NEWSPAPER CLIPPING - MISSING PERSON REPORT
INCLOSURE TO FILE
COVER SLIP
The following clipping was brought to the attention of the Division by on the morning of 6 September 1955. It is filed under the present cover slip and entered upon the program record without further annotation. The Division Chief has been informed. Such further dispositions as the matter may require are reserved.
For the Division Chief, Western Europe
CLIPPING — DAILY HERALD — SUNDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 1955 — PAGE — COLUMN
SCIENTIST MISSING FROM HOME
Local Authorities Appeal for Information; Family “Deeply Concerned”
, — A research scientist of this town, employed under contract to a department of the Federal Government, has been missing from his home since Wednesday evening of last week, the County Sheriff’s office confirmed yesterday. The Sheriff’s office is appealing to members of the public for any information bearing upon his whereabouts.
The missing man is Dr. , aged 58 years, of Lane in the township of . Dr. is described as approximately five feet ten inches in height, of slight build, with grey hair worn somewhat long and a closely trimmed grey beard. He wore spectacles of a wire-framed pattern and walked with a slight limp affecting the left leg, the result, according to his family, of an injury sustained during the war in Europe.
Dr. was last seen by his wife, Mrs. , upon the evening of Wednesday, 31 August, at approximately 1900 hours. The couple had taken supper together, after which Dr. went out for what Mrs. has described as his customary evening walk. He did not return. Mrs. made no report until the following morning, the couple having been married thirty-one years and Dr. being known on occasion to walk for some hours when matters at his place of employment were on his mind. The report was made to the Sheriff’s office at approximately 0900 hours on the morning of Thursday, 1 September. A search was conducted of the neighborhood and of the wooded area adjoining the property. Nothing was found.
Dr. is, according to such information as this paper has been able to obtain, a native of in Germany, where he completed his doctoral studies in physics before the war. He came to the United States in the period following the cessation of hostilities under arrangements which his family has declined to discuss. He has been employed since that time under contract to a department of the Federal Government, the identity of which the family has likewise declined to discuss but which the family confirms to be a department of the United States Government and not a private concern. He is reported to have been engaged upon work of a classified nature.
This paper has approached the office of the Sheriff for further information. The Sheriff, , declined to characterize the case beyond confirming that the man is missing and that an appeal for information has been issued. Asked whether foul play is suspected, the Sheriff stated that there is no evidence pointing to foul play and that the investigation remains at this time a missing persons matter. Asked whether the nature of Dr. ‘s employment is relevant to the investigation, the Sheriff declined to comment.
This paper has approached the residence of Dr. at Lane. Mrs. received the reporter for a period of approximately twenty minutes. She declined to be quoted upon any matter bearing upon her husband’s employment, but offered the following observations upon his recent state of mind, which are reproduced with her permission.
“My husband has been a man of regular habits in the thirty-one years of our marriage. He has taken his walks, he has read his books, he has worked at his work. In the past month he has not been the same. He has been preoccupied. He has been short with me in a manner that is not his manner. He has on three occasions in the past two weeks risen in the night to write at his desk for some hours. I do not know what he has been writing. I know that he has been troubled. I have asked him whether he has been troubled by his work, and he has told me that the work is what it has always been but that he has come to a difficulty with it. He has not said what the difficulty is. I have not pressed him. I am pressing now.”
Mrs. further stated that her husband had upon the evening of Wednesday, 31 August, received a telephone call at approximately 1830 hours, the call being placed to the residence from a number Mrs. does not know. Her husband took the call in his study and spoke for approximately ten minutes. Upon emerging from the study he was, in Mrs. ‘s description, “very quiet, in the way he is when he has resolved upon a course.” The couple took supper as ordinarily. Dr. went out at approximately 1900 hours and did not return. Mrs. does not know to what number, or to which person, the telephone call may have been placed.
The Sheriff’s office reports that Dr. ‘s motor car, a 1951 Chevrolet sedan of dark blue color, registered to the doctor at his Lane address, remained at the residence and has been examined without yielding information pertinent to the investigation. Dr. is not known to have left the township upon the evening in question and was not observed at the railway station nor at the bus depot at any hour. He was carrying, according to Mrs. , his customary walking stick and was wearing a dark coat. He carried no luggage. He had with him, so far as Mrs. can determine, no papers, no money beyond such modest sum as he ordinarily carried, and no document of identification beyond his driving license.
The Sheriff’s office requests that any person having information bearing upon the matter contact the office at or at the earliest opportunity. The office further requests that members of the public who may have seen a man answering the description above set forth, in the township of or in adjoining communities, upon the evening of Wednesday, 31 August or in the days subsequent, make the information known.
The case remains under investigation. This paper will report further developments as they become available.