Missing Teens Never Found on Their Way to Summer Jam

The Watkins Glen Rock Festival of July 1973 Drew Hundreds of Thousands, But One Couple Never Made It…

About a month ago, I did a video on the Summer Jam that was a rock concert held in Watkins Glen, New York at the racetrack to be exact, the southern tip of Seneca Lake and it happened
about 50 years ago. It was July 1973. Well, in that eight minute video, I did my best to give a summary of how it all started. Some of the key news stories that happened, how they sold about 100,000, some tickets, mostly in the New York City area. And then I just did my best to give an overview of the history of what that did and how it impacted the community.
Well, little did I know that people who had attended that Summer Jam concert would get a hold of me and you have to go back and find it to see the comments. Then about a month ago, I got a letter. And that’s what this video is all about two teens that left Brooklyn, New York almost 50 years ago, ages 15 and 16. And they were never heard from again.
Summer Jam, the biggest rock concert that just blew it out of the water as far as attendance.
Bigger than Woodstock. Some called at Woodstock to well, it had the three bands I talked about in the video, crowds, estimated 600 to 800,000 people flocked in from all over to see that concert. There was craziness that July weekend to 1973 where people listen to the three bands.
I talked about how one guy died parachuting over the crowd and caught fire as the crowd watched in horror. I talked about how some farmer complained up somebody stole his pig.
There was you know, all kinds of drugs, theft, litter, people parking, where they shouldn’t have parked, people ditching their cars 20 miles away, and tons and tons of people just flooding in from all over most of them in their teens and 20s some in their 30s to see this rock concert. Well, with a half a million extra people crashing the party. A lot of the promotion for this concert was done in New York City. And apparently, this promotion of Summer Jam caught the attention of two young teens. And that’s what the story is about.
Stuart Karten Emailed Me
On June 20 2023, about a week ago from the time I’m recording this, I received an email from a gentleman named Stuart Karten. And he said

Hi, Pam, I just saw your video on Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, and he copied a link to that YouTube video. And by the way, I will have that link below as well. He said My Best Friend’s disappeared on their way there.

And he gave me a link. It’s called There’s a website called Mitchell and Bonnie and Mitchell is spelled with one T — Mitchell — and Bonnie, spelled normally.com is the website. mitchelandbonnie.com
He goes on to say we also have been led to Keuka Lake to where some believe they may have met with their killers. And then he sent me the link for a podcast by a woman who does the vanished podcast.com Episode 41. And I will have that link below as well. He said an article is being written that covers all the latest clues just in time for the 50th unfortunate anniversary of the disappearance of these teens. And he asked he said: Do I have your permission to include a link of your Summer Jam YouTube to give an overview of these two missing people and I said of course.

This story just tears at my heart.

If you go to The Vanished Podcast Episode 41 — Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit — it talks about how this young couple have vanished and were never heard from again. What happened was, was the backstory is Bonnie was only 15 years old, 4’11” and and maybe 90 pounds. And her boyfriend was Michel Weiser, who was 16 years old and he looks like he maybe was about 140 pounds at best. They had been boyfriend and girlfriend for about a year and supposedly had secretly exchanged promise rings. They attended the same high school, which was a school for gifted children in the New York City area.
Mitchell and Bonnie have been missing for about 50 years. At the time of this taping.
Bonnie was working as a mother’s helper at a summer camp called Camp Wel-Met in Narrowsburg, NY, that’s downstate, when she vanished on July 27 1973 with her boyfriend Mitchell Weiser. At that time Mitchell was working as a photographer’s assistant. They were young they were in love. They heard about this rock concert. She had just quit her her job as a mother’s helper, and she had a paycheck coming. But she intended to come back to get her things and her final paycheck. Mitchell had just signed up to take his driver’s permit test. And he was very excited about that, at the time that they took off for Summer Jam. So they sneaked away from the camp where she had just quit. And they started hitchhiking. They had maybe $80 that she had been saving for a bicycle. Her family was not home at the time, but the neighbor saw her leave with him. She was having some family difficulties but that’s kind of typical for teenagers, not anything so major that they would truthfully run away. She told her employers that she would be back after the concert to collect her clothes and final paycheck, and Weiser was worried about attending the college of his choice as well.
But that’s the last time this couple was ever seen or heard from again. Something bad probably happened to them. And by the time the family found out, remember, this was pre-cellphones. The authorities in Watkins Glen area, they had been so overwhelmed by this massive influx of people smoking dope and drinking beer and trashing and running over people’s lands and so on. When they heard about two missing kids, the local authorities didn’t give it any attention. The whole thing was reported to the authorities. But the forensics back then weren’t very good.
Everybody just assumed they were runaways. But they never returned. And no one knows what happened to them. In the past 50 years, their surviving families and Stewart, Mitchell’s best friend, have been searching diligently for any kind of clue. And there have been through the years, some thin leads. There was one lead where somebody said he thinks they drowned in a river. But then it was never reported and no bodies were found. And then there was somebody who confessed to the crime, but he drew a map nowhere near where it could have been. And there was some other lead where there were some digging done, but nothing was ever found.
So unfortunately, something bad probably happened to this couple. The most likely scenario is maybe she was accosted, and he tried to defend her and something very bad happened to them both. His Social Security number was never used for employment.
They just simply vanished.
One of the things that upsets the family so much, is they don’t even know if Bonnie and Mitchell even got to Summer Jam and Watkins Glen. If you were there, if you’d take a good look at this photo. And if you happen to remember them, or do you have unpublished photos of Summer Jam, and you know they were there, please contact the Sullivan County Sheriff’s office that’s on the website:
mitchelandbonnie.com
So… very sad story. It’s unresolved to this day. Authorities now admit that many mistakes were made in this investigation. And at one time, the New York State Attorney General got involved with the investigation in 2000. And that was the 25th anniversary of their disappearance. Now it’s at the 50th year of their disappearance.
So why is it that these two teens never made it back home? And did they ever even make it to the concert? We don’t know. It’s a cold case. If you have any information about this, please go to the website mitchelandbonnie.com and you will find the Sullivan County Sheriff’s office phone number.
Thanks for watching.