Thomas William Richey -- Missing From Fishing Trip Since 1950

Details from NamUs**: "Thomas 'Tommy' Richey left home to go fishing on the Rogue River on July 11, 1950. He liked to fish in an area where there was a cable car above the river that you could move to the middle and fish from above. His fishing pole as well as several fish he caught were found inside the cable car. He has not been seen or heard from since that day. The cable car was braked in the middle of the river which is why it was presumed something happened causing him to fall or jump and ultimately drown. The cable car and fishing hole are located 4 miles outside Prospect, Oregon on Mill Creek Lane and 6 miles upriver from the Lost Creek Dam."

Missing Person: Thomas William Richey
Last-contact date: July 11th, 1950
The area where the MP was last seen: Prospect, Oregon

Link to government source: NamUs #MP51989

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: White
Sex: Male
Age at time of disappearance: 16 years old
Birthdate: between July 12th, 1933 and July 11th, 1934

• When the birthdate isn't known, I calculate a range using the age at the date of the missing person's disappearance.

Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown, wore prescription eyeglasses
Scar: None known
Height/weight: 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10 and 165 to 170 pounds
BMI*: Thomas William Richey was in the normal range for BMI.

• BMI is body mass index. It relates to an individual's height and weight. I include it believing it can help picture a missing person or describe one.

Thomas William Richey, a missing person, was last heard from on July 11th, 1950 when he was 16 years old. He has now been missing for 71 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.

Since this individual has been missing for several decades some might think that it's pointless or futile to work on the case. However, in my opinion, there's not just the missing person to look at but historical matters involved and coming to better understand the issues that surround disappearances. This case did remind me of a few other cases and that's not to say that they are related in an investigative way.

Firstly, it reminded me of the case of Duane Ludwig Winget. This is an individual who has been missing since 1962. Winget was known to have fallen in a river while in a position directly above it and central to the river. He was performing a hand-over-hand military exercise crossing the Nisqually River when he lost his balance at the same moment that his safety equipment failed. Nearly 60 years later, he has yet to turn up.

Richey wasn't performing a military exercise when he went missing -- he was fishing. However, he seems to have been in a similar position relative to the river as Winget -- directly above it and central to the river. In neither case do we have someone jumping or falling from a bridge, nor do we have someone falling from a riverbank. Richey, judging by the position of his fishing rod and the fish he caught, was in a cable car. That much was communicated in the journalism that was published the day after his disappearance.

12 Jul 1950, Wed Medford Mail Tribune (Medford, Oregon) Newspapers.com

Picturing this cable car is important for making a reasonable guess as to what happened to Richey. I don't picture the kind of cable car that's associated with San Francisco transit. Instead, I picture the swaying small ones that you find in the mountains of western Canada and the western USA.

The picture below is of me in a cable car in the Rocky Mountains. If you have ever been in one, then you know that it doesn't always feel stable. I couldn't imagine trying to fish from one of these without causing it to tilt a little. 

In short, I do think that Thomas William Richey simply fell from the cable car and drowned in the Rogue River. It certainly isn't beyond belief that he has never turned up: after all, Winget was known to have fallen in a river from a similar position and he has yet to be found.

The other scenario that I considered with Richey was that he had been abducted. The case of Dario Cicolecchia was something that I thought of. He went fishing, he left his bicycle visible on the side of the road, and a passerby that happened to be a pedophile saw it. However, Dario was fishing from a shoreline, while Richey's fishing pole and the fish he caught were found in the cable car. Abduction from a cable car would be difficult.

Fishing isn't passive in any sense. There is tugging, pulling, and fighting for balance. Fishing from a cable car just doesn't sound like a safe thing to do. This missing person is likely due to youth-related poor judgment. If he is found, the remains are likely to be skeletal and I would imagine scattered. 

I did receive a reply to this article by an individual that identified as the person who opened the missing person case for Thomas. This is what was communicated from her:

"When I opened the missing persons case that appears on NamUs I didn't quite have all the details of the disappearance yet and just wanted to have DNA collected to compare to Tommy's brother (still alive) to see if there was a match in CODIS. Unfortunately, we did not get any results from that. The cable car in this case is still the most mind-boggling part. It was reported to some degree and I also discovered that the cable car had a puller and winch that had to be used manually to stop, start, and brake the cable car. Tommy's brother and dad are the ones who originally went to the cable car when looking for Tommy and discovered the fish, rod and creel inside it. It was in the middle of the river and Tommy's brother had to shimmy the cable line hand over fist to get into it. Also, Tommy's brother insists the cable car was not something you could easily fall out of. While they didn't actually fish from the cable car itself, the boys used it to cross the river to seek out better fishing areas. 

The cable car was built and placed near Prospect on the Rogue River by the Army Corps of Engineers who were scouting the area for a potential dam site in the 1930s. The Lost Creek Dam is what eventually transpired from this endeavor. I have contacted the Army Corps of Engineers to see if they have records of what the cable car looked like since I cannot find anything even remotely close to what Tommy's brother describes. Unfortunately I haven't gotten anything worthwhile. The cable car is described as being 7 feet in length, 4 ½ -5 ft wide and about 5 feet high and made of lumber with metal strapping.

An accidental fall resulting in drowning was the main conclusion that law enforcement drew to explain Tommy's disappearance. After a week-long search, the community was asked to keep an eye out for his body. No trace of Tommy's body, clothing, or glasses has ever been recovered. As the decades have passed, there has been some speculation as to whether or not Tommy may have staged the scene and purposely went missing, either of his own free will or some type of foul play. However, there has been very little evidence to support these theories either. I believe understanding more about the cable car may help shed some light on what really happened.

Thank you for taking an interest in this case. Even if we never find out what really happened, I appreciate that his story is being told.

Thanks,

Heather V."

Please, share this article to social media using hashtags that are related to where the missing person went missing from, which is Prospect, Oregon.

Author: Shane Lambert

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of February 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.