David Bruce Rea -- Missing From Michigan Since 1985

Details from NamUs**: 

walked away from Leelanau County residence in December of 1985. Has not been seen since.

 

Missing Person: David Bruce Rea
May use the following alias: Bruce
Last-contact date: December 2nd, 1985
The area where the MP was last seen: Lake Leelanau, Michigan

Link to government source: NamUs #MP11037

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: White or Caucasian
Sex: Male
Age at time of disappearance: 26 years old
Birthdate: between December 3rd, 1958 and December 2nd, 1959

• I'm not sure of the exact birthdate for David Bruce Rea but it can be calculated using his age at the time of the disappearance.

Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown; wears glasses due to nearsightedness
Scar: None known
Height/weight: 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10 140 to 150 pounds
BMI*: David Bruce Rea was in the normal range for BMI.

• Please, Google-search BMI if you aren't familiar with the phrase. I think it's an important tool to be aware of when working on missing person cases.

David Bruce Rea was last heard from on December 2nd, 1985, when he was 26 years of age. He has now been missing for 36 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.

I think this individual went mainly by his middle name. I think I found him in a high school yearbook (maybe in Leland High School, 1975 Yearbook) and he was listed as Bruce Rea as opposed to David Rea. The birth year matched and Bruce is listed as an alias, so I assumed that they were one and the same. 

However, this promises to be a difficult case when cross-referencing against John Does for a potential match because the missing person doesn't have any kind of distinctive characteristics listed in his profile. A John doe in the area of where David was last seen that's found and associated with a pair of glasses might help. One might assume that the glasses in the picture are the ones or the style that he normally used.

Other articles of clothing that might be associated with a matching John Doe are a green nylon jacket, corduroy jeans, a green-colored backpack, and/or leather boots. You can, in fact, plug these terms into NamUs searches for John Does. When you do that you will want to cross-reference any matches to other details of this case.

There are numerous lakes in the area where Bruce Rea went missing. Of course, there is Lake Leelanau but there is also Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. But overall, I think this is a case where a DNA match will need to be made. Websleuths or amateur investigators looking at this case should simply be looking to expand on the missing person's details and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. I did not find any newspaper articles nor Internet sources except ones that rehashed what was printed at NamUs. A family member or friend that knew Bruce Rea at about the time of his disappearance would be handy. On that note, his high school yearbook might be of assistance.

Tags that I've associated with this blog post are below. It's interesting to see what can connect unrelated cases. Click one of the tags to go to an article that is related to this one in some way, shape, or form.

Author: Shane Lambert (Vancouver, Canada)

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert (Vancouver, Canada) is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of February/March 2021.

Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Text might be paraphrased. If taken verbatim, then grammar or spelling errors are not necessarily corrected from original sources.
Disclaimer: Whenever possible, government sources are preferred for getting the details of a missing person's case. However, any source that the article writer deems reputable may be used.