MN MN - Donald Mohrbacher, 42, Hinkley, 19 June 1967

Donald left home one day and never returned and has not contacted friends or family. He was driving a 1939 black Ford pick-up truck when he went missing.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/5050dmmn.html

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/28575/0/

could be that for som reason, he might have driven off the road and had a accident and hasnt ben found yet. maybe in water? every so often there is someone being found inside their vehichle in water. or he took off and not wanting to be found

A nearly 30 year old car, that could be considered a classic at the time, would be awfully hard to miss. Minnesota is full of lakes, so that's where I imagine he might be. Again, he might've made a private sale of the car and just took off. Not too much info on Doe.

Cases like this always intrigue the hell out of me. There has to be more information somewhere. This man didn't just disappear. Did he talk with family and friends the day he left? Was there any indication (past or present) that he planned to leave or was in danger? Were any of the lakes searched for the car? So many questions with almost no answers.

1939 car, that was almost a 30-40 year old car back then. Would've stick out in the area.

Another candidate for my missing and forgotten facebook page.

Odd that NamUs has him listed as Donald Edward Mohrbacher. Ancestry has multiple records showing him as Donald Joseph Mohrbacher, including family trees. Unfortunately, his parents, brother, wife and daughter are all now dead, although it seems there are other surviving children. One of them published the following account on the 50th anniversary in June http://www.pinecitymn.com/news/dna-...cle_572584bc-6d91-11e7-8b84-eba9a6e06c9a.html .

One thing which comes out of this account is that, contrary to the other reports, he did not disappear from Hinckley. He had been on a job in the Twin Cities and failed to return. He could have gone missing anywhere between the cities and Hinckley, which must be 70 or 80 miles. It seems likely he disappeared on June 20 as that was the day he set off for the Twin Cities where he would stay with his father for 3 days whilst doing the job - but he failed to arrive. He definitely did not disappear on 19 June as he set off from home on 20 June.

It seems this case is still active and Donald's surviving children are continuing to look for him.

alb1on said:

Odd that NamUs has him listed as Donald Edward Mohrbacher. Ancestry has multiple records showing him as Donald Joseph Mohrbacher, including family trees. Unfortunately, his parents, brother, wife and daughter are all now dead, although it seems there are other surviving children. One of them published the following account on the 50th anniversary in June http://www.pinecitymn.com/news/dna-...cle_572584bc-6d91-11e7-8b84-eba9a6e06c9a.html .

One thing which comes out of this account is that, contrary to the other reports, he did not disappear from Hinckley. He had been on a job in the Twin Cities and failed to return. He could have gone missing anywhere between the cities and Hinckley, which must be 70 or 80 miles. It seems likely he disappeared on June 20 as that was the day he set off for the Twin Cities where he would stay with his father for 3 days whilst doing the job - but he failed to arrive. He definitely did not disappear on 19 June as he set off from home on 20 June.

It seems this case is still active and Donald's surviving children are continuing to look for him.

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From your link a couple of things caught my attention:

Dad told Mom he expected to be finished on Wednesday and would be home late that day. If he ran into problems, he would call and be home the next day.

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So I guess if he did not call, he left the Twin cities on that Wednesday or something happened to him earlier?

He didn’t come home the next day and he didn’t call. Mom planned to call Grandpa if Dad wasn’t home Friday morning.

Bright and early Friday morning, she called before going to work. Grandpa said he had not seen Dad at all. Mom called several friends in the metro area. They had not seen him.

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Curious as to when was the last time grandpa heard of him or saw him? That's an important piece to establish a timeline of events.

A couple of items I can clarify, as I am close to this.

-Name IS Donald Joseph Mohrbacher. NamUS has it incorrect and hopefully will be correcting.
-No proof that he arrived in the cities or at his job.
-His father claims to never had heard from him during this time.
-Actual last sighting was in Hinckley.

All immediate family and close friends were contacted after that Wednesday. Police were contacted, my understanding at some point by that following Monday. Police would not do missing persons report, with their conclusion as a "domestic" situation.

My thoughts are that more information might be forthcoming if the vehicle can be tracked. It would be a collector, even at that time. MN DMV has been contacted, but no follow up by them as of yet.

One theory is that, IF he willingly left, he may have gone to Canada.

~J

Update:

Response from MN DMV is that they can't assist. If the vehicle hasn't been registered in the last 7 years, they won't have records. Without a VIN, we are at a standstill.

Originally from Cologne MN. My understanding is that most of his siblings have passed on.

~J

alb1on said:

Odd that NamUs has him listed as Donald Edward Mohrbacher. Ancestry has multiple records showing him as Donald Joseph Mohrbacher, including family trees. Unfortunately, his parents, brother, wife and daughter are all now dead, although it seems there are other surviving children. One of them published the following account on the 50th anniversary in June http://www.pinecitymn.com/news/dna-...cle_572584bc-6d91-11e7-8b84-eba9a6e06c9a.html .

One thing which comes out of this account is that, contrary to the other reports, he did not disappear from Hinckley. He had been on a job in the Twin Cities and failed to return. He could have gone missing anywhere between the cities and Hinckley, which must be 70 or 80 miles. It seems likely he disappeared on June 20 as that was the day he set off for the Twin Cities where he would stay with his father for 3 days whilst doing the job - but he failed to arrive. He definitely did not disappear on 19 June as he set off from home on 20 June.

It seems this case is still active and Donald's surviving children are continuing to look for him.

Click to expand...

Based on the linked news article, he doesn't sound like someone at high risk for walking away from his family. Also seems unlikely he was living a high risk lifestyle. He had a contract to paint a 2 story apartment building and stayed with his father in Minneapolis while working there during the week. Distance from Hinckley to downtown Mpls is 80-90 miles, not too far. His father says he never arrived that Monday.

Sounds like either foul play or an accident. I wonder if he picked up hitchhikers? I would hate to think he picked up someone dangerous who harmed him, but it's happened before. It's a shame that the local sheriff didn't investigate back then.

Does anyone know which route he would have traveled to the Twin Cities back then? Was I-35 in existence then, or would he have driven an older highway route?

ETA: High praise for Mrs. Mohrbacher, what a fantastic woman. She dealt with the heartbreak of her missing husband, and with a 4 month old child and other children to care for. Bless her, she worked hard and kept them all together.

I-35 was relatively new in 1967. The more established routes would be Highway 61, which went into St. Paul, or Highway 65, to the west, which went into downtown Minneapolis.
As a child in the 1960's, I remember these routes while traveling with my family from northern Minnesota to the Twin Cities.

Bumping for Donald...this summer is 53 years since he disappeared.

Current NamUS (has corrected name to Donald Joseph Mohrbacher)

Doe (still using incorrect Donald Edward Mohrbacher)

no listing on Charley, but submitted earlier.

According to NamUS, there are currently 21 exclusions:


UP5212

UP6474

UP14518

UP9383

UP10941

UP2230

UP6278

UP6304

UP6702

UP6700

UP6513

UP11248

UP14360

UP10908

UP6643

UP6548

UP12854

UP6762

UP6637

UP6530

UP5263

Donald Joseph Mohrbacher – The Charley Project
Mohrbacher was last seen on June 19, 1967. He lived in Hinckley, Minnesota and worked odd jobs in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, close to a hundred miles away, to support his wife and seven children. The youngest was only four months old at the time.

June 18 that year was Father's Day, and some of his children gave him a fishing hat as a gift. The next morning, Mohrbacher left to drive to the Twin Cities area for a job painting the inside of a two-story apartment building. He planned to stay with his father while he was in the area, and return home on the 21st.

According to Mohrbacher's father, he never arrived. He returned to Hinckley and has never been heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was driving a black 1939 Ford pickup truck. Since Mohbacher's disappearance, his Social Security number has not been used. The circumstances of his disappearance are unclear.

Bump, today makes 56 years missing.

Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding this correctly: Donald left Hinckley on Monday headed to Minneapolis where he'd stay with his Dad and had a job. But he never arrived and his Dad hadn't seen him?
Or am I reading it wrong and he did make it to Minneapolis but not back again? I was just a little confused by the timeline and I was unable to view the article from my region.

Maybe the article explains it but I'm a little surprised that his Dad didn't try to call him when he didn't show? I'm even more surprised that the apartment owners didn't reach out when he didn't show up to do the job he'd been contracted for...?

Wow that vehicle would now be 85 years old...would it even still be around if it was in the water? I suppose shipwrecks survive so there's every chance.

Ciriii57 said:

Just wanted to make sure I'm understanding this correctly: Donald left Hinckley on Monday headed to Minneapolis where he'd stay with his Dad and had a job. But he never arrived and his Dad hadn't seen him?
Or am I reading it wrong and he did make it to Minneapolis but not back again? I was just a little confused by the timeline and I was unable to view the article from my region.

Maybe the article explains it but I'm a little surprised that his Dad didn't try to call him when he didn't show? I'm even more surprised that the apartment owners didn't reach out when he didn't show up to do the job he'd been contracted for...?

Wow that vehicle would now be 85 years old...would it even still be around if it was in the water? I suppose shipwrecks survive so there's every chance.

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From the pinecountynews article, he never arrived.

"The next morning (day after fathers day, so monday the 19th) the hat and other Father’s Day mementos were tucked into a box along with some salami, homemade bread and pickles. Dad would be staying with grandpa in the Cities, as he occasionally did when he was hired to do some painting. This one was an inside painting job – a two-story apartment building.
Dad told Mom he expected to be finished on Wednesday and would be home late that day. If he ran into problems, he would call and be home the next day.
I made it home from my shift that Wednesday about 11:30 p.m. Dad hadn’t made it home yet. Mom said he had not called so he’d probably be pretty late. We all went to bed.

He didn’t come home the next day and he didn’t call. Mom planned to call Grandpa if Dad wasn’t home Friday morning.
Bright and early Friday morning, she called before going to work. Grandpa said he had not seen Dad at all. Mom called several friends in the metro area. They had not seen him."

So yeah no contact on Tuesday, I guess they assumed he was working? But you would think the Grandpa and the client were expecting him.

As for the car it should still be around. This couple was missing for 75 years and their car was found in 2001. Mystery of Missing Couple Solved in Deep Washington Lake After 75 Years

renaebri said:

From the pinecountynews article, he never arrived.

"The next morning (day after fathers day, so monday the 19th) the hat and other Father’s Day mementos were tucked into a box along with some salami, homemade bread and pickles. Dad would be staying with grandpa in the Cities, as he occasionally did when he was hired to do some painting. This one was an inside painting job – a two-story apartment building.
Dad told Mom he expected to be finished on Wednesday and would be home late that day. If he ran into problems, he would call and be home the next day.
I made it home from my shift that Wednesday about 11:30 p.m. Dad hadn’t made it home yet. Mom said he had not called so he’d probably be pretty late. We all went to bed.

He didn’t come home the next day and he didn’t call. Mom planned to call Grandpa if Dad wasn’t home Friday morning.
Bright and early Friday morning, she called before going to work. Grandpa said he had not seen Dad at all. Mom called several friends in the metro area. They had not seen him."

So yeah no contact on Tuesday, I guess they assumed he was working? But you would think the Grandpa and the client were expecting him.

As for the car it should still be around. This couple was missing for 75 years and their car was found in 2001. Mystery of Missing Couple Solved in Deep Washington Lake After 75 Years

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Thanks very much for sharing that, that clears it up.

I find it so strange that the grandad and whoever employed him never called and asked where he was!

Perhaps that wasn't the first time he hadn't shown up at his father's place in similar circumstances so his father thought nothing of it. Maybe jobs he was working on had gotten postponed in the past, like by apartment management, etc or by him. Also, it is mentioned he had friends in the metro area, so maybe his father thought he had decided to stay with one of them instead. His wife did call them after he didn't come home, so maybe he had done that before, though it's not mentioned in the article.

As for the apartment owners or management or whoever hired him, they didn't have his home number it seems or they would presumably have called to ask where he was, unless they were used to occasional no show contractors, painters, etc and didn't always follow up right away. Or unless their phone call to his home was missed. So did they have his father's number? I would think they probably didn't, unless his father missed their call.

Since the police didn't look into his disappearence at the time, his friends in the metro area were obviously never scrutinized. It doesn't seem likely any of them would have had any reason to cause him harm, if he met up with one of them before he went to his father's house, but who knows. It doesn't sound like his wife and children had any suspicions in that direction, though. It doesn't sound like he left on purpose. So perhaps an accident involving a body of water? Or he picked up a hitchiker as mentioned in a theory earlier in this thread? I wonder if he was known to do that, or his family thought he might be inclined to do that ( vs them remembering him saying he'd never do that).

The police not getting involved at the time certainly decreased the chances of this being solved. I guess they assumed he voluntarily left? Police assuming that back then wasn't uncommon, even when the people they assumed that about had many reasons they wouldn't ever disappear voluntarily.

Donald Mohrbacher's case does not appear to be listed on Minnesota's Missing and Unidentified Clearinghouse website.