Jason Edward Thornton Townsend

• Missing Since 05/20/1980
• Missing From Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Classification Non-Family Abduction
• Sex Male
• Race Black
• Date of Birth 10/15/1976 (49)
• Age 3 years old
• Height and Weight 3'0, 50 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A green pullover shirt, blue shorts and brown sandals.
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Jason's hair was styled in a short Afro at the time of his disappearance.

Details of Disappearance

Jason's mother, Augusta Townsend Walker, left Jason and his siblings in the care of her boyfriend, Roscoe Pierce, while she worked on May 20, 1980 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Jason was last seen with Pierce in Lauderhill, Florida, later during the day.

When his mother returned to the family's apartment that night, Jason was gone. Pierce said he'd wandered off while they were at a nearby convenience store. Walker believed his story and called the police that evening to report Jason missing. By the the next day, however, Walker had become suspicious, particularly after Pierce removed a sheet of blue plastic and two duffel bags from the apartment. She tried to stop him leaving, but he left anyway. Jason has never been heard from again.

After Walker alerted law enforcement regarding her son's disappearance, investigators learned that Pierce was a fugitive from Syracuse, New York. He had been charged with sexually abusing a young girl and fled from the state some time earlier. While in Florida he had been using the alias name "Emerson Blatch", and Walker knew him by that name.

Florida authorities located Pierce on May 22, two days after Jason initially vanished. When investigators attempted to question Pierce about the child's case, he reached for an officer's weapon and was shot by law enforcement. Pierce refused to divulge Jason's location before he died later in the day.

Walker theorized that Pierce didn't harm her son, but that he had left him alone at home and then someone else came, burglarized the house and took Jason, and Pierce made up the story about him wandering away to cover up the fact that he'd left the child alone. She said the night of Jason's disappearance, when she came home, the house was "ransacked" and money and some of her new clothes were missing.

Jason's case remains open; foul play is suspected due to the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.