WY WY - Daren Newell Dixon, 20, Yellowstone National Park, 4 July 1993

[TheArtfulDetective]

Daren Newell Dixon​

Case Classification: Endangered Missing / Lost/Injured Missing
Missing Since: July 4, 1993
Location Last Seen: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Description:​

• Date of Birth: June 18, 1973
• Age: 20
• Race: White/Caucasian
• Gender: Male
• Height: 6' 1" (73 Inches)
• Weight: 170 lbs
• Hair Color: Brown
• Eye Color: Brown
• Nickname/Alias: Nickname: Franny
• Distinguishing Marks/Features: Scar on knee approximately 1 inch long. A tooth mark scar on his head under his hair.
• Clothing & Personal Items: A ball cap, white long-sleeved sweatshirt, blue denim jeans, and hiking boots.
• Identifiers: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance:
Dixon went missing from Yellowstone National Park on July 4, 1993. He was a park employee who worked as a busboy at Roosevelt Lodge and quit his job on July 2, without giving a reason. He has never been heard from again.

Dixon's car was later found parked at the Lamar River Canyon pullout with his wallet and some other personal belongings inside. He was an avid fisherman and his fishing gear was missing from the vehicle. An extensive search, which lasted for the rest of the summer, produced no clue of his whereabouts. Investigators suspect Dixon may have drowned but he has never been located.

Investigators:

• Yellowstone National Park: (307) 344-2640
  Reference Case#: N/A

• Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation: (307) 777-7181
  Reference Case#: N/A

NamUs Case Number: Not listed
NCIC Case Number: N/A

Daren Newell Dixon – The Charley Project
Home - Missing Persons

 

[Pennysmom1]

Daren N Dixon (1973-1993) - Find a Grave Memorial

The Muncie Star, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1993 SELMA--Family members have scheduled a memorial service for a Selma man who has been missing for more than 2 months in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The service for Daren N. Dixon, 20, will be at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 25 in Muncie Bible Fellowship ...

www.findagrave.com

 

[JSolt1210]

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but does anyone else think that having a memorial service (as opposed to a vigil) just two months after Daren went missing is a little... quick?

Like I get that everyone grieves differently, and maybe the family needed this service in order to confront and cope with his disappearance. But it's just jarring to me that, in the news article quoted above, the father says, "We know almost certainly that he did drown in the river," but paragraphs later we read: "So far, park officials have been unable to officially determine what happened to Dixon," and that extensive land and air searches "didn't turn up anything either."

Yes I get that Daren's car was found near the canyon, that he said he'd been fishing there recently (according to his dad), and that dogs tracked his scent to the water. But foul play can explain this just as easily as drowning can. Of course his scent was in the area because he worked there, having quit just two days prior. On that note, why did he quit? Did something happen on the job?

I just think we've all come across cases with more compelling evidence pointing in one specific direction but whose families hold out hope for much, much longer.