IL IL - William Pasquale Riley, 22, Evanston, 17 June 1984

TheArtfulDetective

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  • #1
William Pasquale Riley

No_Image_Available_male.jpg

Case Classification: Missing
Missing Since: June 17, 1984
Location Last Seen: Evanston, Cook County, Illinois

Description:

  • Date of Birth: circa 1962
  • Age: 22
  • Race: White/Caucasian
  • Gender: Male
  • Height: 6' 0" (72 inches)
  • Weight: 175 lbs
  • Hair Color: Brown
  • Eye Color: Brown
  • Nickname/Alias: Billy
  • Distinguishing Marks/Features: Small gap between two front teeth.
  • Clothing & Personal Items: Unknown
  • Identifiers: Unknown
  • Other: He is completely deaf.
Circumstances of Disappearance:
Riley was last seen at his residence in Evanston, Illinois on June 17, 1984. He has never been heard from again. He left behind his vehicle and all of his belongings. Few details are available regarding Riley's disappearance and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Investigators:
  • Cook County Sheriff's Office: (708) 865-4896
    Reference Case#: 84/19030
NamUs Case Number: MP20138
NCIC Case Number: N/A

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
 
Last edited:
  • #2
  • #3
So Evanston at that time was a very well-to-do area with some pretty prestigious high schools located nearby, including Loyola Academy. I'm wondering about this UID male in relation to missing William Riley. This UID male was found 2003, est date of death 2002-2003. UID was found wearing a maroon and black sweater, and maroon is a school color for Loyola:

Maroon & Black colored sweater.
Haines brand heavyweight red t-shirt with "Enjoy Coco-Cola," printed on it.
A Cooray brand sportwear black colored cap with the word, COUNTY," printed on it.
A black canvas jacket, black pants,
ProsSpirit brand red colored
Rugged Outback brand boot size 12

They're estimating this UID male somewhat taller than 6'0", but I'm seeing the shoe size is 12, which on a size chart shows as the size you'd expect with a male who is approximately 6'0". William Riley was 22 in 1984, so he'd have been about 40 in 2002. They're estimating this UID male at 28-48.

This UID male was carrying a pager. William Riley was deaf. Pagers were considered a vital tool for the deaf right in this timeframe. Source:

The pagers have become even more important to the deaf than cell phones are for the hearing, since the deaf can't use regular phones or pay phones....Wynd, which is based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., started out selling e-mail pagers to corporate travelers. But in 1997, the company got an e-mail from a deaf lawyer, who pointed out that the pagers were great for the deaf.,,,This month, Wynd introduced a service that makes its pagers more useful in communicating with the hearing. Users can now send text messages to human operators, who call a hearing recipient on the phone and read the message. The recipient can then tell the operator to send a message back to the deaf person's pager. The human operator is part of a state-mandated relay service designed for older equipment known as TTY machines. These can send and receive text messages through regular phone lines. Of course, lugging around these machines, which look like electronic typewriters, and plugging them into phone lines hasn't been an attractive option for the deaf. In some ways, the pagers even take the part of the radio for the deaf.... The pager network in New York helped the deaf understand what was happening during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...
 
  • #4
My first thought upon seeing his age and Evanston was that he was a student/recent graduate of Northwestern University. I don't know how accessible it was in the 1980s, though.
 

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