Seventeen-year-old Joe Helt was last seen alive on the night of January 16, 1987. He was leaving a party attended by about two dozen teens at an abandoned ski lodge in Cragsmoor, New York with three other young men. The three later told police that Helt left them behind to walk home alone when their car got stuck in a ditch during a snow storm.
Search efforts in the following days were hampered by bad weather and rough terrain, Ellenville Police Chief Phil Mattracion told HLN, but they failed to turn up any sign of the high school student.
25 years later, a former classmate has come forward with new information that a private investigator says could provide a break in the case.