Susan Walsh was born on February 18, 1960 in Wayne, New Jersey (USA). Her maiden name was Young. Susan came from a broken home. The girl knew from an early age what she wanted to do in life when she grew up. She was particularly interested in poetry and dreamed of becoming a writer. In 1984, the woman married Mark Walsh. The man was the brother of musician Joe Walsh, who performed in one of the most famous American bands of the 1970s, the Eagles. In 1985, the couple's son, David, was born.
Family was important to Susan, but the woman also wanted to pursue herself professionally. So she enrolled at William Paterson University in her hometown of Wayne. Her specialization was English and writing. For a time, Walsh worked as a journalist for the university newspaper.
Due to financial problems, Susan earned money as a stripper during her studies. Apart from the lack of money, the young woman also faced another serious problem. She abused psychoactive substances and alcohol. Despite these obstacles, Walsh completed her bachelor's degree in 1988.
In the early 1990s, Susan and Mark's marriage went through a very serious crisis. Walsh began dancing in nightclubs again to earn money to support herself and her son. In addition, she also worked as a freelance journalist. Before her disappearance, the woman was studying for a master's degree in English at New York University.
Friends feared that Susan had relapsed after twelve years of sobriety. She began drinking alcohol, and shortly before her disappearance, she was taking Xanax and other prescription drugs. Walsh also had serious health problems. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In addition, she had been hospitalized due to ulcers, and she told some of her friends that she suffered from emphysema.
On July 16, 1996, Susan briefly left her apartment building in Nutley, New Jersey. The 36-year-old was supposed to run some errands and return home in about half an hour. The woman lived with her son at the time. Mark, from whom she was separated, lived in the same building, in the premises below them. So that day, Susan left the boy in her husband's care.
More hours passed and Susan did not return home. So Mark started to worry. Walsh left all her personal belongings in the apartment, including: wallet and pager. She couldn't go somewhere for a long time without them. According to her relatives, the woman would never leave her beloved twelve-year-old son.
Eventually, Mark reported his wife missing. So the police started an investigation into the matter. One of the first people the investigators checked was, of course, Susan's husband. What worked against him was that the relationship between the spouses was not the best, as evidenced by their separation. However, detectives eliminated Walsh from the list of suspects.
When the police searched the missing woman's apartment, they were surprised to discover that July 1996 had been removed from her calendar. It was unclear whether Susan wanted to keep her plans for the month secret or whether some third party had done so. Rumors quickly began to circulate that Walsh's disappearance was directly related to her journalistic investigations.
The woman started with articles on finance and industry. Over time, she started collaborating with the Screw magazine. It was a pornographic magazine. The woman also completed an internship at The Village Voice (a weekly magazine publishing cultural news). Susan spent several days a week in the newsroom.
Due to her experience as an erotic dancer, Walsh began writing about the sex industry. One of her last articles was about strip clubs. In it, Susan described how members of the Russian mafia forced young girls into prostitution and working in nightclubs.
After this text was published in The Village Voice, the woman became paranoid. She feared that she was being persecuted by members of the Russian mafia. Walsh received strange calls and on several occasions felt that someone was following her by following her in a car. After the article was published, she also received many threats. Despite all this, she continued her journalistic investigations.
Susan's next project centered around the "vampire" community in New York. At that time, this subculture was quite popular. Walsh became very interested in this topic. New York "vampires" dressed in black gothic costumes, wore special fangs and hairstyles. Some members had a tendency to drink human blood, while others believed in the ability to suck the life energy from their victims.
There were even rumors that some "vampires" were stealing blood from hospitals and institutions that stored it. Susan Walsh, in turn, began dating a man who claimed to be a real vampire. Unfortunately, the newspaper decided not to publish the finished article. It was decided that the journalist was too immersed in this environment and the text was not objective.
Walsh also helped her friend Jill Morley make the documentary "Stripped." It was intended to depict the lives of women working in the sex industry. Just two days before her disappearance, Susan interviewed the subjects of the documentary. During the conversation, the woman mentioned a "stalker" who was allegedly harassing her. However, she did not reveal any details.
Susan also commented on working as a stripper. The 36-year-old admitted that when she started, she was very interested in making money and even liked this activity. Over time, however, she quickly became fed up with pole dancing and the customers watching her.
The last thing Walsh was working on just before she disappeared was the book "Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry." Its co-authors were Sylvia Plachy and James Ridgeway. The man worked with Susan at The Village Voice. The 36-year-old was responsible for research and provided photos that were to appear in the publication.
In 2006, the New York Post published an article about the disappearance of Susan Walsh. The text contained information that the woman had confided in her ex-boyfriend, Christian Pepo. The journalist told the man that one of her ex-boyfriends, Billy Walker, had been stalking her. Pepo had a grudge against the police, who, in his opinion, did not follow up on the trail related to the suspicious man.
This was strange because Walker was definitely not a model citizen. The man headed a motorcycle gang and was addicted to cocaine. He also allegedly helped mafia members dispose of the bodies of their victims.
According to Pepo, Susan was afraid of Walker. The woman allegedly had a tape that recorded Billy threatening to kill her. Despite this, she returned to him. They slept together and took drugs. According to Christian, Walsh devised a plan to get rid of her lover for good.
The woman knew gangsters who were regulars at the Newark strip club where she worked. Susan decided to reveal to the mafia that Walker was a snitch. She hoped that the gangsters would kill him because of this. Pepo told his friend that this was a very risky plan and discouraged her from the idea. However, the woman did not want to listen to him.
Also in 2006, New Jersey police began interviewing people related to the case again. One of them was the husband of the missing woman. Mark, however, did not agree to the police carrying out any forensic tests in his apartment. Walsh also hired a lawyer. The man claimed that his refusal to help investigators was out of a desire to protect his son. However, the police never considered Mark a suspect in his wife's disappearance.
In 2020, Arthur Merchant, the brother of Susan Walsh, filed an application to obtain a copy of the files regarding the disappearance of his sister. However, the police did not want to hand over these documents. Ultimately, the case went to court. In February 2022, a judgment was issued ordering the files to be handed over to Arthur. After many years, the man did not give up and is still trying to find out what happened to Susan. Unfortunately, the woman's father, Floyd Merchant, never lived to learn the truth - he died in 2013.
Susan Walsh's story was featured in a 1997 episode of the famous show "Unsolved Mysteries" and in the 2012 series "Disappeared." Katherine Ramsland also published the book "Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today", in which she described this complicated case. It premiered in 1998.
However, it is still unclear whether Susan Walsh wanted to disappear or something bad happened to her. If third parties were involved in her disappearance, there are many potential suspects. So were they Russian gangsters? Or maybe "vampires" from New York? Did the police really check the husband from whom the 36-year-old was separated? Maybe the perpetrator was the stalker, most likely Billy Walker? We cannot also rule out the possibility that one of the nightclub patrons had evil intentions towards Susan. Many questions surrounding this disappearance remain unanswered to this day.
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