The Missing Persons Thread

[SGR]

I took a quick peek around and didn't see any threads like this, so mods, please merge if I'm mistaken.

We have a thread about Serial Killers but we don't seem to have a thread about people who have gone missing. People who have gone missing rarely make national news headlines but I find their stories fascinating and I do enjoy speculating on what could've happened to them, given evidence that we do have and assumptions we could possibly make.

So here's a thread to discuss cases of those who have gone missing. I'll post a few that interest me but feel free to post your own. I'm lazy, so I'll post the synopsis from Wikipedia with perhaps a few other resources as well. Click the headers to find the link to the Wikipedia article.

Jason Jolkowski - American - Male - Omaha, Nebraska - missing since June 13th, 2001 - age 19 at time of disappearance

Picture:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On June 13, 2001, Jolkowski was called into work early. He planned to walk to his job due to his car being at an auto repair shop, but later made arrangements for a co-worker to give him a ride. Since Jolkowski had trouble giving directions, he arranged for them to meet at Benson High School, which Jolkowski had previously attended. The school was eight blocks from his home.

At 10:45 a.m., Jolkowski was last seen by a neighbor, who witnessed him helping his younger brother pull trash cans from the curb back to the house. Under an hour later, between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m., his co-worker called his house stating that he had failed to turn up at Benson High for the ride to work. Jolkowski has not been seen or heard from since then. Shortly after his disappearance, the school's security cameras were checked, but none of them showed Jolkowski arriving at the school.

A police officer investigating his disappearance deemed it "the most baffling case" he had seen in thirty years.

Other resources:

19-year-old Jason Jolkowski disappears without a trace while on his way to meet up for a ride to work


Into Thin Air: The Baffling Disappearance of Jason Jolkowski

Any tips or information?
Please call the Omaha Police Department, the investigating agency, at 402-444-5657.

Tara Calico - American - Female - Belen, New Mexico - missing since September 20th, 1988 - age 19 at time of disappearance

Picture:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On Tuesday, September 20, 1988, Calico left her home at about 9:30 A.M. to go on her daily bike ride along New Mexico State Road 47. She rode that route almost every morning and was sometimes accompanied by her mother, Patty Doel. However, Doel stopped riding with Calico after she felt that she had been stalked by a motorist. She advised Tara to think about carrying mace, but Tara rejected the idea.

On the morning of Calico's disappearance, she had told Doel to come and get her if she was not home by noon, as she had plans to play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30. When her daughter did not return, Doel went searching for her along Tara's usual bike route but could not find her; she then contacted the police. Pieces of Calico's Sony Walkman and a cassette tape were later discovered along the road. Doel believed that she might have dropped them in an attempt to mark her trail.

Several people saw Calico riding her bicycle, which has never been found. No one witnessed her presumed abduction, although several witnesses observed a light-colored pickup truck (possibly a 1953 Ford) with a camper shell following closely behind her.

Developments since disappearance:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On June 15, 1989, a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young woman and a boy, both gagged with black duct tape and seemingly bound, was discovered in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. The woman who found the photo said that it was in a parking space where a white windowless Toyota cargo van had been parked when she arrived at the store. She said that the van was being driven by a man with a mustache who appeared to be in his 30s. Police set up roadblocks to intercept the vehicle, but the man has never been identified. According to Polaroid officials, the picture had to have been taken after May 1989 because the particular film used in the photograph was not available until then.

The photo was broadcast on A Current Affair in July, and Doel was contacted by friends who had seen the show and thought the woman resembled Calico. Relatives of Michael Henley, also of New Mexico, who had disappeared in April 1988, saw the episode and said that they believed he was the boy in the photo. Doel and Henley's parents both met with investigators and examined the Polaroid. Doel said that she was "convinced" it was Calico. She also noted that a scar on the woman's leg was identical to one that Calico had received in a car accident. In addition, a paperback copy of V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Audrina, said to be one of Calico's favorite books, can be seen lying next to the woman. Scotland Yard analyzed the photo and concluded that the woman was Calico, but a second analysis by the Los Alamos National Laboratory disagreed. An FBI analysis of the photo was inconclusive.

Henley's mother said that she was "almost certain" it was Michael in the Polaroid. The identification of the boy in the photograph as Henley is considered highly unlikely: his remains were discovered in June 1990 in the Zuni Mountains, about 7 miles (11 km) from his family's campsite from which he had disappeared and 75 miles (121 km) from where Calico disappeared. Police believe that Henley wandered off and subsequently died of exposure.

Polaroid picture



Other resources:

The Disappearance Of Tara Calico And The Eerie Polaroid Left Behind

Tara Calico - Disappeared

Any tips or information?
Please call Valencia County Sheriff's Department, the investigating agency, at 505-865-9604

or:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Albuquerque, New Mexico Office
505-224-2000


Lars Mittank - German - Male - Varna, Bulgaria - missing since July 8th, 2014 - age 28 at time of disappearance

Picture:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On June 30, 2014, 28-year-old Lars Mittank traveled to the seaside resort of Golden Sands, Bulgaria on a vacation with a group of friends. On July 6, 2014, Mittank got into a fight with four other men after a disagreement over football: Mittank, a fan of the football club Werder Bremen, had differences with fans of Bayern Munich. The fight resulted in Mittank suffering a ruptured ear drum. At the end of his trip, a doctor advised Lars not to fly due to his injury, and prescribed the antibiotic Cefuroxime (500 mg). That doctor later referred him to a hospital. Mittank's friends wanted to stay with him, but he insisted he was fine on his own.

Mittank stayed in Bulgaria without his friends, and checked into the Hotel Color Varna. However, a day after his friends left, Mittank began to act oddly, and his erratic behavior was recorded by the hotel's closed-circuit television security cameras. He spent only one night in the hotel, during which he appeared paranoid and frightened.

While at the hotel, Mittank called his mother. In a whisper, he stated that four men were coming to kill him, and that she should cancel his credit cards.

Mittank was last seen at Varna Airport, the airport that serves Golden Sands in the nearby city of Varna. He was consulting with the airport doctor when they were interrupted by a man who was a part of a construction crew. He then fled the building. He was captured by airport security cameras running away. Once outside the airport, he was seen climbing a fence, running into a meadow, and disappearing into an adjacent field of sunflowers near Bulgarian national highway A2. He has not been seen since.

Video captured from airport - last known footage of Lars before disappearance



Other resources:

Why did 'the most famous missing person on YouTube' flee a Bulgarian airport never to be seen again? Bizarre mystery of German tourist who vanished that has baffled the Internet since 2014

How the chilling mystery of lad, 28, who vanished on holiday in Bulgaria made him ‘the most famous missing person case on YouTube’

Any tips or information?
Please call the Hessen Police Department, the investigating agency, at 49 151 61378673

What are your thoughts on these disappearances? What are some of the most interested missing persons stories to you?

I'd also like to link to the Charley Project, for the great work they're doing in building a database of missing persons cases - check them out:

The Charley Project

[WWWP]

**** yes, I love this. Will add to this later!

[Cuthbert]

The Maddie one is the most interesting to me.

I hope I live to see it solved.

Everybody here will have an opinion on who is to blame.

I see that the latest 'lead' disappeared like a fart in the wind.

What an absolutely bizarre incident.

There's a guy who made a really thorough documentary on YouTube.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_nCfPFx5ogk

Enjoy, good bedtime viewing.

[Key]

Others find this stuff interesting? I guess I'm not as crazy as people say i am.

[Cuthbert]

Yes, it's creepy.

[Key]

Johnny Gosch is probably one of the main ones that pops right into my head. I have done countless hours of research on this case, as well as others. But this one in particular is really interesting. I think I've seen a documentary on it as well.

[SGR]

Originally Posted by Key

Others find this stuff interesting? I guess I'm not as crazy as people say i am.

Personally, I find this stuff fascinating. Part of the interest is obviously in not knowing what actually happened. We can assume the worst - but we can never know for sure that the worst actually happened.

Originally Posted by Key

Johnny Gosch is probably one of the main ones that pops right into my head. I have done countless hours of research on this case, as well as others. But this one in particular is really interesting. I think I've seen a documentary on it as well.

His case is an interesting one - do you have any resources you'd recommend to learn more about his case?

Originally Posted by WWWP

**** yes, I love this. Will add to this later!

Steph, you were going to add something? I'd be interested to hear which case provides you intrigue.

[SGR]

Bryce Laspisa - American - Male - Castaic, California - missing since August 30th, 2013 - age 19 at the time of disappearance

Picture:

Originally Posted by The Charley Project

Laspisa was last seen in Castaic, California on August 30, 2013. He was attending Sierra College in northern California and was driving home to visit his family in Laguna Niguel, California at the time of his disappearance. He called his mother at 2:00 a.m., saying he was too tired to drive and was going to stop his car and sleep. He said he'd call her when he woke up.

Laspisa's beige 2003 Toyota Highlander was found abandoned in a ravine off Lake Hughes Road near Castaic Lake a few hours later, lying on its side, the rear window smashed. His cellular phone, wallet, laptop computer and other belongings were still inside the vehicle but there was no sign of him. An extensive search of the area turned up no clues. He has never been heard from again.

Laspisa's loved ones stated he was unfamiliar with the area he disappeared from, didn't hitchhike and didn't enjoy outdoor pursuits. He's originally from Illinois and graduated Naperville Central High School in 2012. His case remains unsolved.

Other resources:

The Story Of Bryce Laspisa And His Chilling Disappearance In California

The Mysterious Disappearance of Bryce Laspisa



Any tips or information?
Please call Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, the investigating agency, at 323-890-5500

[Trollheart]

If we have a serial killers thread (and I do a serial killers journal) this can't necessarily be considered in bad taste, however I would suggest SGR that you add a line in the OP to the effect that if anyone has any information and maybe see if you can source emails or phone numbers or websites that were set up to take such information. Who knows? Maybe one of you will solve a missing persons case! Wouldn't that be great? In reality though, it might just help to avoid the otherwise perhaps slightly ghoulish nature of such a thread, not that I'm saying I see it as such, but some might.

And always bear in mind, it's a tiny possibility, about as likely as me ever having a girlfriend, but at some point someone who knows these people might end up here, and it would be as well to be aware that could happen.

[FETCHER.]

I find this stuff fascinating as well. Looking forward to more posts .