Bonita Mara Bickwit

• Missing Since 07/27/1973
• Missing From Narrowsburg, New York
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 01/28/1958 (66)
• Age 15 years old
• Height and Weight 4'11, 90 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue jeans and a t-shirt.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Bonita's nickname is Bonnie. Some agencies reverse her first and middle names, as in "Mara Bonita Bickwit."

Details of Disappearance

Bonita was working as a mother's helper at Camp Wel-Met in Narrowsburg, New York when she vanished on July 27, 1973 with her boyfriend of over a year, Mitchel Weiser.

Bonita and Mitchel planned to hitchhike to attend a concert festival featuring The Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead in Watkins Glen, New York. The concert is believed to have been the largest in history, with over 800,000 people showing up.

Mitchel met Bonita at Camp Wel-Met and they set off for the concert, which was 75 miles from Narrowsburg. It is believed that Mitchel and Bonita had approximately $25 between them. They carried backpacks, sleeping bags, and a cardboard sign that read "Watkins Glen".

They were last seen hitchhiking along State Route 97. The truck driver who gave them a ride is the last confirmed person to have seen them. It's unclear whether they actually arrived in Watkins Glen. They have never been heard from again.

Authorities initially believed that the couple simply ran off together. Bonita and Mitchel had secretly exchanged wedding rings earlier in the summer of 1973. Both were intelligent teenagers who attended John Dewey High School, a Brooklyn alternative school for gifted, high-achieving students.

Bonita lived in Borough Park with her family when she was not working at Camp Wel-Met; Mitchel lived in Midwood. Both Bonita and Mitchel are from stable, middle-class Jewish families.

Both Mitchel and Bonita's loved ones say the two seemed ill at ease before they left for the concert. Bonita sneaked away from Camp Wel-Met and went home one day the week before she vanished, and took $80 which she had been saving for a bicycle. Her family was not home at the time, but neighbors saw her.

Bonita was also having difficulties with the family she was working for. She asked them for the night off when Mitchel showed up on July 27, and quit in anger when they refused. She told her employers that she would come by after the concert to collect her clothes and paycheck.

She was very worried about her father, who was ill and disabled; her friends at Camp Wel-Met said she cried at night when she talked about her father. Mitchel, meanwhile, was disappointed because his parents told him they couldn't afford to pay for him to attend the college of his choice.

Despite this, however, their loved ones believe Bonita and Mitchel were just having normal adolescent problems and would have never run away from home. Bonita's best friend was in Europe the summer she vanished, but she exchanged letters with Bonita and says their communications were normal. Mitchel was looking forward to taking his drivers' test, which was scheduled for a few weeks after he disappeared.

Bonita and Mitchel's families and friends have never forgotten about the two. Mitchel's family has kept a phone listing in the Brooklyn telephone directory since 1973 in case either of the teens decide to contact them.

Years following their disappearances, Mitchel's father accepted a collect call from someone identifying herself as "Bonnie." By the time the operator was able to connect them, the caller had hung up. She did not call back and has never been identified.

In 2000, a witness, Allyn Smith, claimed he saw both Bonita and Mitchel drown while they were on their way back from Watkins Glen. Smith, then 24, said he was also going to the Watkins Glen rock festival and hitched a ride on a Volkswagen bus and two teenagers, whom he identified as Bonita and Mitchel, were also on the bus.

He did not know their names but had heard them talking about the girl's summer camp and recalled their clothing, including Bonita's head scarf. They all stopped to cool off in the Susquehanna River when Bonita got into trouble in the water. Mitchel jumped in to save her and they were both swept away, still alive.

Smith did not report the incident when it happened because he was under the influence of marijuana and did not want to become involved with law enforcement, and because the bus driver told Smith he would call the police at the nearest gas station. Authorities have no record of such a call being made and the driver of the bus has not been found. As a result, his story cannot be fully investigated.

Bonita and Mitchel remain missing and their cases are unsolved. Their families have criticized the police for what they call a perfunctory investigation. The original case files have apparently been lost. Included in the files were the only existing copies of Bonita's and Mitchel's dental records, which could have been used to identify their bodies. Authorities now admit that they made many mistakes in the investigation.

There has been no indication of their whereabouts since 1973.