This week’s case, selected by B., is Jesse Warren Ross, missing from Chicago, Illinois since November 21, 2006. A sophomore at the University of Missouri, he was in Chicago with the Model United Nations when he apparently vanished into thin air. Nobody saw anything. Nobody heard anything. No signs of foul play, but no sign that he left on his own either. Jesse was just gone. He was 19 years old, and would be 27 today.
I don’t have much on him, and haven’t been able to find any recent news. This is a case that has puzzled people for eight years now. Jesse’s father, Donald Ross, woke a book called Where’s Opie?: Life Goes On which you can buy on Amazon. It’s exceptionally cheap if you have Kindle; I’ll have to pick up a copy.
The Charley Project Blog 
Websleuths thread on him:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?44888-IL-Jesse-Ross-20-Chicago-21-Nov-2006
Could it be that he’s another one of those young people that drowned after getting out of a bar or being drunk?
I hear about it all the time….and scenario is almost always the same.
Unlikely he fell/jumped into the river, since it’s monitored, and his body would’ve been found quickly. Something must’ve happened to him when he was walking back to his hotel, but late at night on a weekday in November, the streets would’ve been empty except for a drunk tourist or two and some cabs.
I’d love to read his dad’s book, sounds very interesting. I’ll need some help from Meaghan here, since I know I’m confusing two cases, but I’ll explain the best I can. There was a guy, a doctor or med student, who disappeared from inside a mall or something (coming from a restaurant with a funky name like Bahama Mama or some such) and it was the same deal, well lit, not seen on camera, but they eventually found him in an off limits place, like a locked utility center, a long time later and theorized that he somehow got in and was electrocuted. I’m almost sure I’ve mashed two people together, so if anyone can help sort, that’d be great. Point is, just cause there were cameras doesn’t mean he didn’t get lost somewhere in between, and the body of water thing is always a possibility, as is getting robbed and killed. Best case is he walked away, but that sounds unlikely.
Wade Steffey?
http://archive.jconline.com/article/20131004/BOILER/310040039/Student-s-2007-death-by-electrocution-leaves-family-wonder-whether-alcohol-factor
Don’t know the specific case you’re referring to, but that’s an interesting hypothesis.
Thank you, I think that is my one part. As soon as I saw that, I thought of the other, going to go look up the name…Brian Stouffer? Maybe? Like I said, two cases mashed up, thanks for the memory jag I needed.
Kat, the med student who disappeared from the bar with a weird name is Bryan Shaffer. But he was never found.
Shaffer, Ugly Tuna Saloona. I sort of got it. My eventual point was that something about those cases reminded me of this one, sort of an into thin air kind of thing, but with all those camera watching……it sort of blows my mind. There have been a LOT of cases of kids going off drunk and ending up in the water, but there have been a few where, well, they shouldn’t have disappeared with no trace, and Jesse and Brian are some of them.
It does remind me of Brian Shaffer, Jason Jolkowski and a couple of others.
Aliens?
Well, at least with Shaffer there are theories, with others there’s not even a peep from anyone or what could’ve happened, which almost makes you believe in aliens of UFO abductions.
They’re definitely weird cases but most of what makes them weird is that they’re young men who disappeared. If the same thing happened to a woman everyone would just think “some psycho must have dragged her into a car or something.”
If you think about it, Amy Bradley’s case and Bryan Shaffer’s case have pretty similar circumstances, except for different genders, and no obvious suspects in Brian’s case.
As for these cases like Jason Jolkowski, Jesse Ross, etc. there are really several possibilities of what happened that are more plausible than “alien abduction.” It’s just a question of which one.
Jessie’s name is frequently mentioned in the news along with that of Kara Elise Kopetsky, 17. Not because there is any connection between the two cases but because the Ross and Kopetsky families both live in Belton, Missouri.