Disappearing

 

We think we know the person we are close to, but I never believed that. People keep secrets, like Woody Kelly. I remember him because it was big news in the town I was living in shortly after my marriage. Antioch was just a blip you usually drive through to get elsewhere. I know because when I was a child that was our route to the North Woods. Not much happened in the Winter season but it was a tourist attraction in the summer as resorts opened for business on the various lakes in the area. The disappearance of Woody Kelly was big news. It is still a mystery regarding what happened to Kelly. He was last seen taking a test ride on a boat, refusing a request by the mechanic to ride along. The boat was later found abandoned in Waukegan, twenty miles away. The first impression would be that Kelly fell out of the boat and drowned. The second reasonable conclusion, and one most Antioch citizens believe, was that he took off to start a new life. Kelly was a con man. He was the Bernie Madoff of a small Midwestern town. When Kelly went missing, so did $6 million dollars. It's really easy to get lost, especially when you don't want to be found and have $6 million dollars to help you remain incognito. 

It's also easy to one day tell your spouse you're going to Walmart to do some Christmas shopping for the children and then never return. A woman was recently found living a whole new life after twenty plus years. It's hard not to judge her decision. Terrible things could have been going on. Maybe she made the right decision, but I feel for her family she deliberately left behind.

I started thinking about these two events after reading about the mystery of the disappearing doctor. How does someone disappear after walking into a bar? Brian Shaffer seemed to have it all. He was a doctor just starting out. He had a girlfriend everyone said he loved. He had friends and family who cared about him. But, there was the other side. His mother had recently died after battling a rare cancer. He also might not have been looking forward to that future everyone thought he would take. Allegedly he had some doubts about being a doctor, but apparently no one in his circle saw any warning signs. Friends claim Shaffer was exhausted the night they got together to go bar hopping. When questioned after Shaffer's strange disappearance his friends claimed nothing seemed amiss. 

Could it be that his friends are keeping secrets? Maybe they did notice signs that their friend was truly unhappy. The Ugly Tuna Saloona was the last place anyone allegedly saw Shaffer. He went in and was never seen exiting the building. Unless he's in the walls, he exited. Authorities claim every exit had a camera, yet they don't show him ever leaving the bar. What bothers me about this story is the intentional red herring (or tuna) to throw us off this little possibility. There is mention that there was another exit, but the idea that Shaffer left this way was shrugged off because there was some construction going on. Is it possible a few of his friends helped him that night to disappear? Maybe he didn't want to disappoint his father, or, didn't want to face his fiancee with the news that he wasn't happy with the life everyone else had planned for him. But. (Yes, there's a but) Every time I read that a young man has gone missing after a night of drinking, my first thought is, "Check the river." There's always a river. Columbus, Ohio has two. It's been over twenty years and not a trace of Shaffer has ever emerged. I'm hoping he is living in a hut on an island, making lovely music. Every once in awhile a friend from the past will stop by to say hello. Anything is possible.