Melvin L. Shoemaker

• Missing Since 04/11/1994
• Missing From Parkman, Ohio
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Age 70 years old
• Height and Weight 5'9 - 5'9, 200 - 250 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description Possibly a five-dollar gold coin tied with twine as jewelry.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Graying brown hair, brown eyes. Melvin had a short beard at the time of his disappearance.

Details of Disappearance

Melvin was last seen in Parkman, Ohio on April 11, 1994. He left his vehicles behind, but his wallet and keys disappeared with him. He has never been heard from again.

Prior to his disappearance, Melvin had a difficult relationship with his son, Glenn Roger Shoemaker. He had nearly been fired from his manufacturing job in 1978, after he missed work because his son and wife locked him in the house. He was tied up and chained in the basement multiple times that month. At one point he escaped, but Glenn caught up with him in the driveway, sprayed him in the face with mace, and threatened to kill him and hide his body where no one would ever find it.

Before his disappearance, Melvin lived alone and led an "almost hermit-like existence" at his home on Route 422 and had no telephone or television, but he was known as a good neighbor who helped out in the neighborhood. A neighbor told the police after he hadn't seen Melvin for six days, but Glenn didn't report him missing for a much longer time period.

When police checked his house, everything seemed to be in order and nothing was missing, including all of Melvin's vehicles and his clothes. There were no indications of a struggle. Melvin, a welder who lived frugally and saved and invested his money, left $700,000 in assets.

Several months after Melvin disappeared, police searched Glenn's home looking for evidence in his father's disappearance. They found eleven guns and a large amount of ammunition, but nothing indicating Melvin's whereabouts.

Melvin got divorced from his wife, Florence, in 1978, and she lived with Glenn in Hiram Township, Ohio. There were reports that Melvin had abused her. Florence was last seen in the Ravenna, Ohio area in 2003. She was 76 years old at the time of her disappearance, which occurred almost a decade after Melvin's.

Although Florence and Glenn were said to be close, he did not report her missing. Police did not realize she was missing until 2005, when they tried to reach her for help in the investigation in Melvin's case.

It's unclear whether the Shoemakers' cases are related, but in September 2018, police searched Glenn's farm on Winchell Road in Hiram Township looking for evidence in both cases. He had gotten most of Melvin's money after Melvin disappeared, but when police searched his home in 2018 he was living with no running water, no electricity or telephone, and with dirt floors.

He has not been charged or named as a suspect in either of his parents' cases. Their disappearances remain unsolved.