Carole Moore
Missing Persons Contributor
Officer.com
Fort Myers, Fla., police say they’ve now identified three of the eight bodies discovered in a wooded area in 2007. The third man to be identified was Jonathon Tihay, who went missing some time in 1995 or 1996.
A drifter who sporadically kept in touch with his family, Tihay was never reported missing. That’s understandable. Tihay was generally unemployed, moved from place to place and engaged in petty crimes. Since most missing persons reports are taken where the person was last seen, his family probably had trouble nailing down his location.
Tihay’s parents are now deceased, but his identification came about because his mother’s hair remained in a hairbrush still in the possession of his half-sister. In fact that sister, Natalie Worthington, contacted police because she thought her brother might be among the eight skeletal remains discovered.
Two other men, Erik Kohler, who was reported missing by his family, and John Blevins, who like Tihay was not listed as missing, have also been identified. Police say the three were all young, white male transients with poor work histories, who appeared to have died around 1995-1996.
They’re hoping to match the other five and return them to their families. Do you know of someone whose relative might fit this general description, who could have been in the Fort Myers area at that time and hasn’t been heard from since the mid-nineties, give or take a few years?
Contact the Fort Myers Police Department with your information. Here’s the number I found listed for administrative contacts:
941.337.5254
Missing Person’s Spotlight:
Aeryn Gilleran, whose mom’s a retired police officer, disappeared last fall from his apartment in Vienna, Austria, where he worked for the United Nations. Kathy Gilleran says Austrian officials gave her little help in her search. It’s a long shot, but take a look at Aeryn in this story and see if he looks familiar:
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=79467
Here’s another story about this family:
http://www.silive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-27/12219311654180.xml&storylist=simetro&thispage=1
