Found Deceased NC - Weston Vandermerwe, 23, Raleigh, 9 Aug 2013

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zelmajane

zelmajane

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http://www.wral.com/apex-man-reported-missing/12766182/

ECU Grad. Grew up in Apex (Wake County, near Raleigh). Went missing Friday night/ Saturday AM after leaving a popular downtown bar, the Oxford.

He didn't show up to sign his new lease on Sunday. Didn't show up for work Monday. Had been arguing with his girlfriend before she got in a cab and left.

In my opinion, this is odd.
 
Well, is his car still at his friend's house? That's a fairly important piece of info.
 
Are there any bodies of water near where he was last seen?

So many of these cases of young men going missing after a night out drinking end in the water....
 
A friend of mine posted about this on Facebook - he is friends with her younger brother.

I currently live in Raleigh but I'm not familiar with that bar. There are a few bodies of water - small lakes - in and around Raleigh, but I'm not sure if any are within walking distance of the bar where he was.
 
The bar is smack in the middle of downtown Raleigh.

Wonder if he was supposed to sign a lease WITH the girlfriend and he didn't show up for that because of the argument?

Could he just be licking his wounds somewhere?
 
I pulled it up on Google satellite. Like someone said, it is smack dab center city. There are no bodies of water that I can see that would be 'walkable' from that area. Raleigh is also a relatively safe city downtown - or it used to be - so I can't really see someone just randomly grabbing him off the side of the street. I think I would be checking alleys in case he had an accident, or I would be looking at storefront cameras to see if, when, or how he walked away from the bar. There should be plenty of video around there.

Girlfriend's story doesn't seem sketchy for now, but we all know how that can change with a quickness.
 
I want to say Raleigh IS pretty safe, even downtown, but I'm used to scary cities (read: Florida) and I live in the "other" (high crime) NC city. So my view of safe/unsafe may be skewed. I've never felt scared in downtown Raleigh, though, and I am a high-vigilance person. So I think he betook himself somewhere. But where?
 
Hoping you come home safe, Weston.

12766331-1376332497-220x165.jpg


http://wwwcache.wral.com/asset/share/2013/08/12/12766331/12766331-1376332497-220x165.jpg
 
there are no bodies of water within walking distance. there are several old buildings under reconstruction within walking distance. the area is relatively safe and very crowded on a weekend night at 1:00AM. he could have taken a cab somewhere. i'm not sure where "home" is, but apex is about twenty minutes southwest of the bar where he was last seen. it's too far to take a cab and definitely too far to walk. hitchhiking doesn't exist in that area.
 
Family seems convinced something has happened to him. $5000 reward offered. Should someone contact them about getting the word out better? I can't find much online.

The family is offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to him being found. Family members describe Vandemerwe as being 5 feet 8 tall with brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a red, short-sleeved polo shirt with blue shorts and Sperry shoes.
Click to expand...

http://www.wrbl.com/story/23111401/family-members-seek-help-in-finding-missing-raleigh-man
 
Oops, I just googled "Kaitlyn Holmes Carolina", first hits are for a Sarah Kaitlyn Holmes ... a mugshot, says "simple assault" ... that woman is 28 and from Cary, NC.
Weston's girlfriend's Twitter handle is kaitholmes21, the 21 could be the age, but she could be on Twitter for some time, or it's just a number. Her tweets are geotagged "from Cary, NC".

Of course, that doesn't need to mean anything, even if it were her. Just, you know, checking the last person to see someone alive, after an argument.
 
Ryan Soysal, who left the bar to go home about a half hour before Holmes, said Vandemerwe had been drinking but “wasn’t incapacitated by any means.”

As Soysal and friends walked around downtown hanging up fliers Monday, they met a group of people who said they saw Vandemerwe off of Lenoir Street early Saturday. They described him as “inebriated” off the side of the road and lying on the ground, Soysal said. He said he didn’t want help and they left him there, according to the account the people told Soysal.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/12/3102595/family-friends-worry-about-man.html#storylink=cpy

That would be about one mile from the bar in an unsafe part of Raleigh, especially at night - drugs, etc.
 
Just FYI, we can post info on the victims social media but not anyone around him unless they are a named suspect.

The N&O article is disturbing.

It was strange being downtown last night and seeing the missing flyers.

Vaguely reminds me of the guy that went missing in Charlotte a few years ago. Kyle Fleischmann. He was 24.

http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/case.cfm?id=50773
 
KivaSupporter said:
Ryan Soysal, who left the bar to go home about a half hour before Holmes, said Vandemerwe had been drinking but “wasn’t incapacitated by any means.”

As Soysal and friends walked around downtown hanging up fliers Monday, they met a group of people who said they saw Vandemerwe off of Lenoir Street early Saturday. They described him as “inebriated” off the side of the road and lying on the ground, Soysal said. He said he didn’t want help and they left him there, according to the account the people told Soysal.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound too good.
So did he drink a lot more in that half hour? Or maybe he visited another bar after KH saw him walking down the street, at what time did these people see him lying on the ground?
Or maybe RS has an understanding of "incapacitated" that goes more along the lines of Dean Martin: “You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.”
 
Spreading the word at my office. Lots of younger folks here who live on that side of town.
 
Kind of sad that his friends left him, lying down drunk on the side of the road. :mad:
 
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