LAKEWOOD, N.Y. (WKBW) — Investigators with the Unsolved Chautauqua Unit of the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office believe they're getting closer to solving the 37-year-old murder case of Kathy Wilson, focusing on what happened at the Chautauqua Mall.
"We do feel that we are narrowing our focus, and we feel that the case is very solvable," Investigator Tom Tarpley told me.
Kathy Wilson, a 34-year-old Jamestown wife and mother, disappeared while on her lunch break on May 18, 1988, from her office job in Falconer. Her van was found early the following morning in the Chautauqua Mall parking lot.
WATCH: Cold case investigators seeking witnesses in the 1988 abduction and murder of Kathy Wilson
Investigators, who began looking at this case a year ago, now believe Wilson went to the mall after lunch and was kidnapped from the mall parking lot.
WATCH: Cold Case: What to know about the 1988 disappearance of Kathy Wilson
The parking lot where Wilson's van was discovered is near what is now an Ollie's, but back then it was a Quality Market.
Tarpley and his team are seeking people who were at the mall on the day Wilson disappeared.
"We would like to speak to people, particularly people who were working at the mall that day," Tarpley said. "They may have had a person or persons who came in, possibly used a check to purchase something."
Investigators are especially interested in anyone who was working at the Sears store at that time, as well as anyone who saw people loitering in the parking lot that day.
"The people that we're focused on right now would not be transient appearance…would be people that would probably blend in with the crowd that would show up at a mall on a usual day," Tarpley said.
WATCH: Cold Case: New leads in 1988 disappearance of Kathy Wilson
Tarpley hopes that with renewed attention on the case, people might come forward with information they didn't share before.
"People might not have provided information early on, but now that they're hearing this, they may remember something that's important and they'll contact us, and that might be the key to solving the case," Tarpley said.
Contact investigators at unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us or by calling 716-753-4578.
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