CA CA - Farren Stanberry, 18, San Francisco, 24 Apr 1980

It's good to know his wrists were broken. In principle a good identifier if they find his skeleton. If his body was "complete" they must have taken X-rays to see it. I'm not sure this is common procedure. I wonder why your first thoughts are that the broken wrists were the effect of an attack or abuse. It could have occurred because of a fall or accident.

Although I like your idea of him being a guy like you lay out (a lover, helping people, adventure seeking etc. except from the trauma) but how did you come to that idea?

Hello,

Yes, Ferren's broken wrists could have come from a fall or accident. I honestly was not thinking of that possibility when I write the post. But it is likely. The broken wrists will be a great identifier if his skeletal remains are found like you said.

My ideas about Ferren came from very general information about him wanting to go off and see the world and find adventure. Correct, this reason did not have to be from a traumatic experience.

Who actually raised Farren when he was growing up? I am not sure, but I don't think it was his biological parents? The answer is probably in this thread, but being pressed for time, I can't look for it right now.

There is confusion as to Farren's last communication being in either April 1980 up to June of 1980 when he was dropped off at a campsite? Something is wrong here. Those month lapses could make a difference,

Also want to compliment everyone for keeping Ferren's case alive in the hope that he is found someday!

Satch
 
Hello,

Yes, Ferren's broken wrists could have come from a fall or accident. I honestly was not thinking of that possibility when I write the post. But it is likely. The broken wrists will be a great identifier if his skeletal remains are found like you said.

My ideas about Ferren came from very general information about him wanting to go off and see the world and find adventure. Correct, this reason did not have to be from a traumatic experience.

Who actually raised Farren when he was growing up? I am not sure, but I don't think it was his biological parents? The answer is probably in this thread, but being pressed for time, I can't look for it right now.

There is confusion as to Farren's last communication being in either April 1980 up to June of 1980 when he was dropped off at a campsite? Something is wrong here. Those month lapses could make a difference,

Also want to compliment everyone for keeping Ferren's case alive in the hope that he is found someday!

Satch

From memory. There is no information about his mom or dad. He was raised?/ living with his grandmother. We don't know at what age he started to live there. Nothing, as far as I know, about the why. Maybe they were in the army or weren't able to or didn't want to raise him for whatever reason....maybe there was no dad around....speculation of course. Initially the story was that after his 18th birthday he wanted to explore the world and travel and left with a Grayhound bus. Calling is grandmother from San Francisco.

From the Doe Network file, Charley's project files, essay and paper clipping named upthread
Just after (or on, depending on the source) Stanberry's 18th birthday, in 1979, <DOB 08/26/1961, lets say he left in the end of August/beginning of September> told his grandmother Beulah and his aunt Sandra "Sandy", later married to DC the uncle he never met that he wanted to see the world. He jumped on a Greyhound with his backpack and took it to the East Coast.

Every week
<other sources say once a month> he would call his grandmother <Maybe he called his mother too, but there is no way to check that, because she is deceased, no information about that anywhere> to check in with her.

After about nine months in 1980
<if he left in August/September, this must have been some time in April/May 1980, 9 months later, we don't know the exact date he left his grandmother's and we still didn't narrow down the missing date, family last heard from him in May or June, in the files the missing date 5/1/1980 must be a default date, we neither know the date when he left the hotel. leaving an unpaid bill, his ID and personal belongings behind, Odyssey's post after contact with Oregon LE person who was handling the case: As far as the timeline, the official missing date he has is April 26, 1980, although he agrees that it contradicts some of the other information. He was not sure if that is the date he called his grandmother or the date she learned he had left the hotel. He said the initial report isn't very helpful, and he has been relying on the news articles for the most part.> he called from San Francisco saying he like it there, he was living with a group of young men at the "International Hotel" <from research of WS members on the/his address this must have been the National Hotel as there was no International Hotel> in San Francisco and that he had lost his job and was short of money. Stanberry asked his mother <so she must have been around somewhere> for some money, but she refused to send him any. <the use of the word 'refused' sounds like they hadn't a very good relation, "His mother had some money of his," Sandy says. "He called her and asked for it and she told him no." I find it strange that later he seems to have unclaimed property, not much but there had to be some money.....I guess they were on speaking terms because at least he called her ....I could add a whole essay on random family dynamics, but I won't. In the article from 1998 about the intensive search of his uncle DC post #68, aunt Sandy's and grandmother's heartbreak are mentioned, but nothing about his mother, but later she gives her DNA>

And then suddenly this "letter to the editor written by Farren's aunt" (I can't read it myself so if somebody would be so kind to copy the content here) Dropped of on a campground....last seen date June ? Where did that suddenly came from? Rand went above and beyond


 
From memory,

Somebody researched Farren's unclaimed property and I recall the amount was very small. Like $40 or less. Best guess is when he called to make contact with whoever the last person was that he spoke with, Mother, Grandmother, or Aunt, that he was living on fumes and really had nothing, Just a vision I have. Pure speculation, but I think that his financial difficulties frightened him and he wanted to disappear. Would he have been able to change his name and just blend in with the San Fransisco community, change his looks, and start a new life as to not be recognizable? Kids did that a lot in the 1960's-1970's.

Satch
 
FYI

Find a Grave.com shows five Stanberry's deceased in the State of Oregon:

Grave Memorial Records - Find A Grave

Satch

I was just looking into that....trying to find something about his parents. I found nothing so far..not even with the names of the children (3 females, one of them is Sandy) out of the obituaries of the grandparents. And no trace of birth of Farren, with moms name. Maybe there is something to find on Ancestry but I don't want to pay for that.

I wrote that his mother is deceased but that could be untrue. Maybe I mixed some info up. My bad.
 
Last edited:
From memory,

Somebody researched Farren's unclaimed property and I recall the amount was very small. Like $40 or less. Best guess is when he called to make contact with whoever the last person was that he spoke with, Mother, Grandmother, or Aunt, that he was living on fumes and really had nothing, Just a vision I have. Pure speculation, but I think that his financial difficulties frightened him and he wanted to disappear. Would he have been able to change his name and just blend in with the San Fransisco community, change his looks, and start a new life as to not be recognizable? Kids did that a lot in the 1960's-1970's.

Satch

Maybe he started a new live...I really hope so and he is happy. In my mind something happened to him, because he left everything behind. Just leaving, yes, because of the money he owned for the rent, but why not take your personal belongings with you...leave it just like that....it doesn't sound like a logical thing to do to me. And I still see suicide as a possible. Leaving everything behind you, you don't need stuff in death.....
 
@Satch can you copy the content of the letter to editor here? Rand went above and beyond
“To the Editor:

There’s an aspect of Officer Damon Rand’s accomplishments that’s been overlooked. He accepted the responsibility of searching for my missing nephew, Farren Stanberry. Back in June 1980, my mom, Beulah Harrison, and I dropped Farren off at the old Joaquin Miller campground. He wound up in San Francisco and disappeared. After an exhaustive, fruitless search involving DNA evidence, he went as far as he could go, but at least he tried.


Sandra Colbeth”

So she states that they dropped him off at that campground in June of 1980. Hmmm?

ETA: Maybe she meant June of 1979 and I wonder if the Greyhound bus stopped at that campground? I wish we could at least get the dates and who saw who down pat.
 
“To the Editor:

There’s an aspect of Officer Damon Rand’s accomplishments that’s been overlooked. He accepted the responsibility of searching for my missing nephew, Farren Stanberry. Back in June 1980, my mom, Beulah Harrison, and I dropped Farren off at the old Joaquin Miller campground. He wound up in San Francisco and disappeared. After an exhaustive, fruitless search involving DNA evidence, he went as far as he could go, but at least he tried.


Sandra Colbeth”

So she states that they dropped him off at that campground in June of 1980. Hmmm?

ETA: Maybe she meant June of 1979 and I wonder if the Greyhound bus stopped at that campground? I wish we could at least get the dates and who saw who down pat.

Thanks Suglo! Do you know when this was written/published? I wonder how many years passed this was the search of DC or during.

I find it very weird. If this was known all along why nobody corrected the missing date or the timeline in the missing files? If it was June 1979 (so before his birthday) it would take back the time line a couples of months (9 months later it would have been March) Could it be nobody really knows or can recollect?
 
Thanks Suglo! Do you know when this was written/published? I wonder how many years passed this was the search of DC or during.

I find it very weird. If this was known all along why nobody corrected the missing date or the timeline in the missing files? If it was June 1979 (so before his birthday) it would take back the time line a couples of months (9 months later it would have been March) Could it be nobody really knows or can recollect?
It was actually published on April 10, 2018 but then says updated on December 20, 2018 which is also strange as I’ve never seen a letter to the editor updated like that. What I find strange is that she says she and her mother actually dropped him off whereas every other place seems to imply he left on the bus or just left on his own. I wish someone with personal knowledge would join us here to clarify the dates.
 
Copy of the letter "Rand Went Above and Beyond" uploaded here. Question about the letter- Who is John Day?

Satch
I think John Day is the name of the town in Oregon where he resided with his grandmother before leaving for SF.
 
It was actually published on April 10, 2018 but then says updated on December 20, 2018 which is also strange as I’ve never seen a letter to the editor updated like that. What I find strange is that she says she and her mother actually dropped him off whereas every other place seems to imply he left on the bus or just left on his own. I wish someone with personal knowledge would join us here to clarify the dates.

Exactly, very strange, especially because this info came out as late as 2o18! Why? And most of all it confuses the time-line even more.
 
Exactly, very strange, especially because this info came out as late as 2o18! Why? And most of all it confuses the time-line even more.
Yes it does. I do tend to believe her though. She was there and also places her mother (his grandmother) there. Why would she be confused about that? It certainly throws the whole timeline off. It also makes me wonder if there was someone else involved who was waiting at that campground to take him to San Francisco. I guess we will never know unless someone interviews her.
 
The camping ground was in Malheur National Forest. How ironic....it means setback in French.
Could she have meant that Damon Rand searched for Farren back in 1980. And something went wrong with interpunction. (dot and capital used on the beginning of the sentence)

Should it read He accepted the responsibility of searching for my missing nephew, Farren Stanberry, back in June 1980. My mom etc.


farren-stanberry-missing-letter-jpg.258812
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
172
Guests online
979
Total visitors
1,151

Forum statistics

Threads
589,938
Messages
17,927,945
Members
228,007
Latest member
BeachyTee
Back
Top