Seneca County Mystery

The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon

L. Schillig

On Saturday, September 16th, Bruce Reiter who is a former Seneca County Deputy contacted me. He related to me that area newspaper publishers were reviewing a mystery of a young boy who disappeared years ago from Pleasant Township.

It was ruled that he had fallen through the ice on the Sandusky River behind his home, although there was never a trace to be found of his body. They asked for my intuitive impressions, which I shared over the period of a couple weeks.

I requested that I not be given any specific information on the case until I was through sharing impressions. When this time presented itself, they flooded me with numerous photos of the site I envisioned along with interview transcripts. I have included their responses/excerpts along with information received from their interviews, which are noteworthy in regards to my initial impressions.

They also provided me with arial photos of the Basic Refractory area. I attempted map dowsing and came up with a couple areas of interest. These areas were investigated in person.

Below, you will find my intuitive impression in bold type. Responses from the former deputy,from transcripts of the case provided by the editors of the Zig Zag Magazine (Trish and Lisa), and from my first hand findings at the scene (visited at a later date) are in regular type.

Intuitive Impressions

1. This was not an accidental drowning. I believe that it was an unintentional homicide. During some type of foul play, he received a head injury that resulted in his death. He knew his killer.
   • A suspicious acquaintance was an employee of the Basic at the time....as was the boy's own father. They worked different shifts though...(BR)
   • It does seem that the mother of the missing boy did contact a psychic in Toledo many years ago.... and she was told he had been killed, but the local law enforcement did not buy the story...... they still took the accident theory....(BR)
2. Out of fear, the person or persons disposed of the body. While the perpetrator acted violently, he did not intend to cause death.
3. I get the image of him wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans, and a red coat or hooded sweatshirt.
   • He was wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans and a hooded jacket that was a red plaid..... He also wore rubber boots (BR)
4. I have looked at a map, and while he may have lived in Pleasant Twp., that isn't where I want to focus. One area draws me in....Maple Grove. The area I picture in my mind that can be viewed from where I picture a body has to have the following:
   • Railroad tracks (not just one set)
     • Several sets of tracks run through the Basic plant. (LS)
   • Light industrial
     • The Basic is the only industrial operation for miles. It is completely surrounded by farm land.
   • Wooded area about ¼ mile away
     • A wooded area fitting this distance can be seen from the spot that holds interest for me. (LS)
   • A round building (small grain silo or a gas/oil holding tank) Maybe this is something you see upon entering the complex. I'm not sure how well you can see it from the burial site, because in my vision of that area, it isn't present. This just sort of seems to be an image unto itself in my mind, but yet it is important.
     • A round holding tank sits directly at the entrance of the plant at a place where the road forks. (LS)
   • He was put into a shallow grave. Not dug. This was an area that was already conveniently scooped out. Pit? Unused ditch? Indentation caused by some excavation? Whatever it is, it is not terribly deep. He was covered over with some type of debris (maybe rocks from the rail road area). Ultimately a wooden topping of planks/pallets covered the area and has kept scavenging animals at bay.
   • This burial area was fairly accessible by truck. You could drive almost to the point that was utilized...at least to a point between buildings. It would have been hidden from the road by some run down, probably unused buildings. This area seemed to be a general collection/dumping point for misc. junk. It was not really an area that was being actively used for anything productive and was probably rarely visited by any workers unless it was to get rid of some type of scrap. I also see chain link fence.
     • The area focused on during the on site investigation fit this description to a T...except no fence is currently present, although may have been at the time of Leon’s demise. (LS)
   • The body is in between the buildings and the tracks. If you were standing on the body with the buildings would behind you and primarily off to your right hand side, the tracks would be in front of you, and beyond them the wooded area. This area may be totally desolate of any industry now.
     • An area that fits this description was located (except that the buildings would be off to your left...and I could have confused the two, for my sense of direction is sometimes poor) (LS)
   • SAM? / SAN? that I see in my mind is written with red lettering against a white background. I don't understand this. Is it a name?(usually I don't see them vividly like this) Am I seeing a sign or a portion of the lettering on a sign that is visible from the burial site?
     • An odd-ball character named SANford was one of four people who had access to Leon’s barn. (T&L)
   • How about a quarry? If I were standing at the burial site, would a quarry be in the distance behind me? I wouldn't be able to see the quarry from the burial site.
     • Not far from where this boy lived it Basic Refractories Inc. It is a large quarry where they process lime stone...... it has RR tracks..... many, many old buildings and towers........ lots of old material stacked all over the place.... there is an old grain elevator in that area also.....it is now abandoned. The Basic area has a lot of ditches and drives and fence with tanks and towers.
     • There were 24 hour operations in 1963 when this happened...... but it is a huge area and was not guarded at all..... signs, but no security guards at that time.... (BR)
     • From the visit to the site, standing in the position mentioned above, the quarry would indeed be to the rear. (LS)
5. Did he come from a rather low income family of about 6 people total, having at least one or two older brothers? I sort of picture his family losing track of him. While most people in the country would know if their child was heading to the creek, they don't give me the impression that they had a clue where he was. Maybe they didn't even realize that he was missing for most of the day. I feel this may have happened early afternoon, but he wasn't reported missing until after dark.
   • There were a total of 8 in the family..... they were poor, the older children were girls....... and he had two younger brothers (BR).
6. Could he have ventured into Ft. Seneca or Old Fort where he met up with this older boy(s)? Are there any corner stores or something that would have drawn him there? I feel the trouble began in a small town. A dare/hazing/harassment may have ensued on the outskirts...maybe in a park/school yard. Consciously that seems unlikely, but are there some sort of public/recreational places that are within walking distance of the town, yet off the beaten path enough for serious trouble to possibly go unnoticed? All this would have to be within walking distance of his home also.
   • (Basic Plant) is not far from a little village named Fort Seneca, near where the boy lived..... There was a General Store and Post Office there when this happened... It has since been closed.
   • He lived near an small park that was frequented by pedophiles at that time... he was sent out to do chores and never returned to the house..... his sisters (2) went looking for him and went to the river edge and it was their tracks they found... not his..... he feared the river and the water.....
   • There are suspicions of local boys and even a local adult, who hated the family.... 6 weeks after the boy disappeared, the guy bought the small farm and told the family they would have to move. (BR)
7. The months of December and March are in my mind. While neither of these may have been the months of his disappearance, do they have any other possible significance? Birthday?
   
   • The only thing in Leon's (school) file...was a slip of paper verifying he had his necessary vaccines. The other piece of paper was a withdraw notification. They have his withdraw from school date as the 6th or 7th of March, 1963. Dan said the reason for withdraw - "drowned." (BR)
8. The number 12 (this could be anything...age, date, etc.)
   
   • He was about 12 years old (BR)
9. The only other POSSIBLE insight (even though insignificant) that I have had recently was in the form of a dream. Several times the other night, I woke from a dream about this case, but the only thing I seemed to be able to remember was some type of interacton with a beagle-looking dog. It could have just been a symbolic dream of a "hunting dog"...sort of what we are right now...sniffing out clues. But I did sort of wonder if he had a dog that looked like that...or if anyone else involved may have owned a small dog. Don't get excited... could just be nothing but a dream.

On October 21, 2000, I was able to visit the homestead site of Leon Mackling along with the Basic limestone quarry. My impressions are as follows:

• Some incident had occurred at an earlier time that lead up to the fatal events of the day. I believe that this incident took place at a public place (park/playground/store/etc..??)
  • Leon’s sister said that he had asked both sisters to accompany him to the barn that afternoon, because he was afraid. They felt this was out of character for him. (T & L)
• The northeast corner of the barn was the area in which trouble started. I feel as if he were standing in this vicinity when he was startled. I sensed extreme fear. I am not sure if someone was hiding in that corner of the barn or if they were outside the east doors.
  • Leon’s sister said that this was the corner of the barn where he would have had to go to take care of the hogs. His bucket was filled with feed, but he never had the opportunity to disperse it to the animals. (T & L)
• On the outer portion of the NE corner of the barn, there was dowsable energy present. I feel that Leon was eventually lured to the outside area.
• In an area further to the east, another extremely dowsable area was noted. In this vicinity, I had the sensation of what was probably Leon’s final moments. I sensed an angry man grabbing Leon and throwing him against something. He was attempting to intimidate him in regards to an earlier confrontation of some sort. This violent act caused a fatal head injury.
  • This area was once the site of a cement block outbuilding. (T & L)
• Upon learning this information, I believe that Leon’s body was hidden for a brief time at the location of this building.
  • No buildings were searched the night he disappeared. All efforts were focused on the river. (T & L)
• I walked the area down to the Sandusky River, but dowsable energy was not detected, nor were any intuitive impressions.
• I sensed the presence of a red/rusty colored pickup truck on the premises. I do not know who it belongs to...it could belong to the Mackling family, the neighbor, etc...
  • Leon Macking reported that Sanford had a red pickup truck. (T & L)
• I dowsed the area of what was the former site of the Mackling home. Both the SE and SW corners had the strongest responses. I was unable to detect any strong impressions, but suspect that this is residual energy from the family during their time of strife.
  • It is believed that the areas indicated may have corresponded with the kitchen and living room areas of the home. (T & L)
• Our next stop was to the Basic plant. We drove around the perimeter of the complex, but nothing seemed to call to me. We then sought out the area that I had specifically map dowsed towards the west end of the plant. Confirmations of specific points of interest are indicated above. We did locate the area that I believe fits closest to what I saw in my mind’s eye. There was an area of dowsable energy to the west of an outbuilding. This energy also seemed to surround the building, or at least seemed to want me to trace a circle around the building. I tend to believe that the perpetrator drove to the end of the drive, which stops between two buildings. He would have had to have moved the body to the other side of the building by other means. If the pallets of wood are the same ones that I saw in my mind, then they were most likely brought to the location from somewhere else on the grounds by means of a fork lift (or something similar) and discarded there under the guise of a convenient area to dump scrap. (If Leon is not found anywhere near this area, I do have one other possible explanation for the energy at this specific site. I wonder where Leonard Mackling was when he learned that his son had drowned.)
• I also map dowsed an area to the east of the plant, although not with the degree repetition as I did with the west end. We did not focus on this area, because the other visuals I needed to see were not present.
  
  • There was an abandoned barn near this site at the time of Leon’s disappearance. (T & L)

Lisa, Trish, and Bruce contacted Sheriff Neff and arranged for a more formal investigation of the site. Prisoners were brought out to commence digging. A gentleman with a metal detector also made efforts to assist in the investigation. Nothing concrete has been found as of 10/27/00.

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