From March 1, 2008- previous post's link was broken; great article about Matthew
Rhodes College student Matt Pendergrast disappeared seven years ago. So far, investigators offer only theories about his fate. Are those theories valid?
memphismagazine.com
<<He had appeared in a play on campus the previous evening and was scheduled to attend a Spanish class at 9 a.m. that morning. The woman from whom he rented a room near the school said she heard him moving around and leave the house between 7:30 and 8 a.m. A friend had spoken to him at length the night before and later described Matt in a newspaper article as "very upbeat."
The next day, the Pendergrasts received word that their son's vehicle — a maroon 1998 Toyota 4Runner SUV— had been found on a levee in an area reserved for duck hunters in Lonoke County, Arkansas, off the Kerr Road exit of Interstate 40, about 120 miles from Memphis. The keys were still in the ignition. Some 100 yards from the vehicle, in a wooded thicket, investigators later found Matt's clothes in a pile, along with his wallet containing $46 in cash, credit cards, family photos, and driver's license. Accounts differ on whether his socks and shoes were wet or dry. But all accounts describe his pants as wet from the knees down, looking as if the wearer stepped out of them and let them drop where they fell. His T-shirt, one of the investigators was heard to say, could have come right out of the dryer. Despite the frigid temperature that day, no coat or jacket was found.
Over the next few days, searches used helicopters with night vision, divers equipped with sonar, and scent-tracking by blood-hounds and cadaver dogs. The K-9 team picked up the young man's scent from the pile of clothes to the edge of Bayou Meto, a complex waterway that winds through five Arkansas counties. They found no scent, however, leading from the vehicle to the clothes. Nor did investigators find signs of a struggle, footprints, weapons, or DNA evidence.>>
Details and Pictures of Matthew David Pendergrast, Missing since December 2000
www.missingin.org
