Found Deceased VA - Lance Buckley, 33, Stafford, 5 May 2015

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rizzo0904 said:
He looks VERY tired in the picture.
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His youngest was only born a few days prior to that picture being taken plus being in school for a phd. I wouldn't expect someone to not look tired tbh.
 
I REALLY REALLY hope & pray that Lance is hiking & taking some time to clear his head.

I'm very concerned for him & his family. It seems that his wife is incredibly worried & they *appear* (I realize appearances truly mean nothing...) to be a loving close family. This is what is so concerning... Having an infant & toddler is exhausting (my little ones are 19 mo apart). Add in the stress of earning your PhD (again, I know this stress as my hubby was finishing up law school when our youngest was born). I just cannot imagine what his wife must be going through, nor what Lance must be feeling. I pray he returns home safe & soon. His family needs him.
Praying his wife is being supported & helped by loved ones during this time.




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This is about 3-4 hours from me and I just started following it today. From everything I've read his wife can't find the gun, but we don't if he actually took it. He could have cleaned it and put somewhere near there. (Although with a child in the house, he likely had a secure place for the gun, but we all make mistakes. He could have had it out to check it and clean it, got a phone call and stashed it somewhere else in the house during the call and then forgot about it. That is, it is still in the house, just not found.) Looking at the trail, I can't see him going for a hike and not calling anyone - too far from Howard U. I'm wondering if they have video at the stop in Stafford where he caught an HOV ride as a slug. The last time I used the HOV lane up there it required 3 occupants if I remember correctly, so if one person pulled up and stated where he was going then he would have to give a ride to TWO slugs. That might mean there are 2 others out there that were in the car with him.
 
I'd never heard the term "slug" before this - out here we call it Casual Carpool, and I used to take it often. I'm an aware / careful person, and never had a creepy or hinky ride. Plus, there had to be 3 people in the HOV lane, so there'd be another rider in the car too (unless the driver already had someone there). As someone stated before, people are more than welcome to let the next person in line go ahead of them if, say, they are a woman and don't feel comfortable with a man, the car is a 2-seater and the driver is a man, or for any reason, really. Anyway, it sounds like his ride wasn't the issue.

I did a little research on Howard U and the surrounding area. It sounds like parts of many major cities - once it was a rough area, but now it's been gentrified and is safer. The campus is as safe as any other campus. So that's a big maybe / maybe-not as far as anything happening to him there.

I'm also tending to guess towards the stressed out or depressed state of mind. In recent pics, he does look much more tired and worn out, maybe a bit pale and bloated - than in previous pics, and it's not just due to the longer hair and beard. Between a brand new baby, a toddler, and having to get everything done for graduation AND probably find a job in his career path... I don't know. He could need a break or have HAD a break from all this. I wonder how he was acting just as he left for campus. I really hope he's out there, just taking a break, and that he contacts his family soon!
 
Psychedelia said:
I did a little research on Howard U and the surrounding area. It sounds like parts of many major cities - once it was a rough area, but now it's been gentrified and is safer. The campus is as safe as any other campus. So that's a big maybe / maybe-not as far as anything happening to him there.

I'm also tending to guess towards the stressed out or depressed state of mind. In recent pics, he does look much more tired and worn out, maybe a bit pale and bloated - than in previous pics, and it's not just due to the longer hair and beard. Between a brand new baby, a toddler, and having to get everything done for graduation AND probably find a job in his career path... I don't know. He could need a break or have HAD a break from all this. I wonder how he was acting just as he left for campus. I really hope he's out there, just taking a break, and that he contacts his family soon!
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NW has long been one of the safest areas of DC. It is home to one of the highest concentrations of major universities in the US. But it doesn't take long to get out of NW and in to some trickier parts of the city, especially if he were walking eastbound. (I went to grad school in NE, less than 1.5 mi from Howard University). Unless he was off on a side street or something, the area around Howard would have been bustling at that time of the morning. It is hard to imagine a mugging gone wrong, etc, in that area at that time of day.

The trail his cell phone pinged on can be accessed from as close by as about 2.5 - 3 miles from Howard University but it is not as simple as walking the trail continuously from Georgetown up to Montgomery. Possible, but not simple. And I would think had he walked that whole way, someone would have seen him as sections of the trail run through urban areas, tourist areas, along roadways, etc. It is sort of a system of various trails that use the old canal ways in some parts but also connect to old trolley paths, horse trails, etc. I would think that he would have had to have transportation of some sort to get further north before picking up the trail.
 
astridxx said:
I've seen contrary reports to the possibility of him "just going on a hike"

http://www.insidenova.com/headlines...cle_c03ed6c8-f3f0-11e4-aaae-737066c60e12.html

Signal was brief, search turned up nothing. Well, IMO, it's contrary to "just out for a hike" unless they called in the Sheriff from Stafford, who probably didn't get there until 3 hours later because of traffic...
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The ping was narrowed down with GPS coordinates. The area was searched by Maryland Authorities (so, presumably, within a reasonable amount of time)m but it doesn't state what the time frame of the search was.
 
Maybe he is just depressed. Maybe he just needs some space. Maybe he turned his phone back on for a brief moment and then realized it would ping and turned it off . In this particular area which was mentioned was heavily wooded and temperatures at a reasonable level for camping what's to say he's not just hiding out unt this boils over?
 
The open letter from his wife on the Find Lance site is heartbreaking. :(
 
Elphaba said:
The open letter from his wife on the Find Lance site is heartbreaking. :(
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It almost sounds as if it was a case of voluntary disappearance the way it was written, and not so much foul play..


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I just hope if he's voluntarily disappeared, he at least lets his family know he's okay.
 
Has it been officially verified that he actually was on track to graduate?
 
Maybe it is a generational thing, but how are they surviving in what I think of as a more expensive area of the country (NoVa)? He is 33, still in school, one or no vehicle, two kids. No mention of any jobs. Was he really graduating or is he using this time to get out of a pressure-filled life? I would not care to be in his position in today's economy, at his age.
 
wendybtn said:
Maybe it is a generational thing, but how are they surviving in what I think of as a more expensive area of the country (NoVa)? He is 33, still in school, one or no vehicle, two kids. No mention of any jobs. Was he really graduating or is he using this time to get out of a pressure-filled life? I would not care to be in his position in today's economy, at his age.
Click to expand...

I'm 31, two kids (well, one due in July), living in NOVA. It is terribly hard to raise a family here if you're not a government worker. Right now, we rent a condo 35 miles away from DC (and 15 miles from the city we work in). Most single family homes in good neighborhoods go for upwards of 300k (and that's on the outskirts of the metro area!!!). Traffic is HORRIBLE because most people can't afford to live where they work - Tuesday through Thursday of this week alone I've spent 7 hours in traffic to go 30 miles round trip each of those days (so over 2 hours each day). IMO, NOVA is tough for a young family, really tough. I was born and raised in Prince William County and have lived here for 96% of my life (short stint in PA as a kid). Every night I cry because I know my family and I (despite me having two bachelors degrees) will never, ever make it here.

I digress.

I find it odd that he used an ATM inside of a business (looks like a convenience store) instead of at a bank. Who knows, maybe he always did that, or maybe his bank wasn't nearby.. but why a convenience store? Why withdraw cash?
 
From the many cases here where suicide was the outcome.....people do things that don't make sense....like withdrawing cash, buying snacks, etc.

Probably, the personal in nature text that he sent to his wife alerted her and LE that LB was not ok, mentally. Thus the mention of the gun he has with him.....irregardless of laws that don't allow it. :facepalm:
I doubt that if his frame of mind was in a very down place, he stopped to consider gun laws.
 
His mother said he picked up his graduation packet. I don't think they would give him the packet if he wasn't graduating.
He is getting a PhD in microbiology. I have no idea if that is marketable. The NIH is in the area so maybe research in micro but there is no mention of him having a job lined up.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/29001405/howard-missing
 
I used to advise graduate engineering students. You can still request, pay for and pick up your packet. Some schools will let you walk with your class during graduation if you still need to finish classes up over the summer. His dissertation will need to be approved for him to receive the diploma. Often a college will use 'dummy' diplomas at the ceremony.

I hate speculating that he's opted out but it feels that way. Two children and finishing a degree with the possibility of not graduating on time or having a job lined up is a lot.
 
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