It was when Matt Pulis didn’t report for work Monday that his sister began to seriously worry.
“I know he knows that when he didn’t show up at noon Monday, I’d begin searching for him,” Steph Kniefel said Thursday as she scoured Bemidji’s Cameron Park for signs of her brother.
Pulis, 31, a native of the Iron Range who now lives in Bemidji, has been missing since early Oct. 20. He sent a text about 1:30 a.m. that day to a friend in Chicago. Pulis, who also missed a Wednesday appointment to refill his antidepressant medication, was last seen with two men about 2:30 a.m. as they walked north on Beltrami Avenue away from a bar.
Pulis is described as 5-foot-9, about 180 pounds, with chin-length brown hair and blue eyes.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111.
Pulis’ ATM card was used about 8:30 p.m. Monday to withdraw $60 cash in Bemidji, Kniefel said.
That action alone is odd, because Pulis would know that his family would begin looking for him as soon as he didn’t show up for work Monday afternoon, Kniefel said. Why would he then withdraw cash from a Bemidji ATM?
“It’s weird,” Kniefel said. “It doesn’t add up.”
Kniefel said authorities are working with Wells Fargo to obtain video surveillance of the ATM transaction. She said authorities were searching the shore of Lake Bemidji on Friday and looking in the area between the tavern and his apartment.
Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin did not provide any additional details Thursday afternoon.
Kniefel spent Wednesday and Thursday passing out flyers with a friend, Jess Sandberg, as they searched for signs of Pulis.
“(I) just can’t sit and wait,” said Kniefel, noting that of her four siblings, Pulis is her closest.
Pulis grew up in Mountain Iron and graduated from Virginia High School in 1999. He moved to Bemidji in early 2010, following Kniefel, who moved there in 2004. Their parents and two other siblings still live on the Range.
“It’s exhausting,” Kniefel told the News Tribune on Friday, speaking about searching for her brother. “It’s tough, but we’re doing the best we can.” She said family and friends have drawn close together in the past week as they search for Pulis.
Pulis and Kniefel previously worked at a McDonald’s in Virginia. Kniefel now is the first assistant manager at a Bemidji McDonald’s. Pulis also worked there full time as a maintenance employee.
They didn’t talk often on the phone but frequently touched base with each other at work, Kniefel said.
McDonald’s employees throughout Bemidji — Kniefel’s husband is the manager at the town’s other McDonald’s — have offered their help in spreading the word and asking people for information about Pulis’ disappearance.
“We’re one big family,” Kniefel said.
Pulis went out with co-workers after work Friday night. Kniefel said a co-worker on Saturday made a random comment about how she hoped Pulis had made it home OK — he doesn’t drive or own a car, so he was walking home from downtown.
Kniefel wasn’t initially concerned, noting that Pulis is 31 and “walks everywhere.”
But once Pulis didn’t report for work Monday, Kniefel became concerned.
“It’s very, very out of character for him,” she said.
Family and friends have set up a Facebook page, “Help us find Matt Pulis,” to provide updates on the search.
Source: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/247908/group/homepage/
Amy Kinney, Distribution & Missing Alerts Manager
LostNMissing, Inc
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