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Post by ophion1031 on Jul 31, 2018 0:20:37 GMT -8
Robert Ivan Nichols, alias Joseph Newton Chandler III (September 12, 1926 – c. July 23, 2002) was a formerly unidentified identity thief who committed suicide in Eastlake, Ohio, in July 2002. After his death, investigators were unable to locate his family and discovered that he had stolen the identity of an eight-year-old boy who was killed in a car crash in Texas in 1945. The lengths to which Nichols went to hide his identity led to speculation that he was a fugitive. In late 2016, U.S. Marshals Service announced that forensic genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders International had compared Chandler's Y-STR profile to public genetic genealogy Y-STR databases to determine his possible last name was "Nicholas". In 2017 Fitzpatrick along with Dr. Margaret Press formed the non-profit DNA Doe Project, which revisited the Chandler case by analyzing his autosomal DNA using the same methodology they used in identifying Marcia King and Lyle Stevik. In March 2018 the DNA Doe Project identified Chandler as Robert Ivan Nichols. The U.S. Marshals Service announced the identification at a press conference in Cleveland on June 21, 2018. The real Joseph Chandler: Joseph Newton Chandler III, born in Buffalo, New York, was eight-years-old when he was killed in a traffic accident along with his parents in Texas on December 21, 1945. Reports differ on whether the accident took place in Sherman or Weatherford. Nichols' life and identity theft: Robert Nichols was born on 12 September 1926 in New Albany, Indiana to Silas and Alpha Nichols who had four boys. He joined the US Navy in World War II and served as a firefighter on the USS Aaron Ward which was bombed by the Japanese in 1945 off Okinawa. He was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart. He burned his uniforms after the war. Nichols married Laverne Kort in 1947, they had three sons and Nichols worked for General Electric as a draftsman. In 1964, Nichols left his wife and sons and filed for divorce the same year. He moved to Dearborn, Michigan where he told his parents that he worked in the automobile industry. In March 1965 he wrote to his parents that he had moved to Richmond, California and he also sent a letter to his son Phil from Napa, California the same month. His family never heard from him again and they reported him missing in 1965. Nichols worked using his real name until 1976 according to the US Internal Revenue Service. Nichols stole Chandler's identity in September 1978 in Rapid City, South Dakota after applying for a Social Security card, and moved to the Cleveland area shortly after. In 1978 he worked for Edko Company, an engineering business in Cleveland and later worked as an electrical designer and draftsman for Lubrizol, a chemical company headquartered in Wickliffe, Ohio. The company laid him off in 1997. He had claimed to have a sister named "Mary Wilson"; however, the address he provided for her in Columbus, Ohio was fictitious. It was eventually revealed that Nichols was actually born at the same address in New Albany. Nichols was described as being a hermit who only left his home to go to work and eat. Co-workers have said he rarely talked to anyone and appeared to have few or no friends. He also took part in behavior perceived as eccentric, such as listening to white noise for hours, and once drove to an L.L. Bean store in Maine (a drive of at least ten hours and 700 miles/1,100 km) only to promptly turn around and drive back to Ohio after discovering that there were no spots available in the store's parking lot. Suicide: His body was discovered in his apartment on July 30, 2002. He was believed to have killed himself about a week earlier. He had committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a .38-caliber Charter Arms revolver he had purchased a few months earlier. He had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer, which may have influenced his decision to commit suicide. He had $82,000 in his bank account and had listed his co-workers as emergency contacts. His identity theft was discovered when authorities could not find any relatives and discovered that the real Chandler had died decades prior. Authorities were unable to find any usable fingerprints to assist in identification and were only able to get a DNA sample after discovering he had visited a Lake County, Ohio hospital for colon cancer surgery in 2000. Theories: Authorities had believed that he was a fugitive of some kind. There were many theories as to what he may have been running from, none of which were confirmed. Some internet sleuths suggested that he might have been the Zodiac killer as he resembled police sketches of the Zodiac and had lived in California, where the Zodiac operated. Another theory was that he was Steven Campbell, an engineer from Cheyenne, Wyoming wanted for attempted murder. Authorities also considered that he could have been a German soldier or Nazi official from the Second World War that had escaped to the United States. Identification: In 2014, at the request of the local police, Peter J. Elliott, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, reopened the Chandler case. Based on DNA extracted from a tissue sample from a Lake County, Ohio hospital, a CODIS profile was generated, but no hits were found. In 2016, he asked forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick to compare Chandler's Y-STR profile obtained from a tissue sample to the public Y-STR genetic genealogy databases. A match indicated his possible surname as Nicholas or Nichols. In 2018, Fitzpatrick and Press’s organization DNA Doe Project used autosomal SNP analysis and GEDmatch, a public personal genomics database, to identify Chandler as an engineering draftsman from New Albany, Indiana named Robert Ivan Nichols. A CODIS match with Phil Nichols, Robert Nichols' son, confirmed the identification. NAME: Joseph Newton Chandler GENDER: Male RACE: White BIRTH DATE: 11 Mar 1937 BIRTH PLACE: Buffalo Erie, New York DEATH DATE: 24 Jul 2002 FATHER: Joseph N Chandler MOTHER: Ellen C Kaaber SSN: 504803358 TYPE OF CLAIM: Birth record established before age of 5. NOTES: 30 Oct 1978: Name listed as JOSEPH NEWTON CHANDLER; 07 Sep 2002: Name listed as JOSEPH N CHANDLER
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Post by grasshopper on Oct 16, 2019 19:41:16 GMT -8
It's been more than a year now, are there any new details about what this guy was doing during the time he was pretending to be Chandler? Or is it all still just a mystery?
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 16, 2019 21:06:41 GMT -8
It's been more than a year now, are there any new details about what this guy was doing during the time he was pretending to be Chandler? Or is it all still just a mystery?
Good question. I haven't been following the story so I have no idea.
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Post by grasshopper on Oct 27, 2019 1:38:18 GMT -8
It's been more than a year now, are there any new details about what this guy was doing during the time he was pretending to be Chandler? Or is it all still just a mystery?
Good question. I haven't been following the story so I have no idea. Same
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 16:29:05 GMT -8
hmmm interesting case. Wish I had more time to look at it. The "coming out of Michigan to Cali" is interesting to me. A lot of strange things connected up between Michigan and Cali at that time.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 19:49:27 GMT -8
hmmm interesting case. Wish I had more time to look at it. The "coming out of Michigan to Cali" is interesting to me. A lot of strange things connected up between Michigan and Cali at that time. Indeed! I think there's a decent chance that Zodiac, or at least one person involved in the Zodiac murders, had a tie to Michigan. And then there was the Robison family being murdered in 1968 and someone sent in a tip that said they had information on the case but in order to get it law enforcement had to place a personal ad that read: DR. GUIDINI: Your prescription good. However, need additional. -Zodius I always thought that was interesting and probably not a coincidence. We have discussed the personal ad addressed to Zodiac a little bit, and this is very similar. Plus, "ZODIUS" is interesting for obvious reasons. Ted Kaczynski is the one Zodiac suspect that we know has lived in Michigan. I wish we knew more about this "Chandler" imposter and what he was up to when he lived in Michigan and California, as well as why exactly he left his family and started a new life with a stolen identity.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 20:01:17 GMT -8
hmmm interesting case. Wish I had more time to look at it. The "coming out of Michigan to Cali" is interesting to me. A lot of strange things connected up between Michigan and Cali at that time. Indeed! I think there's a decent chance that Zodiac, or at least one person involved in the Zodiac murders, had a tie to Michigan. And then there was the Robison family being murdered in 1968 and someone sent in a tip that said they had information on the case but in order to get it law enforcement had to place a personal ad that read: DR. GUIDINI: Your prescription good. However, need additional. -Zodius I always thought that was interesting and probably not a coincidence. We have discussed the personal ad addressed to Zodiac a little bit, and this is very similar. Plus, "ZODIUS" is interesting for obvious reasons. Ted Kaczynski is the one Zodiac suspect that we know has lived in Michigan. I wish we knew more about this "Chandler" imposter and what he was up to when he lived in Michigan and California, as well as why exactly he left his family and started a new life with a stolen identity. ______________ Oh there is a HUGE tie between Michigan and Cali. You know too Dennis Rader had the Michigan ties as well. oh yes I forgot to mention DR sent me a photo of a flowering Tulip and on the back side he talks about Michigan, another clue he gave me. I already knew about the Michigan tie, but he "clues me in" because he did not know I knew. I 10000% believe that Zodiac is tied to Michigan. And I believe the FBI knows a lot about this and it has not been talked about. I believe the FBI there knew about Zodiac before Zodiac was ever mentioned. I have looked at the Dr GUIDINI thing too. To me that sounds so much like Dennis Rader. I think that is about making bombs possibly. I need to look at that more, but I did a quick glance at it before and thought it might be about making bombs. I'll have to go through it word by word and figure it out again. I know Zodius has to do with bomb materials. I also believe part of the main core of The Zodiac is out of Michigan, and some still there alive and well, and being alive and well, I have to watch what I say haha I think Collins also might be tied to this as well, but I'm not sure and I was looking at this with another z researcher back years ago and we looked at it pretty indepth and now I have forgotten why exactly I thought that about Collins. Maybe the other person remembers, I'll have to ask.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 20:06:24 GMT -8
you know I have never looked at the TED Kaczynski case. I really should, but I have a TIME problem already trying to keep up with all the rest of these possible ZODIAC people LOL.... but maybe Ted's stuff holds the key to this and I need to look??
I don't want to get this thread off topic, so I'll not be mentioning more on this thread about the other people tied with the Michigan/Cali connection. I'll post about that somewhere else. Can we get a thread specifically for the Michigan / Cali Connection?
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 20:11:28 GMT -8
Hmmm so mister Robert Ivan Nichols changes his name and takes off? And look at all the other places this guy is.... Maybe we better go dig up stuff on him and see what he was all about. Why would he be investigated just for have a fake name from a dead persons birth certificate. That is no reason to be running DNA etc to figure out who this guy is. They know something. They are not doing this just because of fake ID. okay, now I'm curious about him. Time to look at him.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 20:16:56 GMT -8
"Robert Nichols was born on 12 September 1926 in New Albany, Indiana to Silas and Alpha Nichols who had four boys. He joined the US Navy in World War II and served as a firefighter on the USS Aaron Ward which was bombed by the Japanese in 1945 off Okinawa. He was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart. He burned his uniforms after the war."
Why did he burn his uniforms? strange. What went on with the USS aaron ward, anything?
he's also in south dakota, then in ohio, and why did he come out to cali for a short period of time and then poof. ok I'll go dig
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 21:15:45 GMT -8
Yeah, the Nichols case is strange. Nobody can track down anybody that knew him other than some co-workers that basically just said he was a quiet guy and kept to himself.
I forgot about the Rader connection to Michigan. I never thought about this before, but maybe Rader and Kaczynski were a team. It's highly unlikely but possible.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 21:20:02 GMT -8
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 21:51:12 GMT -8
In 1944 Robert Ivan Nichols, AVS, USNR Ensign # 408365
Report of change of officers of the USS HYMAN (DD732) October 25, 1944 from Pearl Harbor, T.H. to SEA
the date of occurrence was actualy 10/24/44 Recieved From Commander air supposrt control units Amphibious Forces PacFlt for temp. duty
I have the copy of this if we need it. I'll have to figure out how to upload it.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 21:56:05 GMT -8
Yeah, the Nichols case is strange. Nobody can track down anybody that knew him other than some co-workers that basically just said he was a quiet guy and kept to himself. I forgot about the Rader connection to Michigan. I never thought about this before, but maybe Rader and Kaczynski were a team. It's highly unlikely but possible. ___________________ I definitely think Rader was somehow connected to someone. either closely or loosely but I personally think he is connected to some other sk and if there really is a group of The Zodiac, I think either Rader is a part of that somehow, or he figured it out on his own and started playing the game long distance. I find it hard to believe he just "figured out" the Z code etc all by himself. We have some very great minds working on z codes and so does the FBI etc, so we know it is hard to figure it out all by yourself unless someone teaches it to you, or they tell you the rules. If you know the rules then you can figure it out. But it is still very hard to learn and to be good at it would take years. let me dig some more. I'ill figure out something on Nichols. I act all kinds of "crazy girl" at times, but actually I'm a very good researcher, let me see what I can dig up on him.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 22:00:07 GMT -8
That's a cool find! I wonder what happened to Nichols to make him burn his uniforms. Or maybe he just hated authority.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 22:05:46 GMT -8
When Nichols left his wife he said she would know why "in due time." If he was never planning on seeing or speaking to her again, what does that tell us? He was probably going to do something bad that may have made headlines. That would be my guess anyways.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 22:36:18 GMT -8
Robert Ivan Nichols was born on September 12, 1926, in New Albany, Indiana, to Alpha Rebecca Nichols Schreiber, age 29, and Silas Frank Nichols, age 33. When Robert was 3-4 yrs ---1930
1930 living at 1823 Center Street, New Albany, floyd county, indiana 1940 still living there in 1940 - he is 13 yrs old then
Maternal Grandparents 1930 His mother's family, his maternal grandparents live at 1827 Center street, 2 houses down 1940 his grandparents are no longer iiving there and now Baskers live there
Brothers John Stewart died as an infant - BIRTH 21 APRIL 1919 • Indiana - DEATH 10 AUGUST 1920 • New Albany, IN James Vincent is 5 yrs old Marvin ( Mawin) Lewis was 4 months old born on December 5, 1929, in New Albany, Indiana
In 1930, 1935, 1940 Robert Ivan Nichols lived in New Albany, Indiana
He was in the navy on October 1944 WWII
june 6 1946 registration Card WWII, he is 19 years old Living in New Albany Indiana, mother is next of kin - alpha nichols Robert is 5'8" tall Light complexion Brown Hair Hazel eyes
In 1953 he is living t 107 Cardinal Dr, New Albany, Indiana with his wife Laverne Nichols, nee KORT He is a draftsman at general electric ( Benthel) at this time his father Silas and mother Alpha are living at 1823 Center New Albany Indiana, and Silas is working as a machanic W R Martin co,(lou) weight 150 race - white
1964 by now his wife is remarried to John Sidney McBride, she died under that name. she was living in louisville ky and also living with her and John S McBride was her and Robert NIchols' son, david Vincent Nichols.
His father Silas Frank Nichols dies January 11, 1982 in indianapolis , Marion county, Indiana at age of 89 His mother Alpha Rebecca Nichols nee Schreiber dies June 3, 1990 in INdianapolis, Marion County, indiana at the age of 92
His wife Agena Kort dies on Feb 9, 1992 in Jefferson KY, ageis 62
Robert himself dies April 18, 2002 age of 75
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 22:38:54 GMT -8
When Nichols left his wife he said she would know why "in due time." If he was never planning on seeing or speaking to her again, what does that tell us? He was probably going to do something bad that may have made headlines. That would be my guess anyways. ________ yes, sounds like if she was going to know at some point that he expected it to be NEWS of some kind being he was not going to be the one to tell her. maybe if he burned his uniforms he was mad at the military and going to go get revenge for something that happened to him there? just guessing, who knows, just a thought in 1964 his wife, married John S McBride, she died under that name. she was living in louisville ky and also living with her and John S McBride was her and Robert NIchols' son, david Vincent Nichols.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 22:54:36 GMT -8
We know that his wife and kids reported him missing in 1965 and they never heard from him again. I wonder if any of his other family ever heard from him. His parents were still living in 1978 when he started using the false identity. His son claims that his opinion is that he was just trying to avoid child support payments, but I just don't see someone cutting off his own parents and everyone else just for that reason. Of course we don't know how close Nichols was with his parents so that could come into play. You would thing that he has to have some cousin or some sort of relative that can shed more light on things. Nichols was wounded during WWII but I can't find anything further about the extent of the injury, but I imagine it wasn't too serious. Here he is as a youngster: The photo on the left was probably early 60's I would assume:
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 23:00:04 GMT -8
THE REAL Joseph Newton Chandler III born 11 Mar 1937 at Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States of America died 21 Dec 1945 In Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, United States of America Cemetery at City Greenwood Cemetery Weatherford, Parker County, Texas, United States of America
so if Nichols was born 1926 and new birth certificate under Joseph Newton Chandler III born 1937 that made Nichols 11 years older than his new ID. So he probably looked older than what he said in his later years.
wonder why he did not pick an ID closer to his age? so how did he come to choose that specific ID? the child was too young to have had and lost and ID and nichols found it, so why did he choose that specific one? there would have been a lot of deceased people he could have used their ID who would have fit his age better.
Did he know the chandler family and know the person was dead?
he would not have seen an obituary in the paper in 1945 because in 1945 he was not thinking about becoming someone else. so how did he come upon the name of this child so many years after this child's death and this child being only 8 years old he did not have a lot of records floating around out there, probably none.
so I want to know how nichols even knew about this name and how did he know the child was dead. even if he had the child's birth certificate the death certificates were not crossed referrenced, so how did he know this child was dead and did not already have a ID. Did he know the familiy history of this child, and how? did he know the family?
I guess he could have walked through a cemetary and got the name off of a gravestone, but to do that, he would have had to been in tx where the child was buried. or ?
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 23:12:29 GMT -8
Nichols married Laverne Kort in 1947, they had three sons and Nichols worked for General Electric as a draftsman. In 1964, Nichols left his wife and sons and filed for divorce the same year. He moved to Dearborn, Michigan where he told his parents that he worked in the automobile industry. In March 1965 he wrote to his parents that he had moved to Richmond, California and he also sent a letter to his son Phil from Napa, California the same month. His family never heard from him again and they reported him missing in 1965. Nichols worked using his real name until 1976 according to the US Internal Revenue Service.
_______________-
So he leaves his wife in 1964, but she is also married to John Sidney McBride in 1964... why is she already remarried? ok living with the mother and the new husband John Sidney McBride Jr Charles A Nichols Philip R Nichols David Vincent Nichols they are living in louisville KY spe 22 1991 when John McBride dies
ok when the real joeseph Newton chandler is 3 in 1940 he is living with his father Joseph M Chandler and his mother Ellen Kaarer Chandler in New York, New York, on leslie road . he was born in new york, his father born in tx and in mother born in pennsylvania... so was Nichols ever in those states did he know anyone there/ did he know the chandlers. let me go see if I can find a military record for Joseph M chandler.
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 28, 2019 23:26:57 GMT -8
How and why Nichols chose that specific identity is another big mystery that we will probably never have answers to.
The fact that he was a draftsman is somewhat interesting. He wasn't in Michigan very long. I wonder if he fled from there because he had done something or if he just wanted to move to California. He did not stat using the Chandler name until 1978. His kids probably would have been 18 or older at the time so by then he wouldn't have had to pay child support.
So many things in this case make no sense.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 23:32:36 GMT -8
How and why Nichols chose that specific identity is another big mystery that we will probably never have answers to. The fact that he was a draftsman is somewhat interesting. He wasn't in Michigan very long. I wonder if he fled from there because he had done something or if he just wanted to move to California. He did not stat using the Chandler name until 1978. His kids probably would have been 18 or older at the time so by then he wouldn't have had to pay child support. So many things in this case make no sense. ______________- ok so I went back and read up at the top, the child dies at 8 yrs old in 1945, ALONG WITH BOTH his parents. They die in TX.. 33 yrs later, Nichols just happens out of nowhere to know about this name 33 yrs later, way in TX, and that this person is dead. I say he has to have gotten that info from someone he knew. the only other way was for him to be walking through cemetaries in TX or searching old newspaper obituary microfilm in the TX libraries, normally in the county of that newspaper... believe me, I know exactly how this is done LOL I guess he could have found an old tx newspaper just lying around 33 yrs later ... but that is VERY unlikely... now this is going to drive me crazy til I figure it out LOL and to top it all off, he applies for the ID in south dakota... huh, so what is he doing over there now? did the 8 year old child have family in south dakota and they gave him the name to use? something is so crazy here.
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Post by amazingates on Oct 28, 2019 23:46:44 GMT -8
okay... Joseph Newton Chandler Jr -(the father of the 8 yr old boy)
the accident was a truck and car collision on Hyway 82, 4 miles west of sherman TX this was on dec 21, 1945
Joseph Newton Chandler jr(the boys father)
address at the time of death is... 1339 East 21st Tulsa Oklahoma.
They were en-route to the boy's grandmother's in Weatherford for Christmas. This would have been the Doctor J N Chandler and his wife Lillian Smith
Male white married birth March 21, 1902 date of death 43 yrs 9 months 2 days buried in Weatherford TX 12/22/45 Executive Automotive ( something , can't read it) born in Parker County TEX his father - Dr. J. N. Chandler born in Georgia his mother - Lillian Smith born in Eldorado Arkansas The person giving the info is Mrs J N Chandler of Weatherford TX they are buried in the greewood cemetary in Weatherford, parker county TX
all this info is from the death certificate, I have if you need it
so they died in TX but they were living in tulsa Oklahoma at the time. so maybe there was a obituary in OKLAHOMA and Nichols found it there?
let me keep looking
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Post by ophion1031 on Oct 29, 2019 0:30:35 GMT -8
Yeah, they were living in Tulsa and died in Texas. Since the young Chandler was born in New York, they may have also ran an obituary there? I have been trying to establish a timeline for Nichols to see just how long he was in Michigan, California and South Dakota. -1964 is when he leaves his wife and moved to Dearborn, MI. I want to find out what month this took place. -By March of 1965 he is in the Richmond/Napa, CA area. So he wasn't in Michigan very long. -Reported missing by his family in 1965. -In 1978 he applies for a SSN under the Chandler name in the state of South Dakota. 1965-1978 is a big gap and the country is full of serial killers and other criminals in that time period. -Moved to Ohio in the Cleveland area shortly after getting his new identity. When does he move to South Dakota? Was he anywhere besides California between 1965 and 1978? Maybe he spends some of that time in Texas and/or Oklahoma and possibly even meets a relative of the real Chandler? Something I just read and had not heard before is that Investigators are also following a potential link to the unsolved 1989 murder of Amy Mihaljevic, a ten year old girl that was kidnapped and murdered in 1989. Check out this wanted poster. The composite on the right looks like a younger Nichols if you ask me.
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