I can't believe that Michael & Romeo are still missing, and that we know no more today than we did back then.
I just reread the whole thread and the active media links I could find, and have some thoughts.
Possible scenarios re: the "date":
(a) there was no date, the date story was a cover for another activity (drugs or ?)
(b) there was a date, but it's unrelated to Michael's disappearance (he went missing before or after(?) the date)
(c) there was a date, but something went wrong during and the other party is afraid to come forward (drug OD, accident)
(d) there was a date, but it was a set-up by someone unknown to Michael (random robbery or maybe even thrill kill)
(e) there was a date, but it was a set-up by someone
known to Michael (did he really "mess with the wrong crew", or was that a meaningless comment made by someone with no inside knowledge?)
I wonder if he couldn't tell his dad about it because the date was with a married woman / or another man / or a M-F couple (threesome) / or someone in an "alternative" lifestyle (BDSM, swinging) / or ??? There are many reasons why a young man wouldn't elaborate on an upcoming date to his father, but for him to straight up say to his dad "I can't tell you" makes me go hmmm. There's a difference between private and secretive.
Thoughts on Romeo, the dog:
My husband and I have dogs, and we take them everywhere (we don't have kids, our pets are like our kids). We have friends with dogs, both male and female, single and married, who take their dogs everywhere. It's the norm (at least where I live) for people to leave their dogs in the car with the windows down while they shop / catch a movie / eat dinner / whatever. If Michael was the kind of guy to take his dog everywhere, then it wouldn't be unusual for him to take Romeo with him and leave him in the car while he went on his date. The fact that he took Romeo's bowl (
if he took it) doesn't have to mean that he thought he'd be staying the night somewhere else, it might mean he wasn't sure what time he'd be getting home that night and wanted to be able to run out and feed Romeo if things went long. My husband and I have done that before.
On the 6 days between Michael going missing and his car being found running 30 miles away:
I wonder if the person(s) who left the car running on June 24 in Elmont had nothing at all to do with Michael's disappearance? Maybe they just found an unlocked car and decided to take it, KWIM? How many cases have we heard about where a perp leaves the victim's car unlocked in a bad neighborhood in hopes it will be stolen... and usually it isn't, but maybe in this case it was? The 6 day gap wouldn't trouble me so much if the car hadn't been
found running - who was driving it between June 18 and June 24? If it was the person who hurt Michael, then he/she has cajones as they say.
Why haven't we heard anything from LE? When
dreamweaver called them in August 2010 it sounded like they were working some leads, but obviously they didn't pan out?? What did they find in the car (fingerprints etc)? What did they find in Michael's internet and cell phone history? Do they have any idea who he was meeting up with that night? Are they keeping the family informed?
I fear that both Michael and Romeo are dead.
These missing young men bother me, because they don't get a fraction of the coverage young women get... if Michael was female can you imagine the headlines?? "Young woman vanishes after blind date with internet mystery man" - Nancy Grace would be in a tizzy! ("Bombshell tonight...!")
Bringing forward the link to the Finding Michael Russel Taus Facebook page (no updates since July 2011):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/142643139095291/