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Lewmont Drilling

12/28/2014

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Dave was last seen hitchhiking west from Minnetonka MN. in 1979. Back then I remember driving out west and the shortest way was to head southwest on highways until you would hit Interstate 90. I received a post on this web site from a former employee of Lewmont. In the second half of 1979 most or all of Lewmont's rigs were in the Gillette WY area. It is now probable that Dave worked for Lewmont first for a day in Gillette after leaving and then worked for Maverick construction for a few days. Maverick was based in Casper WY but they could have been in the Gillette area at the time. If Dave got back on I90 west the next towns would be Sheridan YW. then Billings MT.
 Here is the email I received answering some questions I had.  

     Hi Peter:
I know quite a bit about Lewmont from that era.
They were a oil well drilling contractor with eight rigs.  In about 1980 they sold all of their rigs to Exeter Drilling Northern.  Each rig would have a minimum of 21 employees and would operate 24/7.  They definitely had at least six and maybe all eight crews out of Gillette.  They might have also have had a crew out of Casper or Douglas.  Their company yard was in Casper. They had an office in Denver that dealt with finance and marketing.
(1) $58 sounds a little low but it might have been for a single 8 hour shift. A roughneck might have made $7.25 per hour back then.
(2) As with all oil field work, the turnover was pretty high.  It was not unheard of  for somebody to work only a single day as the work was pretty hard and hiring was done pretty much no questions asked.
(3) In 1979 the oilfield was booming and there were a lot of jobs in nearby coal mines.
(4) I found your site from a Google search on "Lewmont Denver Casper"
(5) Payday was once a week so if somebody worked only one day they would get paid at the end of the week like everyone else.
(6) Sometimes employees would be recommended by others, sometimes not. The work was very hard and more dangerous than most people would be comfortable with.
The company was owned by a guy named Dick Bloss. I'm pretty this is his son.  If any payroll records still exist, he might know where they are.

 



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Pennsylvania man

12/10/2014

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Mr. Thomson,
We completed the dental comparison and it is clearly not a match for your brother.

Thank you for following up on this and best wishes in your continuing search. Sorry we could not be of help.
Sincerely,

Eric S. Bieber, F-ABMDI
Chief Deputy/Administrator
Office of the Coroner
County of Lancaster, PA

717-735-2140
717-735-2138 Fax

Accredited Agency

This email contains PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION intended only for the use of the recipient named above. The information may be protected by state and federal laws, including, without limitation, the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which prohibit unauthorized disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use or dissemination of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by reply email at the address provided above and delete this message. Thank you.


  Eric
Thank you for checking and good luck on finding out who that person is.

Peter Thomson


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musselshell river

12/3/2014

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    I call Gerald Burtons x-wife, he was the one who gave the Deathbed confession to his sister in 1979. My sister had talked with her but we had never spoken before.  Gerald had told his sister Linda that Russell Plum had taken a guy fishing on the Musselshell who owed him money and when he didn’t have it he killed him. I always assumed that Gerald witnessed this killing although I can’t be sure. The police couldn’t tell us everything but is seems to me that if witnessed a murder rather than hearing about it you would be more likely to want to get that off your chest if you were dying. If you weren’t there you couldn’t do anything to stop it.  I’m leaning towards Dave being the victim but the danger in that is you tend to try and make the facts fit the case. I asked Gerald‘s X-wife how sick he would have been in August and September 1979.  She said he was pretty sick in and out of the hospital but he was of sound mind if that’s what I was getting at. She said she was remarried at the time but they were still friends and he would stay at her house ounce and a while in 1979. Gerald was very close with his sister Linda she said and if he told her about a murder then she thought it is true.   

    I was trying to find out from her if Gerald would have been too sick to be on the river fishing and I never thought about if he was in his right mind from being sick. Linda must have believed the story and it must have been eating at her for her to tell her son about it 25 years later. From what little I know about cancer four months from the end you can have good and bad days. I would think good enough to go fishing.


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PENNSYLVANIA

11/24/2014

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Unidentified Male Found November 1, 2012 in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County   Vital Statistics State of Remains: Skeletal Race: unknown Estimated Age: 30 to 60 years old Estimated Height: 5'9" Estimated Weight: Cannot estimate Hair Color: unknown Eye Color: unknown Clothing: Hanes camo print t-shirt (size XL), Joe Boxer pajama type pants with drawstring (size XL), blue jeans, black sneakers. Estimated Time of Death: 4 or 5 months prior to being found. Medical: spine showed signs of a curve which may have caused him to walk hunched over. Dentals: Available - extensive dental work. DNA: Not Available

Thank you Bridget for sending me this link. The shape of the chin is the same as Dave's. It would be interesting to compare drawings made from skeletal remains to photos of people that were later identified. Dave did have scoliosis from a high school auto accident but he didn't walk hunched over when he was wearing the lift in his left shoe. I will contact  Pennsylvania and have them check Dave's dental chart.    Pete  

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Credit Karma

11/9/2014

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    I received an email from Lyndene suggesting that i check Dave's credit report. We know that there was no activity on Dave's SS number between 1980-1993 . We have no idea after that so it is sound advice. I Googled "credit report on someone else". It turns out that you need permission from the person to get their credit report. That sounds reasonable that someone should get my permission to access my credit report however its different when the shoe is on the other foot.  

    Don't try this at home but i went on Credit Karma and requested "my" credit report. I entered Dave's name and social security number and it asked for an address and phone number. I used an address of vacant house near my business and my cell number. I hit enter an i got an error.
Then i entered my name and SS number and used the same vacant address and my cell number and hit enter. Then it came back with a question "it looks like you recently refinanced you house with
a:  BAF mortgage
b: ABC financial
c: ECT mortgage
d: Last Laugh Holding Co
e :none of the above.
    
I'm not as sharp as I use to be. At first i thought someone else had taken out a loan on my house but then I realized it was a trick question to verify identity.  I answered E and then it gave me my credit report. My assumption is that there not enough data on Dave to generate a identity verification question. If any knows more about credit reports please respond.
Thanks
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maverick construction inc, 708 1/2 s 6th ave, Casper WY 82601 

11/6/2014

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Social Security records indicated that Dave worked at Maverick Construction Inc in 1979. We have been unable to find any reference to the company currently or in 1979. See earlier blog. 11/4 I called the Casper Library and talked with Kelly the reference librarian and she went and got the 1979 phone book. She looked for Maverick Construction and there was none. The phone book also had the phone numbers listed by address and Kelly looked up 708 1/2 south 6th ave and was a 702 and a 712 and nothing in between. Then I called the WY Secretary of State again this time to check for sole proprietorship and partnerships. They told me that sole proprietors don't need to be registered and there were no partnerships named Maverick Construction in 1979. I called the Casper city road department and talked with Constance and she said there was no south 6th Ave in Casper but there was in Mills WY a couple miles over. I called Mills city and had them check and the address and there never was a 708 1/2 and the zip code was 82644 in 1979. It seems to me that the social security report was wrong or it was a bogus corporation. I talked with Senator Franken's office and it doesn't sound sound like the IRS will provide us with any information on the corporation.        
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Pueblo CO John doe

11/5/2014

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I was contacted by Lori from Pueblo CO about a guy that was found in I989. She had read in the Deathbed chapter about a psychic reading by Tom Trotta said "The bones will be found by the letter P.  This is a place, a road or a town." and also the psychic reference to smoke stacks.

8/2/2013 - 1989 Cold Case Homicide
Pueblo Police Detectives are seeking public assistance in identifying a John Doe homicide victim from August 1989.
The victim was murdered and his body was dumped in a river in the City of Pueblo.  The victim`s identity still remains unknown.
Victim description at the time of his death are as follows:
  • White male, approximately 30 - 45 years old.
  • 5` 9" - 5` 10"
  • Wearing a size small plaid (blue/white/yellow) sleeveless flannel shirt.
  • Jeans were size 30" x 32"
  • Estimated weight was approximately 140 - 160 pounds.
  • Brown hair with partial temporal balding and a red/brown mustache approximately 1" long.
The post mortem sketch was prepared by Forensic Composite artist Cynthia Marsh in cooperation with Detectives involved in this case.  Detectives are asking anyone who may have information about the identity of the victim or who may have information about the homicide to please call Pueblo Crime Stoppers at 542-STOP (542-7867).  If your information leads to a felony arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward.

I called the  NAMUS contact for this case and he informed me that this John Doe's DNA is on file and that if there was a match with Dave it would be automatic. He did say he would flag it so someone would look at it.


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happy Halloween 

11/1/2014

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Pete, (aka) Jack Inbox
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Georgia john doe

10/28/2014

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Picture John Doe
Update- Called 5/12/2015 Brad is at training again , maybe that is code for something?
Update - /called Brad Parks 11/05/2014 left message he is at training

 Called 12/08/2014 at training
12/18/2014 Brad Parks called he received Dave's dental X rays and will have the file from Atlanta mid next week to compare the two.

I received this email from Jerrie at  missingpersonsofamerica.com/2014/10/dave-thomson-missing-since-1979.html  A guy in jail led police to this John Doe's scattered remains and gave police the info about the guy and i assume he also work with the police artist for this sketch. I called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and gave the supervisor information and he said he will get back to me this week. The height and weight are a match and the sketch could be Dave.

  Hi Peter,  Tracey is another advocate and read your story on my blog and wanted to pass this information on to you.  I don’t like to make an assumption if there is a match or not on someone, so I just wanted to pass all the information on to you and you can do what you may with it.  

“Jerrie, I know it’s a hard thing to do, but can you please ask Peter if he can check with Georgia authorities to see if an exhumation can be ordered to get this Doe’s DNA?   I know sketches/recreations can be tricky, but he’s a STUNNING match to Dave by an aged 15 years.   According to Debbie Miller on Websleuthers, the info about Doe regarding his possible name, state lived in, being in a gang, trucker info & name, etc all came from an inmate who claimed to have killed him.   Inmates lie.   And Dave Thomson’s old dental records would be no use cuz only a partial skull with no teeth & bits & pieces of John Doe were found.   What do you think??

http://canyouidentifyme.org/FanninGeorgiaJohnDoeMarch1997
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/992umga.html
http://gbi.georgia.gov/case/unidentified-remains-318
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-55389.html
http://canyouidentifyme.org/FanninGeorgiaJohnDoeMarch1997 


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Senator Franken

10/22/2014

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Update: Received a letter from Senator Al Franken office. It was not what I hoped for. They could not tell me anything about the corporations that Dave worked for.

I mailed this 10/22/2014

Senator Al Franken                             10/22/14

Senator

   I have a brother David Bird Thomson who has been missing since July 1979. With the help of Senator Paul Wellstone our family was able to get access to Dave’s social security records, enclosed. He worked for two companies in the second half of 1979. I called the Wyoming secretary of State and they don’t show any Maverick Construction Inc in their records. I asked them about the fed ID number on the social security records but they said that they don’t use that number.  I called the IRS but the guy I talked to couldn’t give me any Information.  I would be interested in finding any contact information on the 2 companies and if it is possible to find out which company Dave worked at last as that might give us a direction of travel. There has been no activity on Dave’s social security number after these two companies.  We know it has been along time, but we would like to know what happen to our brother.

Thank you.

Peter Thomson
findingdave.com

Maverick Construction Inc
708 ½ S 6th Ave
Casper WY 82601
Fed id# 830237963
$350.68

Lewmont Drilling Associates Inc.
1255 17th ST STE 1475
Denver CO 80202
Fed id# 840460381
$58.80

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GEORGE ADAMS

10/15/2014

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I called George Adams at the UNT Center for Human Identification to ask him about the wording for the reward offered. It had stated, 
$5000.00 Reward for information that leads to finding  Dave Thomson or any Male who is found in a 200 mile radius of Roundup MT and who is determined to have died around 1979 and was born before 1970 and after 1930                 If a body is found near Roundup Montana that isn't Dave I want to exclude bodies of people who it would not be the possible for them to be the victim in the
deathbed confession. I ask George about determining the year of death on skeletal remains and he said that he wouldn't even guess at determining the year of death.  As far as the sex of skeletal remains found the only reliable method of determining the sex is the DNA marker.  George said that there was a case where a John Doe was thought to be a woman for 20+ years. I asked him about determining the age of a body found and he said a rough guess would be plus or minus 10 years.
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mAVERICK cONSTRUCTON

10/3/2014

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Dave's social security records show him working for Maverick Construction Inc after July 1979 and earning $350.00. I called the Wyoming Secretary of State to see if they could use the EIN federal ID number to find the company but they don't use that number. I talked with the director Gerry and she checked again but their were no Maverick Construction Inc in WY in 1979. I then called Montana Secretary of State and they never had a Maverick Construction Inc. It took a while but I found a number for the IRS and after a hour on hold I asked them if the first 2 digits of the fed ID number was the state code but he said he didn't know and I should write the Service Center which I did and I will post the results when I get them.
Does any one out there know how to decipher the FED, I tried FEINSearch.com but it came back with no match
Maverick Construction Inc, 708 1/2 S 6th Ave. Casper WY
EIN 830237963
-- 10/26/14 update Called Maverick Burley ID they were never in WY. --Maverick, Sheridan WY called and he was in the Army in 1979 --      
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David's last known employers Lewmont and Maverick

6/14/2014

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After receiving Dave's Social Security records thanks to the late Paul Wellstone we were able to see that the last time his social security number was used was in 1979. 

We were hoping since we knew the employers name's we could track them down and see if there was any chance they remembered Dave. However after talking to the Colorado and Wyoming Secretary of State Offices neither had any record of either business ever existing. Another dead end. 

If you have any information about either business please contact me. 

Lewmont Drilling Associates Inc. 
1225 17th Street Ste 1475, Denver, Colorado 80202

Maverick Construction Inc.
708 1/2 S 6th Ave, Casper, Wyoming 82601

Dave briefly worked at both businesses in 1979 however records are unable to show us the exact dates he was employed. 
Have you heard of either of these businesses? 
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In The Shining Mountains

6/12/2014

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In 1979 he published his book In The Shining Mountains  but before he could receive praise for this beautiful novel Dave disappeared. 

He was last seen in his hometown of Minnetonka, Minnesota in July of 1979 on the corner of Highway 7 and Williston Road. His last Social Security records show that he briefly worked in Casper, Wyoming and Denver, Colorado. That is when all traces and clues of where Dave might be have vanished. Information about his missing person report can be found here.

The family has never stopped searching. Not knowing what happened to such a beloved member of the family weighs heavy on our hearts. 

Where is he and what happened? If you know of anyone that knew Dave or anything that might involve Dave since July of 1979 please contact us. 
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    Dave Bird thomson

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    Pete, Dave
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    Missing since 1979
    Dave has been missing since July 1979
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    Dave
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    Mike Thomson 1944-78
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    True Magazine Cover story February 1972