by Staff | Nov 4, 2016 8:05 am

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Posted to: Legal Writes

New Haven police pieced together a missing-persons tale and ended up reuniting an out-of-state family with a wandering relative they’d been looking for for over 20 years. New Haven police spokesman Officer David Hartman offers the following account of how it all happened:

By all accounts, Saturday morning was quiet at police headquarters and its adjacent prisoner lock-up. A man walked in trying to turn himself in for an outstanding warrant.

Detention supervisor Lt. Brendan Hosey took the man’s name and ran it through the system. There was nothing he was wanted for locally but there was a strange “hit” from North Carolina with instructions to call a number. The call went unanswered. The line was no longer in service. It was a number to who knows where in small-town North Carolina, from who knows when.

After several inconclusive inquiries with North Carolina and no way to confirm any wants on the man, Lt. Hosey chatted with him enough to satisfy he was okay, provided him with some shelter options and sent him on his way.

The query into the man’s claim he was wanted was still running through national criminal databases. “It was strange,” said Hosey. “Most people who turn themselves in only to find they’re not wanted walk away elated.” This was different. He was trying to convince me he was a wanted man.

Meanwhile, in Putnam County, New York, a member of the 10-officer Kent Police Department noticed the query. An officer there knew the family. He knew they’d been looking for “John” (the man who’d tried turning himself in) for decades.

That officer got in touch with the John’s mother who lives in Carmel, N.Y.. He gave her the news. She had not seen her son in 22 years.

On Monday, New Haven Sgt. Wilfredo Cruz took her call and routed it to Lt. Hosey. Hosey confirmed the man she claimed was her son had been here. He now suspected the undecipherable hit from North Carolina was her son’s long-time missing person notification or the unconfirmed warrant John claimed had his name on it. Either way, The Kent PD had him out missing and that connected at least some of the dots.

Hosey notified the NHPD’s Family Services Unit. Detective Dana Martin and a new addition to the unit, Officer Lizmarie Almedina, were sent downstairs to speak with him

Hosey laid out a plan: Visit the area shelters and find John. They headed out, even spending several hours “staking out” the shelter on Grand Avenue.

John was a no-show.

On Tuesday, John’s mom gathered her two daughters, her other son and a cousin, piled into an SUV and headed to New Haven.

They arrived at police headquarters and sat down with Hosey, Martin and Almedina. Mom told them her son was “a Deadhead” and had spent years following the eclectic California rock band from concert to concert. His family theorized John was frightened and disappeared from sight in North Carolina in 1994 after his alleged involvement in an illegal marijuana growing operation. Police agreed that this would likely be the subject warrant would have materialized from and perhaps why John stayed missing for so long.

Deadhead? Hosey told John’s family he didn’t seem to be the tie-dyed shirt type. He’d showed up in a buttoned down shirt and tweed overcoat.

To Hosey, John didn’t appear distressed or incapable of making sound decisions. He looked fairly well kempt and spoke politely. John’s mother produced a photograph of her son and gave it to the cops. It was one of the most recent ones she had. Hosey looked at it, shrugged and agreed it could be of the man he’d spoken with. He told the family he’d get in touch should the cops find John, providing John was OK with that.

John’s family headed back to the Hudson Highlands, some 60 miles north of New York City. The reunion they’d hoped for hadn’t occurred.

Martin remembers the sad moment when John’s brother asked her if she could produce a still image from the detention center’s surveillance camera system. He wanted a photo of his brother – a brother he expected he’d never see again.

Martin and Almedina weren’t satisfied that they’d searched enough. Despite piles of work on their desks, they headed out once again.

Almedina would sit in the passenger seat of their detective car pointing to every second pedestrian the drove by. “Is that…”? “Wait! That could be…”? Martin was growing tired of the eager Almedina.

But at about her fifth “That could be him”, she made a U-turn and pulled up to a man on the sidewalk near the Grand Avenue Immanuel Baptist Shelter.

To their surprise, the man stopped and raised his hands high.

“Am I in trouble? Are you here about the warrant?” he said.

The cops asked him to lower his hands. You’re not in any trouble with us, they explained. “May we talk with you”?

“What’s your name?” asked Detective Martin.

“I’m John”, the man replied.

She handed John the photo of him taken over 22 years ago. He looked at it, folded it four times and held it tight to his chest.

They called Hosey. He rushed over. As the plain-clothes officers spoke with John, Hosey pulled up. The man’s hands shot up high and again he nervously inquired about being in trouble.

“No trouble,” said Hosey. “We spoke Saturday… remember me?”

They told John his family had just left after hearing he was in the area. They told John it was up to him, but they’d be happy to call them and have them return.

The cops were delighted at John’s response and quickly phoned his relatives.

They’d only been on the road for about 20 minutes when Liz, John’s oldest sister took the call. She turned the car around and headed back to New Haven. The reunion they’d hoped for was in sight.

John had gotten in the car with Lt. Hosey. With Martin and Almedina close behind, the four headed to the front steps of Police Headquarters.

In what seemed like no time at all, a white SUV pulled up across the street. Liz jumped out and ran across Union Avenue. Martin and Almedina stopped traffic to get John’s elderly mother safely across.

John recognized Liz and his mother right away. He asked lots of questions. He asked about his father. “He passed,” they told him.

“He’d have been very old,” said John quietly with his head lowered.

John looked at Liz and said, “You look like my mom.” Then he looked at his mother and said, “You look like my grandmother”.

John and his family talked for a while. He told them he’d have to go. It was nearly 4 o’clock. John explained he needed to get to the shelter by then or he’d have nowhere to stay for the night. His family said he could come with them.

In that moment, with tears welling up in the eyes of the officers and family alike, the happiest of things happened on the steps of the New Haven Police Department. Instead of meeting relatives with tragic news, these cops were able to leave work that day feeling wonderful.

John got into the SUV and they left together. Detective Martin has kept in touch these last two days and reports all is well. We all wish John and his family the best.



“Nothing left to do but smile” – Jerry Garcia from “He’s Gone.”