, I think it's important to
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make that distinction because I'm obviously going to be talking
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about Ethel Atwell, who worked there, as well as another
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woman named Shin Lee, who did as well. And from
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everything I have read about both women, they were trying
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to do good work within a very, very broken environment
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and system. there were absolutely horrible people working at Willowbrook.
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Residents were abused and neglected and treated in ways that
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are difficult to even comprehend. The place was awful. But
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I also don't want to paint every person who worked
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there with the same brush. Some employees were trying to
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care for the residents, and some were actively trying to
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expose the conditions and create change. Ultimately, it was Geraldo
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Rivera's 1972 investigation that finally forced the rest of the
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country to see what was happening. His footage showed residents
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crowded together in filthy rooms. Some were unclothed. Many had
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no meaningful activities, education, or even basic supervision and support.
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This generated a big response, but the changes to Willowbrook
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were not immediate. A lawsuit was filed against the state
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of New York, and in 1975, the state agreed to
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improve conditions and begin moving residents into smaller community-type homes.
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Willowbrook had also been renamed to the Staten Island Developmental
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Center the year before, but a new name, of course,
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didn't erase what happened there or any of the decades
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of abuse, and it certainly did not transform the campus overnight.
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And I just want to say that even though it
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was renamed, if you watch old interviews and see old
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news footage, the name change didn't stick. Everyone still called
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it Willowbrook, so you'll hear me typically call it that
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throughout this episode when I'm referring to it. If you
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look up Willowbrook online... You can see some of the
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former footage, and I just want to say, be prepared
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for what you're about to see. Massive content warning. No
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matter how many times I see it, I still cry
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every time. That is important when we talk about the
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place where Ethel Atwell worked in 1978, because she wasn't
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arriving at the abandoned Willowbrook that people now associate with
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empty buildings, overgrown grounds. It was still a functioning institution
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with thousands of residents and employees moving between buildings across
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an enormous campus. I also think it's important to picture
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what it looked like when you stepped outside the doors.
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Willowbrook was not one large building surrounded by a parking lot.
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The sprawling campus covered nearly 400 acres in the middle
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of Staten Island with dozens and dozens of buildings that
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were connected by roads and walkways and, to make it
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even creepier than it already was, there were also a
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series of underground tunnels. The buildings were spread out with
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open fields and thick stretches of trees between them. The
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woods did not end at the edge of Willowbrook's property.
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They connected with parkland and other undeveloped areas that stretched
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towards nearby residential neighborhoods and several major roads. So Willowbrook
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wasn't completely cut off from the rest of Staten Island,
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but when you were inside the grounds, it certainly could
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feel that way. Someone could enter the trees in one
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area and come out somewhere else entirely without ever passing
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back through the main part of campus. Today, Willowbrook is
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no longer in a institution hidden in the woods. Much
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of the property has become the College of Staten Island,
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while other sections are still used by the state. Some
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original buildings remain, and beneath the grounds are remnants of
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the utility tunnels that once connected the enormous complex. Other
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buildings are gone completely, leaving open lawns and modern facilities
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in places where Willowbrook once stood. But throughout the property,
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small pieces of the old institution remain visible if you
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know what you're looking for. In 1978, Ethel was in
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her 40s. I say that because her exact age is
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cited anywhere from 42 to 46 depending on source material,
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but from what I could find, more often than not
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I see her birthday as cited as April 6, 1932,
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so then 46 would be accurate. She worked at the
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facility when it was called Willowbrook and when it shifted
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over to its new name. By 1978, she had worked
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there for about 15 years. Ethel would commute to Staten
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Island from Newark, New Jersey, where she was the proud
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mother of four sons. Typically, I like to be able
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to share as much information as possible about a person
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outside of the day that something terrible happened to them.
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And unfortunately, there isn't a ton of public reporting out
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there on Ethel. Back in 2024, reporter Kristen Thorne was
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able to speak to some of Ethel's family, including her son,
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for the podcast True Crime NYC. And he talked about
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his mother being just naturally a helper and that she
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went above and beyond with the people she worked with.
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He said she used to end up taking some of
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them home and under her wing. She would take them
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home on the weekends with her, which of course would
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not be allowed nowadays. But when you consider the conditions
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of the facility at the time and where her heart
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was at, you could tell she had really sweet intentions.
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Like many people who worked at Willowbrook, Ethel would often
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have weird times that she'd have to report to work.
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She'd have to leave basically in the middle of the
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night to get to her shift in the early morning hours.
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One of the biggest complaints workers had about arriving and
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leaving work was the lighting, or rather, lack thereof, in
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the parking areas and walkways into work. This was a
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big concern because this was a 24-hour facility and, like
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I said, staff had shifts at various odd hours. A
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staff supervisor there named Alan Heath told the Staten Island
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Advance back in 1978, quote, we've been screaming about the
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lighting situation for months, but no one does anything about it.
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You wouldn't believe how dark it was out there, end quote.
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On the morning of Tuesday, October 24th, 1978, just before
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6 a.m., Ethel Atwell pulled up to the small parking
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lot behind Building 47 where she worked. But after putting
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her car in park and opening the door, Something happened
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because she never made it inside. Employees of the facility
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reported hearing screaming coming from the parking area at around
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the same time. Concerned, that same supervisor, Alan Heath, went
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outside to investigate. He got into his car and pulled
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into the same lot employees heard the screams coming from.
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He got out and walked all around, and then he
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stumbled into clues that were disturbing. Next to what he
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knew to be Ethel Atwell's car, he located signs of
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a struggle. There was a tan purse on the ground,
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a black shoe, three black coat buttons, half of her
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set of dentures, and an earring. These were found outside
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the driver's side door of the car, and the car
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was locked. Heath described Ethel's shoe as having a scuff
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mark on it, which is a little interesting because it
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was so pitch black. As he described it, of course,
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there's no lights on it all in that parking lot,
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so my thought is maybe he was searching with a flashlight,
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but nothing does explicitly state that. It's just what makes sense.
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Whatever had happened there, Ethel had put up a fight.
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Alan Heath then pulled his car around to the wooded
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area and began looking in the woods himself, thinking that
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if someone had abducted her on foot, they couldn't have
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gotten too far. but he didn't see any signs of her,
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and so he rushed back inside to call police. Police
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responded and requested help from employees at the center. About
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100 of them joined the search. And obviously finding Ethel
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was incredibly important, but I also can't help but think
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that what that meant for to pull 100 employees away
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from a facility that was already severely understaffed and how
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that may have affected the people living there. But I digress.
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In addition to the search on the ground, police brought
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in a helicopter and bloodhounds. The dogs were given Ethel's
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scent from the shoe found beside her car, and they
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searched the surrounding area for about an hour but didn't
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find her. They did, however, locate her car keys, buried
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in a pile of leaves about 20 feet behind the
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parking lot and 75 feet from the car. Meanwhile, members
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of the police crime scene unit took fingerprints from the
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car and articles found discarded next to the car. The
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scene was just so eerie, and in a lot of
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ways it reminded me of the Jodi Husentruth case, if
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you're familiar. She was an Iowa news anchor abducted while
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00:15:10.019 --> 00:15:12.679
getting into her car on her way to report the
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morning news. And similarly, things like one of her shoes,
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an earring, her hair products, and her bent key were
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00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:23.090
found next to her car. It's just a similar scene
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and scary because I think most women agree that walks
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00:15:25.909 --> 00:15:28.049
to and from our car are nerve wracking as it is.
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And this is the scenario we are most afraid of.
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So to see evidence of it playing out for someone
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else is terrifying. Sergeant Patrick McCarthy was heading the investigation
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and he told media outlets that while Ethel was at
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this point just a missing person, everything was pointing to
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foul play. Of course, investigators wanted to speak with the
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earwitnesses who heard the screaming, and a few interesting things
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00:15:51.659 --> 00:15:55.830
came from that. Number one, they all heard the scream
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at around the same time. Number two, none of them
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00:15:59.730 --> 00:16:02.090
recall hearing a car start up or the sound of
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00:16:02.149 --> 00:16:04.970
a car in the parking lot after the scream. So
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then the thought was, was she taken into the nearby woods,
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and then what? And number three, One person remembered hearing
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something very specific, an interaction between a male and a female,
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00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:22.240
presumably Ethel Atwell. The male voice said what sounded like,
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come on, come on, and the female voice said, no,
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you'll beat me. After that is when the screams occurred
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00:16:29.860 --> 00:16:34.159
and Ethel vanished. No, you'll beat me is an interesting
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sentence that we'll discuss and dissect a bit more later
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00:16:37.019 --> 00:16:40.620
because that choice of words could be a clue. But
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for now, we'll continue with the investigation after this short break.
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When the day closed out on Tuesday the 24th and
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no sign of Ethel emerged, an even more intensive search
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00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:05.680
continued the next day. The search comprised of 500 employees
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00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:10.599
from the developmental center, 20 police officers, five civilian volunteers
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00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:15.039
on horseback, and several detectives from Staten Island. Because of
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00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:18.160
the complicated search area, there was a very methodical way
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00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:20.420
of going about it so that the whole surrounding area
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00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:23.259
was covered and searchers also weren't tripping over one another.
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00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:26.740
The search leads broke the area down into a grid
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00:17:26.779 --> 00:17:30.759
of 16. Residents who lived in Building 47 were moved
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00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:33.579
to a different building temporarily, and police set up their
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command center right there in Building 47. Workers would report
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to that building and be assigned a numbered area of
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00:17:40.730 --> 00:17:43.740
the grid search, and each grid had a police officer
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00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:47.279
who was overseeing the search of that area. By the
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00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.599
following day, Staten Island Police Chief Patrick Murphy requested the
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assistance of the National Guard. He felt the team he
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00:17:53.980 --> 00:17:56.390
had assembled had searched all they could at that point
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00:17:56.450 --> 00:18:00.650
without success, and he temporarily suspended the search while still
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00:18:00.690 --> 00:18:04.319
keeping the command center set up in Building 47. Even
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00:18:04.339 --> 00:18:07.359
though the official coordinated search was called off, hundreds of
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00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:11.269
volunteers were still combing the area. Throughout the early days
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00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:14.190
of the search, officials at the institution were criticized for
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00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:17.150
the lack of security, and with good reason. As I've
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00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.930
already mentioned, the expansive campus had no lights in the
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parking lot, so workers arriving and leaving at all hours
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00:18:23.349 --> 00:18:26.490
would have to walk in the pitch black. When detectives
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00:18:26.529 --> 00:18:31.509
were interviewing other female employees, several recounted instances recently of
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unknown men who they believed were following them to and
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from their cars. In those instances, it appeared they got
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00:18:38.049 --> 00:18:41.319
away without incident. Now, I just want to quick clarify,
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they weren't being followed by multiple men. Each one was
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00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:47.099
saying they felt a man was following them, if that
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00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:50.700
makes sense. In the weeks leading up to Ethel's abduction,
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a new electronic security system was installed at the entrances
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00:18:54.230 --> 00:18:56.849
and exits to the facility. It was the type of
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00:18:56.890 --> 00:18:59.740
setup I'm sure you've encountered time and again. An employee
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00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:02.180
would have a badge they'd insert into a slot, and
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00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:04.720
that would provide validation, which would then lift that arm
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00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:08.279
up to allow cars to enter and exit the grounds. However,
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even though it was installed weeks earlier, they encountered difficulties
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00:19:12.809 --> 00:19:15.930
with said installation, so it was not functioning at the
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00:19:15.970 --> 00:19:19.789
time of Ethel's abduction. The idea to install a security
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00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.869
gate wasn't just some random idea to promote employee safety.
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Employees had been complaining about their safety for a while.
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But the biggest influence on the decision to improve security
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00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:34.740
had been another case that occurred just months before Ethel.
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Because Ethel was not the first woman to disappear from campus.
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On July 20, 1978, a 44-year-old registered nurse wrapped up
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her shift late in the evening at Building 11 of
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00:19:48.769 --> 00:19:52.779
the campus. Shin Lee lived at 7 Jasper Street just
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00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:55.640
a third of a mile from work. Because of the
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close proximity, she typically walked to and from work even
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00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:02.690
if it was late. That night, she worked the 3 p.m.
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00:20:02.750 --> 00:20:07.150
to 11.45 p.m. shift and then started down her usual route.
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00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:09.819
and I'll have a map of this on the Instagram
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00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:15.039
page at simplertimecrimepod. From the back door of building 11,
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00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:17.220
she would cut through a path on a wooded area
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00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:20.539
behind the center, which would then go past a research
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00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:24.349
center just off campus in the woods. She'd then cut
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00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.509
up Forest Hill Road and over to her home on Jasper.
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That night, she never made it home. At least, they
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00:20:31.869 --> 00:20:34.619
don't think she did. You see, Shin was married and
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00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:37.420
had three children who were 18, 16, and 13 at
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00:20:37.500 --> 00:20:42.519
the time. Her husband had a small grocery store in Brooklyn,
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00:20:42.900 --> 00:20:44.740
and my understanding is they had a place to stay
349
00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:47.839
nearby there, I'm assuming maybe with relatives or friends, and
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because of the various work schedules, he and the kids
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00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:53.849
had spent that night in Brooklyn by the grocery store.
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The next day, her daughter was home in the morning
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and Shin Lee wasn't there, but she often worked doubles,
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00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:02.289
so nobody thought too much of it at that point.
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00:21:02.890 --> 00:21:05.589
But when the afternoon hit and she still wasn't home,
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Shin Lee's daughter called her dad's store and told him,
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and that's when they both agreed something wasn't right. That evening,
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00:21:12.789 --> 00:21:16.299
they filed a missing persons report, and on the 22nd,
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00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:21.220
the actual physical search began. But it wasn't just police.
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00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:24.400
The Lee family was part of a tight-knit Korean community.
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00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:29.019
The Lee family had immigrated to the U.S. in 1971,
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00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:31.619
and the whole community came together to search for her.
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00:21:32.509 --> 00:21:36.190
Shin Lee's husband put up a $ 1, 000 reward for information.
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00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:40.799
Shin Lee's 16-year-old daughter told police that her mother had
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00:21:40.859 --> 00:21:44.980
shared a concern with the family months earlier. A few
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00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:47.799
months before she went missing, Shin Lee reportedly gave an
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00:21:47.940 --> 00:21:51.849
unfavorable review to an employee that she supervised, and as
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00:21:51.890 --> 00:21:55.910
a result, this woman was fired. I can't even imagine
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00:21:55.970 --> 00:21:58.430
how bad you had to perform to be fired from Willowbrook,
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00:21:58.509 --> 00:22:02.079
but she was. And apparently, she threatened Shin Lee and
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00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:04.660
said she was going to kill her. So of course
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00:22:04.700 --> 00:22:08.539
police had to look into this lead as well. Shin
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Lee's family and community quickly grew frustrated with law enforcement.
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They felt that the search they conducted on the grounds
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00:22:15.369 --> 00:22:18.690
was not sufficient and that they didn't put enough effort in.
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They would contact the missing persons unit and not get
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00:22:21.809 --> 00:22:24.269
any return calls and so they decided, you know what,
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00:22:24.869 --> 00:22:28.019
we're just going to do our own search. On Sunday,
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00:22:28.190 --> 00:22:33.160
August 6th, 1978, 17 days after Shin Lee went missing,
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00:22:33.259 --> 00:22:36.839
the search commenced. 30 people in total made up the
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00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:39.759
search party. Many were members of the Korean Church of
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00:22:39.819 --> 00:22:42.549
Staten Island, as well as friends and neighbors of Shin Lee.
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00:22:43.450 --> 00:22:45.410
They met in front of the building she walked from,
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and then they all dispersed into the woods in different directions.
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00:22:49.670 --> 00:22:52.430
In a strange turn of events, one of the people
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00:22:52.470 --> 00:22:55.119
who came to help with the search came late. and
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00:22:55.140 --> 00:22:57.980
they walked into the woods looking for the other searchers.
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00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:02.460
And just as that person was walking in, they found
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00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:05.630
what looked to be a pile of dirt. And as
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00:23:05.670 --> 00:23:08.470
they barely touched the dirt to look into it further,
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00:23:09.190 --> 00:23:11.789
they began to see parts of a body in a
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00:23:11.849 --> 00:23:16.089
shallow grave. Some of the searchers stayed with the body
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00:23:16.170 --> 00:23:18.670
while others ran to call police and report what they
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00:23:18.690 --> 00:23:22.779
had found. Lieutenant William Giuliano could not explain why her
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00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:25.380
body had been missed during the earlier searches. He said
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00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:28.839
police had searched very close to that same area without
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00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:32.440
finding anything. However, there had been heavy rain in the
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00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.769
days before her body was discovered, and he believed it
399
00:23:35.809 --> 00:23:38.069
may have washed away some of the dirt or debris
400
00:23:38.109 --> 00:23:42.450
that had been concealing the grave. An autopsy was conducted,
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00:23:42.569 --> 00:23:45.490
and the next day the body was positively identified as
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00:23:45.569 --> 00:23:50.119
that of Shin Lee. The autopsy would reveal that Shin
403
00:23:50.140 --> 00:23:53.359
Lee was sexually assaulted and strangled to death before being
404
00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:56.839
put in the shallow grave. The condition of the body
405
00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:59.700
indicated that she likely had been there and had been
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00:23:59.740 --> 00:24:04.140
buried very shortly after the time she disappeared. There's nothing
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00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:07.869
in the source material that specifically states that biological evidence
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00:24:07.900 --> 00:24:11.269
from a male was present or collected, however, the sexual
409
00:24:11.349 --> 00:24:14.230
assault would lead me to believe that the female co-worker
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00:24:14.329 --> 00:24:18.309
murdering her was unlikely. This seemed much more like a
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00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:23.029
sexually motivated crime committed by a man. But what's crazy
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00:24:23.170 --> 00:24:26.890
is that looking into that lead, police discovered that threats
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00:24:26.950 --> 00:24:31.069
to supervisors at the developmental center, they were not uncommon.
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00:24:31.430 --> 00:24:34.970
There were several known instances of employees even beating up
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00:24:35.029 --> 00:24:40.900
their supervisors. They also found another instance where in 1975,
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00:24:40.900 --> 00:24:44.339
a nurse had reported two people for drinking on the job.
417
00:24:44.930 --> 00:24:48.349
And then she had her car window smashed, tires slashed,
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00:24:48.829 --> 00:24:51.710
and dead animals left on the doorstep of the building
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00:24:51.809 --> 00:24:55.880
she worked at. She also had her life threatened. The
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00:24:55.890 --> 00:24:59.259
harassment continued for six months before eventually she left her
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00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:02.059
job and moved to a different facility in the Bronx.
422
00:25:03.140 --> 00:25:05.400
There was another instance of someone who had come in
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00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:07.920
to put on a workshop for employees and they witnessed
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00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:11.940
mistreatment that they turned in. And the employee who they
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00:25:11.980 --> 00:25:15.940
turned in retaliated by breaking this person's arm and giving
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00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:20.490
them a severe head injury. According to original reporting in
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00:25:20.529 --> 00:25:24.630
the Staten Island Advance, a bookkeeper found some questionable vouchers
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00:25:24.690 --> 00:25:27.690
submitted and they raised the alarm and the person she
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00:25:27.730 --> 00:25:32.400
had investigated began threatening her by both phone and in person.
430
00:25:32.420 --> 00:25:36.299
A few parents of children in the center had raised
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00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:40.059
complaints about employees not doing their jobs and they began
432
00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:45.490
receiving threats from those employees. An attorney named Chris Hansen, no,
433
00:25:45.569 --> 00:25:48.819
not that Chris Hansen, who was involved with the Willowbrook
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00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:53.420
litigation after the 1972 expose, went on record saying that
435
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.660
they were digging into things and they were horrified, not
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00:25:56.740 --> 00:25:59.759
only by, of course, everything happening to the people who
437
00:25:59.819 --> 00:26:02.819
lived there, which was the most horrific, but then also
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00:26:02.900 --> 00:26:06.880
the working conditions. He told the Staten Island Examiner, quote,
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00:26:10.779 --> 00:26:14.809
A big thing was bombing supervisors' cars. We had incidents
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00:26:14.869 --> 00:26:19.230
of weapons being pulled on supervisors, lives being threatened, end quote.
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00:26:20.589 --> 00:26:23.809
At the Willowbrook trial in the Brooklyn federal courts, one
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00:26:23.869 --> 00:26:27.089
witness on the stand talked about being intimidated about turning
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00:26:27.109 --> 00:26:29.690
a co-worker in because of the threats she had received.
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00:26:30.470 --> 00:26:32.569
And Hansen pointed out that this in turn shaped the
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00:26:32.619 --> 00:26:35.279
culture and the lack of care that the residents of
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00:26:35.319 --> 00:26:38.660
the facility received. If people were scared to report, things
447
00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:42.220
got swept under the rug. In addition, at the time,
448
00:26:42.299 --> 00:26:44.799
Hansen said police didn't really get involved with these or
449
00:26:44.859 --> 00:26:47.480
treat them as criminal offenses. They chalked them up to
450
00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.920
just quote-unquote more issues at the institution and they refused
451
00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:54.400
to step in. I bring up all of this because
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00:26:54.569 --> 00:26:57.650
clearly both Shin Lee and Ethel Atwell were good employees
453
00:26:57.730 --> 00:27:01.670
working in really dangerous conditions where they weren't being protected
454
00:27:01.789 --> 00:27:04.430
and were among employees who had a lot of power
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00:27:04.470 --> 00:27:07.809
to make things difficult. Those good employees were the ones
456
00:27:08.089 --> 00:27:09.990
who wanted to do right by the people who lived
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00:27:10.049 --> 00:27:12.750
there at the facility, and they were being threatened and
458
00:27:12.809 --> 00:27:15.009
were the most at risk of being harmed by the
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00:27:15.049 --> 00:27:19.269
bad ones. And it's important to take that into consideration
460
00:27:19.309 --> 00:27:22.769
when determining the possibilities of what happened to these two
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00:27:22.809 --> 00:27:25.710
women and whether or not someone they worked with could
462
00:27:25.750 --> 00:27:39.589
be involved. Felton King, union president of the Civil Services
463
00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:44.650
Employees Association, or CSEA, was repulsed by the working conditions
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00:27:45.069 --> 00:27:48.329
and said their organization was putting up a $ 5, 000 reward
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00:27:48.369 --> 00:27:51.599
for information leading to the arrest of whoever killed Shin Lee.
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00:27:52.299 --> 00:27:56.500
They also began to push for security changes. Police interviewed
467
00:27:56.539 --> 00:27:59.039
co-workers of Shin Lee's to try to trace her last
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00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:01.119
steps and get a better sense of her work life,
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00:28:01.539 --> 00:28:03.549
seeing if there was anybody that stood out to them
470
00:28:03.589 --> 00:28:07.009
as a suspect. In talking with co-workers, they said that
471
00:28:07.109 --> 00:28:09.970
around midnight on the night she went missing, they heard
472
00:28:09.990 --> 00:28:12.549
a sharp scream outside and they were so concerned they
473
00:28:12.589 --> 00:28:15.970
sent a group of male co-workers outside to investigate. But
474
00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:18.460
they didn't find anything amiss, so they went back inside
475
00:28:18.539 --> 00:28:23.220
and didn't really give it another thought. Despite that information
476
00:28:23.299 --> 00:28:26.140
and the various interviews with people who worked there, the
477
00:28:26.180 --> 00:28:29.680
investigation quickly cooled off and they were left with very
478
00:28:29.740 --> 00:28:32.640
little in the way of leads. Then in October, when
479
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:36.400
Ethel Atwell went missing... people began to connect the two cases.
480
00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:40.170
These are both female employees who were roughly the same age,
481
00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:42.750
both were coming or going from this facility in the
482
00:28:42.769 --> 00:28:47.230
hours of darkness, and in both cases, people inside heard screams.
483
00:28:48.750 --> 00:28:51.660
In Shin Lee's case, there were no traces of evidence
484
00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:55.119
left behind until ultimately her body was discovered in the
485
00:28:55.140 --> 00:28:59.329
woods on the facility grounds. In Ethel's case, There was
486
00:28:59.450 --> 00:29:02.250
evidence of a struggle right outside her vehicle, but no
487
00:29:02.309 --> 00:29:04.569
trace of her body has ever been found even to
488
00:29:04.730 --> 00:29:08.210
this day. The National Guard did end up coming in
489
00:29:08.250 --> 00:29:10.910
and helping in the search for Ethel, along with 200
490
00:29:10.910 --> 00:29:15.990
more volunteers. Search coordinator Inspector Marino called the search the
491
00:29:16.039 --> 00:29:20.099
most intensive search in Staten Island history. They even dragged
492
00:29:20.140 --> 00:29:25.119
Willowbrook Pond, but there was not a single clue. Security
493
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:27.720
at the facility was apparently ramped up. They doubled the
494
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:31.460
amount of security guards and approved OT, but female employees
495
00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:34.440
were scheduled to arrive in the darkness. They began no
496
00:29:34.829 --> 00:29:37.390
showing for their shifts. One woman talked about how her
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00:29:37.450 --> 00:29:40.460
car broke down just outside the main gate. So she
498
00:29:40.559 --> 00:29:42.940
asked security for an escort to her building and he
499
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:45.490
said he couldn't leave his post to help her, which
500
00:29:45.509 --> 00:29:49.250
like respectfully, like what's the point then? That's just crazy
501
00:29:49.269 --> 00:29:51.490
to me. So she ended up getting a cab to
502
00:29:51.529 --> 00:29:54.269
take her over to building 32 and but she still
503
00:29:54.309 --> 00:29:56.930
had to walk two blocks to her building, so I
504
00:29:56.950 --> 00:29:59.069
hope this gives you a better visual of just how
505
00:29:59.309 --> 00:30:03.289
huge this campus was. She said she was terrified and
506
00:30:03.309 --> 00:30:06.170
couldn't believe the lack of help she was getting, even
507
00:30:06.210 --> 00:30:10.009
with everything that had just happened. The deputy director of
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00:30:10.049 --> 00:30:12.490
the facility said he was surprised the guard didn't help
509
00:30:12.529 --> 00:30:14.380
her and that they were trying their best to give
510
00:30:14.410 --> 00:30:18.200
people escorts between buildings but didn't have the bandwidth to
511
00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:22.599
quote accommodate everyone. A week after Ethel went missing, women
512
00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:26.880
who worked at Willowbrook began receiving chilling phone calls. In
513
00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:30.240
one instance, a nurse in Building 11 received a phone
514
00:30:30.259 --> 00:30:34.759
call saying that she would be next. The following evening,
515
00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:38.859
another female employee in Building 11 received a phone call
516
00:30:38.980 --> 00:30:43.079
to her unlisted home phone number, where the male caller said,
517
00:30:43.720 --> 00:30:46.859
you're not worried, are you? Followed by a bunch of
518
00:30:46.900 --> 00:30:50.400
what she described as obscene language before the caller hung up.
519
00:30:51.579 --> 00:30:53.640
If you think about that, you have to consider who
520
00:30:53.660 --> 00:30:57.480
would have her unlisted phone number. Someone she knew who
521
00:30:57.609 --> 00:31:00.069
just had her phone number because she gave it to them.
522
00:31:01.009 --> 00:31:04.650
Or someone who had access to employment records where everyone
523
00:31:04.690 --> 00:31:08.369
lists their phone number as part of their job. Police
524
00:31:08.410 --> 00:31:11.119
seem to think that these were just prank phone calls
525
00:31:11.170 --> 00:31:14.460
saying that this case was receiving publicity and attention and
526
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:17.319
that it draws all sorts of people who feed off
527
00:31:17.359 --> 00:31:20.630
of it. I don't know, though. That unlisted phone number part,
528
00:31:20.650 --> 00:31:23.549
that just doesn't sit right with me. By this point,
529
00:31:23.670 --> 00:31:26.099
Ethel's oldest son had arrived in town to help with
530
00:31:26.140 --> 00:31:30.160
the search. 24-year-old Frank was serving in the Navy, and
531
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:33.460
he told the press that just before her abduction, Ethel
532
00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:37.180
had proudly taken a four-day weekend to watch her oldest son, Anthony,
533
00:31:37.220 --> 00:31:40.490
get sworn in to the Pennsylvania bar. It was just
534
00:31:40.630 --> 00:31:43.730
heartbreaking that Ethel worked so hard and was entering a
535
00:31:43.769 --> 00:31:45.650
phase of her life where she was ready to just
536
00:31:45.730 --> 00:31:48.900
watch her adult children live out their dreams, and that
537
00:31:48.940 --> 00:31:53.720
was just stolen from her and them. By Halloween, the
538
00:31:53.769 --> 00:31:57.970
physical search for Ethel concluded, and police shifted their investigation.
539
00:31:58.849 --> 00:32:02.289
Workers continued to press for better conditions and safety measures,
540
00:32:02.750 --> 00:32:05.490
and even protested in front of the office of Governor
541
00:32:05.569 --> 00:32:09.009
Hugh Carey, who they said had made promises time and again,
542
00:32:09.450 --> 00:32:14.920
but then fell short. 1978 ended without an arrest in
543
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.819
the murder of Shin Lee, and without any success in
544
00:32:17.859 --> 00:32:21.400
locating Ethel Atwell or what had happened to her. And
545
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:25.319
that is how it stayed for several years. But with time,
546
00:32:25.339 --> 00:32:28.740
a man who had previously worked at Willowbrook would emerge
547
00:32:28.819 --> 00:32:32.049
as a potential suspect, not only in Shinley and Ethel
548
00:32:32.220 --> 00:32:36.670
Atwell's cases, but several others. I'm going to end this
549
00:32:36.750 --> 00:32:40.490
episode here, and pick up there in part two, which
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00:32:40.549 --> 00:32:43.609
you can listen to now wherever you get your podcasts.
551
00:32:45.619 --> 00:32:48.559
This has been another episode of A Simpler Time True Crime.
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00:32:48.900 --> 00:32:51.240
If you appreciate the work I'm doing, please head over
553
00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:54.500
to your preferred listening platform, follow, and leave a five-star review.
554
00:32:55.079 --> 00:32:59.160
Case suggestions can be made to simplertimecrimepod at gmail.com. I'm
555
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:03.299
active on Instagram, Facebook, and over on TikTok. As always,
556
00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:05.900
thank you so much for listening and head over to
557
00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:34.150
part two now. Thank you.