When John Lindquist arrived for his shift at the Corning Glass Works plant in Bradford, Pennsylvania, at 7:00 a.m. on September 13, 1987, he was unable to find Dale Kerstetter, the night security guard and maintenance man he was to relieve. After searching the plant and finding no trace of his co-worker, John notified his supervisors. They too searched the plant but found no sign of the fifty-year-old Dale.
What began as concern for a missing employee soon morphed into anger as Corning discovered that $250,000 of platinum was also missing from the plant. Widely used in manufacturing, platinum is one of the most precious commodities in the world, even more expensive than gold.
Corning officials were convinced Dale Kerstetter had stolen the valuable commodity he was assigned to protect. Family members disagreed, believing Dale was the victim of a robbery resulting in his death.
Thirty-six years after he disappeared from the platinum plant, the question still remains: Is Dale Kerstetter a crook or a victim?
Dale Kerstetter
After the plant supervisors discovered the platinum was missing, the police were called.
Dale’s lunch pail was on the table in the plant break room. The food was inside, untouched. His truck was still in the employee parking lot with the keys in the ignition. Inside the truck, officers found a full carton of cigarettes, an empty gun holster from Dale’s .22-caliber pistol, and his daypack. The McKean County Sheriff Department’s K-9 dog unit tracked Dale to the gas furnace on the second floor in the 112,000-square-foot factory. The furnace was not part of Dale’s normal security rounds, but the dogs detected his scent there.
Corning officials initially feared that Dale, a heavy smoker who was not in the best of health, may have suffered a medical emergency or had fallen and hurt himself in the building. Their sentiments, however, soon changed.
No Dale
The investigation focused on the three twenty-four-hour security cameras monitoring the factory. What the cameras show is as puzzling as it is alarming.
Dale is seen meeting a masked man in the back of the plant where they interact for approximately a minute. It is unclear whether Dale is being coerced by the man or working with him. As the men walk together toward the camera, Dale, knowing its location, looks directly at it.
Shortly thereafter, another camera shows the intruder wheeling out a large bag on a manual forklift.
Video Footage of Dale and Another Man
The Masked Man May Be wearing a Backpack
After analyzing the tape, Corning officials were certain Dale orchestrated, or at the least, was involved in the robbery. Whoever removed the platinum from the plant was familiar with its layout. The theft occurred late at night when few lights were on, yet the thief knew where the platinum was located and where to obtain the tools needed for the theft; Dale met all of those criteria. In addition, no signs of a struggle or forced entry into the plant were found.
Corning officials believe it was the platinum being wheeled away on the forklift and that Dale Kerstetter’s’ looking directly at the camera was his way of taunting them.
Suspicion Falls on Dale
Dale Kerstetter was born and raised in Bradford, in northwest Pennsylvania near the New York border, seventy-five miles south of Buffalo.
The divorced father of six had worked at the Corning Plant for twenty-seven years.
A Younger Dale with His Then-Wife Nancy, and their Children
Corning Personnel Manager Dave Parry described Dale as a hardworking but “marginal employee,” saying he was a good, but slow worker.
Parry also said Dale was not a “happy camper” at the time of his disappearance because he had recently been moved out of the trades shop due to his slow work. In addition to being stripped of a job he liked, the demotion meant a yearly pay cut of between $5,000-$7,000.
A police investigation into Dale’s personal affairs bolstered the theory of his engineering the robbery as he was approximately $30,000-$40,000 in debt, including payments on his truck and trailer.
In Debt
Dale’s family does not think he was involved in the theft. They believe he saw or heard the masked intruder and went to investigate, at which point the robber forced Dale to help him and may have murdered him after he tried to stop the theft. His family believes his body may have been concealed on the forklift with the platinum.
Is Kerstetter a Crook?
Or Was He Killed?
No trace of Dale Kerstetter or of the pilfered platinum has ever been found.
Several months after the theft, Corning sold its Bradford plant.
The Former Corning Glassworks?
Police have investigated several leads, including contentions that Dale was killed by a former co-worker who helped him steal the platinum or that he was placed in a gas well in the plant’s furnace. They found no evidence supporting the first theory and have dismissed the second theory because the plant’s furnace was not running on the evening of the theft, meaning it could not have been used to dispose of the body.
No Trail of Dale
Dale Kerstetter is listed as a missing person; he has never been charged with the theft of the platinum. At the time of his disappearance, he was fifty-years-old, five-feet-four-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-thirty pounds. He had gray hair, brown eyes and was a heavy smoker.
Dale was declared legally dead in July 2014. He would today be eighty-five-years-old.
If you believe you have information relating to the disappearance of Dale Kerstetter or the missing platinum, please contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 814-938-0532.
SOURCES:
- Charley Project
- McKean County (Pennsylvania) Cold Cases
- Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers
- Pittsburgh Press
- Unsolved Mysteries
I always thought he was in on it, and the other person double crossed him.
As for the plutonium it’s probably been sold to underground anti government/world is ending folks.
They usually are the shady ones at 🔫 shows.
I think the taking of the plutonium was to put the company out of business and not money.
This poor guy it was about the money.
If he was alive he would have contacted his family by now
The dogs followed his scent to the furnace and this is not a place he would normally go. Obviously something happened there. They say they ruled out him being put in the furnace because it wasn’t running that night. However September, that location in the country it would be cool at night. It’s possible the furnace may have run for a while that night, and was shut down, possibly by a timer. They never really examined the furnace other than a gas well.
The looking at the camera could have been as stated, him mad at the employer and getting back, or , it could have been him wanting to be seen as a cry for help. They show the masked man moving out the platinum, but not Dale. Nor are there reports of Dale on the cameras as it was beening removed, or after. Imho I think he was killed that day, and either put in the furnace which was run for several hours, or as the family thinks, his body taken out with the platinum.
The furnace to which they’re referring is not part of the heating system for the plant, but the furnace used to make glass. The operating temperature of such a furnace would be well over 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. Such furnaces are lined with refractory material that would remain hot for several hours after being used, and warm to the touch as long as 24-26 hours later, well within the time frame the authorities brought in the dog. If the furnace had been run, they’d know it. I imagine the scent of cremation would’ve been noticeable, but even barring that they’d have found ash in the furnace. Had the furnace been warm, they’ve have checked.
Also consider that reselling that kind of material isn’t easy. It’s a pennies-on-the-dollar proposition unless one is very well connected. A large quantity of any precious metal appearing is going to raise red flags, especially in an industrial form such as pipe. To maintain maximum value, it would have to be smelted, poured into new forms, and sold off in small quantities over time–time one hasn’t got when trying to vanish on the proceeds. It would also require assistance. If by some miracle the resale eventually brought 75% of its stated value–extremely unlikely–that would be less than $63,000 per person assuming one assistant to alter its form. Even in 1987, that wasn’t enough on which to retire and stay hidden for decades. Regardless, on the black market 20%-30% is more realistic, with even 50% being tough to believe.
I agree that Kerstetter was not involved. While it was questionable when the segment on Unsolved Mysteries aired, with decades passing since, I don’t believe it is anymore. His son stated that he felt if Kerstetter were involved, he would resurface after the statute of limitations passed. Were he taunting his bosses by looking at the camera, I’ve no doubt he’d have extended that taunt by appearing after he could no longer be charged: “Ha! Gotcha.” He never resurfaced. It’s hard to believe that were he alive, or had he been for any length of time after the theft, he would not have been discovered after countless re-airings of UM and its popularity in online streaming. I’d guess he was dead within 24 hours of his disappearance.