Gadai Dasa aka David Sherk
By Olean Times Herald staff Jul 9, 2020
David Sherk
This photo of David Sherk was taken from his Facebook page.
A 35-year-old disappearance case in Allegany County is possibly solved as a terminal cancer patient has reportedly given his deathbed confession. David Sherk, a neighbor of Flossie Wilbur, who at age 75 disappeared from her home in Angelica in August 1985, is in a medical facility in Wyoming County with terminal cancer and allegedly confessed to the crime, according to a news article by John Anderson, former editor of the Wellsville Daily Reporter and former Allegany County reporter for the Olean Times Herald.
Anderson is currently editor of the Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph but was drawn back to report on the case by recent developments. Anderson reported that several police sources confirmed the confession by Sherk, which led to extensive search activity Wednesday in the Town of Almond. The news report indicated Sherk will not be charged because of his condition and cooperation with where the body is possibly buried, police said.
Wilbur has been missing since Aug. 24, 1985, in Angelica, when all police could find were her groceries in her car. The Hornell Evening Tribune reported Wednesday that a New York State Police team was searching an area in the Town of Almond near the Almond dam, following a new lead in the cold case.
Police vehicles lined Route 21 near Webb’s Crossing Road Wednesday afternoon. A field on the creek side of the road had been mowed clear of weeds, and a white tent was set up about 100 yards from the road.
A 35-year-old disappearance case in Allegany County is possibly solved as a terminal cancer patient has reportedly given his deathbed confession. David Sherk, a neighbor of Flossie Wilbur, who at age 75 disappeared from her home in Angelica in August 1985, is in a medical facility in Wyoming County with terminal cancer and allegedly confessed to the crime, according to a news article by John Anderson, former editor of the Wellsville Daily Reporter and former Allegany County reporter for the Olean Times Herald.
Anderson is currently editor of the Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph but was drawn back to report on the case by recent developments. Anderson reported that several police sources confirmed the confession by Sherk, which led to extensive search activity Wednesday in the Town of Almond. The news report indicated Sherk will not be charged because of his condition and cooperation with where the body is possibly buried, police said.
Wilbur has been missing since Aug. 24, 1985, in Angelica, when all police could find were her groceries in her car. The Hornell Evening Tribune reported Wednesday that a New York State Police team was searching an area in the Town of Almond near the Almond dam, following a new lead in the cold case.
Police vehicles lined Route 21 near Webb’s Crossing Road Wednesday afternoon. A field on the creek side of the road had been mowed clear of weeds, and a white tent was set up about 100 yards from the road.
Social media posts linked the search to the Wilbur case. A Steuben County law enforcement source who was not involved with the search told the Evening Tribune that investigators are following up on a tip on the Wilbur case. Trooper James O’Callaghan, the State Police Troop A public information officer, confirmed the Almond activity involved a cold case, but he declined to identify which one.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” O’Callaghan told the Hornell newspaper. “We’re working on a lead from a cold case. We’re just looking to see if there’s any validity to it.” O’Callaghan said investigators will remain in the area until “they deem that either something has been located that will help in our investigation or they deem that at this point in time, it’s not a credible source or a credible step forward.”
Anderson, the former Wellsville editor, writes that Sherk was an antique collector who had a yard sale year-round at his house on West Main Street in Angelica.
Police said when Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe from the “American Pickers” television show were in the area filming in 2015 they checked out Sherk’s collection but it did not make an episode.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” O’Callaghan told the Hornell newspaper. “We’re working on a lead from a cold case. We’re just looking to see if there’s any validity to it.” O’Callaghan said investigators will remain in the area until “they deem that either something has been located that will help in our investigation or they deem that at this point in time, it’s not a credible source or a credible step forward.”
Anderson, the former Wellsville editor, writes that Sherk was an antique collector who had a yard sale year-round at his house on West Main Street in Angelica.
Police said when Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe from the “American Pickers” television show were in the area filming in 2015 they checked out Sherk’s collection but it did not make an episode.
[PADA: Really do not know much about this, and only found out about it just now. Anyway, if he made a death bed confession of some heinous crime, it is way better than a lot of ISKCON leaders who take all their crime secrets to the grave. Unfortunately for them, Krishna and Yamaraja know all their secrets already.
Gadai was living basically alone most of the time and he really had no association, and that is never good for anyone, especially a fledgeling neophyte devotee. I am sad to hear he may have had some connection to a serious crime. At the same time -- it must have been eating at him if this is true -- and so he finally made a confession. That is better than nothing.
Neophytes are prone to acting badly, and that is why Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati says -- we need to beat our wicked mind every day to keep it from drifting off. Some of my "karmi" police friends told me in 1980 -- ISKCON is simply a front for a criminal operation -- they had this basically figured out way back in 1980.
It really is amazing how so many "Krishna devotees" have been connected to so many crimes, including evidently, poisoning their guru. It almost seems a lot of these "devotees" are trying to paint Krishna as some sort of criminal mob boss.
This really does not change my overall mood towards Gadai, may God help him out on his next situation. And it looks to me like, he might need a little of God's help at this stage. We are in any event glad he tried to rectify this as much as he could -- albeit a day late and dollar short -- and perhaps this was one of the contributing reasons he had cancer in the first place, the guilt was getting to him.
As a sort of side note, I was cleaning up some old building siding and came across hundreds of those little silver fish bugs. And at the entrance door in the wood for the bugs were sitting two huge black spiders, with huge fat bellies. Rather obviously, the spiders were simply sitting there at the doorway, feasting on these guys coming in and out.
It really reminded me of how we tend to -- forget -- not only Krishna, but what are the rather dire and rough consequences of forgetting Krishna. I just pray I don't get into that condition again like my hundreds of little pals over here. If we forget Krishna, we end up "destination unknown" as Srila Prabhupada says.
And I just hope Gadai was thinking of Krishna at the end of his situation. Let us hope so ...
ys pd]
PADA: Lots of friction between Gadai and his neighbor. Escalated to a crisis? Seems possible ... https://tylerpaper.com/news/crime/where-s-flossie-solved-as-neighbor-admits-to-alleged-murder/article_d1ae2a10-c17e-11ea-b1dc-d392d5e21feb.html?
ReplyDeleteM Dasi: It is understandable to me that Gadai ... could have had a lot of anger towards this woman. She looks like trouble for everyone. It is sad that he got entangled with this person. Another reason it is so hard for devotees ... who are mostly exiled. Then we often had to live in undesirable places, where we could get entangled. It is all connected to the GBC removing all these people ... and getting them back into the material entanglement again. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteI am praying for Gadai. He is another GBC victim ... and it caused him much suffering. No wonder he died of cancer. I would die myself ... except maybe I wanted to live long enough to see the evil doers going down ... as they are. So I would feel some relief before I go.
RE "I am just saying it is sad that devotees have fallen into these bad neighbor situations after being expelled from ISKCON."
ReplyDeleteThere is a similar case in the EU of a devotee whose guru left and he felt cheated about how the GBC reacted. He then moved into an elderly woman's apartment apparently because he didn't know where else to go. He put up an altar with small Gaura-Nitai deities and Lord Jagannatha, Baladev, Subadra. At one point this woman thought that this is kind of idolatry and she threw out the deities when this devotee went shopping. When he came back and saw what happened he killed that woman and went to jail for homicide. So yes, the GBC's program of kicking out devotees caused lots of chaos.
[PADA: Yup. It is another issue Sanat and other GBC ilk have no actual clue how their supporting and covering for the GBC has harmed others. ys pd]
PADA: "In any case, he evidently took it too far and that is regrettable."
ReplyDeleteGKD: This is a quite mysterious story. Gadai was the neighbor and people knew that Flossie Wilbur and Gadi had a strained relationship. Police even found this mentioned in her diary. When police found her car and it became evident that this woman disappeared for good, they surely had hours of interrogation with Gadai. After all, she even had poisoned his dog. So to kill this woman and bring her body to a place where it cannot be found till today surely is something like a carefully planned crime and never a rash action. Nobody in that place thought that Gadai did it. And obviously there was no other suspect. No witnesses.
[PADA: I think that she was antagonizing Gadai, pushing his buttons, and hoping to get him to over react. Then she could report him for harassment to the police. She probably did not expect the "over reaction" might be her departure and disappearing.
It is hard to say how this all went down. They might have exchanged words one day and Gadai finally just "could not take it anymore," and he flipped out. That happens every day in the material world. "Mellow" people just take very strong aggressive action one day that is not their normal nature, because they have been antagonized.
Then, if he is the culprit, he has plenty of time and plenty of wooded areas to move a body to, the whole upper New York is full of forests that go on for hundreds of miles. Whether this was planned or not, she looks like a person who wanted to start a fight, or even a war, and she evidently got more than she bargained for. In the end, it basically ruined Gadai's life and he was suffering guilt and so on after, at least evidently. I really don't know how this all went down, but it seems something bad came down the pipeline and that is why Lord Chaitanya said he would rather live in a cage with a tiger than be associated with the materialists. It is very contaminating, and it is also dangerous. Gadai is in any case now moving into another situation, hopefully he will be in better company this time around.
I also do not think we will ever know how all this transpired, probably the cops have the only detailed admission account, and they normally do not publish private confessions. I believe he did the crime, there are too many indicators of that. And I also believe he confessed, to relieve the guilt. I also believe a lot of devotees get into serious trouble when they are out of the association of devotees, and that means Lord Chaitanya is correct when he warns us about association with materialistic people. It can take us down, and it has taken too many devotees down. And Gadai is simply another victim of the process of association with the materialists, it is indeed very contaminating and ... no small amount of dangerous.
Overall, another sad situation for all concerned. To sum, I do not think he would admit to the crime if he was not the person responsible. ys pd]