the start
|
|
At first it wasn’t unusual for Dave to be gone without telling anyone. He would go off camping or traveling by himself. What was unusual was the depression and mild delusions, he thought that his nose was getting bigger. My mother was worried, no one had seen or heard from Dave since early July. In September 1979 she contacted hospitals, jails and men's crisis centers. She went to the Minnetonka Police dept and filled out ATL (attempt to locate). In April 1980 flyers were sent to the Department of Agriculture to be distributed to US forest areas where Dave had spent time. Even back then everything was private. If someone is gone the police would say that maybe they wanted to be left alone. Sometime in 1980 my sister sent a letter to Social Security. The deal was you would send a letter to them with a stamp and no address and if they had an address they would forward it to the person you are trying to contact. They wouldn’t tell you if they had a current address or not.
I found a telephone bill from the place a bunch of us were renting with a long distance call to a Montana phone number from June of 1979. I called it and it was a friend of Dave's. He told me that Dave had him sell a truck Dave had left out there. He had the money for Dave in Livingston MT but Dave never showed up to get it.
In an attempt to narrow down our search area, we sent a heartfelt letter to Social Security from everyone in the family pleading for any information they were willing to give us. We received a form letter regretfully with no information. Later I dreamt up an ill conceived plan to get Social Security information. I was going to write a letter to Social Security from “Dave” requesting an earnings statement. I had gotten a New York drivers license and started to make a new one with Dave’s name and signature. At work I had a color plotter for a drafting program I had. I started doing the color border and adding the text but the fonts didn’t match very well. We took a picture of a friend and put it on the license and laminated it. There was a logo that didn’t turn out very well and even at arm length it looked fake. The plan was to use it to get a post office box. I dropped the fake license plan and we found somebody to go in to rent a P.O. box under Dave's name but with no ID, the post office wouldn’t do it. I then thought about renting an apartment for long enough to get a letter back from Social security but finally gave up on the idea. If I had gotten caught my plan was to ask for a jury trial and hope for at least one sympathetic juror.
Later we called Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone's office and explained our predicament. We told them that it would be helpful to know where Dave had worked after we had last seen him. Happily Social Security released the information to Senator Wellstone which he forwarded to us. The report showed Dave worked in Casper WY and Denver CO and earned $400.00. No reported earnings after 1979. Years later I had posted on the web site that Dave had worked at Lewmont Drilling Denver CO and a former employee sent a message telling us that Lewmont had a repair shop in Casper WY that was 1.5 miles from Maverick construction Dave's other employer in 1979. We now have Dave in Minnesota in July of 1979 heading west to Casper WY but never making it to Livingston MT to pick up the money he was owed from his friend Mike Boehm.
Next Chapter
I found a telephone bill from the place a bunch of us were renting with a long distance call to a Montana phone number from June of 1979. I called it and it was a friend of Dave's. He told me that Dave had him sell a truck Dave had left out there. He had the money for Dave in Livingston MT but Dave never showed up to get it.
In an attempt to narrow down our search area, we sent a heartfelt letter to Social Security from everyone in the family pleading for any information they were willing to give us. We received a form letter regretfully with no information. Later I dreamt up an ill conceived plan to get Social Security information. I was going to write a letter to Social Security from “Dave” requesting an earnings statement. I had gotten a New York drivers license and started to make a new one with Dave’s name and signature. At work I had a color plotter for a drafting program I had. I started doing the color border and adding the text but the fonts didn’t match very well. We took a picture of a friend and put it on the license and laminated it. There was a logo that didn’t turn out very well and even at arm length it looked fake. The plan was to use it to get a post office box. I dropped the fake license plan and we found somebody to go in to rent a P.O. box under Dave's name but with no ID, the post office wouldn’t do it. I then thought about renting an apartment for long enough to get a letter back from Social security but finally gave up on the idea. If I had gotten caught my plan was to ask for a jury trial and hope for at least one sympathetic juror.
Later we called Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone's office and explained our predicament. We told them that it would be helpful to know where Dave had worked after we had last seen him. Happily Social Security released the information to Senator Wellstone which he forwarded to us. The report showed Dave worked in Casper WY and Denver CO and earned $400.00. No reported earnings after 1979. Years later I had posted on the web site that Dave had worked at Lewmont Drilling Denver CO and a former employee sent a message telling us that Lewmont had a repair shop in Casper WY that was 1.5 miles from Maverick construction Dave's other employer in 1979. We now have Dave in Minnesota in July of 1979 heading west to Casper WY but never making it to Livingston MT to pick up the money he was owed from his friend Mike Boehm.
Next Chapter