AL AL - Stephen Pearson, 53, Grand Bay, 27 Dec 2000

[JusticeWillBeServed]

NamUs

Charley Project

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: December 27, 2000 from Grand Bay, Alabama
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date Of Birth: December 23, 1947
• Age: 53 years old
• Height and Weight: 6'1, 165 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Gray hair, blue eyes. Pearson may have a mustache or beard. He may wear eyeglasses.
• Medical Conditions: Pearson suffers from bipolar disorder and may require medical attention.

Details of Disappearance
Pearson was last seen at his residence in Grand Bay, Alabama on December 27, 2000. The previous day, the postal carrier was having a hard time finding an address to deliver a package, and Pearson went to a neighbor's home to help. Because the neighbors were away on vacation, Pearson told the postal worker to just leave the box on the porch. The package contained ten pounds of marijuana and it was delivered to the wrong address; it was actually addressed to someone down the street. Pearson called the post office to report it. When the police came to the neighbors' home to pick up the marijuana, they discovered a significant amount was missing from the package. It turned out the neighbors had sold it. They were angry with Pearson for reporting the incident. Pearson told his daughter he was afraid for his safety.

The next day, Pearson called the police to reported a burglary at his home. He disappeared before the officer could arrive at his house to take the report, and has never been heard from again. His car was found abandoned several days later, parked in the woods near Henderson Camp Road.

Pearson had just gotten a promotion at his job at Ingalls Shipbuilding before his disappearance. He left behind a daughter, who lived out of state and was recovering from surgery at the time of his disappearance. He is described as a reliable person of habit and it's uncharacteristic of him to leave without warning. Authorities haven't determined whether his disappearance was related to the marijuana or the burglary, but foul play is suspected in his disappearance; it remains unsolved.

Cold Case: Grand Bay Man Vanished 17 Years Ago

Burch says those neighbors, a father and son, were then, and are now, the only suspects.

“It haunts me because I know who’s responsible but we don’t have enough yet,” lamented Burch. “And I emphasize ‘yet.’ Because to the day I retire I won’t stop looking into this case.”

The younger of suspects took a polygraph in 2009 about Pearson’s disappearance. His test was “inconclusive.” The elder suspect, Burch says, has never cooperated. And Stephen Pearson’s daughter Julie, who now lives out of the state, has lost hope that anyone one will ever be arrested.

Missing persons – 19 cases where people have simply disappeared - October 2013

Julie knows the Baumans are the main suspects, but she doesn’t know if they’re the only ones that need to be looked into.

“My dad and I know the Baumans very well. Where my dad’s car was found was where I would go hiking with (the younger Bauman),” she said. “My biggest question is why would the Baumans want to kill my father. He wasn’t the only one who knew they had the drugs by then.”

For the nearly 13 years since Pearson was last seen, Julie has considered a number of scenarios. Could the people who sent the drugs have come back for the package? Her father signed for them and she believes the people who burglarized Pearson’s home were looking for the drugs and/or helping stage the scene where his car was found.

There were incidents too numerous to count that just didn’t add up she said — cars following Julie and her husband, the involvement of federal government agencies that usually have nothing to do with missing persons, the suggestion by law enforcement to never reveal information about her and her family’s whereabouts, etc.

“There is so much surrounding my dad’s disappearance that makes absolutely no sense. The only thing I know is I don’t know the truth behind what happened to my daddy,” Julie said. “I try to get information, but I run into dead ends. I just don’t believe it is so straight forward.” Years later Julie still thinks about her dad and his disappearance daily.

 

[theides]

[h=1]Unsolved mystery disappearance revisited after 15 years [Oct. 31, 2017][/h]

As for Stephen Pearson?

"I think Steven was killed, taken out into the woods somewhere and buried."

But by who?

 

[Lsmith1975]

NamUs

Charley Project

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: December 27, 2000 from Grand Bay, Alabama
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date Of Birth: December 23, 1947
• Age: 53 years old
• Height and Weight: 6'1, 165 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Gray hair, blue eyes. Pearson may have a mustache or beard. He may wear eyeglasses.
• Medical Conditions: Pearson suffers from bipolar disorder and may require medical attention.

Details of Disappearance
Pearson was last seen at his residence in Grand Bay, Alabama on December 27, 2000. The previous day, the postal carrier was having a hard time finding an address to deliver a package, and Pearson went to a neighbor's home to help. Because the neighbors were away on vacation, Pearson told the postal worker to just leave the box on the porch. The package contained ten pounds of marijuana and it was delivered to the wrong address; it was actually addressed to someone down the street. Pearson called the post office to report it. When the police came to the neighbors' home to pick up the marijuana, they discovered a significant amount was missing from the package. It turned out the neighbors had sold it. They were angry with Pearson for reporting the incident. Pearson told his daughter he was afraid for his safety.

The next day, Pearson called the police to reported a burglary at his home. He disappeared before the officer could arrive at his house to take the report, and has never been heard from again. His car was found abandoned several days later, parked in the woods near Henderson Camp Road.

Pearson had just gotten a promotion at his job at Ingalls Shipbuilding before his disappearance. He left behind a daughter, who lived out of state and was recovering from surgery at the time of his disappearance. He is described as a reliable person of habit and it's uncharacteristic of him to leave without warning. Authorities haven't determined whether his disappearance was related to the marijuana or the burglary, but foul play is suspected in his disappearance; it remains unsolved.

Cold Case: Grand Bay Man Vanished 17 Years Ago



Missing persons – 19 cases where people have simply disappeared - October 2013

Julie, please get in touch with me.

 

[Pennysmom1]

Oct 31, 2017

Unsolved mystery revisited after 15 years

Christmas time, 1998, and a happy time for Julie Pearson and her father, Stephen. Stephen Pearson's birthday was two days before Christmas.But it was Julie who would get the gifts that only a doting father can give.He would treat me like a princess. I was

mynbc15.com

 

[Pennysmom1]

4602DMAL - Stephen Horace Pearson

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Online Services

app.alea.gov

May 7, 2013

Mobile County deputies on missing persons cases: 'Sometimes a case just goes cold'

One of the three women found Monday after more than a decade missing was reportedly ruled as a runaway shortly after her disapperance. "That's a very common, easy out, saying 'oh, they just wanted to disappear for a while,'" said Lt. Paul Burch of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office

www.al.com

<<The package, which had been mistakenly delivered to the wrong house, contained 10 pounds of marijuana. In a panic, Pearson called the postal inspector and reported the delivery.

"He went missing the very next day," Burch said. "He hasn't been seen or heard from since."

Pearson's car was found in nearby woods shortly after his disappearance, a move which investigators determined was intentional.

Deputies have searched with cadaver dogs near Pearson's home and work multiple times over the years, but have yet to find a body or clues leading to his whereabouts.>>



Dec 25, 2019

Christmas cold case haunts Mobile County investigators

The holidays can be difficult for anyone who has ever lost a loved one. It's especially so for one Grand Bay family because their father disappeared 19 years ago around Christmas. To this day they don't know what happened to him. NBC 15's Greg Peterson learned this cold case still haunts those...

mynbc15.com

<<Days later his station wagon was found in the woods wiped clean. Not even Pearson's fingerprints were found in his own car.

"There were three individuals involved in the selling of the marijuana that are still sole suspects in this case to this day," Burch said. "They were arrested for trafficking marijuana, but it wasn't enough to link them to be able to charge them with Mr. Pearson's murder."

Burch believes Pearson is dead, but his body was never found despite numerous searches.>>

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“Daddy was high energy,” she said. “His nickname was Rabbit. … My dad was a good man. He’d literally give you the shirt off his back. I’ve known him to stop and help a car accident – one accident digging a baby out of a car seat from a seat being scrunched.”

Julie Pearson said in her mind, there are at least three groups of suspects – the people who received the marijuana package, the people that package was intended for and the people who mailed it. She says it could be any of them – or perhaps, none of them.

“So no, I’m not convinced foul play is involved,” she told FOX10 News. “I’m not convinced that he didn’t get out and disappear on his own. He had the resources. He had the knowledge. He had the know-how. I’m not convinced that it’s pure foul play. Evidence points in both directions. It’s a tie.”

Cold but not closed: Daughter hopes Grand Bay man’s disappearance might still be solved

For Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch, it’s the one that got away. Stephen Pearson’s disappearance in 2000 was assigned to him as a young investigator with the department.

www.fox10tv.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“It’s the opinion of (Mobile County) Sheriff (Paul) Burch and myself that a homicide has been committed,” said Mobile County Commissioner Randell Dueitt, a former investigator with the Sheriff’s Department. “You have to keep in mind, a person is still at large. If you’re capable of committing one homicide, I’m under the impression you are capable of committing another.”

On Monday, the commission approved $3,750 for a billboard in Grand Bay, where Pearson, then 53, first went missing on Dec. 28, 2000. It will be displayed for a year in hopes of generating new leads.

Groundbreaking Alabama partnership aims to solve 25-year-old cold case

A nonprofit cold case group and an Alabama county have teamed up to put up a billboard they hope will generate new leads in the disappearance of Stephen Pearson.

www.al.com