“Everyone has the same story,” Lujan said. “We’ve asked each other, ‘When did you last hear from him?’ And everyone answers, ‘About a month or six weeks ago.’”

Salaam’s neighbor Deanna Ardrey was among the few who saw him regularly during this period.

She had met Salaam a few months earlier when she moved in with her boyfriend. She learned only by accident that Salaam had played football, then Googled him and was dumbfounded to discover his celebrity.

“We talked about football, but he was more likely to talk about other things, like astronomy,” Ardrey said. “He was always pointing out planets to us in the sky.”

On sunny days, Salaam kept his front door open and Ardrey would hear music playing. In the fall and winter, Salaam’s television would be tuned to football games.

“We would hear him watching games all night and yelling at the TV,” Ardrey said. “But I mean, he was always there by himself. Every day, every night. His car was always in the driveway.”

In the days before his death, Ardrey noticed something unusual: His car was frequently gone at night.

“In the last few days, I’ve been thinking: How many times did he go to that park thinking he might — and then changed his mind?” Ardrey wondered last week.