deseretnews.com
Man’s disappearance leaves ‘huge hole’
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 3, 2005 by Jennifer Dobner Deseret Morning News
Christmas 2004 just wasn’t Christmas for Wanda Schmitt.
The Glarus, Wis., woman had her mind on other things. Six months ago, her brother Jeff Nichols, 41, a Salt Lake City-based air traffic controller, disappeared without a trace. She’s been looking for him ever since.
“We still don’t know where Jeff is,” Schmitt said in a telephone interview this past week. “It was a pretty tough Christmas. There’s this huge hole in our family.”
Schmitt is not alone. Nationally, more than 164,000 adults were reported missing to the FBI’s National Criminal Information Center between December 2003 and November 2004.
Nichols is currently one of 26 people listed on the Utah Department of Public Safety’s missing persons Web site. He’s one of four people, including Brigham Young University student Brooke Wilberger, 12-year-old Garrett Bardsley, and Payson resident Ellen D. Kay, who were added to the statewide list this year.
Wilberger, 19, disappeared from Corvallis, Ore., in May and has not been found. In August, Bardsley was lost while camping in the Uintas with a church group and is feared dead. Kay, 46, was last seen Nov. 11 and was reportedly despondent.
Nichols was reported missing to Salt Lake police June 9 by his girlfriend, city detective Phil Eslinger said. He was supposed to have met his ex-wife and son at a local restaurant for breakfast on June 9 but never showed.
Police later discovered Nichols’ car, but there was no sign of the air-traffic controller and no sign of foul play. No new, significant information about his whereabouts has surfaced in the months since, Eslinger said.
Schmitt and her family — she and Nichols are from a family of 11 siblings — have dug into their pocketbooks and savings accounts to raise a $10,000 reward for information leading to Nichols. A billboard offering the reward was posted on State Street for several months. Schmitt is hoping to get another billboard posted soon, again asking the public to call the Utah Crime Solvers anonymous tip line if they know anything.
“Somebody knows something,” Schmitt said. “What I’m hoping is that somebody out there remembers something that (Nichols) said to them. Maybe something that didn’t make sense then, but maybe it makes sense now. Nobody who knows Jeff believes that he would walk away.” Not from his son, Sam. Not from a job he loved.
Schmitt said her loss is doubly felt when she thinks about Sam. His mother has now moved away from Utah and cut off any ties to Nichols’ family. Schmitt said the family is suing her brother’s ex- wife, Shelby Nichols, in order to maintain contact with their nephew.
“I know (people) do that. I know people walk away from their lives, but I just don’t see that with Jeff,” she said. “I think in the beginning, I think the police thought he walked away. I don’t think they think that now. But the police are overworked, and unless it’s clear (what happened), I think these cases are very hard.”
Schmitt came to Utah last June, and with the help of Nichols’ co- workers from Salt Lake City International Airport, packed up her brother’s apartment. Back in Wisconsin, she said, she often looked out the window expecting to see her brother standing in the yard.
“I guess as time goes by, I don’t have that as much,” she said. “I think about this every day. It’s affected my life in such a dramatic way that it’s hard to function. But I’m going to fight to find the answers.”
Information about Jeff Nichols can be found on the Web at www.helpfindjeff.com. Anyone with information can contact Salt Lake police at 801-799-3000. Anonymous tips can also be left at the Utah Crime Solvers hotline, 800-972-2255.
E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com
Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.