Mitchell Deon Owens

• Missing Since 02/03/1983
• Missing From Menlo Park, California
• Classification Non-Family Abduction
• Sex Male
• Race Black
• Date of Birth 11/21/1978 (46)
• Age 4 years old
• Height and Weight 3'0, 40 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue jacket, a brown shirt and red pants.
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Mitchell has a half-inch scar on the upper portion of his nose and a surgical scar on his left rib area. He has a lazy right eyelid. Some agencies give his middle name as "Deshaun" or "Deshon." His family nickname is Michael and he may use that name.

Details of Disappearance

An unidentified man broke into the Owens family's apartment on Pierce Road in eastern Menlo Park, California in the early morning hours of February 3, 1983. The intruder entered through a window at about 4:00 a.m. and attacked and severely beat Mitchell's mother, Ora Owens, who had fallen asleep watching television. Her three sons were at home with her at the time.

Two of the boys slept through the assault, but Ora's screams woke Mitchell, who walked into the room while the beating was taking place. Ora screamed at him to run away. The attacker than attempted to strangle Ora with a telephone cord and she passed out and was apparently left for dead.

Her landlord found her still unconscious on the floor in her apartment at 2:30 p.m. when he came to ask for the rent, and she was taken to the hospital. Ora had to spend weeks in the hospital recovering from her ordeal; she had injuries to her throat and neck, and one of her arms had been dislocated and the tendons and muscles damaged. Mitchell has never seen or been heard from again. Ora only caught a glimpse of her son's abductor.

She believes her attacker may have been a man she'd met the previous night at the Enlisted Men's Club at Moffett Field Naval Air Station in Mountain View, California. He offered to buy Ora a drink, but she declined and walked away. She thinks the man followed her home and then drove away when she reached her door. The man has never been identified. He is described as 6'0 tall with brown hair, blue eyes, a mustache and tattoos on his arms. He was approximately 25 years old in 1983.

Another possible suspect is a man who knocked on Ora's door just a few hours before the break-in. He identified himself as a police officer and was in uniform, and asked about a report she'd made about a stolen purse the month before. The Menlo Park Police Department has no record of any of their officers stopping by the Owens home on that date.

Ora receved telephone calls for years following his disappearance from an unidentified male. The caller repeatedly threatened to abduct her other two sons, who were seven years old and one year old at the time of Mitchell's abduction. It is not known if the calls are related to Mitchell's disappearance.

Authorities stated that they hoped current forensic technology which was unavailable in 1983 could help solve Mitchell's abduction and the assault on Ora. She has criticized the police investigation, stating investigators did not look hard enough for Mitchell because the family is African-American and poor. Inexplicably, the local police at first listed Mitchell as a runaway juvenile and refused to take action to find him.

Ora's attacker has never been identified and Mitchell has never been located.