By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER

marcie@bradfordera.com

Nearly 40 years have passed since the date of Bradford’s most wellknown unsolved mystery — the platinum theft and disappearance of Dale Kerstetter from Corning Glassworks in Bradford Township.

And the magazine Popular Mechanics is turning up the heat on the cold case with a 12-page feature in the May/June 2025 issue. ‘The Case of the Missing Platinum’ was written by Katya Cengel, a freelance writer who visited Bradford last fall.

‘It was actually the senior features editor at Popular Mechanics at the time, Jennifer Leman, who commissioned me to write the story, so that is how I first heard about it,’ Cengel told The Era.

‘Jennifer read another story I had written about a mysterious disappearance and thought I would do a good job writing a narrative piece on the Dale Kerstetter mystery.

Among the links Jennifer sent me for initial background research, I found Heather Graupman’s earlier reporting to be very useful.’

Popular… page A-8

The Popular Mechanics May/June 2025 issue includes a 12-page feature on Dale Kerstetter and the 1987 platinum theft from Corning Glassworks in Bradford Township.

Dale Kerstetter Graupman, who runs the site lostnfoundblogs. com and has a lostnfound podcast, featured Kerstetter’s story a few years back. And has stayed with the case, hoping to find a resolution for Kerstetter’s family.

She shared word of the magazine article with The Era, and said she had put Cengel in touch with Penny Kerstetter Chlebowy, daughter of the missing man.

”The story is quite lengthy,” Graupman said. “It talks about the platinum heist. That’s a huge audience for Dale’s story.”

Circulation for the magazine is about 17 million. Copies of the current edition are available where magazines are sold, or online.

Graupman and Chlebowy have been investigating the case on their own. Bradford Township Police recently turned the case over to McKean County detectives, where Chief Detective Ryan Yingling has taken over.

In the article, Bradford Township Police Lt. Tim Gigliotti and retired chief David Doyle were interviewed about the case, as was retired state trooper Max Bizzak, none of whom believe that Kerstetter is still alive.

Theories are raised and discussed, everything from Kerstetter being involved with the theft, being part of the theft and double-crossed by others in a theft ring, to Kerstetter just being the unlucky soul at work the night the theft took place. Some believe he was killed, and his body disposed of in one of a multitude of wells that proliferate the hillside near the site of Corning Glassworks.

”There’s no one map of where the wells are,” Graupman told The Era.

Cengel’s story mentions a local oil man helping law enforcement by identifying his company’s wells. While his name isn’t mentioned, the man was Mark Cline of Cline Oil.

The mystery began Saturday, Sept. 12, 1987. Kerstetter, a maintenance man and security guard at Corning, went in to work as usual that day. The next morning, another security guard found Kerstetter’s lunch pail, newspaper and keys on a cafeteria table. His truck was in the parking lot.

Kerstetter was nowhere to be found.

Neither he nor the platinum have ever turned up.

Over the years, Chlebowy has talked to her father’s friends, co-workers, investigators and even some psychics.

“Every one of them has told me he’s in a deep, dark place,” she said.

Any person with information is asked to contact PSP Tips toll free at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online at p3tips.com/ tipform.aspx?ID=107 All callers to PSP Tips could be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest, the solving of a crime/cold case or the location of a wanted person/ fugitive or missing person.

The McKean County Detectives can be reached at (814) 8873312, ext. 3.