OR OR - Brian Page, 16, Salem, 12 Jan 1975

[Jet50]

SMP,
I cannot imagine the heartbreak your dear family has gone through. My prayers are with you all tonight.
I think the car into the water theory might just be the answer. I've posted this in another forum, but for your benefit, I'll repeat.
My cousin's husband accidentally drove off a boat ramp while lost in the middle of the night and drowned. The ONLY reason he was found is that a woman was letting her dogs out nearby and heard the splash. He was totally and completely lost, and the boat ramp looks for all the world like a two-lane country road.
My son-in-law's father fishes every Thursday in the St. Joseph River for decades. He has launched his boat in exactly the same spot hundreds if not thousands of times. Several years ago, the police recovered a long-submerged car and driver- from directly under John's launch spot.
I for one would like to see a volunteer effort among the country's fishermen to explore with sonar every single body of water in our country for missing cars and people.
Not sure if this helps, just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you and praying for you today.

I truly think Brian is in the water or possibly off road but in that stretch from party to home... I think they should hang new flyers and have people search... it's time for answers for this family...

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I came across Brian's missing person information and am so struck by it. Like someone said earlier, the Willamette River is the largest body of water in Salem and it flows north to Portland. I have grown up here since the mid 80's and we have an several floods and droughts and the river has been dredged a few times for the ferry that is just north of Salem and for a boat called the Willamette Queen. I would think that it the VW would have been discovered. The other thing that Salem has are several quarries filled with water that are very deep. The state stocks most of them, I wonder if they have ever been looked into.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I also want to point out that the last few years, Detroit Lake has been at its lowest levels. So low that they recently found artifacts from a town that use to be there. In 2016 the lake was drained to its lowest level in 46 years. The Statesman Journal wrote several articles on what was found, they can easily be found online.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

This is what I found in the newspaper dated Jan 13, 1975. David stole a 1973 Laguna from 605 Commercial St NE and was spotted driving the wrong way on Commercial at Chemeketa St NE about 6:15am., when police tried to stop him, he fled in the car North on Commercial still going the wrong way on the one-way st. The chase turned around at Market St and continued back downtown on Commercial, this time heading with traffic. David was arrested at Commercial & Chemeketa, right where it started.

Also in the newspaper on the same page, were 2 other accidents. 1 in Salem that occurred in South Salem on Liberty road south that sent 5 people to the hospital at 2:15am. No cause of crash, they collided head on.

The 2nd accident occurred in McMinnville, OR which is about a 30 to 40 min drive NW of Salem. A McMinnville woman was killed and another fatally injured in a collision on ice early Sunday morning on Whiteson Bridge south of McMinnville.
I looked on a map and the Whiteson bridge goes over the South Yamhill River.

We know it was cold enough that ice would be on bridges and overpasses. Portland had a low of 31 degrees and Salem had a low of 35 degrees and the Willamette River was at 19.6 feet.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

Something else I don't think anyone has mentioned yet, old VW Bugs can float. I googled it and I found they can float for about 40 minutes, that is a shocking amount of time. The Willamette River was at 19.6 feet and the Wheatland Ferry was on dry dock for its 5 year inspection and repair, so that wouldn't be a barrier. The Wheatland Ferry is located roughly 15 miles north of Salem.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

Are we allowed to post links?
I found this abandoned VW bug on a website for hikers.

Rooster Rock Wagon Road Hike - Hiking in Portland, Oregon and Washington

Its about 28 miles East of Portland off of I-84. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to drive that way. I also have no idea how long the VW bug has been there and I also don't know the year of the vehicle.

 

[GirlMarlowe]

Bump! Great info, Ciper!

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

How close of a match do you all this this kid is to Brian?

Unidentified Person Case

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

Here is this kids page on the Doe Network website.

1392UMCA

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I'm not sure when the picture of Brian was taken, but I suspect its a school picture for that school year, so fall 1974. The boy on the right found hours after he died in June 1978.
NamUs says that they have not compared the DNA. I think it looks like a pretty good match visually.

 

[natureaker]

I say it's pretty good, though the nose is making me doubt it a little on the UID based off of the PM photograph, but the NCMEC reconstructions look a little more like him.

Also, it seems that the UID had hazel eyes, whereas Brian is reported as having brown eyes.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I need someone to look at this video I found on You tube. I think it could be Brian's car. I'm trying to remain calm, but I'm excited to think this could be the VW he was last seen in!!

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I put 4 locations on the map.
A. Approximate location of the party he was seen leaving. Brian got into David's vehicle, a turquoise 1962 Volkswagen Bug with a black left front fender and the Oregon license plate number 7P3626.

B. Location where David stole a car. I dictated the article from the newspaper about it.
“David 19, Portland, is accused of breaking into Capitol Chevrolet at 605 Commercial St. NE, stealing the keys to a 1973 Laguna, and driving if from the lot. He allegedly spotted driving the wrong way on Commercial at Chemeketa St NE about 6:15am, police said. When they tried to stop him, he fled in the car at high speeds north on Commercial still going the wrong way on the one-way street, police said. The chase turned around at Market Street and continued back downtown on Commercial, this time heading with the traffic. David was arrested at Commercial and Chemeketa, right back where they started, police said.” Statesman Journal Mon, Jan 13, 1975
*In the article they called his Davis, not sure that is a typo or not. I chose not to include his last name as he was never charged with anything.

C. I have a friend who use to jet ski on the Willamette River a lot, so I shared the above video with him and he said he knows the VW. But he saw it around 2006 at the location marked C. Which is very close to the Salem Yacht & Boat Club boat ramp.

D. I discovered a video on youtube that shows a greenish turquoise vw bug on the shore of Minto Island on the Willamette River.

 

[theory]

What a great find - I really think this was the car. Have you called it in to local police? I know that video was from 2010 but maybe it has been investigated in the past and they would know?

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

What a great find - I really think this was the car. Have you called it in to local police? I know that video was from 2010 but maybe it has been investigated in the past and they would know?

I did send everything I have found to the local authorities. I’ve heard nothing back.

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I did send everything I have found to the local authorities. I’ve heard nothing back.

Currently the River is too high, but it will go down in a few months.

 

[Satch]

I need someone to look at this video I found on You tube. I think it could be Brian's car. I'm trying to remain calm, but I'm excited to think this could be the VW he was last seen in!!

WOW!

Has anyone contacted the owner of the You Tube channel to see if they might be interested in coming to WS to talk about the case? There are no family members involved known here, so it would not be a TOS violation. I think they would be very interested in this!

Satch

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

WOW!

Has anyone contacted the owner of the You Tube channel to see if they might be interested in coming to WS to talk about the case? There are no family members involved known here, so it would not be a TOS violation. I think they would be very interested in this!

Satch

I did send a message to them. They weren’t at the site long. I did search Facebook for local kayak groups and found out the vw chassis is still there!

 

[CipherHuntingFamily]

I have a theory about how the vw bug got in the water and how the other kid got to the auto dealer and stole the ‘73 Laguna. I sent all of that to the local authorities.
Sadly I don’t think the authorities looked for him. They always believed he was a runaway and the parents had to purchase ads in the local newspaper to notify the community that Brian was missing. The first ad was placed in March, well over 2 months after he vanished.

 

[JasonFutchLakeCityFL]

I did send a message to them. They weren’t at the site long. I did search Facebook for local kayak groups and found out the vw chassis is still there!

I found out about this case through the “Runaway Train 25” music video by NCMEC! I’ve been glued to this case for the last hour now and want to cover this on my YouTube Channel in the future. Has there been any word on this VW that was found? Like this could be THE Bug!

Btw I live just outside of Portland now, despite my username, and I am familiar with the Salem area.