Disappearance of Katherine E. Hull

Katherine E. Hull
Katherine E. Hull.
Born	Katherine E. Hull ca. 1914 New York, U.S.
Disappeared	April 2, 1936 Lebanon Springs, New York, U.S.
Body discovered	December 8, 1943 Hancock, Massachusetts, U.S.
Known for	Missing person
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) (approximate)

Katherine E. Hull (ca. 1914-ca. April 2, 1936) was a 22-year-old woman from Syracuse, New York in the United States who disappeared from Lebanon Springs, New York on April 2, 1936. She was visiting her grandmother, set out for a walk on April 2, 1936, and was last seen hitchhiking.

Human remains later identified as belonging to Hull were found by a hunting party more than seven years later, on December 8, 1943, near the New York state border on the western slope of West Mountain in Hancock, Massachusetts, halfway between the top of West Mountain and Lebanon Springs Road. The location is a few miles from where Hull disappeared. Authorities could not determine whether Hull had died an accidental death, perhaps due to exposure to the elements, or if she had been murdered.

Hull was the daughter of Harry and Florence Hull. She grew up in Saranac Lake, New York. Her parents separated in 1926 and Hull lived in Syracuse with her mother, older sister, and her maternal grandmother. Like her older sister, Katherine Hull was trained as a stenographer. Hull and her father had just arrived in New Lebanon to visit her paternal grandmother. Hull planned to spend the summer with her paternal grandmother in Lebanon Springs. After luncheon, Hull said goodbye to her father and set out on a stroll at about noon. She planned to return by evening.

She was wearing a blue dress, a gray sports sweater, black low shoes with rubber overshoes, dark stockings, a green coat with a fur collar, and a brown tam-o-shanter. She carried a handbag. She had brown hair worn in a bob cut, hazel eyes, stood approximately 5 feet 6 inches (1.6764 meters) tall, and weighed 135 pounds (61.235 kilograms). She was described as a serious, religious young woman who rarely smiled. Her father said she had considered joining an Episcopalian religious order.

There were some discrepancies between the description of Hull on a missing person flyer and the estimated height of the remains later identified as belonging to Hull. However, authorities later determined that Hull was slightly shorter than had been stated, which explained the discrepancy. The remains were cremated and buried.

Hull's older sister Marjorie willed $350,000 to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York upon her death in 1996 to establish a scholarship fund in honor of her parents and sister. The Harry and Florence P. Hull and Katherine E. Hull Endowed Scholarship Fund was to award scholarships to qualified undergraduate students in the college's engineering program.

Similar cases

Other female hitchhikers later disappeared under similar circumstances within the New England region during the same time period and there has been speculation that all three might have been victims of the same unidentified serial killer.

Paula Jean Welden, an 18-year-old college sophomore at Bennington College in North Bennington, Vermont, vanished on December 1, 1946 while hitchhiking to the Long Trail a few miles from the campus and has never been found.

Constance Christine "Connie" Smith, a 10-year-old girl, ran away from Camp Sloane in Lakeville, Connecticut on July 16, 1952, and was last seen hitchhiking along Route 44. Her disappearance has never been solved. Lebanon Springs, New York is located 40 miles (64 km) south of Bennington, Vermont, and 46 miles (74 km) north of Lakeville, Connecticut. Since Connie Smith appeared to be older than she actually was, one author speculated that she might have been a victim of a serial killer with a preference for young women in their late teens, such as Welden, or early twenties, such as Hull.