OH OH - Frank Arthur Cerimele, 21, Youngstown, 14 Jul 1969

New Posts

victoriarobinson642

victoriarobinson642

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
Messages
4,249
Reaction score
14,975
VIA NAMUS (The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)):

Demographics
Missing Age - 21 Years
Frank Arthur Cerimele

Sex - Male
Height - 5' 10" (70 Inches)
Weight - 150 lbs
Race / Ethnicity - White / Caucasian

Circumstances
Date of Last Contact - July 14, 1969
NamUs Case Created - December 4, 2020
Last Known Location Map
Location - Youngstown, Ohio 44502
County - Mahoning County
Circumstances of Disappearance - Frank Arthur Cerimele went to International Bar located at 1710 Poland Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio to meet a friend. Cerimele never returned to his Westside residence in Youngstown, Ohio. Cerimele's vehicle was located in the International Bar parking lot.

Physical Description
Hair Color - Brown
Eye Color - Hazel

Clothing
Blue or white button-down shirt

Clothing
White Bermuda shorts

Clothing
Tongs (possible typo?)
 
Interesting, a case from 1969 just being added to NamUs.
I feel for his family, who must have reported him missing back then but didn't find out what happened to him.
Tongs Maybe some kind of sandals?
Some people call flip-flop sandals "thongs."
 
Youngstown police seek info on man they just found out has been missing since 1969 | WKBN.com

Cerimele was last seen on July 14, 1969, according to the initial report. His car, a 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix, was found in the parking lot of the old International Tavern at Poland Avenue and Center Street a couple of days after he was reported missing. The building is still there today.


Although Cerimele is missing, he was never entered into any of the missing person databases that law enforcement frequently use, such as the state Attorney General’s website, which has a section for information on missing persons and unsolved homicides, and the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, better known as NAMUS.

Now that Sweeney knows he is missing, he has entered DNA information for Cerimele into NAMUS, which can be matched to remains found across the country.
 
CastlesBurning said:
Frank Cerimele – The Charley Project
Click to expand...

From your link. Frank Cerimele – The Charley Project
Interesting info, bolded by me.

Frank Cerimele was last seen in Youngstown, Ohio on July 14, 1969. He lived on south Richview Avenue on the west side of the city at the time. He has never been heard from again.

A few days after he was last seen, his 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix was found parked in the back of the parking lot of the old International Tavern at Poland Avenue and Center Street, near a bluff that leads to a set of railroad tracks behind the old Republic Steel plant. It was unlocked and the doors were open, and there were no indications of any disturbance.

For unclear reasons, Cerimele's initial missing persons report was mistakenly closed after his disappearance. It wasn't until 2020 that authorities realized he was still a missing person and reopened the investigation. Cerimele's loved ones stated he cherished his car and wouldn't have left it overnight in an unfamiliar place.

Police realized Cerimele was still missing when someone contacted them with information on the unsolved disappearance of Joanne Coughlin, who went missing from Youngstown in 1974, and mentioned Cerimele's case as well. It's unclear if the two cases are connected, however, and little information is available in Cerimele's disappearance.

Investigating Agency
Youngstown Police Department 330-742-8268

The car was found in a tavern parking lot with doors open?
We could think up a lot of speculative scenarios for why the doors were found unlocked and open and he disappeared. It points to someone being involved besides just Frank himself, IMO.
 
ChatteringBirds said:
Interesting, a case from 1969 just being added to NamUs.
I feel for his family, who must have reported him missing back then but didn't find out what happened to him.
Tongs Maybe some kind of sandals?
Some people call flip-flop sandals "thongs."
Click to expand...
Charley Project refers to them as beach slippers...so I bet you’re right.
 
Charley Project: "Police realized Cerimele was still missing when someone contacted them with information on the unsolved disappearance of Joanne Coughlin, who went missing from Youngstown in 1974, and mentioned Cerimele's case as well. It's unclear if the two cases are connected, however, and little information is available in Cerimele's disappearance."

There's a suspect in Joanne's disappearance: Robert Shughart (and it's also mentioned Howard Rodriguez).

Charley Project: "By 1975, he (Shughart) was already suspected of having some involvement of multiple murders that had happened in the local area. The killings were believed to have been retribution because all of the victims were either police informants or had spoken about local drug activity."

I've noticed that Frank's photos on NamUs appeared to be mugshots... I wondered if he may have been involved in something illegal and when he tried to leave that world, Shughart or someone else murdered him.
 
Diane Redfern said:
Charley Project: "Police realized Cerimele was still missing when someone contacted them with information on the unsolved disappearance of Joanne Coughlin, who went missing from Youngstown in 1974, and mentioned Cerimele's case as well. It's unclear if the two cases are connected, however, and little information is available in Cerimele's disappearance."

There's a suspect in Joanne's disappearance: Robert Shughart (and it's also mentioned Howard Rodriguez).

Charley Project: "By 1975, he (Shughart) was already suspected of having some involvement of multiple murders that had happened in the local area. The killings were believed to have been retribution because all of the victims were either police informants or had spoken about local drug activity."

I've noticed that Frank's photos on NamUs appeared to be mugshots... I wondered if he may have been involved in something illegal and when he tried to leave that world, Shughart or someone else murdered him.
Click to expand...

I agree that the photos look like mugshots.
 
ChatteringBirds said:
From your link. Frank Cerimele – The Charley Project

We could think up a lot of speculative scenarios for why the doors were found unlocked and open and he disappeared. It points to someone being involved besides just Frank himself, IMO.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a reason the car doors might have been open.

However, I've read some missing person's cases where the car was found with doors open and the person was thought to be suicidal. The case of Wynn Lindsey from Hawaii (still active) included the location of his vehicle with car doors left open. This could be a call-for-help kind of signal as it's odd behavior.

But I think with Cerimele the case is just about the fact that he was wearing thongs for footwear (spelled Tongs). Those are sandals that would tough to walk in. Any lengthy walk would start cutting your feet: they are meant for beach relaxation. Thus, I think that he was, in fact, abducted. If he did harm himself then his footwear would strongly suggest that he wasn't going far from his car and would be found. Thongs aren't the kind of footwear you would walk very far in at all.
 
Several updates to his Charley Project profile.

Details of Disappearance
Cerimele was last seen in Youngstown, Ohio on July 14, 1969. He went to the International Tavern in the 1700 block of Poland Avenue to meet a friend. He lived on south Richview Avenue on the west side of the city at the time. He never returned home and has never been heard from again.

A few days after he was last seen, his 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix with the Ohio license plate number K 960 m was found parked in the tavern parking lot. It was unlocked and the doors were open, and there were no indications of any disturbance. Cerimele's loved ones stated he cherished his car and wouldn't have left it overnight in an unfamiliar place.

For unclear reasons, Cerimele's initial missing persons report was mistakenly closed after his disappearance. It wasn't until 2020 that authorities realized he was still a missing person and reopened the investigation. Police realized Cerimele was still missing when someone contacted them with information on the unsolved disappearance of Joanne Coughlin, who went missing from Youngstown in 1974, and mentioned Cerimele's case as well.

It's unclear if the two cases are connected, and little information is available in Cerimele's disappearance.
 
I would assume this was just one of the murders in the Youngstown mob struggles given that it was the most corrupt town in the USA through to the convictions of congressman James Traficant and the local mob head Lenny Strollo circa 20 years ago. The combination of the mugshots and a 21 year old driving an almost new Pontiac Grand Prix (not a cheap car) does not suggest a normal lifestyle. An article from The New Republic from 2000 at Crimetown USA gives a good picture of the times which dated back decades. Referring to the many murders in Youngstown over many years it includes the comment that;
"Yet the most frightening method, the one that captured the city’s imagination, was the most immaculate: the disappearance of people in broad daylight. They were the city’s ghosts. Police found their cars empty on the side of the street, the engines still warm, or their dinner tables still piled with food. They had, in the most classic sense, been “rubbed out.”" That sounds rather like this case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 201 more.
Total: 4,418 (members: 202, guests: 4,216)

Online statistics

Members online
202
Guests online
4,216
Total visitors
4,418
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,470
Messages
17,969,398
Members
228,777
Latest member
Jojo53
Back
Top