MISSING LAWYER: Clyde F. Johnson, 47 - Lousiville, KENTUCKY (possibly driving a silver 2011 Nissan Frontier - Despondent - took his dog)
Attorney Clyde F. Johnson could not have had deeper roots in his hometown of Prestonsburg, Ky.
President of the Floyd County Bar Association. City attorney in nearby Martin, Ky. Volunteer football coach for the Prestonsburg High School Blackcats.
But after Johnson, 47, told his secretary to clear his calendar for Monday, June 24, because he was "going fishing," he never came back. And no one can find him.
"It is just stunning — he is gone without a trace," said his friend and fellow lawyer, Ned Pillersdorf. "John Grisham couldn't have written this story."
Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Johnson's friend, said: "Everybody knows Clyde. It is very out of character for him to just up and vanish."
Johnson's law business was down, his house was in foreclosure, and he was depressed about his mother's recent death, Pillersdorf said.
But he and other friends and family members doubt that Johnson took his own life — in part because he took his dog, Pete, as well as an Xbox gaming system, a 40-inch TV and a new camper he had bought without telling his wife of 19 years.
"My only hope is that he is out somewhere clearing his head," Pillersdorf said.
It is not a crime in Kentucky for adults to disappear, even if they abandon their job and family, but Kentucky State Police have opened a missing persons investigation into Johnson's disappearance, Trooper Shaun Little said.
Pillersdorf said he has also hired a private investigator and consulted a forensic psychologist to try to find Johnson, who didn't respond to emails sent by a reporter to his office email address.
His secretary, Debbie Stumbo Woods — Greg Stumbo's sister — said he seemed upbeat June 21 when he told her to reschedule his Monday appointments for later the same week.
She said she didn't know that his home was in foreclosure. But she said he was due to get an inheritance from his mother's estate and that his financial problems were nothing he couldn't have cured. She said he'd given $100 to the local Little League just a week earlier and donated generously to other charities.
Pillersdorf said that on the morning Johnson vanished, he told his wife, the former Rose Harmon, "I love you and will see you tonight." She did not respond to a request for comment.
Chief Regional Circuit Judge John David Caudill said Johnson was well-liked by his clients.
Kentucky Bar Association President Tom Rouse said, "This is a mystery, and we are all very concerned."
"They are very sad," she said. "They are saying, 'He's coming back. He's coming back.'"
Pillersdorf said that Johnson is probably driving a Silver 2011 Nissan Frontier.
He said that the missing lawyer had a Netflix account and that he has asked police to try to do an electronic trace of whether he has accessed it from his Xbox.
Prestonsburg football coach John Derossett is also driving from campground to campground in search of him, Pillersdorf said.
"The only good news is he took his dog," said Caudill, the circuit judge. "Normally, when somebody is going to do harm to themselves they don't take their dog — they leave it with someone who will care for it."
Another Prestonsburg lawyer, Earl M. "Mickey" McGuire, who serves on the KBA's board of governors, said he didn't know about Johnson's problems. "Lawyers help other people, but we don't ask for help ourselves," he said.
Pillersdorf said the entire community is baffled by Johnson's disappearance.
"It just breaks my heart," he said.
Call 911.
Respectfully,
Amy Kinney,
Distribution List Manager
LostNMissing, Inc.
Phone: 603.965.4621
Cell: 603.548.6548
LostNMissing, Inc. is an all volunteer state and federally recognized 501c(3) Non-Profit charitable organization to assist law enforcement and the families of missing. We never charge a fee for our services. All Support Members, Board of Directors, Officers and Owner are Volunteers.
