Kelly Morrissey: The Search for Kelly Morrissey Continues 26 Years Later

“Maybe one of them was driving by and asked if she needed a ride. And I don’t know what happened after that. John was physical with her once. She told me he came to school and pushed her around, slammed her around and pushed her around.”

Based on Kelly’s own diary entries, the scenario seems probable.

Throughout its pages were accounts about boys she liked. It was Brad ’n’ Kelly, or Tommy, Adam, Mike, Randy, Pete, Kevin and Greg. She wrote of breakups and fights. Many entries were about drinking or smoking.

On one Thursday in 1984, she wrote: “today I went to work then I went home then to Kim’s & we stayed in and drank coffee brandy & milk. Then we snuck out at about 12:00. Then we went to Brian’s & hung out until 2:30 A.M. & then went out at 3:00. Back to Brian’s cause they weren’t home & we wanted to wait for them to come home. Then we saw nick & he gave us a ride home at about 4:00. Then we hung out and fell asleep. Not seeing John anymore.”

Kelly often wrote about Beyer and skipping work or school. She also spoke about going to Halstead’s apartment: “drank and smoked joints and I drove for a little. Then we went to 2 bars & hung out & drank more & came home at 1:30 A.M. Got yelled at. I like to runaway. I think I will very soon.”

Just a few days later, she wrote she went to Beyer’s and “smoked 2 joints with Gail then we got pizza. Then Rob called me then went to Mike. Got very fucked up and came come at 12:30.”

Were all these entries just an exaggeration of her actions? Or was this the lifestyle she had slipped into? There appeared no doubt she would take a ride from someone, as only a few days later she wrote, “today went to Green Acres and got a hole bunch of shit & smoked half a joint and asked some guy for a ride home & went to Kim’s. Then Home & ate then watch TV.”

Quinn confirmed Kelly’s friends told him she was afraid of Kogut and that he was very possessive.

“They described John as her boyfriend and said Kelly wanted to break up with him but she was afraid to tell him because he might hit or beat her up,” he said.

Beyer also could believe Kogut had something to do with Kelly’s disappearance.

“I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him,” she said. “If he had pulled up, Kelly would have gotten in, not thinking twice about it. I would have. Someone you know, you wouldn’t think twice.

“He was a high-strung, flighty, moody type of person,” she added. “Fidgety. I could see him being violent and being a jerk.”

Beyer told me she had a friend who was in the same jail as Kogut who had overheard him crying and saying he did it and he was sorry. No one I talked to could verify this.

The case was eventually given to the Homicide Squad, which historically releases little information on ongoing investigations. Officially, there were no comments concerning the link between Kelly’s disappearance and Theresa’s death, but the detective assigned to the Fusco case told me it was details from Kelly’s disappearance and investigation that had led him to Kogut as a suspect in her murder.