The Mysterious Disappearance of Lars Mittank: Unraveling the Varna Airport Enigma
On July 8th, 2014 (Tuesday), Lars Joachim Mittank, a 28-year-old German tourist, vanished under bizarre circumstances near Varna Airport in Bulgaria. He left behind a mystery that continues to captivate and confound.
However, I think this is a case where some sense can be made. My explanation of what I think happened to Lars Mittank will involve an analysis of both known facts regarding the case and some assumptions that I will bring into the mix.
Lars Mittank: German on Vacation in Bulgaria
Lars Mittank was on vacation. I think that is very relevant to this missing persons case, a point that I will return to later.
But what began as a typical vacation with friends at the Golden Sands resort turned into one of the most perplexing missing persons cases of the modern era. This is thanks to enigmatic behavior that was caught on security footage that captured his final known moments. In a way, that makes this case similar to the Elisa Lam mystery from Los Angeles, another strange missing persons case from the 2nd decade of the current century.
Before Lars disappeared, he had been enjoying a week-long trip. This trip took a turn for the worse when he had one of those altercations at the bar involving a sports team debate. Reportedly, a football rivalry in a barroom setting led to a beating, and this beating was bad enough that it left him with a ruptured eardrum.
Personally, I had a major ear clog at one point in my life, one that lasted three weeks. I was advised not to swim and not to hike to a significantly high elevation until it cleared up. This was because diving underwater or going to high elevation causes changes in air pressure.
The ears are a major point in the body where changes in air pressure matter. If Lars had a ruptured eardrum, then flying was off the table for him, surely because the changes in pressure might have made his injury worse.
Advised against flying, he stayed behind as his friends returned to Germany. On Monday, July 7th, he checked into a hotel near the airport, where his behavior took a troubling turn.
He paced the halls, hid in an elevator, and made panic-driven phone calls to his mother. During these calls, he whispered that he felt threatened and unsafe.
His paranoia peaked on the morning of Tuesday, July 8th (the day he was set to fly home). At the airport, he visited a doctor for clearance but fled mid-appointment, abandoning his belongings. CCTV footage shows him sprinting across the grounds, scaling a fence, and disappearing into a field of sunflowers. To this day, he has never been seen again.
Below is the actual security footage capturing Lars Mittank’s final known moments as he flees Varna Airport:
The Infographics Show: Lars Mittank's Case Profiled
On April 9th, 2025, The Infographics Show published a list of haunting disappearances. They include the Lars Mittank disappearance. I embed the video below with starting points and stopping points that isolate only the Mittank disappearance (they covered multiple).
The footage of Lars was widely circulated online. This has made his case a focal point for amateur sleuths and true crime enthusiasts. The theories focus on mental health, medication side effects, foul play, and psychosis.
Despite extensive searches, no trace of him has surfaced. A reported sighting by a truck driver in Germany on an unspecified day in 2019 offered fleeting hope, but it led nowhere. That sighting would be about five years after the disappearance date, making it a really strange tip.
As of April 9th, 2025 (Wednesday), Lars remains missing, his fate a haunting enigma.
Detail
Information
Full Name
Lars Joachim Mittank
Date of Birth
February 9th, 1986
Age at Disappearance
28
Nationality
German
Last Seen
July 8th, 2014 (Tuesday), Varna Airport, Bulgaria
Key Event
Fled the airport on foot, captured on CCTV
Physical Description
Approx. 5'11", slim build, short brown hair, male, caucasian, wearing yellow shirt and blue shorts.
Speculation on What Happened to Lars Mittank
I think the best explanation of what happened to Lars is simply that he suffered brain damage in the beating, which produced erratic behavior. It's known for sure he suffered a ruptured eardrum, so we aren't talking about a minor altercation. Furthermore, brain injuries are thought to cause paranoia, according to some medical experts. This refers to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), damage from a blow to the head—like the beating Lars endured—which can disrupt brain function and trigger symptoms like paranoia or hallucinations, especially if areas near the ears, such as the temporal lobe, are affected.
Beatings between sports fans can be significant. There was a fan at a Major League Baseball game in 2011, Bryan Stow, who suffered brain damage over one of these affairs. His case has stayed in the news over the years, including an article for 2023. I think this ties in because simple sports-fan fights can still produce massive injuries.
Lars was not thought to be on drugs. Meanwhile, his medications, according to The Infographics Show, were not the kind that would commonly cause mental problems. I think that leaves the probabilities of what caused his behavior squarely having to do with the beating he suffered. The YouTube video does delve into this possibility a little bit.
Why Lars Mittank Has Not Been Found
The next question is one that I think most readers will remain perplexed by. Why has he not been found?
On that matter, I will return to the fact that he was a vacationer. Lars Mittank was not a Bulgarian but a German in Bulgaria.
In general, I think countries are less likely to spend public funds searching for missing tourists than their own nationals. I think this could happen in any country.
For example, I suspect something like this may have deflated the Elisa Lam case a little, as she was a Canadian who went missing in the USA. Furthermore, the case of Duncan MacPherson, a Canadian who went missing in Austria, is a striking example. The evidence basically showed that he was in a small area, but it would be over a decade before he would be found. With the MacPherson case, a cover-up, the exact opposite of an investigation, from the authorities has been suggested.
I don't think the police are overly motivated on most days. I think they will be less motivated looking for someone from a country that's not their own. Any excuse to deprioritize will look good to someone who has a budget to think of -- and all police forces have budgets to think of.
Furthermore, police searches fail quite a lot: plain and simple. I don't mean that they fail because the person isn't in the target area. Police searches fail quite a lot, even when they search the right area. If the search starts to get expensive, it gets called off -- it's that simple. Lots of missing people have been found after many years in an area that was supposedly scoured by searchers.
Most Likely Explanation: A Summary
Lars suffered a beating in the days before his disappearance. If he had some kind of hallucination or paranoia due to brain damage, then he probably had a desire to hide. Keeping in mind that he was fit and that mental problems don't limit you physically, he could, in fact, put himself in a really good hiding spot. He could also move quite a long distance on foot.
Quite frankly, he's likely in one of the wooded areas near where he was last seen, with the search complicated by police budgeting, animal scattering, and, presumably, the MP's own brain damage in the time frame leading up to his disappearance. This last point can't be ignored: someone who is suffering mentally but not physically could hide himself quite well.
UP125213 is a Jane Doe that was found on October 27th, 1985 at 1 PM. She was only recently entered into NamUs (July 3rd, 2024).
The Jane Doe is a white female adult in the pre-30s category. She was believed to be about 5'2" and 135 pounds by post-mortem measurements. She had black hair and is described as an unidentified female who was found in a wooded area.
Clothing: white tank top, small bra size, Blue501's Levis brand blue jeans, backless sandals with clear plastic-webbed material over instep, cork-heel insert, and rubber-ribbed soles; fingernails and toenails that were pink or fuschia.
Location: The Google Maps coordinates that open when you follow the NamUs location are 37°20'19.5"N 121°53'06.9"W. However, she was discovered in a wooded area and that location looks urbanized. I did find some journalism on what I believe to be this Jane Doe. She was found "in the Coyote Creek area," at least that's what a blurb in the October 28th, 1985 edition of The San Francisco Examiner states of the discovery of a "badly decomposed body." The blurb says that the body was found near "Teurs Road" and Loupe Avenue. Teurs Road is probably "Tuers Road." I think 37.30182080459984, -121.82666137092619 are better coordinates.
Who Found the Body: Children playing in the area.
There did not seem to be a lot of follow-up journalism on this case with the database I use. NamUs has an article posted to the profile which states that this Jane Doe had been strangled.
NamUs #UP1234 is a Jane Doe that hitchhikers discovered on December 15th, 1985. The journalism near the time of the discovery associated her with a series of bodies that were discovered in the area. She was the 5th body discovered in the area in 1985.
According to NamUs, these were "Human remains...found in an isolated wooded area northeast of the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Palm Bay Rd in West Melbourne, FL." Other sources also state that the remains were found near Dairy Road. NamUs, at the time of writing, lists the human remains as those of a male, however, I would suggest that the composite sketch depicts a female. Furthermore, the newspaper articles I reviewed considered the individual to be a Jane Doe instead of a John Doe.
Newspaper coverage at about the time of the discovery
One reference that I believe pertains to this Doe is from the December 30th, 1985 edition of Florida Today. That journalism by Michael Lafferty claims that this Jane Doe was part of five women who were discovered deceased under the headline "Authorities keep mum on murders." The excerpt below matches the location of where the body was found in NamUs. Also, it matches the time frame as two weeks before December 30th would have been December 16th, which is just one day off of the December 15th discovery,
December 30th, 1985. Florida Today.
December 16th, 1985. The Orlando Sentinel.
NamUs lists this person as having died at about the time of the discovery (0 months for PMI). The age range given is 36-45 years old. Her height is estimated to be 5'6" and no weight estimate is given.
One matter that did not make sense with NamUs is that the person's remains were listed as "near skeletal." I would think that would mean that she had been dead for at least a few months and the 0 months for PMI that NamUs lists therefore is not correct. It's clear that this profile is not accurate, given that the sex is wrong as per several other sources.
Dark blue pants with purple buttons and an elastic waistband were discovered near the body. Also, there was a floral print short sleeve blouse and underwear of color unknown.
The designation of the Doe as a male appears to be a mistake. Anyone looking at this case should cross-reference with missing women.
I think any amateurs cross-referencing this to women who are missing in the area should broaden all the criteria.
Attempts to Match
Patti Lou Volansky, pictured below, went missing on March 15th, 1985. For time and space gaps, that's nine months prior and 40 miles to the north. However, the clothing she was thought to have does not match the Jane Doe.
Tammy Lepert, pictured below beside the Jane Doe, is a closer facial match to the composite sketch of the Jane Doe. She went missing in July of 1983. For a time gap, that's almost 2.5 years between her "last seen" date and the discovery of the Jane Doe's skeletal remains. She went missing in Cocoa Beach, Florida, which is just 27 miles from where the Jane Doe was discovered.
The gap of time is not necessarily a reason to rule this out as a match because the remains were skeletal. That could be anywhere upward of three months. I would say that as far as composite sketches go, she is a very reasonable hit. The parting hair as depicted by the forensic artist is a match.
The height between the two is off by about two inches. However, investigators have trouble getting someone's exact height from skeletal remains.The clothing between the two does not match (pants vs skirt). However, Tammy had a floral design on her shirt and the Jane Doe did as well. There would be a large age gap between the two as the Jane Doe, at the younger side, was thought to be 36 while Leppert was 18 when she went missing.
Prognosis: it's doubtful that either of these two missing persons match.
"De Qian Rang was last seen on April 20, 1992, in the Village of Elora, Ontario. At the time of her disappearance, De Qian and her husband operated the 'Abacus Restaurant', south of Elora. An extensive police investigation has failed to locate Mrs. Rang. Police suspect foul play in her disappearance."
Missing Person: De Qian Rang
Alias: Maria Rang (might be her Canadianized name as many immigrants do that) Last-contact date: April 20th, 1992 The area where the MP was last seen: Elora, Ontario Link to government source: MP @ Canada's Missing
VITAL DETAILS
Ethnicity: Asian Sex: Female Age at time of disappearance: 29 years old Birthdate: Deqian Rang was born between April 21st, 1962, and April 20th, 1963 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact. Hair: Black, long Eyes: Brown Scar: None listed Height/weight: 5'4" and 110 pounds BMI*: Deqian Rang was in the normal range for BMI. Tattoos: Deqian Rang did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles. If you know that the missing person did have tattoos, then please post a remark at the end of this blog post on the matter.
De Qian Rang has not been seen since April 20th, 1992 when she was 29 years old. Of the resource I consulted, the DoeNetwork page for this missing person had the best description of circumstances surrounding this disappearance. That site discussed "a stormy relationship" with her husband, "extramarital affairs," the husband not filing a report of her missing but friends having to do it instead, and the husband's arrest in 1993 followed by his acquittal in December 1994.
This individual has now been missing for about 29 years as of the original publication date of this blog post. I wasn't able to locate any newspaper coverage for this case, nor did the missing person produce a hit in Ancestry. However, those databases update from time to time. If you have access to the Elora Sentinel, then that might be where you get some hits.
The following Youtube video contains information about the case, including newspaper articles that aren't available with my memberships. The information in the video seems to be derived from the same source as the DoeNetwork description.
Author:Shane Lambert (UncoolNegated on Websleuths)
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.
Shane Lambert (UncoolNegated on Websleuths) is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of March 2021.
If you like this blog, then you can join the affiliated Facebook group: MPC Facebook Group
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: To determine whether a person is missing or not, this site relies heavily on government sources. If you are described as missing when you are not, I recommend simply having your missing person report updated or removed. When that happens, updates at this site can follow.
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Kathy Anne Lulloff was last seen wandering off into the woods off Seabrook Lake Road in the District of Algoma.
Missing Person: Kathy Anne Lulloff Last-contact date: July 19th, 1971 The area where the MP was last seen: Thessalon, Ontario Link to government source: Canada's Missing
VITAL DETAILS
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian Sex: Female Age at time of disappearance: 15 years old Birthdate: Kathy Anne Lulloff was born between July 20th, 1955, and July 19th, 1956 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact. Hair: Brown, long Eyes: Brown Scar: None listed Height/weight: 5'5" and 110 pounds BMI*: In this case, the missing person was underweight by BMI at the time of the disappearance.
Kathy Anne Lulloff has not been seen since July 19th, 1971 when she was 15 years old. She may have had the following articles when she disappeared: a black belt with a brass buckle, white shoes, a blue shirt, and denim blue pants that were bell-bottom styled. These items might be in a Jane Doe profile. If so, the details of the cases can be compared.
This individual has now been missing for about 50 years as of the original publication date of this blog post. There was some minor media coverage with this case. Apparently, Kathy had been hitchhiking at about the time of her disappearance, she had some kind of argument with the people she was traveling with, and she walked into thick forest or bush in Canada. From the article I read, I got the impression that this person may have been an American national.
When I learned that the missing person may have been American, it confused me a little because the profile for the missing person is on a Canadian website. If she was from Flint, then it seems that she should have a NamUs profile.
I did find an American with the name of Kathryn Lulloff that lived in Wisconsin. That's a state that is not that far from Ontario. I will note that Kathy Anne Lulloff, the missing person, and Kathryn Lulloff have a very close age match. The missing person's birthdate range based on her age at the time of disappearance matches Kathryn Lulloff's birth year of 1955. But I also came to the opinion that pictures of the two were probably not a match.
When I sought to authenticate them as one and the same, I found that Kathry Lulloff had the middle initial "M." after some research while the missing person had the middle initial "A." If you go down this route like me, then be aware of that contradiction.
I was not able to find Kathy Anne Lulloff in Ancestry, at least not with confidence that it was a profile of the missing person. I felt that she should have been there, however, I will note some difficulty in finding this person in a timely manner based on all the derivations of Kathy (ie. Kate, Katherine, Kathryn) and Anne (ie. Ann, Annette) that are possible.
Furthermore, she was last seen near Seabrook Lake Road in Ontario. I was able to find Seabrook Lake just fine and I think that the road will be near this lake. However, I was not able to find the exact road. It seemed to be a very secluded area.
My guess with this case would simply be that after storming away from her friends after an argument, she simply may have gotten lost. If that happens and adrenaline takes over, then she could walk a long way -- in the wrong direction. A large search area was probably needed for this case but if you read the newspaper clipping from Michigan, the police described very difficult conditions.
Author:@UncoolNegated on Twitter
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.
@UncoolNegated on Twitter is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of 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: Information posted is thought to be correct as of the time posting. If a missing person is found, then this article might stay posted until that is noticed. I try to stay on top of the news but it's not possible to follow all cases. Articles will be edited or deleted when credible news of the missing person is authenticated.
Birthdate: between August 2nd, 1961 and August 1st, 1962
I'm not sure of the exact birthdate for Robin Renee Williams but a range can be calculated using her age at the time of the disappearance.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Scar: Not sure
Height/weight: 5-foot-4 and 110 pounds
BMI*: Robin Renee Williams 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.
Tattoos: Robin Renee Williams did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles. If you know this to be a mistake, then please contact this site.
Clothes: baggy grey pants and a white sleeveless shirt
Robin Renee Williams was last heard from on August 1,1986, when she was 24 years of age. This individual has now been missing for 35 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.
I didn't include the NamUs description of circumstances at the start because it wasn't a great description in this case. I read a Pott Gottlieb article online at Peninsula Daily News and noted the following:
Robin Renee Williams had two children, a three-year old girl and a one-year old boy
Williams was last seen "strolling alone across a Lincoln Park ballfield"
Her vehicle was found at a gas station
She had been drinking at noon on the day she went missing
Prior to being seen walking across the ballfield, she had been at a bar with two male friends
She was reported missing on March 6th, 1986 by a friend who had been taking care of her children
The father of her two children was in jail at the time of the disappearance and, for whatever it is worth, he passed a lie-detector test on the matter in 2016
According to the NamUs description:
Williams was last seen by a male friend walking away from his pickup truck at Lincoln Park in the City of Port Angeles, Washington. Immediately after, she and the male friend had argued and broken off their romantic relationship early on the afternoon of August 1, 1986. Williams, who had left her two small children with a foster care provider in Port Angeles the day before she disappeared, has not been seen or heard from by friends or family since.
This case goes in a lot of different directions. Firstly, there's the father of the children in jail and a belief that he could have been involved in her disappearance. I don't consider lie detector tests to be foolproof, however, I don't think most jail-bound fathers would organize the disappearance of the woman that was taking care of his children.
That Williams left her children with a babysitter might suggest that she was planning her own disappearance. Other women have disappeared after leaving their children with babysitters. However, I think in Williams' case it's a weak assumption to assume she voluntarily disappeared given that she has not reappeared in the 35 years since 1986. Furthermore, if Williams was planning to disappear voluntarily, getting drunk at noon wouldn't seem like a reasonable part of that plan given that she had a vehicle and probably would have preferred sobriety while operating it. That her vehicle was found speaks to the probability that she stayed in the Port Angeles area, although the small city is a ferry city with connections to Victoria, Canada.
What could be thought about in this case is the theme of rejection that is resilient in the NamUs description. Furthermore, what does it mean for her vehicle to be found at a gas station? Also, is it risky for a woman to be walking alone, perhaps intoxicated at the time, in what appears to be a wooded area (at least by the modern map)?
Certainly, not all of the strange circumstances or risk factors, in this case, can be relevant. From the father of her children being in jail to the theme of rejection to the vehicle being found abandoned to the children being left with the babysitter to the fact that she was walking alone while possibly inebriated in a wooded area -- any one of these circumstances starts to paint a picture yet some of these circumstances must be red herrings when it comes to this missing person case. Accordingly, this one is particularly challenging when it simply comes to deciding what is relevant.
I think that Websleuths or amateur investigators can best help with this case by looking at the clothing she was thought to be wearing (baggy grey pants and a white sleeveless shirt) and cross-referencing the articles with any Jane Does in the greater area. Jane Does often have clothing associated with their profiles.
Please, take a moment to share this on social media using hashtags relevant to the missing person's area. Also, please include the website hashtag #MPCSL.
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 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.
Author: Shane Lambert Original time of writing: February 21st, 2021
The case of Cory Dale Moore, someone who went missing in September 2020 and was found deceased in February 2021, is a case that people who look at missing person cases should be interested in. It's a case where an individual went missing, there were reports of heavy searching, and yet the discovery of his remains was more due to a chance event than formal searching. This was the case even though Moore was found just one-half mile from his last-known location.
Cory Dale Moore went missing on September 3rd, 2020. The odd detail that was included in his case was that he seemed to have left without wearing any shoes. I wondered if he had a second pair as there was a question as to how far he could have gone without his footwear. As reported by Yahoo! News, his wallet and cell phone were missing and he didn't have a car (author: Andrea Cavallier).
According to Yahoo: "The Lee County Sheriff’s Office launched a search in the surrounding area with crews, cadaver dogs and drones. But there was no trace of Cory."
However, Cory was found on February 12th, 2021, about five months after the disappearance. That he was found just one-half mile away from his last-known location is important to note.
Often, when I read missing person forums, participants think that because the police searched with cadaver dogs, drones, and lots of manpower and failed to find a missing person, the target of the search must have gone far away from where he was last seen. However, this is definitely not the case.
Cory was found by individuals that were on a real-estate scouting trip. They were thinking of purchasing a piece of land, they were inspecting it, and they discovered Cory. How he got to where he was found isn't known at the time of writing (February 2021).
But what Websleuths and amateurs should take away is the fact that one-half mile can make for a challenging search area when you don't know which direction someone went in. The area of a circle that has a radius of 0.5 miles is 0.79 square miles. If you are dealing with a heavily forested area, then the search is all the more difficult.
However, 0.79 miles squared still isn't a huge area to cover. Next time you read a missing person report that says the police looked extensively near where the person went missing, don't take that to mean that the person didn't end up staying in the vicinity of where he was last seen. It's a mistake to think that just because there are reports of police scouring an area with drones, cadaver dogs, and crews that the area was covered for every square inch.
I think there are loads of cases that are currently baffling to searchers where the individual is very close to where they were last seen. In Cory's case, he was found after five months. However, if not for the chance discovery, animal activity or vegetation could have hidden his body for who knows how long. In other cases, that may have happened.
Missing Person: Shannon Marie Hawkins Last-contact date: July 31st, 2010 at about noon by Paul Hawkins, her husband The area where the MP was last seen: St. Johns, Florida possibly at the 100-block of Nottingham Drive East in St. Johns
Ethnicity: White Sex: Female Age at time of disappearance: 35 years old Birthdate: December 1974
Hair: Red/auburn Eyes: Brown Scar: None known Height/weight: 5-foot-5 and 135 to 140 pounds BMI*: Shannon Marie Hawkins was in the normal range for BMI.
BMI is body mass index. It relates to an individual's height and weight.
Shannon Marie Hawkins, a missing person, was last heard from on July 31st, 2010 when she was 35 years old. This is a case where details are not included with NamUs. Accordingly, it's necessary to look at other sources in order to find information on this missing person.
According to one source, this person had a history of leaving her family home for long periods of time (staugustine.com). However, the best description of the events surrounding this person's disappearance was at CharleyProject.org. According to that website, this is a person that was having mental-health problems leading up to her disappearance. The following points should be noted of Shannon Marie Hawkins:
She was previously hospitalized for depression;
She had a history of suicide attempts;
Her husband felt that she was "uneasy" the last time he saw her;
She called a mental-health hotline the night before she disappeared;
She wrote in a personal journal that she wanted to commit acts of self-harm in a wooded area behind her home and expressed pessimism about living to see the age of 36.
I was interested in looking at the wooded area behind her home on Google Maps. I was able to find this missing person's exact street address. I am not publishing it here but I feel like I know the wooded area that she was talking about. It would be at Google Maps coordinates 30.080773011684176, -81.61199853938336.
It doesn't look that large but it seems like the area had several wooded areas, some larger and some smaller than the one directly behind her house. Furthermore, there are small lakes or ponds in the area.
What stands out with this case, is that she disappeared 11 years ago. If the clue to her whereabouts in her journal is true, then there is a question as to why she has not yet been found. However, my inclination is that she is, in fact, close to her home still.
One article I read at CBS News indicated that police dogs were used to search the area but to no avail. She did not take a vehicle with her so reasonable walking distance might be the best-continued search area. Even after police supposedly scour an area, it doesn't actually mean that a missing person isn't there. There have been many cases where missing people have shown up in an area that was already searched. However, I think she simply took a longer walk than what the police originally assumed.
Please share this article to social media using hashtags that are related to where the missing person went missing from, which is St. Johns, Florida.
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. However, any source that the article writer deems potentially reliable may be used.
Ethnicity/Race: Caucasian Sex: Male Age at time of disappearance: 40 years old Hair: Brown; Horseshoe-style mustache Eye color: Hazel
Tattoo: Shark on right chest Height and weight at the time of disappearance: 5'11" and 180 pounds Vehicle: 2013 Nissan Frontier; White pickup, Georgia plates, QFK2741 (vehicle has been found)
Clothing: Grey shirt that said "USA" on it in red, white, and blue; black cap; blue jeans.
According to NamUs, John Dax Dunn told his daughter and coworkers that he was going fishing in Florida, "somewhere near Tampa." They list his last-seen location as being of his residence in Newnan, Georgia.
However, the photo that appears above looks like it was taken from a convenience store camera. Furthermore, there is a minor paper trail with this case. According to this missing person poster with Coweta County Sheriff's Office, this individual had two banking transactions. One was in Midway, Florida on February 14th, 2020. The next was on February 15th in Inglis, Florida.
According to the Facebook group dedicated to finding this missing person, "He was last seen on 2/15 at the Circle K gas station located on 4 Hwy 19 S in Inglis, FL (90 miles north of Tampa)."
Newnan to Midway to Inglis is about 403 miles. The direction of travel is mainly south and points toward Tampa Bay. However, it's difficult to ascertain where he was heading as there are many fishing locals in the region.
His vehicle was found in the Yankeetown area. Furthermore, his Internet searches focused on the Cedar Key area prior to his trip.
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.
I am not a Private Investigator, however, I am currently studying to be one as of February 2021.
Missing person: Melanie Jo Melanson Last-contact date: October 27th, 1989 (Friday) late at night or early hours of October 28th, 1989 Disappeared from: Woburn, Massachusetts; last seen near the banks of Aberjona River in an area near Hill Street, off Montvale Avenue and a block off I-93.
Ethnicity/Race: White Sex: Female Age at time of disappearance: 14 years old Hair: Blonde/strawberry Eye color: Blue Height and weight at the time of disappearance: 5'3" and 105 pounds Teeth: braces
Other: pierced ears
The case of Melanie Melanson, a one-time freshman at Woburn High School, is one that police had some optimism about in the years after she disappeared. That seemed to continue right up until about 2012. Melanie went to a party in an industrial area that was wooded and was not seen again. Charley Project offered this description:
"Melanie was last seen on the evening of October 27, 1989, at a party at an industrial park near the Woburn/Stoneham line, about a mile from her home in Woburn, Massachusetts."
I didn't find any news journalism coverage from the time of her disappearance. That doesn't mean it isn't out there, however, it wasn't in the database I searched. On that matter, I had more success with "Melanie Melanson" than "Melanie Jo Melanson."
The following snip is from September 11th, 1994. It quotes Police Chief Philip Mahoney at that time, regarding the Melanson case:
Sun, Sep 11, 1994 – 60 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com
The same article said that they got some information six months after she disappeared that indicated "she had been killed." At some points, there was speculation that she was a runaway. However, I think that should be considered an extremely peripheral possibility now that 32 years have passed.
One of the better articles I read regarding Melanie's disappearance was written by Yvonne Abraham in the May 6th, 2009 Boston Globe (B1). It made the following points:
she was last seen in a wooded area near "an unlovely industrial park" attending a teenage party that involved alcohol and drugs
there were about a dozen people at the party
the night seems to end with Melanie and two boys remaining at the party; these two boys initially said the other was the last to see her alive; of these two boys, one reportedly refused to give Melanie a ride home because he only had one helmet for his motorbike
dogs and police "recruits" were used for the search
Fri, Sep 25, 2009 – B2 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com
There seemed to be a new push in this case around 2009. That's when a bulk of news articles appeared on the topic of Melanie's disappearance. This minor spike in keyword hits lasted until about 2012.
In the November 2nd, 2009 edition of The Boston Globe there was an article that mentioned digging in the area that she was last seen and a promising new lead. However, that was over a decade ago now and nothing seemed to have materialized with regard to where she was last seen.
One article I read said a tipster suggested that her body may have been moved. That tip would suggest nervousness on the part of someone who knew where her remains were. In cases like this, it's difficult to know what to treat as genuine. If all the tips were true, it would call into question why the body has yet to be found.
On that matter, it may be that finding the remains in a wooded industrial area has proven elusive because of changes in the land over the decades. What someone remembers as the spot of her disappearance might not be off by a large margin several years later at the time of recollection. Furthermore, vegetation may have grown over her buried remains.
Someone looking at the land might not realize that a patch that was unvegetated in 1989 may now be covered. Noting that missing people are often found not far from where they were last seen despite 'extensive' searches, I would not take anything for granted in this case regarding ground zero. That's especially true given that the original searchers were described as police "recruits," which I'm differentiating from police officers.
The wooded and industrial area of the party seems to be the best place to continue looking. Besides cadaver dogs, which reportedly were used, metal detectors might yield clues.
Additionally, there is a question in my mind as to the possibility that her route home might be more fruitful than where she was last seen. Furthermore, there's the question of the two boys each seemingly deflecting attention to the other.
One question that's sociological in nature can be asked: what does it mean for an attractive teenage girl to go missing at the end of a party? That she went missing in such a sketchy area might point to local transients who used the wooded/industrial area for habitation.
However, the time frame at the end of a party involving young people might also be the time where romance is in the air. That also brings into play themes of rejection, frustration, and anger.
The social dynamics that one might speculate as associated with this missing person case are not promising when it comes to the prospects of finding Melanie Jo Melanson alive. There's the 'end of the party' social dynamics to consider in addition to the dangerous area that she may have had to walk home in -- at a dark time of night when she was just 14 years old. In my mind, amateurs or Websleuths trying to find a lead in this case for authorities should not incorporate the age-progression photos into their efforts. Those are useful with teenage runaways but there's only the slightest chance that Melanie Jo Melanson was such, in my view.
The chances of finding Melanie Jo Melanson are redeemed by the fact that this isn't a case where there aren't people working on leads. There is a private investigator that has worked on this case extensively. His name is Michael Garrigan. Furthermore, it has received major newspaper coverage in addition to plenty of efforts from amateurs.
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