CrimePAY$  $20,000 Missing Person Reward  TipLine 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)

NORTHPORT, Maine — Over eight years ago, Jeremy Alex disappeared in the woods of Northport under mysterious circumstances.

Despite a $20,000 reward for information on his whereabouts, his family is still left with many questions, no answers — and no Jeremy.

“There’s not too many things left to do that will spark an interest again,” his father, Ted Alex, said Friday from Portsmouth, N.H., where he lives. “We’re optimistic … Hopefully, somebody will call and give us some information.”

Jeremy, a landscaper who was in the process of moving to Northport from Islesboro, was 28 when he last was seen running into the woods off Pound Hill Road the evening of April 24, 2004. Although the disappearance was treated initially as a missing-person case, his family believes that the man they describe as kind and a free spirit may have been murdered.

Deputies found Jeremy’s car nearby, but were unable to locate him. A search was mounted immediately, but nothing was found. After the public was notified that Jeremy was missing, a second witness recalled seeing a man who matched his description run across Route 1 near Northport Marine at about the same time. That area also was searched extensively, but nothing was found.

For years, there were no more reliable clues, Ted Alex said last week. But about 3½ years ago, Jeremy’s driver’s license surfaced at a home on the shore in Northport along with a story of missed opportunity.

In 2004, a Northport couple was building a house on the ocean, and about a month after Jeremy disappeared, money started washing up onshore. Workers found about $30 in all, according to Alex.

About two weeks after that, Jeremy’s driver’s license washed up, too.

The couple had a bowl on their coffee table that was filled with everything that had floated in on the tides, and they put the license and the money in that. They never made the connection to the missing man. After the husband died, friends came to a get-together after his funeral. A retired highway patrol officer saw the driver’s license in the bowl and remembered hearing about Jeremy Alex.

“He called the police,” Ted Alex said. “He ended up e-mailing me about it, saying ‘I have $30 of Jeremy’s money and his license,’ which was obviously really bizarre.”

The $20,000 reward, too, has led to nothing more tangible than rumors, he said.

He remembered his son as a nice guy who struggled with addiction but loved snowboarding, chess, music, gardening and Maine.

CrimePAY$   $20,000 Missing Person Reward TipLine 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2012 at 8:40 am and is filed under $10,000+, Cold Case, Maine, Missing Persons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.