NY NY - Rafael Escobar Jr., 18, Aspen Knolls, Staten Island, November 30, 1976

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  • Missing Since - 11/30/1976
  • Missing From - Staten Island, New York
  • Classification - Endangered Missing
  • Sex - Male
  • Race - Hispanic
  • Date of Birth - 12/24/1957 (64)
  • Age - 18 years old
  • Medical Conditions - Escobar suffers from mental illness, beginning with a nervous breakdown when he was thirteen years old, and was admitted to psychiatric hospitals on multiple occasions. He was taking medication for his condition, including Lithium. His sister stated he reacted badly to the medications and was "like a zombie."
  • Distinguishing Characteristics - Hispanic male. Brown hair. Escobar's nickname is Junior. He is of Puerto Rican descent.

Details of Disappearance​

Escobar was last seen on November 30, 1976. At the time of his disappearance, he was a resident at the now-defunct St. Michael's Home for Children, which sat on an 88-acre property in the 1300 block of Arthur Kill Road in the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Children were supposed to leave the home after they turned eighteen, but Escobar stayed; his mental health was deteriorating and he felt he wasn't ready to leave and was afraid of what might come next in his life. He had learned he might not be able to achieve his goal of joining the military, and was upset about this, but told his sister he was going to make her proud of him.
Although Escobar had been living in the children's home since the age of thirteen when his mother abandoned the family, he kept in regular touch with his family and visited his sister on weekends. His sister had rented a large apartment and was hoping to get all her siblings out of foster care and group home facilities and take them to live with her. Escobar was supposed to be the next sibling who would come to live in the apartment.
After getting a letter from St. Michael's saying Escobar was missing, his sister filed a missing person report for him with the police. She was told that foul play was suspected in his disappearance, but there were never any viable leads in his case.
It's worth noting that in 1976 there were reports of children at St. Michael's abusing alcohol and drugs, and becoming victim to physical and sexual violence. It's unclear whether any residents of the group home were involved in Escobar's disappearance, however. His younger brother also lived at the home.
St. Michael's Home for Children closed in 1978. Escobar's sister has never closed her brother's bank account, and never changed her phone number, out of hope that her brother is still alive. There are nine surviving siblings in the family and they still hope for answers in his disappearance.
 
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — When Rafael Escobar Jr. went to live at St. Michael’s Home for Children in the early 1970s, he had recently been treated for a nervous breakdown that he suffered at 13 years old. According to his older sister, Rafael changed after his mother abandoned the family.

“It hit him more than it hit all of us,” said Carmen Escobar, one of Rafael’s nine surviving siblings. “He started losing his hearing, and he didn’t want to talk. He became catatonic.”

On November 30, 1976, Freddie Escobar — three years younger than Junior — said he went to his brother’s room at St. Michael’s. The youngest Escobar son had been living at the home since the age of 11.

“I went to check up on him, and he just wasn’t there,” Freddie Escobar, now 62, remembered.
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From newspapers.com, 18 Apr 76 article appearing in Daily News. Saved as a pdf file and attached.
 

Attachments

  • Daily_News_Sun__Apr_18__1976_.pdf
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