Alvin Turner was 16 when he vanished from Newark, New Jersey, in the late summer of 1978. On the evening of August 20, he and four teenage friends — Randy Johnson, Michael McDowell, Melvin Pittman, and Ernest Taylor — were last seen playing basketball at West Side Park near Clinton Avenue and Fabyan Place. After the game the boys reportedly got into a pickup truck driven by a local carpenter who sometimes hired them for odd jobs; that was the last confirmed sighting.

A mysterious extortionate phone call traced to a payphone in Washington, D.C. offered to reveal their whereabouts for $750, but produced no answers. The boys never used their Social Security numbers, applied for driver’s licenses, or made contact, and families disputed early suggestions that they had run away. Investigators later alleged the teens were taken to an unoccupied house, restrained, and left when the structure was set on fire; the house burned completely and no remains were recovered.

In March 2010 two men were charged in connection with the case; one pleaded guilty and another was acquitted. Alvin Turner was declared legally dead in 2011. Does anyone have memories of the Clinton Avenue area in 1978 or information about the boys that could help fill gaps in the timeline?