Atombudd
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2021
- Messages
- 872
- Reaction score
- 1,077
Howard Vaughn Gratteau
Gratteau's wife and stepdaughter last saw him at 7:30 a.m. on September 1, 1986 in their apartment in the 6600 block of southwest 41st Street in Davie, Florida. He was employed as an air conditioning repairman at the time, and left the apartment to go out on a job in the Honey Lakes subdivision of Davie. He was supposed to return an hour later to go sailing off Fort Lauderdale Beach with his wife.
Gratteau never arrived at his repair job and never returned home. He has never been heard from again and none of his accounts have been touched since his disappearance. His vehicle, a white 1985 Toyota pickup truck with novelty Florida license plates reading HOWARD2, is also missing. The truck has a white camper top and a B&H Air Conditioning logo on the sides. Howard Vaughn Gratteau – The Charley Project
DAVIE MAN MISSING WORKER LEFT FOR JOB, NEVER RETURNED HOME
RENEE KRAUSE, Staff WriterSUN-SENTINEL
DAVIE -- The Hobie Cat still waits in the next-door neighbor's parking space. The insulin is in the refrigerator.
But Howard Gratteau, a 39-year-old diabetic, is nowhere to be found.
He has been missing since Labor Day morning, when he failed to show up at a job site.
Rejane Gratteau said she gave her husband his morning dose of insulin at 7:30 a.m. Monday before he left to do an air-conditioning job at a construction site near State Road 84 and Southwest 136th Avenue.
He never made it.
"He was joking about it," Rejane Gratteau said Wednesday. "He said, 'It's only a five-minute job. Go back to sleep and I'll be right back."'
At the latest, Howard Gratteau was supposed to return at 11 a.m. because he and his wife had planned to go to the beach to ride their Hobie Cat, she said.
The person he was supposed to meet at the job site called Gratteau's B&H; Air Conditioning firm on Tuesday and complained. That was the first time she found out that her husband had not even made it to the job.
"He wasn't the type to just disappear," she said from her home in the 6600 block of Southwest 41st Street. "If he'd be an hour late, he'd call."
Neither police nor hospitals have seen Howard Gratteau or his white Toyota truck with B&H; Air Conditioning printed on it.
Rejane Gratteau, her daughter, Suzanne Brioux, and friends and family have been combing the streets of south Broward County since Monday afternoon.
"How many times can you drive the same roads?" Rejane Gratteau wondered aloud, after hearing some friends were still out driving Wednesday afternoon.
James Burris, the missing man's best friend, said, "I stayed off work (Tuesday) and looked for him along the canals. What I'm feeling now is he drove somewhere, someplace I'm not looking."
Rejane Gratteau said her husband is 6 feet 4 inches tall, has light brown hair, blue eyes and weighs 195 pounds. He was wearing jeans and work boots the last time she saw him, she said. She did not remember what shirt he was wearing.
Rejane Gratteau said she did not know how long he could survive without his insulin shots. If he hasn't been found by this morning, he will have missed six shots, she said.
She said the bracelet her husband usually wore with information about his diabetic condition broke a few days before he disappeared.
Davie Police Officer Marge Jozwiak said police unsuccessfully searched for Gratteau on Monday. Information about him was entered into the national missing persons computer, and all other agencies in South Florida were asked to be on the lookout for him, she said.
"There's really nowhere else to go with it right now," Jozwiak said.
That leaves Howard Gratteau's family, friends and police to continue the search.
"The longer we wait, the worse it gets," Burris said.
Gratteau's wife stated he was behaving normally when he left their home, except he left his watch behind, and he normally always wore it. She said she believed her husband may have gone into insulin shock and had a car accident as a result. His case remains unsolved.
DAVIE MAN MISSING WORKER LEFT FOR JOB, NEVER RETURNED HOME
- Missing Since 09/01/1986
- Missing From Davie, Florida
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Sex Male
- Race White
- Date of Birth01/21/1947 (74)
- Age39 years old
- Height and Weight6'4, 200 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description An Arrow polo shirt, blue jeans, brown work boots, and a wedding ring with four diamonds.
- Medical Conditions Gratteau is a diabetic. He takes insulin by injection, and last had it the morning of his disappearance. He does not have his insulin with him and could go into diabetic shock without it.
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes. Gratteau wears wire-rimmed eyeglasses. He has a tattoo on his right arm of a heart pierced with an arrow and the his wife's name, Rejane.
Gratteau's wife and stepdaughter last saw him at 7:30 a.m. on September 1, 1986 in their apartment in the 6600 block of southwest 41st Street in Davie, Florida. He was employed as an air conditioning repairman at the time, and left the apartment to go out on a job in the Honey Lakes subdivision of Davie. He was supposed to return an hour later to go sailing off Fort Lauderdale Beach with his wife.
Gratteau never arrived at his repair job and never returned home. He has never been heard from again and none of his accounts have been touched since his disappearance. His vehicle, a white 1985 Toyota pickup truck with novelty Florida license plates reading HOWARD2, is also missing. The truck has a white camper top and a B&H Air Conditioning logo on the sides. Howard Vaughn Gratteau – The Charley Project
DAVIE MAN MISSING WORKER LEFT FOR JOB, NEVER RETURNED HOME
RENEE KRAUSE, Staff WriterSUN-SENTINEL
DAVIE -- The Hobie Cat still waits in the next-door neighbor's parking space. The insulin is in the refrigerator.
But Howard Gratteau, a 39-year-old diabetic, is nowhere to be found.
He has been missing since Labor Day morning, when he failed to show up at a job site.
Rejane Gratteau said she gave her husband his morning dose of insulin at 7:30 a.m. Monday before he left to do an air-conditioning job at a construction site near State Road 84 and Southwest 136th Avenue.
He never made it.
"He was joking about it," Rejane Gratteau said Wednesday. "He said, 'It's only a five-minute job. Go back to sleep and I'll be right back."'
At the latest, Howard Gratteau was supposed to return at 11 a.m. because he and his wife had planned to go to the beach to ride their Hobie Cat, she said.
The person he was supposed to meet at the job site called Gratteau's B&H; Air Conditioning firm on Tuesday and complained. That was the first time she found out that her husband had not even made it to the job.
"He wasn't the type to just disappear," she said from her home in the 6600 block of Southwest 41st Street. "If he'd be an hour late, he'd call."
Neither police nor hospitals have seen Howard Gratteau or his white Toyota truck with B&H; Air Conditioning printed on it.
Rejane Gratteau, her daughter, Suzanne Brioux, and friends and family have been combing the streets of south Broward County since Monday afternoon.
"How many times can you drive the same roads?" Rejane Gratteau wondered aloud, after hearing some friends were still out driving Wednesday afternoon.
James Burris, the missing man's best friend, said, "I stayed off work (Tuesday) and looked for him along the canals. What I'm feeling now is he drove somewhere, someplace I'm not looking."
Rejane Gratteau said her husband is 6 feet 4 inches tall, has light brown hair, blue eyes and weighs 195 pounds. He was wearing jeans and work boots the last time she saw him, she said. She did not remember what shirt he was wearing.
Rejane Gratteau said she did not know how long he could survive without his insulin shots. If he hasn't been found by this morning, he will have missed six shots, she said.
She said the bracelet her husband usually wore with information about his diabetic condition broke a few days before he disappeared.
Davie Police Officer Marge Jozwiak said police unsuccessfully searched for Gratteau on Monday. Information about him was entered into the national missing persons computer, and all other agencies in South Florida were asked to be on the lookout for him, she said.
"There's really nowhere else to go with it right now," Jozwiak said.
That leaves Howard Gratteau's family, friends and police to continue the search.
"The longer we wait, the worse it gets," Burris said.
Gratteau's wife stated he was behaving normally when he left their home, except he left his watch behind, and he normally always wore it. She said she believed her husband may have gone into insulin shock and had a car accident as a result. His case remains unsolved.
DAVIE MAN MISSING WORKER LEFT FOR JOB, NEVER RETURNED HOME
