A 56-year-old Superior Township man who never missed work for 30 years suddenly did. And then, authorities said, he seemed to vanish.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office is investigating Marcus Esper's disappearance.

A missing person alert was issued for for him on Tuesday, a day after he left home in his car and headed to his job at a storage facility in Ypsilanti but never showed up and didn’t come home to his wife and kids.

But what is so unusual about Esper's case is how he had never missed work for decades, and seemed to disappear, without leaving any trace of where he might be or contacting family.

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Esper, who is 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, was last seen wearing a gray, hooded University of Michigan jacket, blue Skechers shoes and a baseball cap, investigators said. He is balding, with graying brown hair, and has blue eyes.

He lives with his wife and children.

Deputies said Esper drove away from his home in a white, 2013 Buick LaCrosse, with the license plate number DNU8172.

Nationwide, there are about 88,000 active missing person cases, FBI stats show.

Todd Matthews, communications director for NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, said Wednesday that unfortunately, in some cases, people do just seem to leave without a trace.

"I don't know the status of this person," Matthews said. "But, when you get past 50, there are things like dementia, even diagnosed, that could be a part of it. It's not always foul play. Medication. There are a lot of concerns."

Matthews said missing person cases are likely to increase as the population ages.

Most cases, he added, have a happy ending, but not all.

Authorities also are trying to solve a high-profile case about a 39-year-old Kalamazoo County mother, Amanda Hanover. She was reported missing and then found dead this past weekend in the icy waters of Lake Michigan in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In Hanover's case, police said an autopsy Tuesday gave no indication there was any foul play or an ongoing public threat. But toxicology reports, which aren't expected for several weeks, may offer investigators more clues about what happened.

In the search for Esper, the sheriff's office is asking anyone with information that might help find him or who might have seen him somewhere, to call deputy Rick Houk at 734-994-2911, or call 911.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.