David G. Morrison

• Missing Since 10/01/1979
• Missing From Hammond, Indiana
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 12/09/1948 (76)
• Age 30 years old
• Height and Weight 5'11 - 6'1, 142 pounds
• Associated Vehicle(s) White 1974 Pontiac Grand Am with vanity license plates reading STEREO (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Morrison was last seen in Hammond, Indiana on December 1, 1979. He was the son of a wealthy local businessman and was well-known in the local music scene; he owned a high-end stereo store, Stereo Components Inc., in the 700 block of Seberger Lane, just west of Calumet Avenue in Munster, Indiana.

In the early morning hours of December 1, the police were called to the store to investigate a suspicious white car parked out front with four men inside it. The vehicle was gone by the time authorities arrived.

The store's door was unlocked and the cash register was open, and there was a bloodstain on the doorframe. A set of keys on Morrison's desk was also bloodstained. The store's burglar alarm had been turned off and there was no sign of forced entry.

A friend went to Morrison's apartment in the 7100 block of Meadow Lane in Hammond to check on him. The apartment had been ransacked and there was evidence of a violent struggle, and including bloodstains in the basement and on the ground floor, and there was a snow shovel caked with blood and hair.

Some expensive stereo components and photography equipment lay undisturbed inside the residence. Morrison and his vehicle, a white 1974 Pontiac Grand Am with vanity license plates reading STEREO, was missing.

Before sunrise that day, someone reported seeing a body floating in shallow water in Lake Michigan, just a few feet off an isolated stretch of beach on the north side of the city. The body was of a white male, wearing only a shirt and socks, and he appeared to have been badly beaten. On the beach was a bloodstained length of metal pipe.

Rather than wading into the water and pulling the body ashore themselves, the police who responded to the scene stood and watched it in the water while they waited for the arrival of additional officers with a rope and body-recovery hook. Within half an hour, before the other officers arrived, the wind and waves had pushed the body further out into the lake and it was gone.

(There was subsequently an internal investigation into the police officers' actions or lack thereof. One officer was cleared of misconduct, but two others were found guilty of dereliction of duty. One was suspended for five days, and one was suspended for ten days.)

Three days later, Morrison's car was found in the vicinity of south 161st Place in South Holland, Illinois. Witnesses said it had been there since early on December 2. There was blood smeared on the backseat, the floor and the outside of the passenger door, and Morrison's driver's license was on the front seat. There was no other sign of him.

At the time of his disappearance, Morrison had warrants out for his arrest; he had failed to appear in court to answer lawsuits filed by bill collectors. His case is considered a kidnapping and homicide and police looked into several persons of interest, but no suspects have been named in his case. It remains unsolved.