Selected by B.: David M. Mekvold, age 42, missing from Portland, Oregon since two days after Christmas in 2010. I added him a little over a year ago.
Mr. Mekvold was back to work after the holidays and was last heard from when he called his wife at 1:30 p.m. She said nothing seemed to be amiss at the time. After that he vanished. Some of his belongings, including his lunch, were missing from his cubicle; the lunch turned up in the garbage bin nearby. At 8:45 that night, his pickup truck was found parked on a gravel road in a remote wooded area in Skamania County, Washington. Skamania County is on the Oregon/Washington border and not too far from Portland. There was a search of the area, hampered by foul weather, and it turned up precisely nothing in the way of clues.
Beyond that I have nothing. Mekvold seems to have been an ordinary middle-aged man working an ordinary middle-aged job in insurance, until he dropped out of sight. There’s no indication of suicide and no indication of foul play…except for nearly three and a half years of total silence.
For what reason did Mekvold suddenly abandon his workstation, ditch his lunch and walk out into the unknown? Why did he park his truck out in the middle of nowhere? DID he park his truck there, or did someone else? It’s one of those cases where just enough is known to frustrate internet detectives, but not enough is known to provide any really solid theories.
There hasn’t been any press about Mr. Mekvold that I can find since 2011, when an anniversary article ran about his disappearance. The article doesn’t say anything new. If any family, friends, coworkers or anyone else who knew him stumbles across his entry, I’d love to hear their input in the comments section.
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