Juan

The exact date and details are not certain.

As best I know, it happened in May of 1983.

Juan left the apartment he shared with his Aleut girlfriend. He apparently had money with him - thousands of dollars.

He drove away. She never saw him again.

Later, his car was found parked in a University of Alaska parking lot.

It's not known whether he drove it there himself, or it was later moved there. At least not officially known.

Police say the story they got was that he was involved with a drug deal, but that he was doing it with folks who had a grudge against him for turning state's evidence in a case. Or it could have been that the deal had just gone bad.

Whatever the case, his body had been flown and dropped in the back country where hungry nature concealed the evidence.

The police apparently did not view the case as a priority. He'd had a number of run-ins with the law. When our father flew up there to investigate for himself, one officer supposedly told him, "Scum kill scum." 

Father followed up one lead he'd gotten. He approached the address he'd been given, then he had to run when someone shot at him. He came home after arranging for Juan's clothes and remaining possessions to be shipped to our parent's home.

Mother washed, ironed, folded, and stored all of his clothes. I still found them stored when I had to clean out the house after she died in 2005. Dad by then was living in a nursing home. He died in 2010.

Juan was eventually declared legally dead. I gave a DNA sample as his brother, for comparison and identification just in case remains were ever found. 

So far, no remains have been identified.  

I have a few of his pictures, music tapes, and identification papers, what's left of his coin collection after his "friends" had apparently looted much of it, and a Greek fisherman's cap he had given me in 1982 at the last Christmas I had seen him.

I wore it regularly for several years, but eventually stopped so that it wouldn't get ruined. 

I put it on the other day.

It still fits.

Thanks Juan.

I miss you.

Pax et bonum