Missing adults: A ‘silent mass disaster’

On the morning of August 1 st , 2009, 28-year-old Justin Burkhart of Bend left his apartment to grab a bite to eat.

His friends told him that there wouldn’t be a place open at that hour of the morning, but the intoxicated Burkhart insisted.

He was on NW Broadway Street in Bend, heading to the Pita Pit, a former eatery in town.

It was the last time Justin Burkhart was seen alive.

For the next 10 months, to the pain of his family and friends, Burkhart became another number in what the U.S. Department of Justice calls “the silent mass disaster” — missing adults, tens of thousands of them nationwide.

Eloisa Chavez, Burkhart’s mother, knew something was wrong when her son didn’t show up to work the following Monday. He worked as a wine steward at Allyson’s Kitchen, a former restaurant in the Old Mill District.

“I made the call (to authorities) within an hour of him not showing up for his shift,” Chavez said recently.

Authorities began a 10-month search for the remains of Burkhart. It was an effort by Bend police and private investigators that went beyond most in a case of a missing adult. However, it’s now a type of case that’s finding help from a surprising source.

“There’s no mandate that says you need to take a missing person’s case on an adult,” says Janet Franson, a missing persons investigator for the Northwest region of a federal program that tries to help.

Franson is a member of NamUs, or the National Missing or Unidentified Persons system. The Department of Justice program uses a mix of investigative and forensic resources to resolve missing person cases.

According to the program, based in north Texas, there are 495 missing-person cases currently open in the state of Oregon.

“We see in a lot of Oregon cases that they go climbing in the mountain or something, and one minute it’s sunny — and the next a snowstorm blows in, and they’re not prepared,” says Franson.

The number of missing people in the state and country changes every day, and because the reasoning behind how an adult goes missing can vary, it means the effort of the search can vary widely as well.

“It’s up to the law enforcement agency to whether or not they even take the case or not,” says Franson.

But for almost a year, Bend police took on the Burkhart case. And as time went by, and nothing was found, the weight was becoming too much to bear for his mother.

“When Justin was gone, I was out of my mind,” said Chavez. “I had no feelings. It was just like I was going through the motions.”

It’s a feeling echoed by many of the friends and families of the estimated 50,000 adults missing in the United States.

“I have had family members tell me time and time again that it is more devastating not to know what happened to somebody,” said Franson.

“It weighs very heavily on the friends and families of these people.”

But after 10 months, that weight was relieved for Chavez, though grief and questions remain to this very day.

In June of 2010, Justin Burkhart’s body was discovered in the Deschutes River near the Newport Avenue spillway in Bend. An autopsy confirmed within 24 hours that the body was of the long-missing man.

Following the discovery, medical examiners explained that it can take months for a body to rise to the surface after decomposing in the depths of water.

And although the answer of where Burkhart was rose to the surface, his mother says five years later, there are many more questions still hiding in the depths.

“Not knowing who, what, where, when and why — that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” says Chavez.

But unlike the 50,000 men and women still lost in this silent mass disaster, there’s one question she can answer: where is Justin Burkhart?

“He’s in heaven,” she says, through tears. “And he’s perfect. And I can’t wait to see him again one day.”

For more information, or to file a missing persons report, visit NAMUS.gov or findthemissing.org