Shannon Michael House

House, circa 2015

  • Missing Since 10/11/2015
  • Missing From Trinity County, California
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Male
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 05/04/1976 (47)
  • Age 39 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'11, 300 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description An olive-green Dickies or Carhartt t-shirt, black basketball shorts, no shoes and Ray-Ban prescription sunglasses.
  • Medical Conditions House suffers from depression, and he had also sustained a serious back injury five years before he went missing. He had been taking the prescription medication Gabapentin, but abruptly stopped prior to his disappearance and was disoriented as a result.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. House wears eyeglasses.

Details of Disappearance

House was last seen in Trinity County, California sometime between 7:00 p.m. on October 11 and 4:00 a.m. on October 12, 2015. He and his brother were working at a marijuana grow site in a rural area on Mina Road between Kettenpom and Covela. He suddenly quit taking his prescription medication about two weeks prior to his disappearance, developed insomnia, and began demonstrating signs of paranoia, possibly as a result of withdrawal.

His brother said on the evening of October 11, House seemed "quiet and deep in thought." His brother decided to go to bed early, at around 7:20 p.m., and at the time House was sitting outside in his pickup truck, "staring off" in silence.

His brother woke up at 4:00 a.m. to the sound of the trailer door closing. He checked the time and went back to sleep, assuming House had slept in another trailer on the property. It wasn't until 10:00 a.m. that he went to the other trailer to check on him, and realized it was empty. House left his vehicle, wallet, phone and shoes behind in the truck and has never been heard from again.

Although House's brother contacted other family members and friends they began searching the area immediately, they didn't call the police, in part because marijuana growers distrust law enforcement. A passerby warned them not to contact the authorities "or the whole mountain would go crazy," and trimmers from a nearby grow site were mocking House's brother as he went through the woods calling House's name.

House's mother contacted the police at 9:00 a.m. on October 13, after a full day of searching turned up no results, but even though the owner of the grow site he disappeared from gave permission for a search, the police only took preliminary reports. It wasn't until December 18 that the sheriff's department brought dogs to the grow site to try to trace House's scent, and that search yielded nothing. House's mother enlisted a private helicopter pilot to fly over the area looking for him, and she hired two separate trackers, but none of these efforts revealed any evidence as to what had happened.

It's completely uncharacteristic of House to leave without warning, but he had developed hostile relationships with certain people and one of them had threatened his life. His family believes he may have met with foul play, and also consider suicide another possible explanation for his disappearance. His case remains unsolved.

Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated August 31, 2020; two pictures added, clothing/jewelry description, medical conditions and details of disappearance updated.