CHRISTOPHER WELLS

Date of last contact: 13th December 1972
Missing from: Seattle, Washington
Date of birth: 22nd March 1956
Height: 5’7
Weight: 130 lbs
Distinguishing Characteristics: Shoulder length blonde hair, Blue eyes. Wearing a brown real suede coat, Blue T-shirt, Blue jeans, white undershirt, oversized pair of long johns, two pairs of socks, Navy blue stocking cap, black ankle boots. Also had a billfold with a Washington driver’s permit, ID, a cigarette lighter and cigarettes. Described as having a stocky build.
Investigating Agency: Seattle Police Department

BASIC CASE FACTS

• 13th December 1972 – Christopher went out to play pool with two friends
• 16th December 1972 – He is reported missing
• There may, or may not, have been an altercation
• The three friends seperated but Christopher never returned home

Christopher and two friends headed out to play pool and have some drinks. There may have been an altercation with some other people at some point during the night. Later, the three friends parted ways and Christopher headed home to take a bath. He never arrived home. The two friends he was with have given differing statements about the events of that night and despite a very thorough investigation, Christopher was never seen again.

The original case file of the investigation into Christopher’s disappearance has been made available by The Seattle Police Department and the majority of information here comes from that. Many names have been redacted.

CHRISTOPHER’S STORY

Christopher Brian Wells was born on the 22nd March 1956. He grew up in Seattle, Washington and had four older brothers and a sister. Christopher’s parents were divorced and he lived with his mother and step-father. His father was in the merchant marines and at the time Christopher went missing his father was staying in the house with his ex-wife and children, suggesting there was no animosity within the family. Christopher’s mother said he was “a bad student”, by which she meant that he was not academically inclined, however his teachers noted that they had no problems with his behaviour and he wasn’t known for skipping school and, in fact, his schoolwork had recently begun to improve. At the time he disappeared Christopher was taking his driver’s ed and was doing well; he was said to be very excited about passing his test because his parents had promised to buy him a car for Christmas if he passed. Christmas was a mere 12 days away.

Christopher had had some run-ins with the law when he was younger, specifically regarding a neighbour. It seems that there was some issue with the person who lived nextdoor and Christopher had been accused of vandalism of their property. Christopher was also known to smoke marijuana and had also taken speed before and there has been some speculation as to whether he was also dealing drugs at the time. Either way, as of 1972, he had not been in trouble with the law for three years.

Christopher liked sports and was described as being “a leader” amongst his friends. He was described as sensitive but not prone to confide his problems with others. He did have an unusual characteristic for a teenaged boy in that he was very careful and very clean. In fact, his cleanliness bordered on the obsessive and he took very regular baths. One of the last things he told his friends the night he disappeared was that he was heading home to take a bath.

At the time he disappeared, Christopher had shoulder length blonde hair. The enhanced and colourised photo above is the closest to how he would have appeared.

THE DISAPPEARANCE

Wednesday the 13th December 1972 was a cold day in Seattle, temperatures hovered at freezing. Christopher and two friends, who we shall call Boy 1 and Boy 2, headed off to play pool at the Hiawatha FieldHouse. The fieldhouse is located in the Hiawatha Playfield; a community recreation park in West Seattle. At the time the Fieldhouse hosted some pool tables.

The Hiawatha FieldHouse still exists today as the Hiawatha Community Center. The building has not changed and appears largely as it would have in 1972

Christopher was dressed for the cold weather; he was wearing his step-father’s long johns, jeans, an undershirt, a t-shirt, a coat, two pairs of socks, ankle boots and a stocking cap. His mother gave an extremely detailed description of the clothing he wore.

It seems that Christopher and his friends had been drinking. Whether this was served to them at the FieldHouse or they had purchased it from a shop is unclear; but it is worth mentioning that the legal age to consume alcohol in Washington state in 1972 was 21; Christopher was only 16. I suspect the alcohol had been purchased at a store.

The friends gave slightly differing accounts of what happened in the FieldHouse (which I shall discuss later) but it seems that there may have been a disagreement with either some other people, or between themselves. The friends also gave differing accounts of Christopher’s state of mind at the time.

After leaving the FieldHouse the three boys headed to a 7-Eleven located at Admiral Way. I believe this to have been the 7-Eleven located at 4312 South West Admiral Way. Not only is this the closest 7-Eleven to Hiawatha Field but a check of the property records reveals there has been a 7-Eleven on this site since 1968…and it’s still there today! The area has barely changed at all since 1972.

The route the boys would have taken from the FieldHouse to the 7-Eleven

The boys later claimed that they couldn’t remember what they had purchased from the 7-Eleven which leads me to suspect that they may have bought alcohol and didn’t want to get the owner in trouble for selling alcohol to minors or get themselves in trouble for underage drinking. At 9pm the boys parted ways and Christopher told them he was heading home to take a bath. He never made it home and no one has ever seen or heard from him again. Drom the 7-Eleven Christopher simply vanished into thin air.

REPORTED MISSING

When Christopher didn’t return home straight away his family was not unduly concerned. Apparently Christopher had a habit of visiting other family members and forgetting to inform his mother. But after a couple of days had passed and she called around all of her relatives she learned that no one had seen Christopher for three days. She reported him missing to police on the 16th December.

Right from the outset his mother insisted that the police treat the case as a “Missing Juvenile” case rather than a “Runaway” and, all credit to the Seattle Police Department, they did. Christopher was never brushed off as a runaway and neither law enforcement, his family nor his friends have ever believed he ran away. The police took it seriously and did a thorough investigation, interviewing many people and the case was worked actively until 1977 when the last entry in his file was made.

BOY 1 & BOY 2

I shall refer to Christopher’s two friends as Boy 1 and Boy 2. Their accounts of that evening are interesting and deserve to be looked at more closely. Originally both boys told detectives the same story; they said that “Christopher was in a good mood when they parted company and was heading home to take a bath”. They admitted that Christopher had been drinking. In the original interviews Boy 1 claimed that there had been some sort of altercation with “outsiders” while they were playing pool which had resulted in them hitting each other with pool cues. The detective who conducted the inteview wrote that he “believed the boys were not exactly lying, but were simplifying the events of that night”. He noted that he thought “the boys are sticking to a specific version of events and not elaborating further so they don’t accidentally forget what they’ve already said or give differing accounts from one another”. So, had the boys concocted a story that they were sticking to to cover up the fact that they really knew what happened?

A few years later detectives decided to re-interview the boys and this time their stories diverged significantly.
Boy 1 admitted that all three of them had been quite drunk. He then stated that Christopher had in fact been in a bad mood all night and he picked a fight with some ‘outsiders’ during the pool game which resulted in a small fight during which they “poked” each other with the butts of their pool cues. When asked he stated that Christopher would never run away, would never hitchhike or get into a car with a stranger…unless it was to show them where to buy marijuana…but reiterated that Christopher did not deal drugs himself.
Boy 2 stuck to his story that Christopher was in a good mood that night. He admitted the three had been drinking but said they weren’t incredibly drunk and were still in control. He adamantly denied that there had been ‘outsiders’ in the FieldHouse and said that the fight was between the three boys.
When asked if he thought Christopher had run away he said he didn’t think so and believed that foul play was involved, but he admitted he didn’t know of any reason why anyone would hurt Christopher.

The discrepancies in the boys’ stories are very interesting. It seems like the boys had definitely cooked-up the original story between them which the detectives believed was basically thruthful, but with important pieces of information withheld. But in later years it sounds like one of the boys cracked under pressure. So who to believe? Boy 1, Boy 2 or are they both giving their version of the truth?

DRUGS AND NEIGHBOURS

Before going back to explore the possible events of that night, a mention needs to be made of two other scenarios that the police investigated. The first concerned the neighbour with whom Christopher had an ongoing dispute. Both Christopher and the neighbour had been convicted of vandalising each other’s property. When asked about any possible enemies he had, his mother could only think of this neighbour, but even she was not convinced. She said that he was the only person who disliked Christopher, but neither she nor the police thought he was a capable of doing him harm and in fact their dispute seemed to have ended three years previously.

The second angle was drugs related. It was a well-known fact that Christopher smoked marijuana and had also taken speed, however his friends insisted that he was not dealing. His police record confirms that there was no indication of involvement with drugs. However, a neighbouring family called the police to tell them that they had witnessed Christopher, his older brother and another boy planning a drug deal. These neighbours insisted that the other young man was heavily involved in drug dealing. The detective who interviewed them said that he “found them helpful, but a bit over-zealous” and in fact it later turned out that these neighbours had a longstanding dispute with the other boy and were simply trying to get him in trouble. The police could find no evidence of any involvement with drugs and didn’t believe that Christopher’s disappearance had a drug connection.

SIGHTINGS

There were actually several sightings of Christopher in the weeks and months after he disappeared. Most were from Washington state but there were also sightings as far afield as California and Canada. These sightings could never be verified as being Christopher and the locations and times make little sense if it was him. But a couple of the descriptions do bear a resemblance. Some of the tips were made anonymously, which I find strange if they were not truthful. There were 6 sightings overrall, but the one from California can be dismissed as the description and location were not close.

Map of Washington with sightings of Christopher numbered in chronological order. His last known location indicated by a star.

1. 5.30pm 21st December – A man claimed to have picked Christopher up from the Maple Valley Grocery Store and dropped him at the Maple Valley Highway. He described him as wearing a brown suede coat and as very polite. The young man said he was headed for Enumclaw, Washington.
2. 7pm 21st December – Anonymous caller said that Christopher had been seen in Kirkland, Washington. He was wearing a clear plastic raincoat.
3. 10am 2nd January 1973 – An anonymous woman called to say that she had been with Christopher in Lincoln, Washington.
4. 29th January 1973 – A man claimed that he had seen Christopher in Seattle walking down a road with two intoxicated Indian men.
5. 16th February 1973 – A taxi driver in Vancouver, Canada claimed that Christopher was one of his fairs. He picked him up at the Gas Lite Tavern and dropped him in an area of the city where many cheap hotels are located. He was certain that this was Christopher and even mentioned that this hair was now shoulder length (the published photo of Christopher showed him with shorter hair).

Was Christopher still around in the Seattle area for several weeks after he disappeared? Was he trying to reach Enumclaw for some reason? Did he find himself in Canada months after he vanished? Vancouver is close to Seattle and for the taxi driver to mention the length of his hair, despite this not being visible in his photos, seems plausible. It is possible this was Christopher, but why did he disappear? Detectives interviewed many of Christopher’s friends and what stands out is that everyone was adamant that he would never run away.

THEORIES

This is a difficult one. He simply vanished from the middle of a big city. Seattle Police never had a single lead, suspect or person of interest; but it is not believed that Christopher ran away, and foul play is suspected. But who and why?

My hunch is that the two friends who were with him on that night know more, otherwise why would their stories begin to change and contradict each other? I don’t think that they hurt Christopher themselves, I don’t think a couple of teenagers with no car could dispose of a body in the middle of urban Seattle. So what might have prevented them coming forward in all these years? Perhaps fear.

I believe that Christopher, and his friends, were very drunk on that evening and that his judgement was affected and maybe even his mood. When his friend said he was in a ‘bad mood’ I suspect what he truly meant was that Christopher was becoming confrontational. For me, the most important thing said during an interview was by Boy 1, the boy who dramatically changed his story. He said that “Christopher would never…get into a car with strangers…unless it was to show them where to buy marijuana”. I think this is exactly what Christopher did that night. Although his friends were adamant that he did not deal, it seems clear that he had some involvement with drugs beyond merely using them. He seems to have been a middle man; hooking-up buyers with dealers and even getting into their cars and guiding them. Was he involved with some shady characters, people who his friends feared?

I think there are two possibilities:
1) Christopher got into a car with the ‘Outsiders’ who his friends mentioned. After having previously had an altercation with Christopher, they murdered him.
2) Christopher git into someone else’s car to show them where to buy drugs. Either this person hurt him, or he was hurt when he reached the location of the dealer.

Either way, I believe Christopher entered a car and ended up in a situation thaat lead to his death. He most probably died on that same night and his body is still out there someowhere in the Seattle area or was dumped in the water. Hopefully his friends will one day come forward and give a full account if what went down that cold December evening.

SOURCES

Seattle Police Department

NAMUS