NY NY - Steven N. Chait, 20, New York City, 13 March 1972

ohwell1971

Glorious Minds Think Alike
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Link to Steven Chait

http://charleyproject.org/cases/c/chait_steven.html

Okay, I went to school with a kid named Steven Chait in Delaware. He was pretty much my best friend in highschool. I hung out at his house all the time, but never recall seeing his father - and I know he lived with his father. His father travelled a lot for work. I just had to go through my yearbook and found the boy's picture. I can't locate the younger Steve Chait's address or phone number, as we have went our separate ways when I graduated. I"m going to e-mail my mom to see if she remembers meeting his father and send this "missing" picture to her...

The year of when this Steve went missing would add up to the age of the younger Steve. Is this just a coincidence? I don't want to waste LE's time or get family's hopes up, because it just seems too obvious.
 
The NYT article (link posted by audrey77) says that the missing Steven Chait was from Queens, not Delaware.

Did the pic at Charley Project look anything like your friend?

Yeah, the Steven Chait that is missing is from NY, but whats the likeliness he just moved somewhere else and had a family? The Steven Chait I'm talking about could "potentially" be a child of the missing Steven Chait. That's what I"m thinking anyway.

I e-mailed my mom to see if she remembers meeting my "teenaged" friend Steven Chait's dad...

The timeline of the NY Steven Chait missing and the kid Steven Chait I went to school with match - with the NY Steven being a potential "father" of the kid I know. I'm 36 and the Steve I went to school with would probably be 34 - I have had this sneaky suspicion that I know this guy, as the father...

I'm sorry, I can't seem to word this correctly.

I am not good at looking at a yearbook picture (of my friend Steve) and the picture of the NY Steve and saying "they look exactly alike"...They have some similarities, but the nose on my friend is a little bigger than the NY Steve.
 
Now I understand what you mean. You worded it just fine. :)

Hoppy
 
Delaware is pretty easy to get to from NYC as well... You could take a train if you wanted to.
 
That's what I thought. To add to the mystery, the young Steven Chait's house was always filled with artwork...him and his father were art (architectural) lovers to the fullest.

Oh yeah, checked with my Mom, she never met his dad...:( I was hoping she did and could verify the picture. I'll keep hoping to catch up with the Steve Chait from highschool - maybe he'll contact me & I can ask him about his dad. I'm so bothered that I can't remember the family pictures at his house.
 
Let's see if I am following you. You went to highschool in Delaware with a young man named StevenJr. He was named after his dad, Steven#1. You have now come across a photo of a missing man, who you suspect to be Steven#1. Steven#1 went missing from New York City as a college student back in 1972. You are thinking that perhaps after this disappearance, Steven#1 moved to Delaware, married and had a child named StevenJr. who would grow up to go to highschool with you.

Now, if I've got this right, you have presented us with one interesting scenario. I noticed that the mother received several phone calls during the first five years after Steven#1's disappearance which leads some credibility to the possibility he disappeared voluntarily, and did not commit suicide. SEcondly, the father of StevenJr. seems to have had similar interests to those listed for the missing Steven#1. Also, you have mentioned that the timeline is a good match for the missing Steven#1 to have fathered StevenJr. during a subsequent marriage.

Something that occurs to me is that if StevenJr's dad IS the same Steven as the one in the missing poster, then he is using his real name and therefore, I would think it is safe to believe he would be using his real social security.

Do you know for certain that the father of StevenJr. has moved away from Delaware? Because if he's still in the old house, it will be easy to just report your suspicions to LE and they can check the SSN. If he's moved away, you'll need to do a little search for him. I know you have stated that you cannot trace StevenJr. Have you tried Zaba search.....web address is http://www.zabasearch.com/ Another possibility is people search....web address http://pipl.com/ These two will be a good easy starting place.
 
kgeaux....yes, exactly...that's the way I should have worded it :) Thank you so much! I'm not sure if he moved away - he always loved Keith Haring and was sure he was going to live in NY one day (yeah, that's strange).

If he's still using his same SS#, then technically he's not missing, and LE or PI's haven't really searched, have they? What's the possibility that he kept his name and lost his SSN or just wanted a new one? Strange - I doubt that happens, but its a thought, no less.

I'll check both of those sites out, very good information and it is much appreciated. Thank you!!!
 
This is a link from a google search, and I think the age progressed photo looks different (as this one appears with no facial hair). The link has Steven's (dob 1951) SSN on it, so if he actually walked away from everything and is alive, wouldn't he have had to have a new SSN# issued? And the biography on this page also notes that Steven had/has 5 nieces and nephews who wish to meet their "Uncle Steve", is it possible that your friend may have been named after his uncle? There is an email address at the link, I don't know if it works, but maybe an inquiry could be sent there?

http://www.orangetourism.org/~chait/index.html

Sometimes if I use veromi.net I can find names (there are a couple of Steven Chaits on there) and then I use zabasearch.com (Several Steven Chaits on there as well) to see if I can get an address/phone number for a specific person I am looking for. (I was only actively searching for a couple of relatives that I found this way, so maybe it was dumb luck that I had success.)
 
Well, I found the Steven I went to school with on people search - he is the only Steven Chait that has been in Delaware and is around my age. His middle name is Mark....this would not make him a Jr. as the missing Steven's middle initial is "N".

I'll try using that e-mail address that is on that orangetourism site and have them look at this site - to see if anything sounds familiar. Then at least I"d know that they aren't (or are) related.

Thanks for all the help...you guys?gals? know your stuff :)
 
I hope he doesn't get pissed at you... It's kind of a weird out-of-the-blue question that might offend him FYI
 
I've thought of that audrey77, but the young Steve Chait is (was) very eccentric...nothing shocked him, but of course that was 20 years ago...lol!
 
The orangetourism e-mail address works!! I received an e-mail back and they are going to pass the information on. I gave them the link to this forum. They are pleased to see that there is something like this out there. Maybe it will relieve some of the stress the family feels by knowing that he is not forgotten.
 
kgeaux....yes, exactly...that's the way I should have worded it :) Thank you so much! I'm not sure if he moved away - he always loved Keith Haring and was sure he was going to live in NY one day (yeah, that's strange).

If he's still using his same SS#, then technically he's not missing, and LE or PI's haven't really searched, have they? What's the possibility that he kept his name and lost his SSN or just wanted a new one? Strange - I doubt that happens, but its a thought, no less.

I'll check both of those sites out, very good information and it is much appreciated. Thank you!!!


I guess if it is the same Steven Chait, and he is using his real social security number, then he is "technically" missing on purpose.......we had a case recently on websleuths where a young woman had gone missing years ago and was found gainfully employed--she wanted no contact with the family she'd left behind. But I betcha that left behind family was happy, happy, happy to find out she wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. If this man is voluntarily missing, he still has a "former" family who would likely be comforted to know he is ok. If it's a different man, there's no harm done!

I've read through the thread and see you've sent an email! I hope you hear back quickly. Just speaking for myself, I would not be angry at all if someone contacted me to check on a family member, and I'm thinking StevenJr won't mind either. He might be intrigued, in fact!

This is a link from a google search, and I think the age progressed photo looks different (as this one appears with no facial hair). The link has Steven's (dob 1951) SSN on it, so if he actually walked away from everything and is alive, wouldn't he have had to have a new SSN# issued? And the biography on this page also notes that Steven had/has 5 nieces and nephews who wish to meet their "Uncle Steve", is it possible that your friend may have been named after his uncle? There is an email address at the link, I don't know if it works, but maybe an inquiry could be sent there?

http://www.orangetourism.org/~chait/index.html



Sometimes if I use veromi.net I can find names (there are a couple of Steven Chaits on there) and then I use zabasearch.com (Several Steven Chaits on there as well) to see if I can get an address/phone number for a specific person I am looking for. (I was only actively searching for a couple of relatives that I found this way, so maybe it was dumb luck that I had success.)


Cool! I didn't know about veromi.net I'm adding it to my resource list right now.
 
The orangetourism e-mail address works!! I received an e-mail back and they are going to pass the information on. I gave them the link to this forum. They are pleased to see that there is something like this out there. Maybe it will relieve some of the stress the family feels by knowing that he is not forgotten.

I am glad the email address worked and am impressed that they got back to you rather quickly. For all these families that have missing loved ones I do hope it provides some comfort in knowing that people care.
 
Anyone have any more info on this.
This one really bothers me. I think he left on his own. And lived until at least ~1997 when the calls to his mother stopped.
It is sad but I truly with that if he is alive, he would make contact with her before she passes.
She must be 81 or so now. Very sad situation.
Steven... if you are reading this, please don't "take it slow" and call your mother "real fast". It's only too late when... well, I can't say it any better than Mike and The Mechanics.
 
What a sad story!

I was wondering how often Steven's Mother received the calls and their duration? (Often over several years, sometimes, or seldom, but over long periods of time? It sounded like they were very short. I wonder if LE was ever able to trace the calls to determine if the calls could have been from Steven, or just a cruel prank taking advantage of a terrible tragedy.

Satch
 
I can't imagine how Steven's mother has felt all these years not knowing... and never giving up hope that Steven is alive.

Wonder if the Steven Chait from Delaware was a relation?
 
Hi, me again. I keep on going through these older threads!

I was really, really excited to read about the Steven Chait in Delaware and am hoping they eventually find answers via that avenue. Me, I used to think the person who would regularly call Steven's mom was Steven, but Mom's told me about a lot of calls she's received where the line would sound dead and Mom will repeatedly say "hello" until she hangs up, and I've read that those calls are often automated calls telemarketers use to determine when someone's home, so I was wondering if those kinds of calls were the ones Steven's mom was actually getting.

One thing that would point in that direction is if the mom doesn't hear anything in the background. My mom hears nothing but silence in those phone calls. Another thing is if the telemarketers have been doing this for decades. If this is a recent phenomenon, you can take that theory off the table. Did the mom hear breathing from the caller? I don't know if phones were sensitive enough in the '70s to pick up on breathing, but I know phones in the '90s and beyond (when I started using the phone) were.

If the unidentified calls were of a nature that dispels the telemarketing theory, then I imagine Steven Chait -- the real one -- probably withdrew from society and lived a hermit-like life, possibly living off the land and doing work sporadically (as pure "cash under the table" deals). He probably lived until 1997, at which point he eventually died. I wish the phone company had good enough records to track the numbers this person called from, or that the mom was an early adopter of caller ID. I know my parents and I didn't get those caller ID boxes in until I was a junior in high school, around 1996, and not a lot of people I knew had them before then. With that kind of information, maybe they could've tracked down the caller, like they did with that guy who was pestering the parents of a missing child. I don't remember which case that was, but there was some guy who kept prank calling the parents until they were able to find out this guy kept on calling from a phone booth, and he was discovered by the police and charged with some kind of harrassment charge.

Anyway. I feel so bad for the mom and siblings of Mr. Chait. I wish he could've approached them and told them about any problems that were weighing on his mind, or that he could've contacted them every once in awhile to let them know how he was. It wouldn't have been all that much of an effort to send off a letter from a place he was about to leave, if he was wandering around the country. I do wonder if he's still alive, though. I hope I'm wrong about that one theory I have, but it seems to me that he would've probably not lived longer than 1997. Which is terrible, since that means he'd never get a chance to make things right again.
 

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