Got interviewed by some people for their channel

We had a nice conversation about some kids who disappeared in the 1980s in Tennessee:

Flashback Friday: Charles Hall III

This week’s Flashback Friday focuses on a black male teenager whose disappearance is classified as a Non-Family Abduction and I don’t have the foggiest idea why. In fact, very little information is available to his case.

Charles Hall, whose nicknames were Charlie and Little Charlie, was last seen in Nashville, Tennessee on New Years’ Eve, 1981. He was fifteen years old at the time. It was 3:00 p.m. and he was going to see his girlfriend. It isn’t clear whether he arrived there or not, but he never came home again. And that pretty much represents the grand total of my knowledge on the case.

I’ve tried to find out more, but no luck. Even if there was media coverage at the time (and I doubt if there was), searching through the news for someone with a name as common as Charles Hall would be looking for the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack.

To indulge in some speculation: it was New Years’ Eve. 3:00 p.m. is a little early to start drinking, and Charlie was young, but alcohol could very well have been a factor in his case. But who knows? I certainly don’t. His case has got to be classified as an abduction for SOME reason, but why?

This is frustratingly similar to the 1988 disappearance of 17-year-old John Lango, who vanished at midnight on January 1, 1988. Those “disappeared at midnight” things annoy me — did they mean midnight as in the ball had just dropped, or midnight as in the day was about to become January 2? He was also last seen leaving his house and beyond that I haven’t a clue. Missing teenage boys certainly get the shaft when it comes to media coverage.

Spotlight Case: Charles Hall III

Fifteen-year-old Charlie Hall disappeared from Nashville, Tennessee twenty-seven years ago today. He was last seen that afternoon when he went to walk to his girlfriend’s home, but he never arrived.

I have next to no information on this case. That always frustrates me. Teenage boys don’t seem like very good targets for kidnapping, but there’s got to be some reason why the NCMEC has listed his case as a Non-Family Abduction. I’ve been unable to find any articles in the old newspaper databases, and his common name makes research all the more difficult.

His NCMEC picture shows him wearing a dress shirt, sport coat and bow tie — a school dance, perhaps, maybe the prom? A wedding? He looks as if he’s trying to decide whether or not to smile. His cheeks are still soft — I think he seems younger than fifteen. His hair is done in a poofy Afro, so common in the seventies and eighties.

Someone knows what happened to this boy. Someone knows where he is. I hope that someone comes forward, so Charlie’s family won’t have to wait another year for resolution.