JAMESTOWN, N.Y. (WKBW) — 38 years after Kathy Wilson was abducted and murdered, her husband says investigators have identified key connections to businesses in the region.
Mark Wilson of Jamestown sat down with me exactly 38 years after authorities say his wife, Kathy Wilson, was abducted and later murdered.
"Do you know what it's like to not breathe for 40 years? Have the wind taken out of your sails?" Wilson said.
Wilson described his wife as someone who meant everything to their family.
"She was a wonderful, beautiful wife. Mother of three young children, had a great job," Wilson said. "She was the whole package."
Wilson says he has been in close contact with cold case investigator Tom Tarpley with the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office and has learned disturbing new leads about what investigators believe happened.
"She was violently abducted from the Chautauqua Mall parking lot. There was an eyewitness to this scene," Wilson said.
Chautauqua County Sheriff's investigators have a new clue that they are asking the public for help on. They say next to where Kathy Wilson's van was found hours after she was reported missing, someone saw another van parked right next to it. They are looking for anyone who saw that van there or may recognize a van like it.
Mark Wilson says investigators believe kidnappers took his wife to a location in Lander, Pennsylvania, where they held her and then killed her. Children playing in the woods found her remains more than a year later.
Investigators say they have identified the owner of the location where they believe Kathy Wilson was held.
"They know of a connection with a business located in Russell, Pennsylvania. And they know that there's a connection to the place where Kathy worked, which was the James B. Schwab Company in Falconer, New York," Wilson said.
WATCH: 'Now is the time to come forward': 38 years since Kathy Wilson abducted and murdered
Wilson also shared other disturbing new information about how evidence in the case was handled.
"18 years ago, the law enforcement authorities, the state police in Pennsylvania, destroyed the evidence, destroyed Kathy's bodily remains. They destroyed it. They didn't tell us," Wilson said.
"We found out that there were two death certificates issued," Wilson said.
Despite those revelations, Wilson says those were mistakes from the past and that he has the utmost faith in the investigators in western New York and Pennsylvania working on the case today.
"Now is the time to come forward with that information," Wilson said.
Wilson believes justice is coming soon.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
