A Road Trip Into Oblivion: The Disappearance of David Lovely

Missing-persons cases can be tough to solve, but investigators usually have at least an approximate idea of when and where the person vanished.  However, when no one can even guess at the time and place, you’re probably dealing with a mystery that could be solved only by a miracle.  That is what makes the following disappearance particularly haunting.

David Vernon Lovely was born in Massachusetts in 1965.  Although he grew into a very tall, seemingly fit youth, he had underlying health problems.  He was born with an oversized kidney, which required major surgery when he was three years old.  He was left with a permanently scarred, vulnerable abdomen.  As a result, he was unable to play sports or drink more than very small amounts of alcohol.  Despite that, he was able to lead a happy, essentially normal life.

When David was a teenager, his parents divorced, and he and his father moved to California.  In 1985, his mother, Jackie, moved there as well.  However, the Golden State evidently did not suit her, for in the summer of 1985, Jackie, David, and David’s 18-year-old sister Alison all decided to go back to Massachusetts.  

The move would be a complicated cross-country road trip.  Jackie drove a Ryder moving truck towing a pickup driven by Alison.  David rode his newly-purchased 1978 maroon Yamaha motorcycle.  As David’s bike was much speedier than the truck, they worked out a plan where every 30 miles or so they would stop to touch base.

On August 4, the little caravan left Salt Lake City, with the agreement that they would meet again at a gas station in Evanston, Wyoming.  Before they parted, David told Jackie and Alison that his motorcycle was acting up a bit, so he hoped to find a mechanic along the way.

Unfortunately, before David could find anyone to look at his bike, the machine broke down, forcing him to spend the night along the side of the I-80 highway.  On the morning of August 5, he pushed the bike three miles to a truck stop in the tiny town of Fort Bridger, Wyoming.  He used the pay phone there to call his aunt, Barbara Janiak, in Massachusetts.  He told her about his problems with the bike, adding that a “rough-looking” man on a Harley Davidson had managed to fix it.  David said that although the man had initially seemed “scary,” he now felt at ease around him.  David told Barbara that he would reunite with Jackie and Alison at Rock Springs, a city about 70 miles away, and call her again once he got there.

That phone call turned out to be the last time anyone has heard from David Lovely.  When Jackie and Alison arrived at the next rest stop, David failed to appear.  On the morning of August 6, Jackie phoned Barbara, where she learned of David’s plan to meet them at Rock Springs.  However, when they reached that city, they were unable to find him.  Not knowing what else to do, the two women pushed on to Lincoln, Nebraska, where they spent several days waiting for him.  Finally, working on the assumption that David had tired of this stop-and-start travel and just went straight to Massachusetts, they left.  At every rest stop, they asked state troopers if they had seen David.  No one had.

When the women reached home, David was not there, and nobody had heard from him.  Realizing that something was very wrong, the family immediately contacted police.

Law enforcement was initially reluctant to take David’s failure to show up seriously.  They pointed out that he was 19 years old, an adult.  He had probably just decided to go away somewhere without telling anyone.  And, of course, there was the question of which jurisdiction should investigate his disappearance:  David was a Massachusetts resident who had last been seen in Wyoming, and he was riding a bike registered in California.  Police in all three states were inclined to shrug and say, “It’s not our problem.”

Authorities were finally forced to take the matter seriously when on August 14, a couple who had been camping in a remote area outside of Rock Springs reported finding an abandoned motorcycle that was soon proved to be David’s.  It had been left in a dirt path off Middle Baxter Road, surrounded by nothing but empty desert.  It was about 70 miles away from David’s last known location.  The keys were in the ignition, the tank was half-full of gas, and it was in perfect working condition.  Resting against the bike was David’s helmet and backpack containing his possessions and $150 in cash.

The couple who had found the bike told police that a few days earlier, they had seen a person (they could not tell if the figure was male or female) with long dark hair riding a large turquoise motorbike away from the area where they would later find David’s bike.  That person has never been identified, and it’s anyone’s guess if he/she had any involvement with David’s disappearance.  Authorities searched the area, without finding any clues to David’s whereabouts.  It was a remarkably desolate, inhospitable place, with many ravines, cliffs, and gullies.  The search was further hampered by several thunderstorms, which could have potentially washed away any evidence.

That was essentially the end of any official investigation into David’s disappearance.  In November 2023, a hunter found a human skull in the general area where David’s bike had been found.  It was unknown if the skull belonged to David, or any of the other (frighteningly numerous) other people who had vanished from the Rock Springs vicinity in recent years.  I have been unable to find if the skull was ever identified.

This is a missing-persons case where virtually anything could have happened.  It’s possible that foul play was not involved--perhaps David himself rode his bike to the Baxter Road area, intending to camp overnight there, only to come across some mishap--or a dangerous wild animal--in the rough terrain.  If he was killed elsewhere, why did the murderer bother to abandon the bike and David’s other belongings in this remote location?  Or, as some have suggested, did David camp out where his bike was found, only to run into some wandering serial killer?

Who knows?