The Baffling Disappearance of Sean Luberger
The Baffling Disappearance of Sean Luberger
**Information is obtained from the Where are they? Podcast and other online sources as cited**
Sean Luberger and two of his siblings, were adopted as children but Sean grew up to be close to his family, especially his biological sister, Marie.
Sean became a dad to a young son and was a very involved uncle to his sister’s children.
In 2021, Sean was living in the Willoughby area of Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
On June 26th, 2021, Sean decided to go stay with a friend of his in the Akron area, about an hour away.
He would stay there until June 28th, when he had apparently decided to go home. Something would allegedly make him change his mind and he called his friend to see if he could come back. His friend said yes.
Sean never made it back to his friend's house.
When his family in Willoughby realized they couldn’t reach him and his phone was going straight to voicemail, panic began to set in.
Sean Luberger hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Where is Sean Charles Lee Luberger??
Sean’s mother gave birth to three children sometime in the 1970s. She was unable to care for the kids, and all three would be adopted out. Sean was adopted- but it is unclear if he was adopted with his siblings, or separately.
Years later, Sean’s biological mother would go on to have four more children before she passed away.
As an adult, Sean was able to locate his biological siblings and half-siblings, and he because very close with one of his sisters.
Sean lived in the greater Cleveland area and was an active uncle to his nieces and nephews. Sean was married and then divorced, and he did have a son during that time.
Sean did move around a bit but had recently settled back down in the Willoughby, Ohio area. Willoughby is a suburb located just to the east of Cleveland. Some reports also say Wickliffe, which is also a suburb of Cleveland located just next to Willoughby. For those unfamiliar with the northeast Ohio area, if you hear Wickliffe or Willoughby, note that they sit adjacent to each other and are generally the same part of Ohio.
THE DISAPPEARANCE.
On June 26, 2021, Sean decided to make the hour's drive south to his friend's house in Barberton, Ohio. He allegedly stayed there for a couple of days and then left to head back home.
His friend stated that on June 28th, after Sean had left, Sean stopped at a rest area and face-timed him. Sean had asked if he could come back to his house for a while. Now, it isn’t exactly clear why he might have changed his mind, and remember we only know these facts on the word of this friend, but it was rumored that there was a woman who was going to this friend also, a woman that Sean was interested in.
This friend of Sean’s said that he told Sean he could come back. They hung up the phone, but Sean wouldn’t show back up at his house.
During this time, Sean’s ex-wife had been trying to reach him and his phone kept going to voicemail. Worried, she contacted Sean’s sister, Marie, who she knew he was very close with, and Marie stated that she hadn’t been able to reach Sean either.
Marie would also say this was extremely unusual and she was very worried. Marie had recently had surgery and she had been trying to reach Sean to let him know how she was doing. Anytime Marie said she needed Sean, anytime- he would always be there for her. He would always call her back.
The ex-wife told Marie she was going to file a missing person report.
Sean Luberger had vanished into thin air.
THE SEARCH and INVESTIGATION.
It would be Willoughby, Ohio that took the missing person report, since that is where Sean lived and that is also where he was reported missing by his ex-wife.
Authorities took the report, and the search for Sean began. The first stop was interviewing the friend whose house Sean had been staying at in Akron, Ohio.
The home was actually in Barberton, Ohio which is actually an Akron suburb just south of the city.
This friend did confirm that Sean had come out to stay with him on June 26. On June 28, he said that Sean left to go back home, however, at some point he stopped at a rest area and face timed him to ask if he could come back to stay.
The story gets a little muddy here. The friend told detectives at first, that he didn’t really give Sean a yes or no answer. He said that there was a woman coming over to this house that Sean wanted to see and that was the reason Sean wanted to come back.
When Sean’s sister contacted this friend, the friend said that he told Sean, yes, he could definitely come back to his house.
Could just be a misunderstanding, or something that might not be so clear-cut, but it has caused some confusion.
Authorities were able to ping Sean’s cell phone, and it pinged to a tower in Bath township, also an Akron suburb, very close to the rest area where he face-timed his friend. So it seems that is possibly exactly what happened. However, after that point, Sean’s cell phone goes dead or is turned off, and there are no additional pings.
It’s important to note also, that this isn’t very far from his friends’ house, to begin with. Sean only had an hour's drive home, and to stop at a rest area so shortly into his drive and call his friend seems an odd thing to do. I suppose it’s possible that during that short time he learned this woman would be there, and that prompted him to stop and call, asking if he could come back.
Sean’s car was also missing, a maroon Chevy Tracker.
Days went by and there was still no sign of Sean, and no evidence to point anyone in any particular direction. It was only known that he was last in Barberton, and his cell phone pinged near Bath township.
If he was at a rest stop in Bath Township, he was likely heading north of Rt 77. Barberton to Bath township is about a 20-minute drive, 15 miles, according to google maps.
On July 24, 2021, nearly a month after Sean was last seen, investigators would finally get a break in the case. While this break provided them with some more clues, it also left everyone with more questions.
THE VEHICLE.
On July 24, a shopping plaza business owner called to report an abandoned car in the parking lot. When authorities arrived to tow the vehicle, they learned that it was a 2003 maroon Chevy Tracker, registered to Sean Luberger.
Law enforcement converged on the scene to check it out. There was a very small amount of blood found in the vehicle on the dashboard and on the steering wheel, along with a syringe that had a drop of blood in it. The car was impounded and taken to the impound lot of the Akron Police Department, where the vehicle is believed to remain today.
Behind this shopping, the place was a heavily wooded area. This area was searched by police, but nothing was found.
Many of the businesses in the area did have surveillance cameras, but unfortunately, that would provide no clues to the investigation as the footage had already been recycled through and recorded over. According to Sean’s sister, they barely missed the cutoff date for that. If those business owners had reported the vehicle there sooner, they could’ve had more luck with those cameras.
There were multiple businesses in this shopping plaza, so the only thing I can think of is that each business thought another one would do something about it. Or, possibly in the beginning they just thought the owner would come back for it.
The camera footage could have been crucial to see who put the car there when it was put there, if it was Sean, or if it was, was someone with him? What direction did they go from there?
So many questions, but sadly, no answers.
